We Got "The Call"

Yesterday we received our phone call from America World saying that we are officially accepted into the Ethiopia Adoption Program! So exciting. Now the work begins...

Our representative emailed me several forms that I needed to print, read over, sign, and mail back. This was just initial paperwork before we start the "real" paperwork. The documents we completed yesterday include:

• AWAA Agreement (outlined program fees/financial obligation)
• Ethiopia Disclaimer (if Ethiopia decides not to give us a child, we won't sue AWAA)
• Client Grievance Procedure (what to do if we get really mad at AWAA)
• Client's Rights and Responsibilities (they'll do their part; we have to do ours)

Our AWAA rep also gave us names of several agencies that do home studies. So I researched 3 of them and we decided on one. That agency is mailing us an application packet. The home study is a very large component of the application process and takes about 2-3 months to complete.

In addition to this, I registered Andy & myself for a required online training course. That cost $175. I also wrote a check for our first installment of our program fee to AWAA, which was $1,350.

Andy had a slight panic attack last night as we looked over the financial obligation. We both knew ahead of time approximately how much an international adoption costs. ($21K-$32K) It just became very real last night as we started writing checks! After spending some time working on our finances, he felt much better about our plan to fund this venture. I will keep a running tally of all of our expenses on the side bar so that you can see what the money is going towards. I want to do this to help anyone who is considering adoption understand the process more thoroughly.