Adoption Timeline

*Summer 2006 – decided to adopt

*2006-2009 – tried like crazy to adopt but hit a dead-end in the country we were aiming for at the time, lost Mark’s mom to cancer, needed a family adventure, ended up in New Zealand, no options for Canadians adopting while living abroad, so we put that dream on the shelf for a while and start our year and a bit in NZ in October 2008.

*October 2008 – April 2009, I feel really, really, really sad about not being able to adopt, want to head home as soon as we can so we can find our missing kids and bring them home, despite all the fun and convenience we’re enjoying (except for there being no decent salsa on the market here…)

*Mid April – dig a little, discover that we can actually proceed with adoption as US citizens, find a US homestudy practitioner in Japan willing to fly to NZ for our homestudy, discover our chosen country and a wealth of information on the internet to guide us to our child.

*Late April – contact a lawyer and an orphanage director in our chosen country, they are miraculously fast and helpful, and we’re in love with a certain little someone…just have to do all the work now!

*May, June – document gathering, medical exams, other bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo, along with a lot of talking, dreaming and shopping related to the next little pullyblank…

*June 10 – received word that the probation officers in our country of choice finished their investigation of our potential daughter’s background, and she is, in fact, eligible for adoption, and the story we were told appears to be the true and correct version of events.

*June 12 – Homestudy went wonderfully, and if you’re ever in need of a homestudy done anywhere in Australasia, or just regular Asia, Karen Hanson is awesome!  I guess I should wait until her report is finished before I give her a glowing recommendation, but we had a lot of fun with her, and she made being examined (again!) quite painless.  Thanks Karen!

*July 7 – Little girl we had been matched with died of malaria.  rest in peace, sweet baby esther.

*July 20 – Changing orphanages, feels like a good situation, and we will be matched in person, when I travel, hopefully sometime around october.   Continuing with document gathering, even more fingerprints!!!! but nearing the end of the paperchase.  Then this process will be out of our hands, which is both delightful and scary at the same time…

*mid August – was told that all children in orphanage we were hoping to adopt from had been matched with families.   Since Uganda does not have a referral system in place, we would have to travel to Uganda in hopes that there were children available for adoption there, which might mean several trips and a lot of waiting.   I had been watching Rwandan adoption carefully, and with the help of a friend (thank you Jaya!) who had just brought her little guy home from Rwanda, we made the decision to change countries.   Might mean a longer wait, but it feels good to us, so…

*Just as homestudy was being finalized, we had to pick a country for keeps.  Uganda was looking more promising, and we were really feeling drawn back to Uganda, so Uganda it is!

*early October – Homestudy is complete, and has been fed ex’d to approval agency, who has already read it via email, so hopefully approval will come quickly!

*October 15 – I-600a application (with fingerprints included, because we are overseas and that’s how you roll from overseas) mailed without homestudy.  Will send homestudy as soon as it arrives…

*Referral for two children!  A baby girl, age 4.5 months, and a little boy, almost 2.5 years.  They are the sweetest, most precious little people, and we can’t wait to have them home!!

*US Agency Approval of Homestudy complete, agency sent one copy straight to USCIS office, so they have everything they need to approve us… hopefully!!

Steps still to come…

*US Citizenship & Immigration Service Approval of our adoption application

*Isaac the lawyer applies for court date

*Isaac the lawyer receives court date

*I travel to Uganda!

*I take kids to court!

*Court ruling is made

*Apply for New Zealand visitor’s visa (same visa bio kids have)

*US immigration process resulting in US visa

*travel home to Wellington!!!