Quickly Progressing!

Parenting course was last night. It was about helping young children learn to cooperate. It basically boils down to knowing who owns the problem. Once you know, you know which direction to take - you solve the problem or you help your child solve their problem / let them solve their own problem. It's more of a lengthy topic to discuss, but I am sure most of you are more interested in knowing what exactly is progressing quickly ...

Moving along then, Lyle received a "promotion" at work. He is now lead hand of another department. We of course prayed about it and weighed out the pros and cons, looking far into the future before making the decision. The decision to take the promotion has let us reconsider who will take parental leave.

So, things are moving a long quite quickly. Today, April 5, 2006, we were advised that our file has been sent from CAFAC to Ottawa. It was only mailed to them on March 28, 2006!! It appears from reading on some of the support forums we are involved in, that ours is moving a little more quickly than usual. This is good for us although I kind of expect sometimes that we're going to hit a wall. You know that feeling when it's just too good to be true so something has to go wrong soon to make up for it? Here is another time table showing our actual progression:

	Individual Time Frames	Actual Time
Gathering of Documentation
Home study completion	*3 – 7 months	13 weeks, 3 days
Collection of Dossier documents	*4 – 7 months	* done simultaneously
Provincial letter of approval	1 – 2 months	1 week, 5 days
SUB-TOTAL TIME	5 – 9 months	3 months, 3 weeks, 1 day
Dossier Preparation
Notarization	2 weeks	no additional time
Legalization by Foreign Affairs	3 weeks	3 weeks
Authentication by Embassy	3 weeks	1 week, 6 days
SUB-TOTAL TIME	2 months	1 month, 6 days
TOTAL TIME	7 – 11 months	5 months
Processing of file in Ethiopia
Translation, legalization, and authentication	4 weeks	unknown
Adoption Committee Approval	4 – 8 weeks	unknown
Child Proposal	1 – 9 months	unknown
SUB-TOTAL TIME	2 – 9 months	6 months, 2 weeks, 6 days
TOTAL TIME	9 – 20 months	11 months, 2 weeks, 6 days
Post referral finalization
Immigration paperwork	*3 – 7 months	* done simultaneously
Adoption Finalization	*2 – 8 weeks	* done simultaneously
Travel to country	4 – 7 months after child acceptance
SUB-TOTAL TIME	4 – 7 months	5 months, 3 weeks, 2 days
FINAL TOTAL TIME	13 – 27 months	17 months, 2 weeks, 1 day

November 23, 2005 - signed application papers / sent to Sunrise

December 7, 2005 - first social worker meeting - homestudy begins
March 11, 2006 - final homestudy meeting
March 23, 2006 - provincial approval
March 28, 2006 - file sent to CAFAC
April 5, 2006 - file sent to Foreign Affairs
April 7, 2006 - Immigration application sent
April 7, 2006 - Passport applications sent
April 18, 2006 - file returned from Foreign Affairs
April 24, 2006 - file sent to Ethiopian Embassy
May 1, 2006 - file returned from Embassy
May 5, 2006 - Dossier sent to Ethiopia
May 6, 2006 - Dossier arrived in Frankfurt, Germany
May 8, 2006 - Passports received
May 9, 2006 - Dossier arrived in Ethiopia
May 9, 2006 - Immigration approval received
November 29, 2006 - Referral received

December 2, 2006 - Proposal accepted

February 6, 2007 - Vaccinations completed

March 6, 2007 - Court date

March 23, 2007 - LONO issued

May 17, 2007 - Leave for Ethiopia

May 22, 2007 - Meet Mikiyas

May 23, 2007 - Gotchya Day!

May 31, 2007 - Arrive in Canada

We'll keep adding to this time table as things progress. When we do, we'll of course let you all know. 'Til next time ...