No new news...but

As they say, no news is good news right? Well, we think that no news is ...very frustrating! We are moving up the list, but not fast enough!
We have some books that we wanted to share with others who are in process as well. Our agency gave us a big list of the, posted below, and we have read some of them. Basically whatever we could find in the library. The ones we really liked are in bold. This list was helpful to us, as it gives us something to do while we wait. Renee and I need to feel as though we are taking steps forward, and by studying up on some of the issues we will face, we feel as though we are doing something important. Hope this helps!

1) Attaching in Adoption by Deborah D. Gray

2) Being Adopted by David Brodzinski

3) Does Anybody Else Look Like Me: A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

4) In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda

5) Making Sense of Adoption by Lois Ruskai Melina

6) The Psychology of Adoption by David Brodzinski

7) Raising Adopted Children by Lois Ruskai Melina

8) Real Parents, Real Children by Holly van Gulden and Lisa Bartels-Rabb

Adopting Children of Color

1) Adoption is a Family Affair: What Relatives and Friends Must Know by Patricia Irwin Johnston

2) Are Those Kids Yours? by Cheri Register, PhD.

3) Dealing with Racism by Jen Green

4) Different and Wonderful by Hopson and Hopson

5) Dim Sum, Bagels and Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families by Myra Alperson

6) I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-conscious World by Marguerite Wright

7) Loving Across the Color Line: A White Adoptive Mother Learns About Race by Sharon Rush

8) Pact's Booksource: A Reference Guide to Books on Adoption and Race for Adults and Children by An Adoption Alliance www.pactadopt.org

9) Transracial Parenting Project Self-Awareness Tool: Are You Ready to Parent a Child of Another Race, Culture, or Ethnicity? by Jeanette Wiedemeier Bower

2nd I-171H

We got the amended I-171H yesterday. This one says it has been sent to the National Visa Center, as well as Ethiopia, so we are all okay. Now, once again, we just wait for the call that will change our life!

Update

I realized I had made a mistake with the filing of our I-600A, so after we received our I-171H we had to make some corrections as to where it has been sent. So while we have it and can be matched, we are waiting for our new copy of it. But we were told last week that it was being taken care of, so we should see it soon.

So good news.....we are number 14 on the waiting list. That sounds like a lot, but 6 weeks ago we were 35-40! So we are hopeful within the next 3 months or so, we will have our referral! I promise to keep you all up to date!

Our I-171H Approval

We received our I-171H approval today! It was approved on April Fools Day...hum....
All we do now is wait.....

Dossier Received in Ethiopia!

We were told today that our dossier was officially received in Ethiopia yesterday! So we are one step closer.
We are still waiting on our I-171H, but that should be here in a week or so. We are so excited!

More Ma Fan..thats means frustrating things.....

Today we received a letter from USICS and we thought it was the I-171H.  But it was a letter saying we had to submit more information. In 2007, our accountant made a mistake with our taxes, and that lead to a question as to whether we have the financial clearance needed.
The same question came up with our caseworker and in the home-study, and its all okay..the USICS office just has to see our 2007 and 2008 tax returns, as well as a letter from our employer. Luckily, we had to submit a letter in the dossier, so we just sent a copy of that. It will be okay, just more waiting...

Fingerprints 3

Well we finally go our fingerprints done for our I-600A application. The 600A becomes the I-171H when it is issued, should be 2 weeks or so.

We have several problems getting them done though. The first was we cold not find the place. Our GPS gave us bad directions, so we went on a wild goose chase.

1. From the address we were given to the Federal Courthouse

2 From the Federal Courthouse to another Courthouse

3. From the second Courthouse to the USICS office

4. From the USICS office to the fingerprinting office.

When we finally found it, we discovered we were a block away from where we started. Oh well. We got there over an hour late, but the fingerprinting people did not care. So now we wait...again...