After many years of prayer, we have decided to bring children into our home through adoption. This decision has taken over 5 years.
Through the years many have asked …"don’t you want children…when are you going to start a family.” Of course like most married couples, when we got married we both assumed that we would have children but, that day hasn’t come. Those who know me well, know that we contemplated for years over how to bring children into our house…to go the fertility route or not… both of us however, wanted children to be a part of our lives. It is truly amazing how God can change hearts and minds and bring two minds on one accord. Through these struggles, we learned a valuable lesson- it is not our will that controls things but HIS will and God had other plans for our lives. We are thankful to be blessed with a church family with a few members who have adopted beautiful children and after speaking with them on numerous occasions and praying much over the matter we made the decision to adopt.
In August of 2006, we made the decision to begin our family through an international adoption. We chose A.S.I.A, an affiliate of Children's Home Society and Family Services( CHSFS) as our adoption agency.
Our first step was to begin the application process. This involved the following:
Apply for an application to adopt with USCIS (formerly INS) called an I600A form ~Get fingerprinted for USCIS ~Start your application process and homestudy. A homestudy is basically an approval from social services that allows you to adopt. Submitting the application and going through the homestudy means you get fingerprinted and collect all sorts of documents like autobiographies that detail your entire life history, medical examination reports from your doctor, tax returns, financial statements, employment verification letters, proof of medical insurance, proof of life insurance, birth certificates and marriage certificates. They also ask for four references letters to be written by non-family members and one face to face interview with one of your references. Thanks to Marlene and Jimmy, Staci, Brenda and Don, and June and Rev. Ellis. Then, they have a social worker meet with you 4 times- 1st a joint interview, then private interviews and the last time is for an home inspection. We assembled all of the necessary paperwork for our application and it was accepted on January 10, 2007.
Our next step was to begin our homestudy/ w our social worker. Our joint interview was on January 27, 2007. My individual interview February 8, 2007 and his individual interview was on February 10, 2007 . Our home visit was on February 24, 2007 and our confidential reference interview was conducted with our pastor, Rev. Ellis, March 13, 2007. Our homestudy approval date was March 27, 2007.
Next it's on the dossier. It is very similar to the homestudy paperwork, but in more detail.
Every document has to be notarized and have a special seal by the Secretary of State. You have to be very careful in all of your dates. NOTHING can expire until the process and travel has been complete, or they will kick the whole dossier (collection of documents) right back at you. No exceptions. You have to make sure you choose a notary, social worker, homestudy agency and doctor whose license or commission does not expire until well after you plan on being home with your child(ren). The documents that we had to collect are as follows: *Petition to Adopt *I171-H (this is what the I600A turns into after you are approved by INS) * Notarized Completed Original Homestudy *Copy of Homestudy License * Copy of Social Worker’s License * Notarized State Police Clearance Letter * Notarized County Police Clearance Letter * Notarized Medical Clearance from Doctor *Notarized Verification of Employment Letters * Certified Marriage Certificates * Certified Birth Certificates *Copy of Passports *Notarized Power of Attorney –
When we walked into the bank to have all of these forms notarized they tried to service us at the counter but after seeing the piles of papers they took us to the back so we could sit at a desk.
When we have compiled all of our documents called the dossier, it is shipped to our agency for approval and then off to Ethiopian Embassy for translations and then off to Ethiopia.
Our Dossier was approved April 26, 2007.
Let the wait begin!
