Adoption Update

This past November 2007, we shared with you the news that the Carmody family is expanding again. We had begun the process of adopting through Ethiopia. A lot of you have been asking about how things are going and where we're at in the process so this is a bit of an update. Since November, we have been in the paper chasing stage. Medicals, police checks, fingerprints, reference letters, etc. all needed to be redone. Our adoption practitioner came over a few times to gather information to write an update on our previous homestudy. We are happy to say that the documents have been gathered and the report has been written. On Tuesday morning we drove to Cambridge to drop our entire dossier off to our adoption agency (Imagine Adoption). We were able to meet with our case worker to discuss the process and have a lot of our questions answered. Some parts of the process are very different than the process to adopt from China so it's another learning experience. We can officially say we are onto the next step though. On Wednesday, after our case worker reviewed our file, it was sent to the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services for approval. This part of the process can take as long as 8 - 10 weeks but we've got our fingers crossed that it will go faster since ours is just an updated homestudy because we've adopted before.

In case you're interested, here are the steps we need to take and the expected time frame:

• Approval from Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services - 8 - 10 weeks
  
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (legalized) and Ethiopian Embassy (authenticated) - 2 - 4 weeks
  
• Dossier to Ethiopia - approx. 1 week
  
• Referral time (for an infant boy under 12 months old) - 3 - 5 months
  
• Time between Referral and Travel (court date, permanent resident visa, etc.) - up to 6 months

We would like to ask you to continue to pray for us. There's not a whole lot more for us to do at this point with respect to paperwork so now we just wait. That's the hardest part and so if you could specifically pray for patience for us, that would be greatly appreciated. Also pray for the five of us as we prepare our hearts and our home for another little one. And pray for our baby in Ethiopia that he may remain healthy and strong and that he's well taken care of during this time when he can't yet be home with his forever family.

Thank you. Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

Mike and Karen,
Victoria, Austin and Samara