Many changes with our adoption

Hello everyone

Well once again another change in our journey to be parents!!!

Due to many of the changes I mentioned in our last blog, we have decided to end our adoption process with Ethiopia. this was a very hard decision, but due to many many changes in requirements by the Ethiopian courts and US Embassy, there have become too many uncertainties. The reason behind these changes are good and admirable. They are for the best interest of the children so that the governments can be sure there is no illegal actions taking place. In lu of a lot of media coverage in regards to international adoptions, many international programs are changing and becoming more unpredictable.

With this decision came excitement as well. We have decided to start a domestic adoption process. We are excited to get this process started. If all goes well and we are accepted with the agency we like, we could be matched with a child as early as one month!!!!! or up to about 6 months for the longest. The child could be of various different ethnicities,and a boy or a girl, so that we will not be sure of until we are matched and the child is born.

We will continue to keep you posted on the progress. I hope you are able to join as a blog member so that you be notified on our updates. I've made some changes in our settings of the blog so I hope than many of you are able to receive these updates on a regular basis.

Check out some recent pics of our trip to Mexico for my 40th!!! I can't believe I'm 40. I still feel 20 something. That's probably good being that we will have a newborn in the house hopefully very very soon!! Time to get put the smack down and get that nursery ready!

Love to all

Heather and Tom

Not so great update from Ethiopia

Hello blog followers....

We just heard today from CWA (our international agency), that Ethiopia government is now requiring parents to travel twice. This means double the cost in flight and travel as well meeting our little girl and then having to leave her in Ethiopia until we go back, possibly up to 6 months later.

Here is a copy of the email we just received today from our case manager:

Dear CWA Ethiopia Program families:

We have just received word from our CWA Ethiopia staff that effective today, March 1st on the Ethiopian calendar, all prospective adoptive families must travel to Addis Ababa for the Federal First Instance Court hearing. (This applies to all cases being submitted to court as of today; cases already submitted prior to today are exempt). This decision was announced by the Ethiopian government, and applies to all adoption agencies currently working in Ethiopia. There has been discussion of this change for some months, and the change is attributable to previous "revocation" cases in Ethiopia adoptions (i.e. cases in which parents decline to bring children home after a successful court hearing). We have no further details at this time, so please bear with us while we await further news. Case managers will talk with families individually as we learn how this will impact your specific adoption.

On a positive note, if parents see their children before court the child will be eligible for an IR-3 visa, thus making the child a U.S. citizen immediately upon arrival in the United States.

Patricia Ward

Ethiopia Program Director

This is not the news we wanted to hear. This only delays the process and keeps the children in orphanages longer. When we first signed up for international adoption, and one reason we chose Ethiopia was because it was one of the international programs that did not require more than a one time travel.

We will be talking more about the impact of this change on our process. Please keep our agency, the Ethiopian Government, as well as us in your prayers as we navigate these changes and the impact it has on the next year.

God Bless

Heather

Changes in Ethiopian Adoption process

Hello All,

Not too much to report, however, we have just found out that it may be that we will have to travel TWICE to Ethiopia. The court system there is discussing the idea of having adoptive families be present for the court hearing at which the children are adopted to us. This is currently done with an agency representative being present instead of the families. It has been that we travel about 3-6 months after this date for the "Embassy" date when we take our child home. The Embassy date is when the child receives her visa, passport and birth certificate and then we can take her home from there.

It will be very expensive to travel twice, as well as very hard emotionally, having to meet our baby and then leave her again for a few more months. We are hoping this will not go into effect...please say some prayers for the Ethiopian Courts to realize this may decrease the number of people that will be able to adopt from their country due to the travel costs and time off work that will be involved. We are in it now, so I don't see this changing anything for us. It's just not what we would want. When we signed up for Ethiopian program, one of the reasons was because we only had to travel once, where as some countries require two or more visits. I'm sure that the Ethiopian Government has a good reason for discussing this change in their policies, I just hope that it is what is best for children and their forever families.

We'll continue to keep you posted. Lots of Love,

Heather and Tom

We're Back

Hello All,

We have been out of commission on line for awhile due to a computer ill with many many many viruses. Our IT neighbors tried to fix our computer, but recommended we get a new one. So we did it. So we are back on line.

Not much new to say on the adoption front. We are officially on the wait list. We have a case manager through our international agency who will be keeping us posted on any update, delays, etc....The earliest we expect to hear they have matched us will be June or July, but more realistically, late summer or fall. Let's pray it's the earlier dates! Things change so quickly with the Ethiopian government and orphanges, that we just don't know.

So we are keeping our minds off the waiting by doing some home improvements, travel, spending time just relaxing and enjoying our free time while we can.

We want to thank each and everyone of you who have purchased coffee through justlovecoffee.com/hofmeisters. We have raised for our savings account, over $150. Not only are you helping us with our adoption funding, but you are directly helping the families of the coffee roasters in Ethiopia by buying the fair trade coffee. So thank you! Our favorite so far is the African Skies, whole bean. If you love coffee and have not tried it yet, check it out!

