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!
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