Where to Start?

It's been a while since I have sat down and written out what is going on in our process.  It's been a whirlwind and honestly - I haven't even had the heart to share it's been so much.

Flash back to my last post.  We finally heard that we had been registered for court in S's local District Court.

January 17, 2017 - we had our first hearing but the judge didn't show up.  So, our advocate quickly had our case rescheduled for...

January 25, 2017 - and this hearing was with a new judge from hearing #1.  This judge refused to accept the evidence of our case because we were not present.

During this time we reached out to ANYONE who could help us to not have to appear in court.  A trip to India twice just WAS NOT in our plans...or budget for that matter. But, John and I were willing to go.  We were going to suck it up and make the trip just so we could get this over and done with! But, we were told we didn't have to appear for hearing #3 which was set for...

March 15, 2017 - and again, the judge refused our evidence because we were not present in court and a 4th hearing was set for...

April 25, 2017!

Good times, right!?  Oh, it gets better.

So skip forward to today, March 23rd...8 days after our 3rd hearing...we hear from our agency's in-country rep the judge wants us in India for THREE MONTHS.

Yes, you read that correctly.  At this point..I don't know if I should laugh or crawl in a hole and cry my eyes out.

I'm literally waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out and tell us we are on an episode of Punk'd: Adoption Edition...and then we all just hop on a plane because court is actually finished...and sing Kumbaya the whole ride over.

So, right now we are working on having CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority in India) to tell our judge that we absolutely DO NOT have to go over there for three months.  There is nothing in the adoption guidelines that would warrant that.

We have court on April 25, 2017 - and 24 days after that (May 19) the District Court closes for summer break.  We are essentially racing a clock here or we get stalled (again) for an entire month.

AND - We have also been told that we DO have to appear at our next court hearing.

So as of now - John and I are making travel plans to be in India for our hearing on April 25th (sooner if we can get it pushed up).  I could not even begin to describe the mix of emotions we both have right now.  We are obviously excited because WE ARE GOING TO INDIA! And, because we will finally get to meet S!!  But, we are filled with so much discouragement, frustration, and just plain sad. Sad that all of this is happening, discouraged that we keep hitting brick wall after brick wall, and frustrated at the whole thing in general.  Plus, we will meet S and then have to turn around and leave her to come back home while the rest of the process finishes out.

There is so much going on I couldn't even being to know what to ask for prayers for.  My prayers lately have been, "God..you know what is going on.  Please just do something amazingly awesome with all of it and let me know where you want me to be when."  

We hate having to give everyone an answer of "no news yet!" or "I don't know!" when we get asked questions.  Trust me..it's hard for us to have no news or no answers.  We will definitely keep everyone updated as we know something!  

What DO we know?  In 29 days we will get on a plane headed to INDIA!!

C.O.U.R.T

Today marked eleven weeks and two days since we were issued our NOC (No Objection Certificate). That was the last step we needed before we could start the court process.

These past eleven weeks have been THE hardest.  It is so incredibly hard to know that you have a piece of your family - your heart - on the other side of the world.  I think about her all the time.  What is she doing?  Is she in bed yet?  Is she sad, happy?  Court is at the very bottom of the long list of "to-dos" in bringing our girl home.  Knowing we are so close, yet so far away, has left us a mix of emotions. Add in the holidays, and that was intensified x 100.

We've felt so helpless.  We knew there was an issue with court, but we had very little information on what was going on.  It was, unfortunately, a fight only our orphange could handle.  It was out of our hands, out of our agency's hands, and that feeling was horrible.

This morning as I was having my coffee - a very unexpected surprise came across my phone from our agency director.

 

Wait...what?!  We have a court date...and it is NEXT month...which is literally only 4 days away?! AND we may finally get an updated picture? I was so stinkin' excited (and still am).  After the long, hard, emotional few months we have had; that was exactly the news we needed to hear.  

In India, adoptions are finalized in country.  A few months ago we had to sign a power of attorney to our orphange so they could represent us in different matters.  We do not have to be present for court as they + our advocate will represent us.  We have no idea how long the court process will take. From what we have seen, it is normal to have 2-3 hearings before the case is disposed.  Once the case is disposed, we will get verbal orders and then wait for written orders.  When written orders have been received by our orphange, S's birth certificate and passport is applied for.  Finally, when those are received, we travel to India to pick her up!  