If you can do us a favor? respond letting us know how you were able to read this blog, through which medium (facebook, email etc...). I'm not really sure how to reach everyone if you don't have google or yahoo accounts. If not many people get updates, than I may switch to a different blog site.

God Bless all of you and thank you, again, for all of your love and support.

Heather and Tom

Our Own Little Adoption Fundraiser

Hello Again,

So check out this link....www.justlovecoffee.com/hofmeisters....it's our new "Coffee Store"

We heard about this site as a fundraiser for our adoption and the best thing about it is that it is a site set up by a man who also adopted two daughters from Ethiopia. He learned that Ethiopia is the originating country that produces coffee and started a fundraiser for families who are coffee roasters in Addis Ababa (capitol city where we will be traveling too).

So, by purchasing coffee from this site, through our "store", you will not only be helping us out with our adoption costs, but will also be helping Ethiopian families by buying and drinking fair trade coffee roasted right in the country where our future daughter is from.

If you like coffee...check it out...and pass it on.

Thank you!

Christian World Adoption on You Tube

Hello All,

Here is a link to You Tube...our Agency has numerous short videos that talk about the process in Ethiopia. This link should take you to a video called "A Day in the Life of a Child..." They talk about what happens in the orphanges. Enjoy the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wb9Ug6OD-g

First Post...The past year

To Get started, I thought I'd write a post describing our journey up to this point.

About one year ago we started our adoption process..can't believe it's already been a year!!!

We signed up with Catholic Charities, here in Madison. Started with 16 hours of education, required by the State of Wisconsin for all adoptive parents. Throughout or education classes, we contemplated whether or not international adoption or domestic adoption would best suite us. As you know, we've chosen international adoption through Ethiopia.

Many people have asked us "Why Ethiopia?" It's a hard question to answer. One reason is that I (Heather) have two co-workers who have adopted through Ethiopia, and both of which have done it twice. Which, to us, speaks volumes. We had thought about China or another Asian country, however, the wait time in China is very long, and it is one of the most expensive places to adopt from. Korea is closing it's adoptions to America in efforts to encourage more Korean families to adopt children so they can stay in their own country.

Another reason why we were drawn to Ethiopia is the extreme need for Ethiopian children to find forever families. Ethiopia children are often abandoned or orphaned due to poverty (parents cannot afford to feed another child), or parents are too ill or have died due to illness/disease. The living conditions in Ethiopia are nothing we, Americans, can even fathom. We are often told by our agency to prepare our hearts/spirits before our trip due to the conditions we will see while there. We believe we are being drawn to this country for a reason.

So..you are probably wondering..why has it been a year and we still don't have a child? Well, in order to protect a child's rights, the child's birth parents/family, and us as adoptive parents, there is a lot of paperwork involved to have us become official parents of an orphan.

We first needed to have a home study completed...this included 4 interviews with a social worker at Catholic Charities (required by the State of WI and Ethiopia). First interview was with both of us, 2nd and 3rd interview was with each of us individually, fourth was at our home...this started in Feb of 2009 and we were officially done with our Home study by June of 2009 (interviews, paperwork, back ground checks, references, and home study: preparing our home to meet WI foster family requirements).

In May, we researched International Agencies. We chose Christian World Adoption (CWA) which is located in North Carolina. We were assigned a case worker to help us with our Dossier...a packet of documents required for the country of Ethiopia to allow American parents to adopt. It has taken us up until this week to complete that dossier.

What does a dossier include?

• Cover Letter that has to be notarized and authenticated by the State Secretary
• Power of Attorney allowing CWA to act on our behalf in Ethiopia - also notarized and authenticated
• letter from our employers - notarized
• letter from our bank - notarized
• letter from us to the Federal Republic of Ethiopia requesting to adopt from their country
• Clearance Letter from local police for each of us
• Home Study
  
• Home Study agency License
• Home Study Social Workers License
• Home Study approval Letter
• Passport photos for each of us...notarized statement that these are our photos
• Birth certificates - originals
• original marriage certificate
• Medical reports for each of us...signed by our doctors and notarized
• Family photos (with statement attached stating these are true pictures of us/family)
• 3 yrs of page one of our 1040 tax forms
• 3 or more reference letters
• and a couple of required forms for CWA to process post adoption reports.

So now you know why it has taken us all summer/fall to complete our Dossier!!!!

Yesterday I mailed out our full dossier to our Courier service (The Assistant Stork) who will take our documents to US Secretary of State office to have the documents Authenticated, and then they will take them directly to the Ethiopian Embassy for authentication. Once that is done the courier will mail the original, authenticated documents to CWA. Once CWA receives the final documents, our final payment (big chunk!!!) and our final educational requirements, CWA will send our documents to Ethiopia government and we will be placed on the waiting list immediately!

From here on out...we wait.....

Keep checking our blog for updates, changes, new news about our process.

We love sharing our story with you.

Heather and Tom