Wednesday, January 17, 2007

In for the Long Haul

Well our final Home Study visit was rescheduled for Friday, and according to our social worker the final report is usually ready in about a week. So we'll take a big step towards getting our dossier to Acres of Hope and getting a referral. We stopped off at the County Sherriff's Department to file paperwork for crimal background check and security clearance for adoption. When we pulled into the parking lot for the county jail, our daughter Elizabeth said "Wow, there sure are a lot of people adopting" which made both Kim and I laugh heartily. Also we drove all the way down to Oshkosh this morning to get our second Hepatitis A vaccination only to find out they had no adult doses left. It's all part of the process. Preparing us to be patient and ready for little set backs along the way.

Donna, a representative from Acres of Hope gave us this general timeline for the adoption from Liberia. Once they get our dossier and I-600A approval from the US Government, we will get a referral for our children within 1-3 months (Feb-Apr). I actually think the referral will come quickly because they have so many waiting children. The younger the child requested, the longer the wait. We have requested a 1 year old and 2 1/2 year old so that may mean a longer wait, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. After the referral, it's 4-5 months (July-Aug) for the adoption process (paperwork, preparing for court, case histories - lots of work for the AoH staff). After the adoption is completed there's a 2-3 month (Oct-Nov) wait for passports out of Liberia for our children and then travel plans going to Liberia and arriving safely back with our new addtions to our family. So 9-12 months is not uncommon. We are praying and trusting that next Christmas we'll celebrate the precious gifts of our new children.

So that's the latest from the Adoption Homefront.

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