Today is exactly two months since our dossier was submitted to the adoption agency, so I felt an update was necessary. While I don't really have anything special to report regarding a referral, I did get confirmation a few weeks ago that our dossier was received in Ethiopia! What does that mean for us? It means that our adoption agency sent our dossier to Washington DC to get country certified, where our paperwork was passed around to different authorities who certified our paperwork in the United States. Once that was completed it was sent back to our adoption agency where they sent it to Ethiopia for translation. Are you still following me?.......Slightly confusing, but the bottom line is, our paperwork is where it needs to be! We were told by our adoption agency that there is an approximate 2-6 month wait once our dossier has been submitted. With today being two months since submission, we can't help but be excited for what is coming in the next few months. When you start reading about adoption and the waiting game, people say it's the hardest part. For us, it hasn't really been too bad, however, I can only imagine the anticipation and excitement once we receive a referral. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that the reality of the road ahead hasn't fully sunk in yet and while we are extremely excited that we've reached this two month mark, we aren't pulling our hair out just yet. In the mean time we have been busying ourselves with projects around the house to prepare for what's coming; carpeting the rooms, getting furniture, etc. That way, when the time does come we won't have to stress getting a room ready and we can focus on traveling and making necessary arrangements. After a brief conversation with the adoption agency, we are unsure exactly how long our first trip to Ethiopia will be, so making arrangements here, with work, kids, dogs, and everything else is going to be stressful enough! I'm hoping that the next update will be our referral but what I'm not hoping for is that it's 4 months from now. While we are keeping our cool with this whole waiting thing, four months seems like forever! Stay tuned.....