DCFS Cleared

Today we were finally cleared from DCFS. We had been waiting on this background check for about 5 weeks. It took that long to say that we are absolutely fine and clear to proceed...geez. Oh well, I guess its better to be thorough. Our homestudy will be approved from AWAA by March 2nd. Then it needs to be approved by DCFS, which could take another month. And we are still waiting on our Homestudy to be sent in to USCIS, then our I-600A to come back to us as an approved I71H.
Several people have suggested to subscribe to a Ethiopia Adoption yahoo group. So a couple of days ago I joined one and there over 50 emails a day. After reading through all of these, I learned 2 new things, 1 encouraging and 1 discouraging. I found out that we can send a cover sheet and power of attorney (so someone can stand in our place at court in Ethiopia before we travel) to be state certified before we have all the documents. We thought we would have to drive this to Springfield once we had all the papers for our Dossier together. So this will save us one trip to Springfield, one day off of work, and maybe a week or so of time!!! So that was exciting. I also found out that about 1/2 of the court dates in Ethiopia don't go through. Usually some piece of paper is missing or the birth family doesn't show up. Some families were waiting for their 3rd court date. This court date happens after you have accepted your referral of a child and you are waiting to travel to meet him/her. That would be so hard. We have to continually rely on God's timing!
Also we are able to start applying for some grants now that our Homestudy is done. One friend told me that applying for grants was like getting another masters degree. There are a lot of forms to fill out and a lot of papers to write about our faith and testimony. Thank you to our friends who are continually filling out reference forms and letters too!!!