Fingerprinting Done!

On Tuesday we all got in the van after work and headed for Portland.  It was Ayla's first hotel stay!  We stayed at the Shilo Inn in downtown Vancouver, WA, down the street from our friend, Nancy.  Ayla did really well in the hotel, immediately making it her own territory about 10 minutes after arriving.  Because when Nancy arrived for a visit, she was all ready to defend her hotel room.  :)

The next morning we headed down to Portland (about an 8-mile drive) for our 8:00 AM biometrics appointment.  Everything went really well - we had no trouble finding the office, found rock-star parking and were in and out in about 30 minutes.  We then went directly to our favorite place when we go to Portland, McMenamin's Edgefield.  They have a great breakfast and it's just a fun place to be.  We enjoyed the lush green fields and wildflowers that surround Edgefield...Ayla LOVED it.  Then we hit the road to go all the way back home (3 1/2 hrs.) because we both had to be at work later that afternoon.  It was a whirlwind of a little trip, but we accomplished what we needed to.

So...regarding the adoption...we now wait for our I-171H form.  This form gives us approval to bring an orphan into the U.S.  The website says it can take up to 90 days to receive this form, but I've seen it take as little as 2 weeks in other cases.  So our timeline is looking ROUGHLY like this:

About 1 month to receive our I-171H form

About another month to get all of our stuff authenticated and then sent off to Ethiopia

About 3 months to receive a referral

About 1 month until we can go to Ethiopia to pick up our baby!

Again, this is all a rough estimate based on what I've read in other blogs.  So, we could have a baby as early as OCTOBER if everything goes super smoothly...but I'm betting it will be more like November...

We'll see...anything can happen...