DECIDED TO PROCEED; CHOSE AGENCY

This week has been a busy week with more reading and visits with a couple agencies.

After prayer, time as a couple, and seeking wisdom from community, we have decided we want to proceed with adoption, so the next step is choosing an agency. There are about 11 US agencies in Ethiopia, so we scanned all of them over the five weeks or so. We chose to dig a little deeper with two agencies, and we had "final round" discussions with both of them yesterday.

We really liked both of the agencies, and we really wish we could merge the best of both of them. Obviously, that isn't an option, so we need to decide which agency we feel would best fit our needs, concerns, skills, etc.

After the meetings, we have decided to partner with Gladney, an agency based in Fort Worth, about 45 minutes from our house.

Now the paper work begins... We had to fill out a basic form at the beginning to get the ball rolling. Today, we needed to submit a form with a little more personal information to allow Gladney to do some background checks as well as receive the more substantive "official Gladney application."

We will then work on two applications concurrently. First, there is a formal federal doc (I-600A) which seems easy enough and requires including copies of birth certificates (or passports), marriage certificate, a cover letter, etc. That will likely take an hour or so, and we can ship it out this week. The other form is the Gladney application, which I am assuming will take more time. We haven't gotten a copy of that yet, so I am not sure what will need to be done. I should know more later this week or early next week.

Very excited!