Greetings from the Grants! We have finally started a blog, which is, in itself, a miracle, due to our complete lack of technical abilities. :o) We would like to share our adoption process with you, so follow along for the highlights!

The official adoption process began February 19, 2010, after almost two years of prayer, by submitting a preliminary online application to America World. After this was accepted, we filled out a much more in-depth application and were accepted into the Ethiopia program. The first step would be to contact Bethany Christian Services to initiate a Home Study; the study is a thorough evaluation of our home and family, and the finished product comprises an extensive portion of the America World application. 

After the final visit with our Bethany social worker in Roseville, we enjoyed getting our first taste of Ethiopian food at the Queen Sheba Restaurant in Sacramento.


The Grants at the Queen Sheba Restaurant in Sacramento



After completing fingerprinting, background checks, police checks, and all the rest, plus waiting several weeks for our social worker to complete her portion of the paperwork, we received our completed home study! Behold, there was much rejoicing throughout the land of the Grants!
 

Scott and Alison in front of the INS building where we received
our finger printing.











 







Officially State Certified!




















After our application was processed by immigration, we received an appointment to complete the INS fingerprinting in Sacramento. While in Sacramento, we also took two forms to the Secretary of State's office to be state certified.

The final "piece" of the application puzzle is the all-important I-171H. When you finally receive that form, you are able to submit your entire dossier to America World and then get on the waiting list. The wait for this form varies from state to state, but our "golden ticket" arrived in only seven days. We placed this piece of paper in our dossier and we all drove to the nearest Fed-Ex office to mail the package to America World in Virginia.



We mailed in our completed dossier on August 26th, 2010



After two staff checks by America World, our dossier was forward to the Ethiopian Embassy and then on to Ethiopia itself. Our family tracked our dossier as it flew out from Virginia on September 3, 2010, and went to Paris, France; to Dubai; and finally landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

And now...the waiting game has begun! Our wait may be anywhere from several weeks to a year, with a "best guess" of about six months. We are trusting God to match us up with just the right children at just the right time. While we wait we will be re-arranging bedrooms, painting, and trying to raise the necessary funds to be ready to accept a referral and travel to Ethiopia was soon as we get our call.