Adoption Journey Update 1.0

Well, it has officially been 4+ months since we announced out loud that we had decided to grow our family through adoption. We have been so incredibly encouraged by all the ways that people have reached out to us in the last 4 months--emails, messages, phone calls, cards, buying coffee, offering to help with fundraisers, giving generously, praying and praying. We are SO thankful! Honestly. We genuinely believe that it will take a village to make this happen--so thanks for being our village.

Because so many of you have decided to journey with us....we wanted to take some time to update you on what the journey has looked like and where we are headed.



February 16-17: We announce to our families that we are adopting.
February 27: We send an email out to our closest friends and family announcing the news; the news trickles out in the coming days and weeks. Our not-so-secret secret is OUT. :)
March 8: We contract with International Family Services (IFS) and receive a mound of paperwork to begin working on.
March 26: We contract with Catholic Charities to complete our Home Study. We mail in our fingerprints and other paperwork to begin that process.
May 23: HOME STUDY visit! After two months of working on paperwork, our social worker visits our home to complete the Home Study process.
June 12: Our Home Study arrives in the mail! It is signed and officially DONE. We immediately mail off our I-600a to USCIS and begin waiting for their pre-approval to bring our kiddos into the home!


So, that brings us to Today:

• waiting to hear back from USCIS (Immigration Services). Their website says it takes 2.5 months for them to process our petition, though we've heard from others that it can go more quickly. If the website is accurate, then we should hear back from them at the end of August. This will be the final piece of paperwork for our dossier (French word for the big packet that is sent to both the US and Ethiopian governments)!!!
• continuing to gather all the necessary pieces of paperwork that must be notarized, certified and included in the dossier. We are getting close!
• applying for grants and planning fundraisers. When our dossier is ready to send in, we must also be ready to pay the 1st half of the agency fees. We have already seen God at work and we have complete faith that this will happen through us working some extra hours this summer, fundraisers, grants, and God inviting people to give generously. We have already been so blessed! We are going to be having a giveaway fundraiser within the next couple weeks, so stay tuned!!!!

So, there ya have it! We are moving right along. Thanks for journeying with us!


For those of you who are committed to praying for us, and would like to receive emails with prayer requests, please send me an email at erica.haude@gmail.com.

with love,
Rob and Erica