January 2006
Nicky decides she wants kids and starts trying to convince Jrock.
Mother’s Day 2006
Jrock says for the first time that he’d consider adopting.
Christmas Day 2006
Jrock gives Nicky Where are you going Manyoni? (a children’s book about a little African girl) and says he’s on board. Best Xmas present ever!
April 28 2007
First application forms sent in.
May 3, 2007
Retainer signed with Kidslink (now Imagine)Â - they are our federal agency.
May 30, 2007
First apointment with Social Worker and local agency.
July 9, 2007
Dossier sent off to Kidslink (now Imagine) Agency! Paperwork done!
July 16, 2007
Our 2nd anniversary, AND…
Last visit with the social worker.Â
August 3, 2007
Homestudy signed off and sent to Kidslink (now Imagine).
August 7, 2007
Immigration paperwork sent off.
August 30, 2007
Our file is sent from Kidslink (now Imagine)Â to Ethiopia!
September 3, 2007
Our file arrives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
December 18, 2007
Changed our request from “1 kid under 1 and 1 kid under 3″ to “1 under 1 and 1 under 4.”
January 11, 2008
Sent off Part 1 of the new citizenship application.
January 30, 2008
Received citizenship application Part 1 back in the mail.
March 1, 2008
Sent citizenship application Part 2 off to Kidslink (now Imagine Adoption), to be ready for referral.
August 25, 2007
Changed our request from “1 under 1 and 1 under 4″ to “2 kids under 4.”
October 23, 2008
Received referral for two beautiful little 2 year old-ish girls! Joy of joys!
Signed acceptance papers the next day.
December 30, 2008
First Court Date. Paperwork not all there - not successful.
January 28, 2009
Second Court Date. The same letter was missing. Not successful.
March 19, 2009
Third Court Date. Not successful. The same letter was missing. AGAIN.
April 2, 2009
Fourth Court Date. Not successful. No stamp on the letter.
April 27, 2009
Fifth Court Date. Unsuccessful. More complications.
June 11, 2009
Sixth Court Date. Postponed.
July 2, 2009
Seventh Court Date. We passed!!!! FINALLY!!!!
July 13, 2009
Got word that adoption agency has gone bankrupt. Leave 7 hours later for Ethiopia.
July 16, 2009
Our fourth wedding anniversary. Girls are in Nicky’s arms. Jrock remains in Canada but will join us four weeks later.
August 27, 3009
Arrive home in Canada after seven weeks in Ethiopia.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hello
We are also with Kids Link and are almost finished our paperwork too !! i think?? hah Our homestudy is complete but is being proof read and then its off to the Ab gov’t to be approved yeah! We are asking for a 0-6 month old boy at time of referrel. We have already adopted a girl from China. Maybe we’ll travel together!!
Dina
July 12th, 2007 at 10:09 am
That’s awesome Dina! I think we’re exactly at the same place
I bet, though, that you will be travelling ahead of us. Kidslink has insanely quick referral times for a single child, but siblings is usually a 6-9 month wait. Cool to meet you!
Nicky
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
We’re also adopting from Ethiopia with Kidslink. Our dossier hit Addis on December 17th. Are you doing Citizenship or Visa?? We’re trying to decide.
Emily
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Heya Emily;
We are going the citizenship route - we already got Part 1 back and as soon as we get a referral, I’ll send off our PArt 2 to the agency.
Good luck in your journey! I’d love to hear how things are going
Nicky
March 8th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
So, you are going to be one of the “brave” ones and try the new way. I am waiting to see what is going to happen before stepping off. We applied for the PRV when our dossier was sent to Ethiopia.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Hi!
My husband and I are also going through imagine adoption (formerly Kidslink). We have started all the paperwork…I feel like I have a part time job with it! But it is so worth it!! How do you feel at this point…it’s like hurry up…..and…..wait.
We have one more weekend session with PRIDE training and then we are done it. I live in hamilton and am trying to find an ethiopian community here….it’s almost impossible to get info…
anyone have any info..
can’t wait to keep reading your story.
God Bless you all.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Are you still waiting for a referral then? We are just starting the paperwork and i am trying to get a real estimate on wait times..also, i am confused about the citizenship vs. visa??
June 14th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Hi Rebecca;
Yup, we are still waiting (IMpatiently!) for a referral…. The timelines have changed a lot since we submitted our paperwork… it’s hard to get even a rough guess of timelines - the rule usually is, though, the broader your age range, the quicker the referral.
Cheers
Nicky
September 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Nicky, its wonderful that you have decided to adopt a sibling group. At least that is what I’m assuming, going by your age request. We live in Ontario and are currently in the incredibly long wait between recieving our referral (a beautiful boy from China) and actually getting on the plane. We decided to do the new citizenship route and have been waiting nearly 2 months to get back part 1. Now they want proof of ID. So we sent off our birth certificates, passports and drivers liceince in notarized form. We have our referral and this is not yet done!! Stressful indeed. When my husband and I started out in this process we wanted to adopt a sibling group if at all possible. Ethiopia was one of our pics. Our social worker however would not support it saying that it is somehow not allowed in Ontario. Hmmm is this true? I’m assuming you live in Ontario. Our son is 3 1/2 yrs with a cleft lip and palette from China.
We hope you get your referral soon, we plan on going to Ethiopia next.
Katherine
September 25th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hi Katherine;
actually, we live in BC - and there is no trouble adopting a sibling group as long as your social worker approves you to that effect.
Sorry to hear the gov. is taking so long to process your docs. The nice thing about Ethiopiia is that we can get our Part 1 away long before referrral, leaving only Part 2 post-referral.
Best of luck in getting all the Ts drocssed and the Is dotted to get your new son ASAP!
Nicky
July 15th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I just found your post and thought, WOW! Your minds must be spinning right now after Imagine’s bankruptcy. We are presently waiting for our daughter’s passport and facilitation visa. I look forward to reading of your journey as you manage the cloudy waters ahead. We have been in contact with our local MP’s office and they have been incredible.
Blessings,
Steve Crewson
July 18th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hi,
We are another couple caught up in this bankruptcy - have been waiting for a referral since December 2008.
So I guess we will keep glued to the next emails to see what’s next.
Love your website!
Roger & Dawna
married 12 years, no kids yet…
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 am
Jrock & Nicky
hello! i am mahlet from Ethiopia.I just want to say you are so woderful cause you had passed all these steps.God Bless you and your children.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I loved reading this!
My husband and I went on a long hike yesterday and pondered and discussed adoption almost the whole way! We’d brought it up before every now and then, but not to this extent.
We don’t have any children of our own (by choice), and are not planning to have in the near future.
We do, however, want to keep adoption close in our hearts at this point because we feel like this is where God may be leading us.
Perhaps I should start making a timeline.
mrs boo