Paper Work, Paper Work, Paper Work!
I feel as if this has been our lives for the past month. The term "Paper Pregnant" is used in adoption and it could not be more true.You go through the emotions of pregnancy. As a mother, my mom heart is pushing myself to get everything done and organized as fast as possible. Brandon is more patient, and although he is just as excited as I am, he does not feel the sense of urgency that I do. This was mirrored while we were excepting our other children. I wanted to have the bedrooms decorated and bags packed in month 4. Brandon, however, on all things balances me, and knew we should be patient and pace ourselves.
To lay out where we are and explain the process over all. (Jo Dawn Miller, I completely stole the steps from your blog. Thank you so much for being such a good friend through this.)
https://jodawnmiller.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/learning-about-the-indian-culture/
STEP 1: Apply for Adoption (Done)
This was a hard step for us. Many agencies want you to commit to a country prior to submitting an application. We filed out a pre-application to see what countries we could adopt from. All countries have different requirements. We found that my age was our biggest hurdle. Most countries want you to be at least 30. Uuugghhh.... for all those who know me, I am like the oldest 26 year old ever. My hobbies include reading, crocheting, and grading papers.
So, the pre-application said we were able to adopt from India and Burgundy. We were instantly drawn to India. We have friends who have successfully adopted from India. The amazing woman whose blog I stole these steps from!
STEP 2: Home Study ( We are here.)
This has been an emotional rollercoaster.
The home study is where a social worker must recommend you and your family to adopt. This involves 3 meetings total and mounds of paperwork. The autobiography covered everything you can think of. It asked about from trauma in our past to how we plan to sustain our child's culture. This, as you can image, caused a great deal of reliving the past. As I finished, my biography totaled close to 20 pages. For the first meeting, we will travel to St. Louis. We will be completing this on this coming Friday!! Then the next 2 will be at our home (taking applications for babysitters now, lol).
In all this should take 2-3 months. The poor woman has to read all of our documents and then write a report about our family.
STEP 3:File an adoption petition with the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services
Fingerprints and background checks are needed to ensure we are who we say we are.
STEP 4: Our adoption agency will register us on India’s government website.
Once we have all of our paperwork in, the Indian government will submit our paperwork to a database. This database will find a child that fits the requests we have made. We have asked for a male child, age birth to 3 years. This also took a great deal of prayer, to find where our family is being led at this time in our lives.
STEP 5:Begin preparing documents for our adoption dossier.
Once we find the child that God has lead us to, we will start completing paperwork to send to India. This compilation is our lives, in a nut shell. We will submit family pictures, marriage license, birth certificates, a kidney....JK. The list feels endless. Not only does everything have to notarized, but also originals and then approved. At this stage this feels like a mountain that I may never reach the top of.
STEP 6:Receive child information.
We will receive at least one photo, medical reports, and social status. We will take the documents to a pediatrician to have everything explained to us prior to accepting the child.
STEP 7:File form I-800 with the U.S.
This is a form that is used to complete the immigration status of the child.
STEP 8:SARA/ARC Review, No Objection Certificate, Court Order, Passport.
This step is the one I am currently praying hardest to move swiftly. All of our adoption paperwork and information must go through several levels of approval in India. This step can take anywhere from 8 months to 2+ years. (sigh.... we will know our child, love our child, but not able to have our child.) Luckily, this is the last step prior to traveling to India to be with our child.
STEP 9:Travel to India!!! Visa Appointment.
We will get to travel to India for approximately 2 weeks. Although it could be longer depending on which state our child lives.
STEP 10: Post placement reports
India, like most other countries, requires that families complete post placement reports. This means that our social worker will come back for follow up visits to ensure all family members are doing well. We are also encouraged to re-adopt our child in the U.S. to aid in the paper trail of the child here.
In the midst of all the paperwork, we are still trying to keep up our everyday lives. Brandon and I both work full time, I am completing my Masters degree, starting work at a college, and raising 3 wonderful girls.
WOW!! Yikes. We know that life happens and this will have speed bumps and be full of spiritual warfare, but we are trusting in God to show us His way and timing, not our own.
One truly amazing event we were blessed enough to be a apart of was my bonus mother's retirement party. I have shared before that my high school counselor allowed me to be part of her family, baggage and all. Her career choice made me who I am. Talk about the ripple effect.
Thank you all so much for your time. We are blessed to have people who love us enough to read through all of these blog posts and offer encouragement.
We ask for your prayers for our son and his care givers.
Yours in Christ,
The Woolard Family
