Paperwork submitted to Colombia

We found out yesterday our paperwork was sent to the representative in Colombia on December 17th. Based on the timeline our agency has our wait can be between 23-38 months. Let's pray around 23 months! Blessings to everyone this Christmas!

Slight Addiction

Well...the finale of DWTS was on tonight. I must admit I have a slight addiction to this show. I am going to be quite sad and unsure what to do with my time once it is over tomorrow night. Good thing for ebay. Thanks Kari for getting me hooked on this. Chris thinks I need to learn how to sell not just shop. Who would have thought I can still find my snowman dishes on there! I am very excited! Yes, I have dishes for every season another slight addiction.

As Thanksgiving approaches we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers on our adoption process. We are open to adopting a child 3 or under so it is crazy to think our child may already be born. Until the day we finally meet and know your name we continue to blow kisses into the wind; may they comfort and protect you.

Road Block

Well, the past month I thought our paperwork was in Colombia. I guess I was wrong. Our agency does authentications for us so I thought that was done and our paperwork was mailed but it wasn't. I guess 2 of our documents something was wrong with the notary so we have to redo them, then send them to Pierre, and then hopefully everything is done. Not a huge deal but I was hoping our wait to begin waiting was almost done. The joys :)

Since no one could tell what the dog's costumes were I will tell you. Buster is the piggy and Baxter is a skunk. Baxter chases the tail around it is so cute.

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork

Yeah we are adopting! As we start our journey we ask for prayers and support through the roller coaster ride of international adoption. We started the paperwork process in January 2008. Chris and I have always wanted to build our family through adoption and we figured now is as good as ever. We can not wait for the day him/her/or them come home. For now we wait...2 years, 3 years??

Adoption is somewhat like a relay race. The first leg is the paper chase, second is the LONG wait (for us), third leg is referral, and the finally comes the anchor, traveling to Colombia and bringing our child or children home.

Leg 1: Paper Chase
Time: 10 months

January 2008: registration, application, autobiographies, personal inventories, medicals, fingerprints, and so on. To date we have been fingerprinted 4 times.

February/March 2008: Homestudy...not really a study of our home but questions about our lives

April 2008: USCIS fingerprinting (different from FBI and DCI and costs WAY more) and homestudy approval. Chris buttered up the USCIS lady and was even handing out his business card by the end of it because her son needed a job :) He joked that he would make money off of the referral bonus that would cover the payment for the prints.

May 2008: Move to new home, update homestudy July 2008: Received USCIS immigration approval for an orphan visa. This is a must have in international adoption. You can't travel and bring home your child without it.

August 2008: Dossier completed and sent to La Vida for review.

The dossier is the most extensive part of the paperwork process. This is the collection of paperwork that goes directly to the adoption house in Colombia. They use this to “match” us with a child. This is like being in labor, time consuming and it is work :). For this, we assembled notarized, or certified (no photocopies allowed!), birth certificates, our marriage certificate, our FBI-stamped fingerprints, employment certificates, physical health certificates, a psychological health certificate and assessment including the MMPI (yes, we passed), a financial statement, verification of legal names (major pain to list every name you POSSIBLY could be called), copies of our passport, pictures of us and home, and so much more.

September 2008: Dossier authenticated and sent to Colombia
Benefit of using La Vida, they do all of this for you. Huge help!

It takes roughly 2-4 weeks to translate the dossier and then 2-4 months to receive approval from the Colombian government (ICBF). So we wait and wait some more! Most people are able to do this part much quicker. Word of advice: don't wait on a builder to finish your house before you send in everything. Originally we were supposed to be in the house in March but didn't move til May and close until June so our adoption paperwork was delayed.

For now I leave you with a Halloween picture of our hairy children. Sorry, Kristine we had to!