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When looking at our checklist of things to put in our dossier the Letter to Ethiopia was one of the items I didn’t think much about at first. In my mind it was one of the easier items to complete. When sitting down to write it, however, I started to panic. I couldn’t help but think that one wrong word, one poorly written sentence and Boom the adoption is stopped. This gives you a look into my frazzled dossier-driven mind. My agency actually sent a sample letter and it read so simply that I was sure it wasn’t enough. This is when I had to trust my research and my agency. I did write a letter similar to the sample one, but I put in more about respecting Ethiopia and promises to keep the girls familiar with their culture. This one letter took quite a while and I kept cutting it down, trying to keep the translation time and fees down.
My advise on this piece of your dossier: Keep it simple silly! Don’t stress about this, there is enough stress with finger prints, back ground checks, and home studies!
Here is the letter I sent in (with name and address changes of course):
To The Government of Ethiopia:
To introduce ourselves, we are Hubby and Mandy W. and we reside in Little Town, Ohio, U.S.A. We wish to adopt a child or children from Ethiopia and respectfully request your assistance in processing our adoption.
We are financially secure and we look forward to the prospect of being parents to an Ethiopian child or children. We understand the importance of helping our adopted Ethiopian child or children take pride in his cultural heritage. We intend to provide our Ethiopian child or children with opportunities to learn about the culture and customs of Ethiopia by providing books of Ethiopian culture, visiting a local Ethiopian restaurant and keeping in contact with other adopted Ethiopian children in the state of Ohio. We also hope to visit Ethiopia as the child grows up.
Our Dossier is complete and we respectfully request your consideration of our request to adopt an Ethiopian child or children.
Sincerely Yours,
Hubby and Mandy W.
A very simple and generic letter, that is all we needed.
I just received information about the Dossier and the letter to the Ethiopian government. I must say, it’s a daunting idea at first, to write a letter like that! Thanks for taking some of the fear out of the situation.
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