Adoption T-Shirts

For anyone looking for the adoption t-shirts... they are cataloged under the month of May in a post entitled: Fundraiser T-Shirts. I will try and make it easier to find tomorrow, but right now it is midnight and my bed is calling me. Have a great night!

Little Updates

Our dossier has officially arrived to its destination in Ethiopia. It will now undergo the process of translation to Amharic, which my case worker tells me can take up to 3 weeks. This is not a big deal because she does not suspect that we will receive a referral for at least 3 months. I have seen some wait periods of other families from other agencies as long as 13 months! We have been assured that a wait period of that length for our agency would be unusual because they don't have the massive numbers of waiting families that larger agencies do. I sincerely hope and pray that our waiting period will be nowhere near that long as we have already been working on this for 16 1/2 months. For those who are willing, we would love if you would keep our family and our future Ethiopian children in your prayers as we wait to be united with them.

On a bright note, some of the amazing and wonderful women of the Army FRG (Family Readiness Group) for Alpha Co. IBOLC have been so kind and supportive of us and our adoption. They purchased a number of adoption fundraiser shirts today, which more than doubled our t-shirt sales. Thank you, Ladies!!

Men's Shirts and a View of Amharic

This is a picture of the receipt we received from the Embassy of Ethiopia. I just thought it was neat because it has both English and Amharic - the most commonly used language in Ethiopia.

I made this shirt for my brother, Austin.

This shirt belongs to Matt. He preferred the white over the gold spray. The shirts I have access to for men are either white, gray, or black with either white, gold, or blue spray. I realize there isn't a huge demand for men's shirts but I thought I would post these in the event that someone wants one. Just let me know! Thanks again to all those who have shown us support by purchasing one of our adoption t-shirts.

Dossier Arrived - sort of

Well, friends and family, our dossier has arrived to the FedEx location at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but it says that there is a "delivery exception" with details stating a future delivery date was requested. I have no idea what that means but I am hoping it won't effect the safe arrival of our dossier at its destination. It does say that it has an estimated delivery date of tomorrow by 6pm. I suppose I will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how things turned out.

Dossier on the move

After checking the FedEx website using the provided tracking number, I can see that our dossier is now in Paris, France!! Hopefully it will be arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the next few days.

If anyone is wanting adoption t-shirts they are still available. I am making some for Matt, my brother Austin, and my Dad right now so men's versions are available as well. Pictures to come soon. Colors of shirts still available are: navy blue, ocean blue, cruise blue, lime green, yellow, light pink, pink, lotus pink, plum purple (a pinkish purple), and white. These vary across the three styles which are slub (a low scooping neckline), v-neck, and crew neck which has a small pocket on the chest. I know that sounds incredibly complicated, but I buy what is on sale from Aeropostale and then make them up as people order them. That way, I am not stuck with a bunch of shirts that I can't sell. More tedious, but less money to be lost. Anyway, let me know what you want, they are great shirts!

Dossier en route to Ethiopia!!

To our absolute delight, our case worker from Children's House International shipped our dossier to Ethiopia today! She provided us with the FedEx tracking number so that we can follow its progress. For those who are interested, the tracking number is #7971-8975-7096. Now we just need to wait for a referral for a child or children. Our case worker gave us an estimated time table of 3-9 months. Based on what I have seen from reading families blogs working with other agencies, this is actually a pretty good wait time. Some families wait an average of 13 months. I can't believe we started this process in January 2010 and we are finally getting our dossier to Ethiopia. But I must say.... HOOORAYYYY!!!!!!

I finally totaled up our adoption expenses thus far and we hit just over $14,000 with at least $22,800 left to go (if we get a referral for two children). We are still moving forward with adoption t-shirt sales and sewing-craft sales from my Etsy site: www.myladybyrd.etsy.com. So far (thanks to friends and family) we have raised $188. I know that may not look like a lot, but it is better than zero!! That is enough to cover the medical visits for two children required for them to obtain visas. Thank you!!

All of our adoption fundraising money goes into our Zion's Bank adoption account. That means that all proceeds from t-shirt sales, etsy, and donations are deposited there so that adoption funds do not mix with our normal checking account with USAA.

