On Friday we got our Provincial Letter of approval!!!! I just have to take some pictures of the house and we will be ready to have all our documents sent off to Manitoba and then onto Adis Ababa!

An Update

Wow. We are blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. So far we have 1330 km sponsored! That leaves only 8070! Thank you so much to everyone who is helping to make this a reality for us. We are just now finishing up our first round of paperwork for immigration and we are still waiting on the last little bit of paperwork to be completed so we can have our dossier sent off. This step must (of course) be accompanied by a big cheque so we are extra greatful for the donation money that has come in. God is good! An update on the doll situation: I did finally find one on the dusty top shelf of a zellars, I think I found the only one in victoria so if anyone else is looking, you are out of luck! I know this seems like a pretty small issue. Who cares about a doll right? But it is one that has stuck with me a bit. Just one example of how caucasian centered this society is... "I'm only one. But still, I am one.I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.And because I cannot do everything,I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."-- Edward Everett Hale

Baby doll

I have been searching (without luck) for a while for a black baby doll for the boys. I suppose this is a preview of things to come. I know I haven't even brushed the surface of what it must feel like to be a visual minority but my eyes are opening... I have looked at walmart, zellars, sears, superstore and a couple of exclusive toy stores as well as looking at toys r us online. All to no avail. I have been told to actually go into toys r us but I haven't gotten around to this yet. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears! I am also going to try to find a hair dresser who can teach me how to care for our daughter's hair. If anyone knows of a place in Victoria, I would really appreciate hearing about it. Leah

Sponsor Kilometers

We are VERY excited about bringing our little girl home, hopefully in the next year to year and a half. Aside from the paperwork and bureaucracy, the main obstacle we face is funds. International adoption is very expensive. We are hoping to raise about half the money we still need through fundraising. Interestingly enough this dollar amount is approximately the same number as the number of kilometers between Ethiopia’s capital and Victoria (about 9400). If we can raise one dollar for each kilometer between us and our daughter, we will be able to bring her home! A PayPal account has been set up for people to contribute various amounts. If you feel inspired to take part and contribute, we would be eternally grateful. Well, perhaps for one hundred years. Make that fifty. How about we link the years of gratefulness to how much you contribute? Leah says that I can't link how long we'll be grateful to how much you contribute, so we'll just be very grateful for a very long time. We are also going to look into what the Ethiopian orphanages need, specfically from the area we are adopting from (TBD). We'll keep you posted as we find out more. Hopefully we'll be able to meet some of these needs as well.

Where we are so far...

Jeremy and I set out to begin the adoption process in February of this year. We have just completed the "home study" phase. Which means that we have essentially been checked out by a social worker and have been given the stamp of approval (wheh, good thing sinse we are already parents :)). The homestudy consists of a series of meetings with a provincially approved social worker who comes, checks out your home and basically asks you a series of semi invasive questions to determine if you are a good candidate to be an adoptive parent. For us, it actually didn't go that badly. It was surprisingly straight forward. CAFAC (the adoption agency in Manitoba), requires that we complete an adoption education component. They sent us a 3 inch binder full of reading and homework. Between all the regular stuff we do (kids, work etc), this basically took 2 intensive weeks to finish. The next step is dossier preparation. This is basically a paper chase. We have to gather a whole bunch of documents together (birth certificates, criminal record checks, pictures etc) that have to be packaged together and sent off to Ethiopia. I have most of what we need but we are waiting on Alberta to send us birth certificates. That basically sums up how far we have come so far. If it sounds like a lot of work that's because it is! In the end though it will be worth it. As far as finances are concerned, we are trying to pick up little extra jobs as much and are trying to save as much as we can. For instance this week, we have been filling in at our church while our janitor is on holidays. We are also starting to consider different fundraising ideas... so if you have any let me know!