We have no way of knowing when that is going to be yet.  Court could take us a 2, 4, 6, 8 months - there is no way to tell.  

What can we (you) do at this point?  PRAY. Pray that the judge who is to hear our case has compassion for S, that they have a heart for adoption, and that they want S to (quickly) become a member of our family.

As always, we will keep you guys updated!

A Speedy NOC + COURT

Happy Monday! I am currently sitting at the Honda dealership as I write this - a little unexpected down time.  I thought I'd go ahead and write my newest update.

This past Saturday, our family upgraded to a minivan as we prepare to be a family of (5) with one still in a booster seat and two in full size car seats.

I must say, it was a tough swap for momma, but this thing definitely has all the bells and whistles!  I am already loving the sliding doors...no more kiddos banging doors in to things.

Less than 12 hours later...we had a screw in the tire...hence the reason I'm at Honda (again!) on my Monday morning.

Now on to the GOOD news!

WE GOT OUR NOC THIS MORNING...ONLY A ONE WEEK WAIT!!

If you remember from my last update, NOC can take anywhere from two weeks to six months.  I have prayed so hard we'd be on the shorter end...and boy did God show up and show us what he could do!

This is a HUGE step for us.  NOC stands for No Objection Certificate.  This means that all parties involved in our adoption have no problem with us adopting S.  This certificate is issued by CARA in India and was our last big step before proceeding to court.

So the big question is - what happens next?  I asked our agency the same thing this morning and I'll share her response:

"So this is the point where patience has to take over. The RIPA (our orphanage) now has to wait for the hard copy of the NOC to arrive which can take a couple of weeks. Your prepared file will then have to be completed and turned over to court. Some RIPAs have the files prepared as the process moves along and some wait until NOC to start working on it, so registration is very different for everyone. After your file is registered it can take a few days up to a couple of weeks for a “numbering” process which is basically putting you in line to have a hearing set. From there, the first hearing will be scheduled."

This hearing is our official adoption hearing.  Our adoption will be finalized and she will be OUR'S once we clear court in India.  

Many have asked if we have to be present for court.  Some states in India require the adoptive parents to be present - but our state does NOT.  We actually had to sign a power of attorney for a representative at S's orphanage to be there on our behalf.  

WE HAVE SOME BIG PRAYER REQUESTS NOW!

PLEASE keep these three requests in your prayers for us!

1. That our NOC arrives safely and promptly to the orphanage.

2. That our file and case arguments have been prepared thoroughly.

3. That our court registration goes smoothly and we are matched with a judge who has compassion for our child and international adoption.

I'll update again just as soon as we have been registered in court!  

800s/5s and MORE letters!

So much has happened since I last updated!  In my last post - we were waiting for our i800 approval. I made a phone call to our officer on a beautiful Friday morning as my family and I were about to board a ship for a quick weekend getaway (hey - perks of mom's job!)

She FINALLY told us, after waiting what felt like ages, that our i800 had been approved.  We were so stinkin' excited and it totally set the mood for our quick little family vacation.

On the following Tuesday, we received our "official" approval letter in the mail.  I immediately started calling the National Visa Center to see if we could get our case number that we needed to file our DS 260.  This is S's visa that she will need to enter the US.  On Wednesday, I was able to get our case number!  That means it had been entered in to the system fairly quickly.  I sent it to our agency, but she said we needed to wait on our "official" email from the National Visa Center before we could file our DS260.

The following Monday that email FINALLY came!

After all of the long waits we've had - we were SO excited to finally have some things rolling!  Our agency applied for S's DS260 the same day our NVC email came in.  

One week later (TODAY!) we got our 2nd amazingly awesome email - our Article 5 letter!

We are over the moon, but we know the hardest part is yet to come.

AS OF THIS MOMENT - WE ARE DONE WITH THE US.  We are DONE with anything that we can control. AS OF THIS MOMENT - WE ARE AT THE MERCY OF INDIA.

We are officially waiting on something called NOC, or No Objection Certificate.  This comes to us from CARA (India's governing body for adoptions).  It basically says that all around - no one has any objections to us adopting S and our case may go to court.  

Many see this as us being there or so close to bringing her home.  

