Ethiopian Timeline

APRIL 2005
After much prayer and thought we make the decision to adopt from
Ethiopia in late March - early April. The rest of the month of April
was spend contacting agencies and interviewing people to decide which
agency was best for us.

MAY 2005

6th - Application sent to Children's Home Society & Family Services!
12th- Danielle's private meeting with our wonderful social worker, Sharon.
20th- First joint meeting with social worker.
25th- Second joint meeting with social worker and house tour.

JUNE 2005

14th- Brian's private meeting with social worker.
22th- Education meeting with social worker. We were required to have a total of 10 hours of training on adoption.
Last week of June- I-600A, petition to adopt a foreign-born orphan, sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Memphis, TN.

JULY 2005

First week of July-I-600A returned for errors, corrected, and re-sent. Homestudy finished and sent to CHSFS for approval then on to USCIS.
14th- Brian applies for his passport.
26th- All papers taken to be notarized.
27th- Papers taken to County Clerk's office to be certified.
28th- Drove to Nashville to be fingerprinted for I-600A. Also went to Sec. of State to get paperwork authenticated.

AUGUST 2005

First week of August- Finished gathering and organizing paperwork which we had been collecting since May for dossier.
9th- Dossier mailed to CHSFS.
15th- Dossier approved by agency, now on way to Ethiopia for translation via the Ethiopian Embassy.

SEPTEMBER 2005

1ST- First day of waiting for a referral
22nd- 1:02pm: Jan from our agency called Brian on his cell phone. When we called her back, she gave us the first information of our REFERRAL!!!

OCTOBER 2005

5th-USCIS approvel received!!!
7th- Travel date set for November 12th

NOVEMBER 2005

13th- Arrived in Ethiopia!
14th- GOTCHA DAY!!! We get our little girl!
19th- arrived home with Miriam

December 2005

14th Adoption final in the State of Tennessee!!!!