I received an email update from the in country coordinator yesterday: ON THE BOARMAN,IT WILL PROBABLY 2 OR 3 WEEKS FOR COURT.
Once we receive a court decree (please pray that it would be a full and final), it takes a few days and then with decree papers in hand we can apply for our I-600 at the Embassy (hoping we don't need to be in country for any of this but it's a possible). They will then do an orphan investigation that can take 2-3+ months. Once that is done we get a visa exit interview in which we would need to be present for and then with the visa (only administered on Fridays), we can come home.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Referral Accepted!
I left off last time with us waiting for info on the boy. Well, we found out he had a brother, which is potentially not always a big deal as most any-all of these kids have siblings somewhere. Some of them might not be adoptable though for various reasons. Sometimes a mom will relinquish one or two and not the others (much more to that, we can chat sometime if you want more) After waiting some more time, it was confirmed that his brother was actually in the same orphanage and that they would be adopted out together (as it should be). Sorry guys, not feeling lead to three!
We had decided in the meantime that we would officially accept the girl and if God wanted us to have only one he would reveal this (by the boy not working out and no others available). We were getting ready to tell the agency yes (some days went by when we were awaiting the new non-sibling contract) to the girl when they revealed the official news about the boy. However, we were thrown for a loop because they mentioned in the same email that they had new pics of a sibling set but no social/medicals at this point (meaning it isn't an official referral yet). Once again we were left struggling to decipher what God was telling us. As you know, in my last entry I said that if siblings appeared in the meantime maybe we knew we were still supposed to be pursuing them. By now though, we have felt lead to the girl. I looked at her pic a million times and prayed about her. The agency of course can't/won't commit to any time frame on when they might receive the remaining info (Ghana is Ghana and their timing is up to them). So, that means we could have waited a couple days or even a couple months.....only to find out these kids were not medically cleared, too old, etc. I really wanted to see the pic since we waited so long before only to clearly see the girl was way out of our age range. But, the agency didn't want to show pics without all the info (then why the heck even tell me they exist! I mean, aren't there 147 million orphans out there and they are all potential).
So, what to do? Wait weeks or months and find out a negative? Turn the girl down and have regrets? We certainly didn't want to make her wait all that time to find out we were or were not going to adopt her. I was excited about her, and even excited about one knowing how much easier all this would be to handle both time wise and financially. But, I was grieving for the imagined son I thought for the last year I was going to have. God does work in amazing ways though. Here it took me some time to get used to the idea of two. I fought it but ultimately felt I needed to be obedient to his calling. He's maybe laughing because he knew I could actually only handle one all along and just wanted me to trust him. Now he is blessing me? As always there is more details but you get the basics.
Ultimately, we felt peace with the one. Glenn kept saying that we had made our decision the week before to accept her and let God do the rest and so we should go with that. The more he said it, the more I felt lead that way and we just all came together and agreed.
So.....we officially sent an email on Sunday morning, March 6th, that we accept the girl. We are working on giving her a name so I will explain and keep you updated on that. Once we have passed court and have the decree that lets me tell the world she is ours and I can post pics. She is approximately 4 1/2-5 1/2 yrs old and definitely adorable. I will update you on the time line when I get more details in the next couple of days. For now, we are getting our Visas and waiting on a court date (which can take weeks) and putting together a package that someone can take over to give to her. More on that later too.
We had decided in the meantime that we would officially accept the girl and if God wanted us to have only one he would reveal this (by the boy not working out and no others available). We were getting ready to tell the agency yes (some days went by when we were awaiting the new non-sibling contract) to the girl when they revealed the official news about the boy. However, we were thrown for a loop because they mentioned in the same email that they had new pics of a sibling set but no social/medicals at this point (meaning it isn't an official referral yet). Once again we were left struggling to decipher what God was telling us. As you know, in my last entry I said that if siblings appeared in the meantime maybe we knew we were still supposed to be pursuing them. By now though, we have felt lead to the girl. I looked at her pic a million times and prayed about her. The agency of course can't/won't commit to any time frame on when they might receive the remaining info (Ghana is Ghana and their timing is up to them). So, that means we could have waited a couple days or even a couple months.....only to find out these kids were not medically cleared, too old, etc. I really wanted to see the pic since we waited so long before only to clearly see the girl was way out of our age range. But, the agency didn't want to show pics without all the info (then why the heck even tell me they exist! I mean, aren't there 147 million orphans out there and they are all potential).
So, what to do? Wait weeks or months and find out a negative? Turn the girl down and have regrets? We certainly didn't want to make her wait all that time to find out we were or were not going to adopt her. I was excited about her, and even excited about one knowing how much easier all this would be to handle both time wise and financially. But, I was grieving for the imagined son I thought for the last year I was going to have. God does work in amazing ways though. Here it took me some time to get used to the idea of two. I fought it but ultimately felt I needed to be obedient to his calling. He's maybe laughing because he knew I could actually only handle one all along and just wanted me to trust him. Now he is blessing me? As always there is more details but you get the basics.
Ultimately, we felt peace with the one. Glenn kept saying that we had made our decision the week before to accept her and let God do the rest and so we should go with that. The more he said it, the more I felt lead that way and we just all came together and agreed.
So.....we officially sent an email on Sunday morning, March 6th, that we accept the girl. We are working on giving her a name so I will explain and keep you updated on that. Once we have passed court and have the decree that lets me tell the world she is ours and I can post pics. She is approximately 4 1/2-5 1/2 yrs old and definitely adorable. I will update you on the time line when I get more details in the next couple of days. For now, we are getting our Visas and waiting on a court date (which can take weeks) and putting together a package that someone can take over to give to her. More on that later too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