In all actuality, if we prepare ourselves for the worse, it could be the complete opposite.  The wait for NOC can take, on average, anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months.  We have close friends who waited MONTHS for this piece of paper.  Of course our prayer is to be on the shorter end of the scale, but we are also trying to prepare our hearts for a wait.  Our orphange has been amazing so far in getting us what we need; so we are praying that will continue to be the case and NOC comes quickly.  

After NOC, our case will be filed in S's local court system and we wait for a judge and a court date.  I can't even let my mind think this far out.  

ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME

....or my heart gets too anxious and too heavy for our girl

We need our prayer warriors!

1. PLEASE pray with us our NOC comes quickly.  We know everything will happen in His time, but the human side of us does not take the waits lightly.

2. PLEASE pray with us that our case goes to a compassionate judge.  Once we are at court, our entire fate lies in the hands of whomever this man is.  Please, please, please pray he WANTS S to be in our family and that he has a heart for children and adoption.  

Thank you so much to everyone who has been by our side through this entire process.  Your kind words and prayers have all been felt!

One side story that is pretty amazing.  A little wink from God just when we needed it.

On Saturday, 10/1/16 - this little status popped up on my Facebook from one year ago.

I couldn't help but smile because I remember this exact conversation!  I remember wondering where in the world he got India from.  I remember thinking - we don't talk about India, we don't know anyone from there...where did he get this?!

God was placing India in our family before we even knew it.  A little over two months after this, John and I were sitting at Children of the World to discuss with them adoption.  We tell people all the time when they ask us, "Why India?" and we have no idea.  We both left that night knowing that was where our next child was.  We just knew.  

We are coming for you S! 

i800

I just realized it's been over a month since I have updated our blog!  I will fill in the gaps of what we've been up to since then.

We submitted out i800 to USCIS on 8/5/16.

We got notice that it was received on 8/8/16.  That same day (the 8th) is when our dossier and signed original docs made their way to the orphange.  The orphange reviews our dossier to basically learn all about our family - just on paper.  This is then submitted to CARA to assist in issuing us our NOC (which is coming soon, hopefully) and also to submit in court as evidence.

Love, love that this paper is what makes her our "immediate relative" in the eyes of US immigration.

8/19/16 we were mailed something called an RFE, or Request for Evidence.  This is the dreaded "pink paper" that USCIS sends when they need more evidence on an item before they'll approve your i800 application.  Our USCIS officer wanted to have a something called a CWC letter (this states that S is legally free for adoption) and also another proof of her birth date.

We asked the orphanage for the items we need and had a bit of a delay getting them.  They have been so good to get us what we need...I was concerned when we didn't hear from them (like cold turkey) for a week.  Come to find out; they were having internet issues.  Our wonderful agency suggested a "work around" to them and voila!  we got one paper that night.  We then got the 2nd one the next night.

We then, on 9/8/16, overnighted all of the evidence back to our officer.  We tried to call her on Friday the 9th to confirm she'd gotten it and if we were approved.  We haven't heard back from her yet - but we PRAY that Monday is our day!  We are so ready to close this chapter of i800 and move on to Article 5.

In other news, after a 21 day journey...little bit finally got her box that we sent her!

They haven't sent us any pictures or video of her with the things we sent, but we are thankful she at least got it.

Today we also attended a travel workshop that was held by our agency, Children of the World.  We discussed any and everything related to travel in India.  It made it feel SO real to know that we are SO close to these things actually being relevant to us.  We have no idea how close we are to traveling, but today we were told to pray that we have a compassionate judge.  That we are assigned a judge who cares and who wants S to be with our family.  So, this is where our prayers will turn!  Please join us in prayer for this, too.

Happy Mail x 2

I don't think any post can top my last announcing that we'd seen our sweet girl's face for the first time!  BUT...we do have more progress forward I wanted to share.

Yesterday was exactly one whole month since we first saw S! We have officially accepted her match, we had her medicals reviewed by international adoption doctor, Dr. Jenista, and we also signed electronic copies of her CSR and MER.  These are two documents that basically tell us what is known of her social and medical history.

We did have a bit of a set back (not too long, though) waiting for clarification on the spelling of her name.  Some of the documents listed the spelling two different ways.  Just so we didn't get in any hiccups later - we had to ask them to update her paperwork with a consistent spelling.  They did and got it back to us super quick!

Since we signed her papers and submitted them - we have been waiting on CARA to approve our match.  Our next step is to complete our i800 with USCIS, but we can't start without that approval from CARA.

