On the Way to DC!!

I wanted to share some E-mail correspondence between us and Ashley, our social worker with CHI:

This one came from Ashley yesterday, December 13th:

Dear Jennifer & Trevor Chase,



We have received your dossier and dossier fee in our office today and will be reviewing it over the next couple of days to ensure that everything is in order. If there are any adjustments that need to be made, we will contact you and/or your social worker, always keeping you informed. After we ensure that everything is accurate in the dossier, it will be sent to Washington, D.C. for authentication and bundling at the U.S. Department of State and the Ethiopia Embassy. The time frame from this point until your dossier is 100% complete could be 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.


Once your dossier is returned from Washington, DC you will be added to the referral waiting list and will become a waiting family. You will be sent an email letting you know your status at that time and the process from that point. We are no longer sending dossiers directly to Ethiopia once it is completed, as there is currently a lack of space. Instead we will be holding the dossiers in the St. Louis office until such time that it is sent to Ethiopia. Since no one reviews your dossier in country prior to you receiving a referral, there are no steps missed by having your dossier remain in our home office.


Congratulations on having this huge step behind you!! You're one step closer to bringing your child home.


Blessings,

Ashley

And then, we received this one from her today, December 14th:

Dear Chase Family-


I just got finished reviewing your completed dossier and everything looks great! I will be preparing it for authentication and it will be sent to Washington DC on Thursday. It will take 1-2 weeks to return from Washington DC and then you will be added to the official waiting list.

At this time, please confirm with me your preference for the waiting families list in regards to number of children, gender, age, and health. This will be what I use to match children with you in the future.

Congrats on being paperwork ready! This is a huge accomplishment!

So, there it is...our dossier is on its way to Washington DC to be Authenticated!  We are that much closer to bringing our babies home!!  By the way, we gave our preference for two children, either gender, 0-3 years old.

We're almost an official "waiting family"!