Please Introduce yourself when you join.

Karen - posted on 08/17/2009

My name is Karen and I live in Iowa. We are in the process of adopting a daughter from Ethiopia. We have two children, Vanessa 13 and Jack 9. We are considering an older child adoption, so if anyone has any advice or suggestions, I would love to hear what you have to say. I am looking forward to hearing about everyone's experiences.

Kimberlee - posted on 08/04/2009

Hi, my name is Kim and I live in Ohio. We are currently on the waiting list through AAI for the referral of an Ethiopian infant. I thought this would be a great way to connect with those also waiting and those that already have gone through the process. I am looking forward to getting some great advice!!

Gena - posted on 07/07/2009

You can google adoption grants and there are lots of them. Some are very specific though, Christian, non-Christian or only for certain agencies. We were able to get one from our agency and also from Steven Curtis Chapman's foundation, Shaohannah's Hope. Some require you have your homestudy done and request a copy of that too. Hope this helps if you are still looking.

Kara - posted on 03/11/2009

Quoting Jill:

Hi Kara,

Welcome. I bet you have been doing a lot of research on this, but just a little bit. You can use any agency outside of your state for an adoption. So, don't worry about not having one in state. Just look up Ethiopian adoption and see what you find! We used International Adoption Net out of Denver, CO and like it very much. There are many agencies who do a good job. Adoption is a big step in life, but well worth it if you are prepared. Thanks for joining!

Jill

 

Hi Jill,

I'm glad to hear you used International Adoption Net.  We just got an information packet in the mail from them today!  Did you like them?  Were they helpful and easy to work with?  How long did it take you to get placed with a child?  And do you know of any grants or places with loans to help out with adoption costs?  That is our biggest hurdle right now- we know we'll get most of it back in tax credits but we don't have $15,000 laying around right now to put down before the tax credit comes back!

Kara

Jennie - posted on 02/25/2009

Hi everyone! I"m in the process of adopting a 2year old boy from Ethiopia. He will be my 4th child, though this is our 1st adoption. My husband and I are very excited and can hardly wait to have him home! I'll be travelling to Addis Ababa in April. Does anyone have travel tips for the long journey home? What about ages...has anyone else adopted toddlers? Also, what were some of your experiences with Amharic? Should I purchase a language learning course, or just master a few buzz words? I'm really looking forward to getting to know other moms on this forum!



Thanks everybody-

-Jennie

Jill - posted on 02/03/2009

Welcome everyone!!! I am so happy to have you all here.

Jill

Jill - posted on 02/03/2009

Hi Kara,

Welcome. I bet you have been doing a lot of research on this, but just a little bit. You can use any agency outside of your state for an adoption. So, don't worry about not having one in state. Just look up Ethiopian adoption and see what you find! We used International Adoption Net out of Denver, CO and like it very much. There are many agencies who do a good job. Adoption is a big step in life, but well worth it if you are prepared. Thanks for joining!

Jill

Kara - posted on 02/01/2009

Hi everyone.  My name is Kara and I live in Wyoming.  My husband and I are THINKING about adopting, possibly from Ethiopia.  Nothing is for sure though- we are just now starting the process of gathering information to better educate ourselves.  One of the things that we are a bit overwhelmed with right now is just where to start.  We really have no idea where to begin!  We don't have any adoption agencies (that I know of anyway) that do Ethiopian adoption in Wyoming, so we're a bit lost.  Any help thrown my way would be greatly appreciated!!

Kara

Jessica - posted on 01/16/2009

Hi, I'm Jessica. I was invited by Katie. My husband, John, and I are currently gathering the paperwork for our dossier in order to adopt, from Ethiopia, our fourth son. Our oldest son was adopted from Guatemala in 2006, and we have two birth children who were born in 2006 and 2008. We are super excited for this opportunity.



I am very interested in what music says about a culture, and, already, I have been looking up information about traditional Ethiopian music as well as modern Ethiopian jazz.



I am looking forward to gaining ideas from other moms and grandmas who can share their wisdom with me.

Lisa - posted on 01/12/2009

Hi Jill,
I am Lisa Wills (of course you know me as we travelled at the same time and our adopted children are from the same orphanage). My husband and I have 3 children, 12, 12 and our newest daughter, Tigist, is 2. She came home here to Denver on August 19th, 2008 and has fit right in.

We plan to instill pride in her by continuing to attend our Ethiopian church once a month. We are constantly meeting Ethiopian families and American families who have adopted, so we feel like she'll have so much exposure to the people, language and food still that it will be second nature for her. Ethiopia will also be a place we visit several times from now, perhaps when she is a little older and understands the importance of her trip (it'll be costly at 5x the airline ticket).

We feel like our life is so incredibly rich having her complete our family and as Jill mentioned about the culture, it is so amazing and genuine that you cannot help but love this culture and each and every Ethiopian whom you meet.

Please feel free to visit our blog documenting our entire journey from start to finsh and then some .....
www.my2ethiopiangirls.blogspot.com

Katie - posted on 01/12/2009

Hi, I'm Katie.  We just got home with our first child from Ethiopia on November 1, 2008.  His name is Judson & we are in love with him!!  :)  He is 9 mos. at the moment & we hope to back to Ethiopia at some point in the future...  ;) 

I invited alot of my friends who have also adopted or are adopting from Ethiopia thru our agency, so that's probably where alot of the new members are coming from. 

Thanks for setting up this group, Jill!  Looking forward to some great discussions!  :)