Hello friends! Amber here jumping on to update you on where we are in the process! When we started this website we were in the middle of finishing our home study! Your home study is one of the first steps in the process and is quite the process but understandably so! Our agency conducted our home study. During the home study we were provided with lots of resources to gain education in adopting children and then specifically to siblings. Our social worker met with us often and even visited our home just to spend time getting to know our family. When going into the home study we knew it would be a process but it is hard to not become overwhelmed with all that has to be completed in order to be approved. By the end of the process I was so thankful for all that they asked us to do. It truly made me trust our agency that they were looking out for what is best for the children as well as our family. There was nothing we did that felt like we were just trying to check something off, I truly felt like Lifeline was doing everything they could to educate and prepare our family. Once everything was finished and approved we received the approved copy of our study in November.
Because we have submitted a letter of intent for a sibling pair we have been trying to do everything quickly. So our social worker has had us working on our dossier while our home study was being finished. The dossier is essentially a collection of documents for the US and Colombia to review in order to know that we will provide a good home for this sibling pair.
As some of you know one key thing that we have been waiting on for awhile was Ismael’s certified birth certificate copy from New York. When I went to get mine, because I was born in Alabama, it took about fifteen minutes to receive my certified copy. So this has been very frustrating. Although we are thankful that our process has been pretty seamless up until this point, we know that is not necessarily always true in international adoptions.
We already had an appointment for our adoption scheduled for this Thursday so we were planning on going by our agency to drop everything that was left for our dossier besides Ismael’s copy of his birth certificate. Then on Monday I went to get our mail and there it was an envelope addressed from New York to Ismael. I knew it was it! So praise the Lord when we walk in Thursday we should have everything that is left to turn in for our dossier.
Our agency will then submit all of this information to Colombia. Once Colombia has it we will just be waiting on them for the next steps. So that is where we currently are! This is right where our agency has been preparing us to be at this point of the process.
For now we are just waiting and applying for grants. Thank you to all who have sent in support! We have agency fees that we have to pay along the way. Because of your support each time we have to pay a fee we are able to. So with grateful hearts, thank you for the ways that you are continuing to bless our little growing family!
