Just moments ago the social worker left our home. We finally were able to welcome her in to do our homestudy update. It was terrifically painless, and less than an hour long.
After a day of five children for dayhome and another five for visiting [yes ten all at once for a few hours in our little place!] running through my home, and cooking lunch today for thirteen people [mom's were there] I quickly got into cleaning mode. I normally enjoying cleaning house, but today it was harder to get in the mood. I woke up tired and sore. Yesterday, during dayhome hours, another false fire alarms went. I carried in one arm a three-year old child and 30 pounds of fur [my two cats in a carrier] in the other arm, along with the emergency pack on my back, down 20 stories. I'm still sore from that adventure. Then it was craziness today and late pickups of children. So I had a short period of time to clean up and make dinner ... and let me tell you, a hefty clean up was needed after all that!
Oh ... and the vacuum broke and the floor REALLY needed to be cleaned. Lyle managed to get to a vacuum place to pick up the part after closing hours. They stayed open for him. He came home, quickly fixed it, vacuumed, ate dinner and managed to change in less than an hour.
Normally, I wouldn't be so worried about the presentation of our home with the social worker. I've been through enough visits to know that it doesn't have to be spic and span, just lived in and cleanliness being apparent. But, after all the foot traffic today, and it coming to the end of the dayhome week, it SO BADLY needed to be cleaned.
Back to topic. The visit went very well. A lot more painless than I thought. Having had change to just about everything in our lives, I thought we'd have to re-do our financial form, do new house pictures etc. Nope. She just includes everything in the body of the two-page report. Ethiopian officials will keep the old financial papers and the old home pictures etc. and just know we moved, can still afford to feed children, are still healthy yadda yadda yadda. YAY!
Here's the next steps:
She'll type up the report.
Both her and the Provincial agency will sign off on it, and we'll get a copy to verify the facts.
They send it to the Province office in Edmonton.
Approximately two months later they'll provide the Provincial Approval letter.
The report and the approval letter go to the Federal Agency [CAFAC].
CAFAC verifies it and sends it to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa for authentication.
Foreign Affairs sends it back to CAFAC.
CAFAC sends it back to Ottawa to the Embassy for authentication.
The Embassy sends it back to CAFAC.
After two additional months for those authentication steps, the report goes to Ethiopia to be added to the file.
We'll continue to wait.
But we have been told that all these steps won't hold up a referral should the referral come before Ethiopia receives the update report. Let's hope their word stands up. We'll keep you posted on news.
After a day of five children for dayhome and another five for visiting [yes ten all at once for a few hours in our little place!] running through my home, and cooking lunch today for thirteen people [mom's were there] I quickly got into cleaning mode. I normally enjoying cleaning house, but today it was harder to get in the mood. I woke up tired and sore. Yesterday, during dayhome hours, another false fire alarms went. I carried in one arm a three-year old child and 30 pounds of fur [my two cats in a carrier] in the other arm, along with the emergency pack on my back, down 20 stories. I'm still sore from that adventure. Then it was craziness today and late pickups of children. So I had a short period of time to clean up and make dinner ... and let me tell you, a hefty clean up was needed after all that!
Oh ... and the vacuum broke and the floor REALLY needed to be cleaned. Lyle managed to get to a vacuum place to pick up the part after closing hours. They stayed open for him. He came home, quickly fixed it, vacuumed, ate dinner and managed to change in less than an hour.
Normally, I wouldn't be so worried about the presentation of our home with the social worker. I've been through enough visits to know that it doesn't have to be spic and span, just lived in and cleanliness being apparent. But, after all the foot traffic today, and it coming to the end of the dayhome week, it SO BADLY needed to be cleaned.
Back to topic. The visit went very well. A lot more painless than I thought. Having had change to just about everything in our lives, I thought we'd have to re-do our financial form, do new house pictures etc. Nope. She just includes everything in the body of the two-page report. Ethiopian officials will keep the old financial papers and the old home pictures etc. and just know we moved, can still afford to feed children, are still healthy yadda yadda yadda. YAY!
Here's the next steps:
She'll type up the report.
Both her and the Provincial agency will sign off on it, and we'll get a copy to verify the facts.
They send it to the Province office in Edmonton.
Approximately two months later they'll provide the Provincial Approval letter.
The report and the approval letter go to the Federal Agency [CAFAC].
CAFAC verifies it and sends it to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa for authentication.
Foreign Affairs sends it back to CAFAC.
CAFAC sends it back to Ottawa to the Embassy for authentication.
The Embassy sends it back to CAFAC.
After two additional months for those authentication steps, the report goes to Ethiopia to be added to the file.
We'll continue to wait.
But we have been told that all these steps won't hold up a referral should the referral come before Ethiopia receives the update report. Let's hope their word stands up. We'll keep you posted on news.
5 comments:
I'm tired just reading about your day! Whew!! Glad to hear the sw visit was a cake walk...
Glad to hear your visit with the social worker went well.
Can't wait hear when you have a referral!
hey Sheri, good to hear things went well with your SW, and you're on track to referral, I'm right here waiting with you!!
So happy to hear that everything went well with your social worker visit, but why shouldn't it, as far as I am concerned you are amazing in keeping things running smoothly,especially after your extremely full day. Looking forward to the day we travel to Ethiopia.
I am exhausted just reading about your day! I'm glad your s/w visit went well.
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