Well, I guess we're going to Africa!

Cute picture of the two brothers!

We're still waiting for our fingerprinting appointment.... it should come in the mail shortly.

This week we received confirmation from our adoption agency Wide Horizons For Children that our Homestudy is officially done!! Yah! I do want to take a minute to give credit where credit is due.

When we decided to adopt, we didn't say, "hey, let's go to Africa". To be honest, it didn't even cross our minds until later when we started doing research. We started to see Ethiopia come up on adoption agencies website's. We probably discussed it briefly, but that's about it. We were pretty sure that we'd be adopting either domestically from the foster care system, or from South America. Pretty quickly the foster care system proved too much for us (emotionally and risk wise with a three year old in the house). We thankfully decided to work with Wide Horizons For Children who is based here in the Northeast and has a Bedford NH satellite office. After going through the application process, we were "matched" to our social worker. I got a phone call one day from our new social worker Roy. We spoke briefly about what comes next and scheduled our first appointment to meet at his office. I'm going to admit, I was a little dissappointed when I first learned that we'd be dealing with a "man" for our Homestudy process as I've heard from other people how "detailed" the discussions can get. That was immediatly washed away as soon as we met Roy. He is what I like to call "a gentle giant" - tall and calm, just the opposite of me. Anyway, Roy is a wonderful guy with a fantastic sense of humor (very important) who is really perfect for his job.

During our first meeting with Roy, we started to talk about different countries etc, etc, etc. When he started to talk about the Ethiopian program, something in him lit up. He was very passionate about everything and had nothing but encouraging things to say about the country, culture, and adoption program that they offer. Michael and I left there, sat in the car, turned to each other and said, "well, I guess we're going to Africa"! My eyes fill up just thinking about it now, only a few short months later. So, it was our dear social worker Roy who we were lead to by God to show us the way home. If you're out there Roy - "YOU ROCK". Inside joke, he's got a great sense of humor and he's waiting for me to get my Rob Halford tatoo...

Since our instant decision regarding Africa, I've thrown myself into reading, blogging, and a ton of time online looking at everything from crib outfitting to white parents raising a black child.

If anyone you know is the least bit interested in adoption, please direct them to the link on the right "Wide Horizons"... they won't be sorry.

Ciao -