Troy and I went on our second cruise for our 10th anniversary and it was during that cruise that we decided we were going to adopt. We had done all the research and talked about it for quite some time. Then a few months before the cruise we decided we weren’t going to talk about it anymore until the cruise at which time we would each share our thoughts. Well, the rest is history...
So the process began.
The first step...calling Children’s Hope International (CHI) and asking for the application package. Then filling it out and waiting to hear if we were approved to continue. We received the approval on Troy’s birthday –December 7, 2006. At that time we were emailed the dossier documents and told we should start by applying to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and contacting homestudy agencies. We did both right away and were pleased when we received a fingerprint notice on January 3, 2007. Wow, this was moving quickly!! Even our homestudy went quickly as our agency agreed to meet with us on weekends and we scheduled the meetings as close together as we could. We received our homestudy on February 9th and sent it straight to USCIS. During this time we began the tedious process of collecting the documents for the dossier. Those of you reading who have adopted or are in the process you know just how many of those there are. For those of you who know, you can probably figure out how many there were by my level of stress over the documents and to Bambie, my good friend who notarized them all—thank you!!
So far the biggest snag we have had with the adoption was receiving our I171-H from USCIS. We had our prints done January 3, 2007, and they received our homestudy on February 9, 2007. They had sent us a letter stating the current processing time was 9 weeks. NINE WEEKS??!! I kept hoping they would come in early and finally in the 9th week I contacted our local congressman after trying to call USCIS myself and getting nowhere. Our congressman was kind enough to get a response from USCIS stating that a decision had been made but wouldn’t be sent to us until May 5th. We finally received it on May 8th (12 long weeks later) and our dossier went to Vladivostok “Vlad” on Friday, May 11, 2007. I suppose if this is our biggest issue of the adoption process then we are in good shape. Now the fun stuff...waiting. I have joined several online groups and been chatting with some great people. Troy and I have been out looking at baby stuff constantly but get discouraged about buying anything as we don’t know the age or size of the child. We have managed to pick up a few small things from stores, like the blanket we want to take and leave with the child and a new carry on bag for the plane for me that Troy said he’s be ok to carry (in other words it’s not too girlie!)
So here we are now.
A waiting family. Waiting to bring home a son to love, cherish and become a prosperous person and a member of our family. Troy can’t wait to teach him how to fish and hunt and if he doesn’t like either of those, then to cook instead. Me, I just can’t wait to be a mom. I want to teach our child how to play games, the value of family and I want them to learn they can always count on Troy and I for anything and everything they will ever need.
We are praying daily that God will bring us to the right child and the right child to us. So, even though we hate waiting we know God’s plan is at work for us.
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