D is for....

DOSSIER....It's done. Here it is in all it's fine organized glory. I'll spare you my OCD details of how I was a giddy schoolgirl organizing, double/triple checking everything... About to drop it off. I met our caseworker at a gas station to do "the exchange". It was freezing. I didn't care. I had butterflies in my stomach all day. This was a big step in our adoption. (yes there are a couple of other things that have to happen with it before it gets sent to it's final destination in Ethiopia, but for the most part it's out of our control now. Gulp. Breathe. Breathe again.)

Adios....I said a quick prayer for Mr. FedEx. As I drove away, at the stoplight there was a FedEx truck. I was confused...Did he just pick up before I got to the drop box? No way...I was 2 hours early. I had a moment of panic and did the lovely sign language out my window to him to roll down his window so I could ask him if he was being too efficient and 2 hours early on pick up...because if so, then please Mr. Good Kind Sir, please turn around and go pick up my

box...But he kindly and patiently informed me that he doesn't work "that area". Ok fine. I let him off the hook and let him on his way...(and the light turned green so he was going to drive off anyway) Next step....Fingerprint appointment up in Denver. Over the weekend we got our appt date...It's set for about 3 weeks from now. Wish it was sooner but nothing we can do about it. Ethiopia now requires you to have your I171H approval from USCIS to be submitted to Ethiopia along with your Dossier. This wasn't always the case, but now is. So even though the Dossier is done, we have to do fingerprints, wait for the approval...send approval off...and THEN everything gets sent to Ethiopia. (in so many words.)

For now, we'll just celebrate this little (BIG) step in our adoption.