Notarized Dossier Copies

Notarize Dossier copies...1 1/2 inches thick

Pictured above are the two notarized dossier copies and the one regular copy. I mailed these off today to our agency, Children's House International, along with a $6000 check to cover the rest of the Ehthiopia program fees. Once we receive and accept a child referral, we will pay the $7000 Children's House agency fee (or more if we are referred two children). Our agency worker, Patty, will take these copies and the original that will soon be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State and FedEx all of them to the Embassy of Ethiopia.

I know it is silly that I am always the only one in the picture but Matthew is frequently gone doing training for the Army. Consequently, I typically set the camera to take a timed picture. I have attempted in the past to have my 4-year-old boy, Michael, assist me but thus far we have not acheived too many successful pictures that way.

For those who would still like to purchase one of our adoption t-shirts, they are still available for $20 each plus $4 if shipping is necessary. All you have to do is tell me a size and color and pay by clicking the "Donate" button to the right of this post. The new shirts are similar colors but they have a v-neck or a crew neckline instead of the slub. Pictures to come soon!

Dossier Authentication: Step 3 of 4

Here I am, standing at the FedEx counter paying $68.43 for our original dossier and associated checks and money order to arrive at the Assistant Stork in Virginia by Saturday. I know that sounds crazy. Why would I pay to have it arrive at a business on a Saturday, you ask? Well, I spoke to Steve Morrison who runs the business with his wife and he informed me that if they receive it Saturday they will take it first thing Monday morning to the U.S. Department of State for authentication. He said they usually get it completed and returned the next day. Meaning, our completely authenticated dossier will be on its way to Children's House International by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Step 4: Children's House International sends the original authenticated dossier along with two notarized copies and one regular copy off to the Embassy of Ethiopia for final authentication and translation. Then we wait. And wait. And probably wait some more.

So....we will be waiting for what is called a "referral". We have to wait for all of the families ahead of us who have the same age and sex specifications for a child to receive a referral first. For example, our specifications are for a baby girl age range newborn to 18 months of age. She can also have a sibling boy or girl up to age 3 1/2. If a child like that enters the orphanage, then we receive a referral for her/them. A lot more happens once we receive and accept a referral but I will wait to get into that part.

As we wait for a referral, we hope to proceed with fundraising so that we can afford to accept a referral for two children. (Remember with two children, it is an additional $8000 - $9000). Total costs for one child range from approximately $29,000 - $32,000. While we have gone into this adoption planned and prepared, we just don't have that much money laying around. Also, as I noted in a previous post, the costs have risen since we started in January of 2010.

Keep a watch out, I will be doing more posts on our progress as well as some interesting posts about Ethiopia and its people.

Matt Graduated IBOLC!!

More great news...Yesterday Matthew, or should I say, Second Lieutenant Kohler graduated from the 16 week Infantry Basic Officer's Leader Course. Congratulations, honey, I am so proud of you! The course was very strenuous and required 10 of those 16 weeks to be spent in the field, ie. mud, rain, poison ivy, sweat, filthiness, etc. Guess who did the laundry resulting from all that field time - that's right, me. But I digress, the point is that Matt is incredible and he looks so handsome in his dress blue uniform.

Now he will be preparing for Ranger School which he will commence on June 26th.

Document Authenticated Step 2 - Done!

Wahoo!!! We received the Affidavit of Dossier and Power of Attorney back in the mail today!! They have officially been authenticated by the office of the Georgia Secretary of State. It was definitely worth the cost of having them shipped FedEx next day.

NOW...for Document Authentication Step 3 of the 4 steps. I need to take all of the dossier documents (about 35), make three copies, have each page of two of the sets notarized (about 70 pages), and send them off in two different directions. One original dossier (I have two originals) will be sent to the Assistant Stork in Virgina who will take them to the U.S. Secretary of State to be Authenticated for a nominal fee of $80 plus the U.S. fee of $16. Not bad, not bad at all. Two notarized copies of the dossier and one normal copy are also mailed to our international adoption agency who holds them until they receive the authenticated dossier back from the Assistant Stork.

Step 4...The final step!! Once all of the documents are received by Children's House International, they ship it off to the Embassy of Ethiopia with our $189.60 money order to be authenticed by them. Then we play the waiting game until we receive a referral for children matching our profile. Oh what a happy day that will be! We are getting so close now it is starting to feel real again. We started this process in January 2010 and at times it has felt as if we would never see the end of the tunnel. At last, we see a glimmer of light!