on my way now...

Since it is "fall break" I have taken advantage of the time off from school. Today I used 1/2 tank of gas-- tomorrow maybe the other 1/2! I ran all over Denver to redo all those documents that were "wrong." And I have to say going to these places in person, makes things happen. From my insurance/hospital to the City of Denver Police Administration building, I got the documents I needed. In the Police Admin building after talking to several people and on a phone to someone upstairs behind the bullet proof glass, the main man who could solve my problem said, "I think God wants you to have a baby" because the man who had been out of the office all day and the other man who was on call for court and could leave at any moment, both walked into his office at the same time to sign and notarize MY document. I was able then to take all my documents to the Sec. of State again to get certified and they should be ready tomorrow at noon(ish). SOOOO tomorrow I should be able to take them all back to IAN again and MAYBE just maybe (cross your fingers with me) I'll get on the list for a referral! :) Yea! And my kitchen is looking good too! :)

"You should blog about that Ms Hann"

Getting lots of emails about the scary status of adoptions in Ethiopia. Turns out that some US and European people who have adopted in the past have not been culturally sensitive. Therefore the Joint Council on International Children's Services has put together some guidelines or principles for intercountry adoptions. It is just worrisome that for whatever reasons the country could suddenly decide not to grant adoptions any longer. I am to study up more on Ethiopian culture and modern traditions especially when it comes to child rearing. I will follow through with that. I for one cannot imagine adopting a child from another country and ignoring their heritage. To celebrate culture--including the history, music, art, theatre, architecture, celebrations, and traditions is what makes life fulfilling, rich, and interesting. There are other principles about staying in a guest house vs hotel in while in Ethiopia and not touring in public with the child. I understand that and I was planning on staying at a guest house. It is all very interesting. I need to FINISH the dossier and get in line ASAP.

busy week-- on hold

My fall play Paganini opened this week, so that means I've been operating on way less sleep than usual and that I had to put my Dossier on hold for the past two weeks. I will jump head first into fixing all my errors this coming week and then I'll get on the list and on the way to my baby! :) Yea!

The good news is that I NOW have a dishwasher! It is installed and I am using it for the first time right now. I haven't had a dishwasher since 1998. AMAZING! :)

2nd adoption class

Maybe it was because I have so much on my plate right now, but today's adoption class was tough to sit still. I open my fall play on Thursday and we are in the crunch of painting the set, tightening the pace of the show, and still figuring out motivations and through lines of the plot. It is a crazy farce show which is more difficult than I anticipated. But I am very excited about an audience finally seeing this. The class... I don't even know what it was about. I guess the right language to use when talking about adoption. Not "real" mother, but birth mother. Not IS adopted, but WAS adopted as it is a ONE time event. Things like that. And then exploring the fact that our kids will come with baggage that might be seen in things like grief, loss, intimacy, guilt and shame. A little bit about celebrating the culture of our children. And financial planning. Maybe it is the teacher in me and knowing that sitting for 4 1/2 hours and having no real interaction is not an effective way to learn. Maybe it is because I took HOURS of education classes and child development classes to become a teacher. But I didn't learn anything new today. I really felt like it was common sense. Hmmm...

Funny video

So this has NOTHING to do with my adoption. But saw this video on one of my friend's facebook sites and it is great. Scarily I have tapes like this that are serious. Oh those late 70's early 80's this is how you communicate stuff. Too funny. Watch here

on the road again

Today I found the USCIS center in Aurora, CO and got my biometric fingerprints done. It took all of 10 minutes and cost $80. Of course it took about 20 minutes to get there. But just one more thing to check off the list. I am in the process of redoing the forms I need to do. The only two that are a pain are the criminal clearance and the insurance forms. Otherwise all others are doable. I think I'll wait to get them notarized down in the Wells Fargo Building downtown where I get them certified. That way they won't only be notarized on the same day, they'll be notarized AND certified on the same day. Beat that! Ha! Good feelings....

so upset

After 3 months of collecting and running all over the city and waiting in wait rooms to talk to the right person and mailing in requests and paying money to get certain forms and arranging a sub for the past 3 days to get everything certified downtown, I finally turned the dossier in yesterday. Just got an email. NINE items need to be redone. The main reason-- LEARN THIS NOW-- the date you have on every form, every place you sign, must MATCH the date of the notary. Like when you write a letter, don't date it at the top. Just add a blank next to the signature of the letter and make sure you don't sign it/date it, until you are in front of the notary.

The other thing that got me-- my main notary, I checked that she was registered with the state and her commission doesn't expire until 2012. However, her stamp was "non-compliant" with the Sec. of State. They have to have a circle or a square around their name and "notary" and their "My commission expires on date" has to be outside that circle or square. My notary had no square. So all of her documents need to be redone. UGH. Sadness.

You take three steps forward, one step back. Now to move forward.

Dossier in--- wait a minute...

I raced out of school and drove like crazy to get to IAN today to drop off my Dossier. As I drove back to school like a demon to get to my class, I felt lighter. Finally, that bundle of important paperwork that I have been working on and collecting for the past three months was DONE. And now that it is turned in I "get in line" and might be number 4 for a baby boy! Which is sooo cool.

THEN, on my way out of school at 6PM I got a voice mail from IAN saying there are some elements of my dossier that need to be "fixed." I do not like the sound of that at all. I started getting upset because if it is something as simple as like the wording of one of my letters, then ugh. I feel like I should have taken the whole thing in BEFORE I got everything notarized and certified. I've had to get a sub for my class for three days to get these things done. It's crazy. She said she was going to email me, but there is no email. As soon as I know what needs to be fixed I'll post about it. Maybe someone else will benefit from my misery! So many hoops, keep jumping higher and higher. There is a baby boy at the end of this journey.