I just got a call from the adoption agency saying that they received our home study, and that it was approved! Finally we can start moving forward again! I'm still not exactly sure why that all took so long - but I do know that God's timing is perfect.
Next, we will put our dossier together (still not sure exactly what that entails), file an immigration form and get fingerprinted, and get an updated list of available children to see who we'd like to adopt! One thing the lady from the agency did strongly suggest is that we adopt children that are younger than 14 (in other words, younger than our youngest child). She said that it just usually works out best that way in families. Also, she said that a child who is said to be 16 may actually be 18 or 20 - they just don't usually have birth certificates and accurate records.
I asked what the timetable typically is for people adopting older children, and she said in the past it has been about 6 months from when your dossier is submitted to when you travel to Ethiopia. Now, we actually have to travel twice, because the process in Ethiopia recently changed; the first time is for a court date, and the second time would be about 2 months later and is to bring the children home. She did say that the courts pretty much close down in August and September, but we wouldn't be going that soon anyway.
It's so nice to actually be moving forward with the adoption process. Sometimes when nothing much is happening it doesn't seem very real after a while, that we're actually doing this. :)
