one week and my new favourite artist

We received confirmation last week that our dossier landed safely in Ethiopia. We have now officially been waiting for one week. I'm now supposed to complete Part 1 of the immigration route of our choice.... the thing is I still can't exactly decide. I think we may do both routes even though our agency advises against this. But so far, I am too overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork and the confusing questions that I have yet to complete either appications!

Instead, I have been listening to Michelle Featherstone. I first heard her song "sweet sweet baby" and it is absolutely perfect for anyone with a referral that is going crazy waiting for their baby to come home! If you haven't heard of her, go to her website www.michellefeatherstone.com and you can listn to a bunch of her songs. I tried to find a video of her singing this song but couldn't. Instead I will leave you with a song that is in the movie "The Peaceful Warrior."

Oh, and if you are a LOST fan (Dianne... :)) type her name into youtube and you will discover that there are many hard-core LOST fans out there that make music videos with footage from past shows and michelle's songs!!! So fun, but the one with Charlie is a bit too depressing so be careful.



Okay, so I can't stop telling you about her! Sorry. But I also have to reccomend her song "Go on my child" and "Coffee and cigarettes".... so beautiful. Ah.... thank God for music. I don't know how I could survive without it.

On its way to Ethiopia!!!

I just got the best news from our caseworker at Kidslink/Imagine. Our dossier was back from the embassy in Ottawa yesterday, and has left for Addis Ababa this morning! I had prepared myself for the 3 week wait in Ottawa (from their 2-3 week estimate) of how long it would take to get everything authenticated. The night before I was praying so hard that instead of the 2-3 week estimate, it would somehow be processed in 1 week and that I would get an email the next day. I knew it had happened before and that it was possible, and I hadn't prayed that hard since the night I prayed my sister would have her baby on March 1st the day I was off of work (and she did!). Anyways, sure enough the next day I got the email saying it was back already! With mailing times, this means it was done in exactly 5 business days! I'm definitely celebrating this because I know it is very well the last thing that will ever happen "fast" in our adoption.


We are now officially expecting from Ethiopia. By the time our dossier arrives in the right place it may be next week but I am starting to count down now! In approximately (give or take of course) 3-5 months we will look at our son's face! Wow, this whole process is starting to feel a lot more real.


Thank you so much to everyone... friends, family, yahoo friends, fellow adopting mom's that look at blogs obsessively, for all of your encouragement along this tedious paperwork journey. Now we get to sit and wait... I've never been so happy to be on a waitlist.

selam.

Dear Minister Finley,

Today on our yahoo adoption forum we decided to all write letters to Minister Finley and our local MPs in the hopes to shorten the time it takes to pick up our adopted children. I know that not everyone reading my blog is familiar with the bureaucracy that is involved with adoption, but in Canada the wait time after court date is up to 6 months long! In the US.... it is 1-4 weeks! The last time our yahoo forum got together and signed a petition, the government actually referenced us in an announcement that they had on the Canadian Immigration website when they announced Bill C-14. From this, I know that the government really does listen to its people, so today I wrote a letter in the hopes that they will listen again.

If you don't know what to write and you are considering turning off your computer right now because this is boring you, then please simply copy and paste the sample letter I have below. It will only take 2 minutes!!!

Email it to: Minister@cic.gc.ca and CC it to your local MP. To find your MP's email address go to:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

By the way, this is who you are writing to:



Sample letter (feel free to add your own personal touch!)

Dear Minister Finley,

I am writing to express my concern about the time it is taking for Ethiopian children adopted to Canadian families to obtain a Permanent Resident Visa or Citizenship paperwork. It appears, after much research, that the reason why children that are legally adopted by parents in Canada are not coming home is simply because there isn't enough human-power at the High Commision in Nairobi to process their visas or citizenship papers. Shortening this time period does NOT in any way compromise the ethical investigation that goes into each child referral. This investigation (2-3 months) is what takes place before the court date that determines whether the child can be adopted. This time frame is acceptable, the possible six months afterwards is not.

Recently, with China beginning to make it extremely difficult to be able to adopt, many families are now turning to Ethiopia. As a result there is a backlog that reaches up to 6 months after court date, for a child to come home. Children are staying in institutions when they have parents at home in Canada that simply are not allowed to go and pick them up because of immigration. No other country takes up to six months to process the adoptions of Ethiopian children. The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Ireland, Finland and Spain all process adoption visas within 1-4 weeks of the Ethiopian court date, not 4-8 months. I won't even begin to get into the long-term effects on the children that do not begin attachment in the early months of their lives. Lastly, Ethiopian adoptions are on the rise and many adoption agencies do not see it slowing down in the near future. Let's not wait until next year to realize that we needed to hire more people. Let's be proactive and start now. Please make this a part of your "priority" that you have already promised as a government to adopted children abroad.

We strongly urge the CIC to employ additional staff to process the immigration paperwork for adopted children at the High Commission in Nairobi. The CIC must support the health of these orphaned children by getting them home in weeks, not months, after the court decisions.



Sincerely,



***Thank you so much for doing this!!! If we get a response I will let you know.