A lot has been happening lately with our adoption so I thought I would update everyone on our exciting news!
On December 26, while at a family Christmas gathering, we received an email from our adoption agency stating that they had reserved a file on a child and wanted to discuss the file with us. We immediately called our contact at Children of the World and talked through the needs of the child. After discussing her special needs and her developmental milestones, Peter and I decided to tentatively move forward. Our agency then sent us her medical records and her picture, and oh my goodness! She was absolutely beautiful!
The next step after receiving the child’s information was to contact an adoption clinic so doctors could review her information and help us make an informed decision about her health. I contacted the adoption clinic at UAB where we spoke with a doctor about this little girl. She agreed with us that this child appeared to be in adequate health with no major abnormalities, so Peter and I decided to pursue her for adoption!
We were officially matched with this child around January 15, and then our adoption agency began sending us a new stack of paperwork to be completed. Our medicals needed to be updated, and lots of other documents needed to be notarized. In the meantime, our agency was also working on our immigration application for us to send to US Immigration.
Y’all. Let me stop and just say this: The amount of paperwork for an adoption is completely overwhelming. I almost had a breakdown looking at all of the documents that needed updating.
On January 23, we mailed our stack of documents to Children of the World, and they mailed our immigration application to us, which we promptly mailed into USCIS the next day.
Applications for immigration usually take around 30 days to be approved so we were hoping to be approved by the end of February. However, we were actually approved on February 11!
After receiving approval, we applied for an Article 5 from the US Embassy in India. This process generally takes about 30-45 days, but we received ours on February 26 – just 2 weeks after applying!
Our documents were then authenticated and sent to CARA (the centralized adoption center of India). CARA will now review our information along with updated information on the child and issue us NOC (No Objection Certificate). This takes 6-8 weeks and is the scariest part of the process so far because CARA can decide that we should not be allowed to adopt her. Most foreign counties will only allow families from other countries to adopt special needs children and they save their “normal” children for their own in-country adoptions. So, although we want this child to continue to grow and get well, we also want her to hold off a little while until we get our NOC!
So now we wait.
And pray.
Here are some ways you can pray with us during this period of waiting:
- Pray that we would continue to trust in God’s timing as we think about traveling to India
- Pray that this child continues to receive good, loving care from the caregivers at her orphanage
- Pray for our family as we wait because the waiting is extra hard now that we have seen her sweet little face
- Most importantly, pray that India would issue NOC to us for this child
It’s scary for me to think that India could decide we can’t adopt this child but I am choosing to trust that God has a good plan. This morning I found myself praying, “Lord, I trust that you have a plan. Help me to trust you!” I feel like the father in Mark 9:24 who tells Jesus, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”
We have seen God open doors, answer prayers, and respond to our fears throughout the process, and one day I hope to write about all the ways He has been faithful in this journey.
But for now, will you pray with us through this process? We are excited about what He is doing in our family!
Praying with you!