We had this lovely baby boy we had waited a long time for (I had a couple miscarriages) and we couldn't have been more overjoyed, but yet the clouds on the horizon were dark. Amazingly happy, but so terribly sad, elephant in the room, days. We were both raised in large families. We both love children and knew that a one child home wasn't us. Enter adoption into our lives. We grieved our loss and sometimes still do, however it wasn't long until we became wholeheartedly enthused about the adventure of adopting.
Fall of 2009- Oliver was 6 mo. old. We had heard how very long adoption can take and so we embarked on the research journey as we really did not want Oliver to grow up by himself. All winter I researched. I talked to different agencies and officials in several different countries in Latin America. We talked to many adoptive parents. Thank the Lord, I was born with a love of learning and enjoy researching; especially about something as close to our hearts as adoption! We were not terribly interested in domestic adoption, though I did much research about it. Everything about it loomed large to us.
February, 2010- We were talking to our revival ministers about it and to put it in their very words they said, "Follow your hearts". That meant so much to us. Our hearts had started to light on Colombia, but we were hesitating to take the dive.
March, 2010- Officially started our home study for Colombia, SA with Littlest Angels International as our home study agency and Adopolis as our placement agency! So exciting!!! Our social worker was Laurel. We were very nervous about our first home visit, but besides needing a gun safe and a fire extinguisher all went well :)!
April, 2010- I sold a puppy to Andrea from out of state. She happened to mention that they had two adopted children, which of course sparked my interest. To make a long story short, we ended up talking for almost two hours about adoption and became fast friends. She told me of a lawyer they had went through for both of their adoptions. We were not interested in domestic adoption and were half done our Colombia home study, but something said, "Call their lawyer." So our minds creaked open and I gave lawyer a call. She said to finish our home study and get back with her.
May, 2010- Lawyer emailed saying that she had a birth mother coming in next week who wanted her baby to go out of state and lawyer had no profiles for out of state families. Could we get our profile done by next week and sent to her? We could finish our home study later. Yikes! Are we sure about this? Is this an open door? Even if it is, are we ready to walk through it? So many questions... We knew nothing about the birth mother. So we revved up our faith and took the dive.
June, 2010- The birth mother CHOSE US!!! She really did! She is due in September. Wow, Oliver and baby will be 14 months apart.
July, 2010- Littlest Angels offered to make our international home study into a domestic home study for free. An answered prayer as we had no idea how we were going to pay for a unexpected domestic adoption in 2 months. Birth Father vows to contest the adoption. Our hearts sink.
August, 2010- Our baby girl was born! We named her Isabel. Dear Birth Mother had her for 2 days before she signed. Isabel was loved. What a rollercoaster of emotions.... etc..etc... I wince when I think back. It was not easy.
October, 2010- Birth Father's rights were terminated.
November, 2010- Isabel's adoption FINAL! YAY! She's ours!
January, 2011- Our hearts couldn't forget our Colombia dreams. Having our Colombia home study done and knowing that wait time for referral was 3 yrs., we once again started the Colombia process and started gathering documents for our dossier.
Dossier documents for Colombia
- Home study and any update on it
- FBI clearance for each adoptive parent. NOT older than 6 months.
- Birth certificate for each adoptive parent. NOT older than 1 year.
- Marriage certificate. NOT older than 1 year.
- Employment letter for each adoptive parent. NOT older than 6 months.
- Physician letter for each adoptive parent. Including physical and mental health. NOT older than 6 mo.
- Psychological assessment. NOT older than 6 months.
- Name affidavit. NOT older than 6 months.
- Copy of adoption decree and certificate of naturalization of any previously adopted child in the family.
- Copy of USCIS I-800A approval.
- Copies of current passports. Does not need to be notarized.
- Official application form from ICBF/Los Pisingos. Does not need to be notarized.
- Set of photos. Does not need to be notarized.
March, 2011- Dossier DONE and sent to Adopolis! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April, 2011- Adopolis sends dossier to Colombia! BIGGER WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July, 2011- Laurel, our social worker, and her 3 little China girls were killed tragically in flash flood. NO, can it be?
August 31, 2011- ICBF requests more information from our psychologist and our social worker. Ugggg. More expense, more delay. We needed to find a new social worker which is not easy considering that we live a long way from anywhere. We needed to change the age of children we are applying for on our I-800A approval, which meant that our home study needed to be changed and because it was almost 1 yr.old, why not do a whole update? More work, more papers. Needed: a social worker.
September, 2011- Frustration.
I was talking to Tayne one morning about how overwhelmed and frustrated I was. Finding a social worker, psych addendum, home study addendum, home study update, new USCIS approval. It was a mountain. She told me that in her devotions that morning she had read in Isaiah. She hadn't known why she had opened up her Bible to this verse and was worried that something terrible was going to happen her family, but after she read it to me I knew. It was just what I needed and I wasn't exactly into reading my Bible that morning, so God sent it to her to share with me. It reads as follows:
...When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; and neither shall the flame
kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2
Truly, God is so good to His children. Thank you, God.
October, 2011- Psychologist visits for addendum.We meet with our wonderful, new social worker! An answered prayer...
November, 2011- Psychological assessment addendum DONE, notarized, and apostilled. Home study update DONE. Home study addendum (request of more information by ICBF) DONE! I-800A Supplement 3 sent off with check to USCIS.
December, 2011- USCIS sends check back saying it is unneeded to process I-800A Supplement 3. Great! (but I was skeptical as I had checked that out before we sent it)
January, 2012- Biometrics appointment. Received a letter from USCIS requesting payment (YES, requesting the check they had just sent back to us!!!! I can't believe it.), requesting more evidence and a wording change to our home study update. Neat. Delays.( Lord, grant me patience, RIGHT NOW! :)
I checked in with Adopolis to just let them know we were still working and waiting on USCIS approval, otherwise I had everything ICBF (Colombia adoption headquarters) requested gathered and ready to send. She says,"I never received the final drafts of your psychological addendum, nor home study addendum to review." Oh no, what now. I had the final copies from our psychologist and social worker all neatly notarized and apostilled. They were DONE. Now Adopolis never reviewed them????? Both psych and social worker said they had been sent to Adopolis before finalizing, but Adopolis said they had never received them. Who knows who's right??? So we send them over and are now waiting review. If they need to be redone, then we will need to re-apostille. Oh well, not a big deal, but in all this one paper DONE and filed away ready to GO means a LOT! Redoing is very overwhelming, but that's ok.
So here we are starting this blog in January, 2012. Dear SW is working hard this week to make USCIS happy. We are waiting to hear from Adopolis if the before described docs are ok. And in all this, we remember to trust God's perfect timing. Faith takes away frustration, but oh how this mortal fails.
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