The Mowen's Adoption Journey

Our Timeline to Isaiah and Kaleb

6/22/11-1st meeting to update homestudy
6/27/11-apply to AWAA
7/21/11-accepted back into AWAA's Ethiopia Program
7/25/11-homestudy written, sent to DCFS for approval
8/5/11-hear back from DCFS, make changes
8/11/11-resubmit homestudy to DCFS
9/26/11-homestudy approved
9/29/11-saw our sons on WCL and asked to review their file
9/30/11-got to review their file
10/6/11-official REFERRAL CALL for 2 boys (10.5 and 1.5)
10/12/11-sent in I600 to USCIS
10/31/11-received USCIS fingerprinting date of Nov 21st
11/4/11-DTE!! Dossier on its way to Ethiopia
11/4/11-USCIS fingerprinting
11/7/11-received court date

12/9/11-got I 171h
12/16/11-leave for Ethiopia
12/17/11-arrive at 10pm in Ethiopia
12/18/11-Re-meetcha day :)
12/21/11-court date
12/30/11- pass court, Gotcha Day

1/25/12-submitted to Embassy

2/2/12- Embassy scheduled birth parent interview for Feb. 27th

2/27/12- Birth parent interview at Embassy

2/27/12- cleared by Embassy

2/28/12- US Embassy Interview

3/1/12- leave Ethiopia

3/2/12-arrive in Illinois- Isaiah and Kaleb are US Citizens!!!

Our Timeline to Jacob

11/25 to 28/09- told family and friends we've decided to adopt from Ethiopia
12/09 - researched agencies to use
12/22/09- applied to AWAA
1/6/10-Accepted to AWAA Ethiopian Program
1/7/10- Picked our Homestudy agency
1/12, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/15- met with social worker to complete Homestudy and training
1/28/10- sent in I600A
2/9/10-completed physicals
2/12/10-received a draft of our Homestudy
2/17/10- received passports in the mail
2/21/10-completed Hague Adoption Training online
3/8/10- USCIS fingerprinting in Naperville, IL
5/11/10-IL (DCFS) approved Homestudy, off to USCIS
6/28/10- I71H arrived
6/28/10- sent Dossier to AWAA!!!
7/9/10- DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) Officially on the waiting list!!!
10/25/10- ON DECK!!!
1/27/11- REFERRAL!!!!! It's a BOY!!
2/23/11- received court date
3/9/11-re-fingerprinted by USCIS in Naperville
3/23/11-leave for Ethiopia
3/24/11-arrive at 10pm in Ethiopia
3/25/11-meet Jacob!!!!!!!
3/31/11- court date #1-didn't pass
4/18/11- court date #2- WE PASSED!! Gotcha Day
5/13/11-cleared by US Embassy
5/17/11-US Embassy interview
5/19/11-leave Ethiopia after 2 months
5/20/11-arrive in Illinois-Jacob is an US Citizen!

*Ethiopia is about twice the size of Texas, and there are over 4.3 million orphans.
*Between 60-150 million children live on the streets.
*1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday.
*1 in 10 children die before their 1st birthday.
*1 out of 3 people are HIV+, the average life expectancy is 37.
*Half the children will never attend school, 88% won't attend high school.
*82% of the population survives on less than $1 a day.
*24% of the population has access to safe drinking water.
*There is one doctor for every 24,000 children.

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

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