more background

in mid january i filled out a preapplication form for WACAP. we hadn't decided to go with them for sure, but we figured it was the next step in the journey. it was very helpful because a case manager contacted us via email and answered a ton of newbie questions. the biggest thing we learned from her was that the countries that would allow us to adopt a child were russia, kahzakstan and ethiopia. i did some research on the countries and talked some more with the case worker about the countries. we decided to go with ethiopia for a couple reasons. one is that both R and K require you to travel 2-3 times. you meet the child, agree to become their parents and then leave them while they do the paperwork. i couldn't imagine doing that, meeting a child, your child, and then leaving them for a couple months. i talked to Erica B about ethiopia and how that works having a multi racial family. it was amazingly helpful to know that there are support groups for adoptive families "near" here and that the ethiopian community is strong in both madison and chicago. dave and i talked about it and decided that ethiopia just felt right.

so, once we had a country we needed to be sure we had found the right placement agency and also find a local agency for home study and post placement interviews. my step mom cheryl has an associate/friend who works for an episcopal charities agency that does adoption, St. Mary's. i did lots of research on wacap as well as AAI (adoption advocates international). AAI is the agency Erica's family used and she highly recommended them. in the very beginning of our journey we assumed it would be easier for us to find a special needs child toddler that needed a home and WACAP has a very strong waiting child program. as it turns out that isn't the case. for the country that we've selected there aren't many special needs children available. in fact right now, AAI, is placing a lot of infants. after dave and i talked about it we decided that AAI is the right way to go, because we both would really prefer a baby and if homes are needed for infants more so than toddlers that is obviously the right way to go.

my next step is to fill out the application and gather the photo, pay stubs, wedding certificate and insurance info they need and send it off. this is getting very exciting! if everything goes smoothly she could be here in one year! we've covered some ground and i have some answers to our initial questions. i know where she is, and i know she wasn't born when i wrote those other posts and may not even be born yet. i am already looking forward to receiving the placement phone call!