a few official things...

we are on the waitlist! i obsessively tracked our authenticated dossier on the fedex website from DC to CWA's office in north carolina only to get really mad at our case manager for not emailing us the minute it got there...at 11:29 yesterday morning. but he's a busy man, so i'm over it. he emailed us this afternoon to say that it's on its way to ethiopia. if you're wondering what's next, we have now entered the big waiting period. the next step is receiving a referral, which means CWA will send us the medical histories and pictures of 2 children that they have matched to us.

i'm not even going to attempt to make a prediction about how long it will be until we receive a referral. we would hope to hear by the summer, but it's really impossible to know what will happen. the fact that we have requested 2 children -- siblings or unrelated -- could make our wait shorter or longer. in all likelihood, CWA will wait until we reach the top of the infant list and then match us with a toddler. we have said we'd take twins up to 24 months, but twins of any age are rare. basically, we just expect to be referred a child under 12 months and a child over 24 months, and both will probably be boys (though, one girl is still a possibility).


OK, so now that the big news is out...check out what came in the mail yesterday:









i officially have the most arrogant degree ever. master of divinity. in your face.