Unexpected updates!!!

Fabric for the crib bedding :)

It's Wednesday, our official do nothing day. I slept in till 10:30, we've watched LOST and 1.5 movies so far. We were planning to beach it, but we were to lazy to go. The last thing I think about on Wednesdays is getting anything done. But, praise the Lord, He doesn't stop blessing us even if it is Wednesday!!! In between movie 1 and 2 I checked my e-mail and found a letter from our agency. So I opened it without looking at the subject line, cause I assumed it was some update on adoption policy, or some newsletter, I don't know, I wasn't expecting anything pertaining to our adoption for weeks. But lo and behold, she was writing to tell me our home study's been processed, and she's sent it to CIS! A process that's supposed to take 3 week took 6 days!!! Including last weekend!
As soon as I'd read that I had another e-mail, this one saying that we are APPROVED!!! Basically, that means that our agency, after reviewing all of our paperwork, agrees to work with us! Yaaaaayyyy!! So exciting, I so didn't expect this today! We're one big step closer to our baby!!!

So, all we have left is:
*Waiting on my FBI fingerprints
*Waiting on my birth certificate
*Waiting on CIS approval
*Send all the above to be authenticated with the rest of the dossier, then...
*Send it all to Ethiopia and start the wait!!!!

In other fun adoption news, earlier this week I was on the unofficial wait list I talked about last week, and noticed that some of the families were waiting on children under the age of 6 months. I hadn't known this was an option, and so asked my program assistant about it. Age preference in an application for adoption is a very personal decision to make, as is the decision about whether or not one is able and willing to care for a child with health problems. It is a decision that requires a lot of thought and prayer, and one each family must make after careful consideration of their desires and capabilities. I know for me the thing was that I kept secretly and almost unconsciously wishing for an infant under 6 months, and feeling guilty for wishing it. But no more guilt, that's for the birds, I have no time for it. As my friend Shelley says, there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet your baby as early as possible in his or her life. So i heard back from Susanne that we can request any age range we wish, and it's not too late for us to make a change, so we decided that this time, for our first baby, we want to go ahead and narrow our request down to an infant either gender 0-6 months at time of referral! Yay!
Thank you guys for caring, and for loving us. Thanks to all our sweet friends and family who continue to be so encouraging to us! We're pumped to be moving forward! Love you guys!

PS: check out this sweet JUNKPOSSE necklace giveaway here:
http://bottomlysandethiopia.blogspot.com April 7, 2010