BUT - we still got some awesome news today!  S's orphange has already sent us what is called her "original docs".  These are the original copies of that paperwork (CSR and MER) that we signed and submitted electronically a few weeks ago.  This has taken others MONTHS to get so praise God we got our's so quickly!  This is one step down that we don't have to wait for when we get to the step when it's needed.   We will sign these papers, turn them in to our agency, and they will go back to the orphange with our dossier.  These are needed once we are at the step where we are issued something called NOC (which I'll detail when we are there) and also are needed once we get our court date in India set!

Since we got the mail from the orphange...we also have their address!  We have a box for S that we have had taped up and ready to mail for a couple of weeks now.  We haven't been able to send it since we didn't have her address...but today we got it in the mail to her.  I hope that they send us pictures or a video of her with the things we sent her.  

Is it crazy to be jealous of a box?!  Because today I am.  That box is going somewhere my heart is longing to go.  I hope it brings a smile to sweet girl's face and she knows how much she is already loved!

Big brothers excited to deliver sister's box!

     

                                                 

This is what we sent sister (not pictured is a photo book of our family).  We also sent some things to her friends at her home.

A Perfect Gift From Above

What a weekend it has been.

I have wanted to sit and write an update all day, although; I could not figure out exactly how to put in to words the feelings we've experienced since Friday.

Friday afternoon around 3:30 we got the news we have been waiting for TEN.LONG.WEEKS exactly...that day.  We are currently in the process of redoing our boys' rooms to make room for our little princess and as I was working; the director of our agency called to tell us CARA finally approved us!  My whole body was shaking and I was holding back tears as she and I quickly spoke. She told me she had a couple of little girls who she was looking at, with us in mind, and she may get back to us as soon as that night!  What?!  Ten long weeks of waiting and in ONE day we get approved and could potentially see her face?

I sat in a chair in our youngest son's room just worthless.  I was excited, shocked and feeling a million other things!  I immediately started calling John to tell him the news, and I was full on crying by the time I got him on the phone.

We were so excited and so anxious that we could potentially be hearing news so soon.  We couldn't just sit at home so we got out that night to do some running around.  It seems like it took forever to fall asleep that night we were both so filled with emotion!

Saturday comes and we still haven't heard any news back.  John and I both are anxious - but keep reminding ourselves how HUGE of a decision this is for not just us but our agency.  How major their searching affects our lives, and how we totally want them to take ALL the time in the world to review and search for our perfect little girl.

We had a close friend come over with her daughter that night for an overdue visit.  I had been so tired that day from not sleeping the night before.  I had tried to nap, unsuccessfully, twice that day...I was so worn out!  We are all outside on our porch just talking and I notice a text at 10:27 pm...it is from Ms. Pat - the director at our agency.  I can whole heartedly say - if our friend hadn't come, we'd likely have been in bed and may have missed this!

Our youngest had just woken up and come downstairs (he must have known good news was coming).  I ran in the house showing John my phone saying, "It's her!  This is Ms. Pat!"  My hands were shaking so bad and our friend who was visiting took our son so we could await her call.

And the news she shared has made us have the biggest smiles on our face since we heard it!

"I have a little girl...her name is S...she is 16 months old" - and she gives us a quick medical run down.  She tells us that this little girl looks AMAZING and is so young; she likely wouldn't be in the system long.  THANK goodness we had a friend over and were awake!  We are both just looking at each other over the moon and so excited to finally see her face!  Mrs. Pat tells us that she is emailing us right then what she has on S and urges us to let her know as soon as possible if we'd like her to match us.  She even made the comment that she could be gone from the system the following day.  

We ran in the house, grabbed my laptop, and immediately opened the email.  What we found, looking back at us with these huge black eyes, was our daughter.  OUR daughter was right there on the computer screen in front of us. 

We opened her medical report, read it, did some quick research, and knew we did not want to lose her.  We called Ms. Pat about 30 minutes later to ask her to match us.  She told us on the phone she could already be gone, but she'd let us know either way if the match was done/not.  We hung up and sat there for the longest few minutes EVER.  Then, my phone vibrates with our forever life-changing news.

What we learned was that S had JUST appeared in the system to our agency the SAME day we received our CARA approval.  Ten weeks was an incredibly long time to wait...but the day our little girl appeared; we got our approval.  God's timing is perfect and even though it can be frustrating; it is NEVER wrong and we truly saw this on Friday.

