Back on Track!!!

Hooray! We have a new case worker (Elaine) who contacted us with some good news. Let me back up a bit though. Just after our old case worker left, we were informed by a temporary worker that our file was missing both our HIV tests, and that it couldn't be sent on to the Ministry until these were located. Weirdly, Mike and I went for our blood tests separately, way back in April. All the other test results were in the file, but both our HIV tests were missing. I wish I had known that they would be on completely separate sheets of paper. But since we received our blood test results from our doctor, we attached them to our file without realizing that the HIV results were not part of the regular tests.

So for the next several days we played phone tag with our family doctor who ordered the blood test, the lab who took the blood and the Health Unit it was sent to. The doctor told us they had nothing on file and would call the lab. The lab told us they only took the blood and had no idea what happened to it once they sent it on. They couldn't even confirm that the HIV test had been requested. The Health Unit refused to provide any information at all, except to the doctor. This rigmarole continued for a few days until we were told we might as well just go in and get retested, and that the results could take several weeks, putting us off another month or so.

But today we talked to Elaine who said that we don't need our HIV tests on file until everything goes to Ethiopia. So they are going to send our file into the Ministry early next week and we have the next 12 weeks or so to sort out this HIV test while our file sits on someone's desk at the Ministry. Still, we are one step closer. As soon as all this is out of the way, we are waiting for a referral. It's starting to feel a lot closer!

Our adoption worker from Imagine left for another job this week, so we are awaiting someone else to take on our file. As soon as they are assigned to us, our file will be reviewed and sent on to the Ministry. This is another of the many minor glitches we've come across so far, and we're only at the beginning. I've discovered the hardest part of the process for me is not the waiting, but the necessity of relying on so many other people in so many different places, to do what has to be done in order for the process to keep moving forward. The control freak in me is being seriously tested.

Anyway, while we wait we are keeping busy with everything else. The 'hoof and snout' cleared up and now the kids may have a pink-eye infection. Serenity now!!! At least Mike and I have somehow managed to stay healthy. Shannon and Matthew even braved our company Friday and brought over this beautiful coffee pot that Canadian Humanitarian picked up while working in Ethiopia.

Homestudy is in the Mail!

Yay! Our homestudy was out the door as of Thursday. So we are officially in Phase 2, or what we call The First Wait (as there will be many more!) What a crazy week. We managed to pull all our documents together by the time our homestudy was done and the kids just came down with a lovely virus called 'hand, foot and mouth disease.' So we've literally had appointments all over town this week--lawyers, doctors, financial officers... Anyway we are done, and I can only compare it to the end of exams. That feeling of weightlessness you experience when you suddenly realize you're done studying! The best part is that we are on target for our own timeline (to the day!) I wanted to be done the homestudy by the end of July and we handed everything over to Kim on July 31st.

A little piece of Ethiopia

Mike found our first ever stone in a batch of green coffee beans he was roasting today. It was just a tiny one, but as it was from the Harar region in Ethiopia, we couldn't throw it away! Our first piece of Ethiopia--we put it under the Hemlock tree in the garden.