• 02/19/11 - Welcome Home Sweet Malia!!
• 02/18/11 - Left Ethiopia for Our Trip Home
• 02/18/11 - Malia's Passport and Visa Hand Delivered
• 02/16/11 - Passed Embassy Interview - She's Officially Coming Home!!
• 02/15/11 - Arrived in Ethiopia
• 02/11/11 - Plane Tickets Purchased
• 02/11/11 - A Room at the Addis Flower Guesthouse Booked
• 02/11/11 - Embassy Appointment of February 16th Given
• 02/10/11 - Cleared to Travel by the United States Embassy
• 02/10/11 - Additional Documents Submitted to the United States Embassy
• 01/28/11 - Additional Documents Requested by the United States Embassy
• 01/13/11 - Case Submitted to the United States Embassy
• 12/28/11 - Left Ethiopia for Our Trip Home
• 12/27/11 - Passed Court - She's Officially Ours!!
• 12/26/11 - Held Our Baby In Our Hands for the First Time
• 12/25/11 - Arrived in Ethiopia
• 12/24/11 - Our Travels to Ethiopia for Our Court Date Begins
• 10/26/10 - Plane Tickets Purchased
• 10/23/10 - A Room at the Addis Flower Guesthouse Booked
• 10/22/10 - Court Date of December 27th Given
• 10/18/10 - Our Case was Submitted to the Ethiopian Court System
• 10/18/10 - Fundraiser Kick-Off
• 10/13/10 - Acceptance of the Referral of Malia Grace
• 10/11/10 - Referral of a Beautiful Baby Girl Presented to Us
• We received multiple photographs, as much of her history that is known and a medical report.
• 07/29/10 - I-171H Arrived
• The I-171H is a Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This is in response to the I-600A.
• 07/08/10 - Both of us attended our appointments at the USCIS office in Fargo for our FBI biometrics.
• 07/02/10 - Authenticated Dossier Delivered to Celebrate Children International - We are officially on the waiting list!!
• 06/30/10 - Dossier Hand-Delivered to the State Department and Embassy of Ethiopia in Washingtion DC for Authentication
• 06/29/10 - Dossier Delivered to the Assitant Stork in Stafford, VA
• The Assistant Stork (Laura & Steve Morrision) will make sure all of our paperwork is on the up-and-up and then hand-deliver our dossier to the State Department and wait for it while it's authenticated. From there, they will hand-deliver our dossier to the Embassy of Ethiopia for authentication. Once the authentication process is complete, they will mail it to Celebrate Children International. Without wonderful people like the Morrision's, the authentication process could take 6-8 weeks.
• 06/27/10 - Dossier FedEx'ed to the Assistant Stork
• 06/23/10 - State Sealed Cover Letter & Power of Attorney Arrived from the MN Secretary of State
• 06/23/10 - Nick's ASC Appointment Arrived
• 06/21/10 - Ann's ASC Appointment Arrived
• The ASC Appointment is for the United States Citizenship and Imigration Services (USCIS) to obtain individual biometrics (FBI fingerprinting).
• 06/15/10 - Dossier Cover Letter & Power of Attorney Sent to the MN Secretary of State for the State Seal
• 06/10/10 - I-600A Sent to the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS)
• 06/08/10 – Home Study Complete
• 05/28/10 - Ann's Passport Arrived
• 05/22/10 - Nick's Passport Arrived
• 04/19/10 – Final Home Study Meeting
• 03/21/10 – I-600A Sent to LSS
• The I-600A is the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition." This form will ultimately be sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in-order of adjudicating the qualifications of us as prospective adoptive parents along with our approved home study.
• 03/21/10 – Second Home Study Meeting
• 03/18/10 – Contract Sent to CCI
• 03/11/10 – First Home Study Meeting
• 02/23/10 – Application Completed and Sent to CCI
• 02/23/10 – Application Completed and Sent to LSS
• 02/22/10 - Local Finger Printing Obtained
• 02/09/10 - Background Checks Submitted
• 01/29/10 – We decided to follow what God placed on our hearts many years ago!

Celebrate Children International (CCI) is our international agency who has direct connection with Ethiopia and will ultimatley help us bring our daughter home.

Lutheran Social Service (LSS) is the organization that is conducting our homestudy and is helping us with local documention.