John and I both sat up until about 1:00 am that night.  Neither one of us could sleep.  We kept looking at her beautiful little face and her chubby cheeks and wishing we could just hold her TODAY.  

We woke up on Sunday morning and still had our smiles.  We both have looked at her face a million times today.  We were so excited to share our news with our family and friends and can't WAIT until they can see her face and we can share more.

Every good and perfect gift is from above - James 1:17

We love you and are coming for you S!

Next Step - i800a

Since we got registered with CARA a couple of weeks ago - the next step we do, simultaneously while we wait for CARA approval, is our i800a.

The i800a is done through USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services).  It is basically us asking permission to bring an immigrant orphan in to the United States.

The first step was us picking up our i800a paperwork from Children of the World.  Mrs. Terri (who is amazing) had it all done for us.  All we had to do was sign a few pages and stick it in the mail headed off to Texas.  I, of course, wanted it done ASAP so it was overnighted and received the day after I got the paperwork.

This application included:  a cover page, the "official" i800a application, copies of both mine and John's birth certificates, copy of our marriage license, a copy of our home study, our social worker's license, our agency's DHR certificate, our agency's Hauge Accreditation certificate, and our agency's Authorization Certificate from CARA.  It all came out to be a total of 32 pages!  We are definitely going through some trees with all this paperwork.

Here is our timeline so far with this process.  From what I am hearing - this is going to be a lengthy one!  Please pray that we don't have any hiccups and our paperwork moves smoothly and swiftly.

4/26/16 - application mailed to USCIS
4/27/16 - application received by USCIS in Texas

5/2/16 - text to confirm receipt of application on 4/27/16

5/5/16 - letter for receipt of application (Form 797C)

5/9/16 - letter telling us when to appear for our fingerprinting appointment!  

5/19/16 - fingerprinting appointment with USCIS in New Orleans

5/23/16 - verbal approval of i800a!

6/6/16 - letter of approval arrives in the mail.

From here - we wait for them to set us an appointment for biometric fingerprinting in New Orleans!  I will update this post as we move through this process.

Thank you so much for all of the kind words of encouragement, well wishes, and prayers.  We appreciate ALL of the love, support, and prayers.

The long awaited announcement - CARA registered!

Today is an exciting day we have been waiting for 8 long weeks!

We had an unexpected bump in the road with our home study.  If you've been following along you know..as soon as our's was completed India changed the format of how they would accept them. Our social had the daunting task of reworking all the home studies she had open (including our's).

But all is well today and we are so excited that we've officially been registered with CARA!   CARA is the Central Adoption Resource Authority for the country of India.  It is the government entity that oversees adoptions in the country.

So what does that mean?  All of the paperwork gathering and more we've been doing - India now has it.

Where do we go from here?  India will review everything we've prepared and gathered for them. They will then approve us to adopt from their country.  Once we are approved - we can get matched with a child!

Thank you SO much to everyone who has been on this journey with us thus far. Now, we need prayer that our approval process will move quickly!

Tomorrow is our big yard sale to benefit our adoption.  While running a million errands today and baking cookies - I threw on this tee from my sweet friend Caitlin (who's also adopting from India).  I like to think it brought us some luck today!

Namaste Comfort Colors T-Shirt Fundraiser

***1st batch of shirt orders will be taken until April 22, 2016*** 

HOW DOES IT WORK? Shirts are $20 a piece with $5 flat shipping - even if you order more than one.  Please select how many of these cute and comfy tees you'd like to order using the form from the link.  The last question will be your payment.  I will tally up all of the orders, send them to Fund the Nations, they print the shirts, send them to me, and I will deliver them to you!

The MORE shirts we sell the MORE profit we make towards our adoption from India!

Share this link ----> http://goo.gl/forms/nLUoHfPz0u <---- on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pin It to help us spread the word!  Everyone needs a good t-shirt, and this one helps make one less orphan in India.

You will be notified by email when the shirts arrive.  If you've selected pickup for delivery that will be arranged, or if you've selected "mail me my shirt" it will be packaged to mail.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ORDER! JOHN, JACKSON, GREYSON AND I APPRECIATE YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW!

Order here -----> http://goo.gl/forms/nLUoHfPz0u