One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I honestly thought by now that our home study would be over. I thought we'd be able to start working on our dossier this week to get ready to send to our child's country.

Boy, was I wrong!

So many things have changed for us since we first decided to adopt. The biggest change of all was that we have switched countries and this change has placed more requirements on our home study. Before, we only needed background checks in our current state of residence. Now, we need background checks for every state in which we have lived since age 18.  Also our reference letters are no longer valid. We need our references to write new letters with more specific information.

So, now that we are waiting on these reference letters and background checks to arrive, we are at a stand still. Had we not switched countries, we'd probably be in the very final stages of the home study process.

In addition to the added requirements for our home study, additional steps have been added to the adoption process. I'll spare the details but to make a long story short after the home study is finished, we can apply for immigration approval to adopt. This will take a month or two, maybe more. After that, we can mail our dossier to our child's country. I have heard that from the time our dossier is logged into their system, we can expect to travel in about 6-9 months.

In EE where we originally planned to adopt, once you send your dossier, you simply wait for the invitation to travel and then in most cases you travel within a few weeks.

These added steps have pushed back our expected travel date several months. 


Meanwhile, a certain little one waits for us. We've learned from our adoption education classes that for every 3 months she is in institutionalized care, she will be delayed 1 month. She's been in the orphanage for a very long time and we really just need to get her home. She does not deserve to spend one day without a family and so far it has been years.

I worry and pray for her every day. I miss her even though I've never met her. I am desperate for her to get home so we can begin to help her precious little heart heal and teach her what it really means to be loved by a family.

 This process is so fragile, so costly and so stressful. Please pray for us. Pray that things move quickly so that we can get her home as soon as possible.