Adoption Update

I don't want to go back and read my blog to see where I last left off on our adoption update, so there might be some overlap. Several of you have heard updates off and on too, so wade through to where you need to in order to be "caught up".

We have officially made our decision to go to Kyrgyzstan. Our application was mailed off to our new agency and accepted. We have received our contracts and dossier checklist from them. Once we have an updated home study, we will sign our contract, send it and our first payment and will officially be "on the list" for a referral. After that we will complete the remaining documents needed for our full dossier. During this time we will wait for our new I171H. Apparently, in order to stay in line with China, we will need to file (and pay for) a new I600A (Petition to adopt an orphan). This will require another fingerprinting session. Since our others are about to expire, we will probably have to fingerprint twice in the next few weeks. WHY can our government not use one set of prints??? We are proceeding without the help (or technically, the "approval" of our first (China) agency. They have been less than helpful and have told us it could take several months for them to come to a place where they will have policy in place to allow for concurrent adoptions. We are not willing to wait any longer.

We are using another local agency (yes, our third) to update our home study. We have an appointment with them January 10 for our first meeting. After that, they will come to our house (major house cleaning coming up!!) and finalize the home study update within two weeks after that. We have multiple documents to gather for them as well.

Today we opened an adoption account at our local bank. That was another step that made this process feel "real". We felt we needed to keep these funds separate from our regular account since we were paying for our China adoption for our regular account.

I am in the "gathering" phase, paperchasing. It gives me something tangible to do. It's easier than the waiting phase -- which I don't do so well.

Hopefully, we will be "on the list" by end of January. Based on the information we've been given, we could receive a referral sometime between March and July. We would travel a week or two after that for our first trip/visit. We would stay about 2 weeks and then return home for somewhere between 4-8 weeks and then one of us will return to bring Ellie home.