Where we stand (and shall not fall)

Knock on wood, everyone! It has been 10 days and our adoption is progressing smoothly. No setbacks. No frustrations. We are happily moving forward. We mailed our home study and I-600A form (which is for preapproval to allow a child to come into the US before a specific child is identified). We received notification that our paperwork was received today and will be processed. Since it is an adoption, our forms will be "expedited" at the lightening fast processing speed of 8 weeks!
Ladies and gents, if you look to your left, you will see what we have accomplished thus far. Which may cause you to ask.....what's left? Well, I am glad you asked....Here's what we can expect and what we have left (the wait times and such are estimated based upon what International Family Services (IFS) has told us. Wait times vary based upon how picky we are and how quickly the Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs processes files.)

• Visit the Immigration office in OKC for fingerprinting
• Await approval from Immigration, proving that we are eligible to adopt (2 month wait)
• Send remaining documents to the Department of State in Oklahoma for authentication
• Send all documents to IFS 
• IFS will have all documents authenticated with the US Department of State and Ethiopian consulate
• Documents are verified and a dossier is created
• Dossier is translated into Amharic and sent to the Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs
• A child is selected for us and a referral is made (4-7 month wait from dossier submission to referral)
• IFS calls us with the referral information and we have the right to review the information and reject or accept
• IFS sends us documents about the referral to allow us to consult with a doctor in pediatric international medicine
• We reject or accept the child
• If we accept, we sign a contract and apply for an appointment for court (3-5 month wait)
• We travel to Ethiopia for our first court date
• We return home (sans baby) while lawyers and our agency work on finalizing the adoption
• 3-8 weeks later, we return to Ethiopia
• We apply at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa for a visa
• We return to the US as a family

Feel free to print this post and check off as we move along.