Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Paperwork Chase, part 17

After congratulating us on accepting our referral, our adoption agency announced, "Back to the paperwork!" We mailed our passports and visa applications for entry into Ethiopia to the Ethiopian Embassy in DC yesterday. Hopefully they'll come back to us later this month! We also found out that the American Embassy in Ethiopia actually has all of our current paperwork and government approvals for adopting, hooray! We were told it is very common for the American Embassy to *not* have the right paperwork, necessitating rounds of petitions, sometimes with the assistance of one's congressperson, to get it all worked out. But it looks like we're going to be spared that particular paper chase.

We also found out that Lucy's Ethiopian birth certificate and Ethiopian passport will have the first name the orphanage workers gave her, Bikiltu, plus Peter's name as her legal name (thus, "Bikiltu Peter Landstrom") We'll rename her legally (Louise Mariam Landstrom) when we re-adopt her in the U.S. While she'll be legally our child after the court hearing in Ethiopia, and an American citizen upon entry to the U.S., in order for her to have an American birth certificate we have to go through the American adoption court process again after we get home. Ah yes, the paper chase, part 24 awaits....But now I have this picture of our beautiful daughter before me, and her big eyes make all the additional paperwork less tedious.

In other news, the Ethiopian courts are closed for annual holidays until the end of September. So we won't know until early/mid-October, at the earliest, when our court date will be and when we'll make the first trip to Addis Ababa. Luckily (?) the school year is kicking into high gear and September will disappear for me before I know it.

Love to all,
M

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