The process

The waiting game is not always a fun one but we’re hopeful that all this waiting is going to mean that our whole family is prepared for Micah’s arrival. Many of you have asked what the time frame is for our adoption. We have been told that it can be anywhere from eight months to a year. Of course, we’ll be praying that God will expedite the process!

We are really just beginning to understand the process of adopting internationally as we go: learning lots of new terms for things we never knew existed, watching the blogs and posts of other families who are traveling the same road only a little ahead of us, and
 learning as we go. To give you a little idea of how it all works we’ll give you a simple overview. We started out with an initial application to our agency to get started. Because we found Micah on Reece’s Rainbow, we did not have to wait for a referral, which is not typical for international adoptions. Usually couples go through much of the process before being granted a referral from the country they wish to adopt from, but because this is a special needs adoption that changed this part of the process. Once we had completed the application we then moved on to the commitment paperwork, which was sent to Micah’s country so that he would be placed on “hold” for our family. At that same time that that was being done we also started our home study with a local agency here in the Erie area. A home study is basically EVERYTHING about your family that a person would ever want to know. It consists of several visits from a social worker, physicals, references, information about finances, just to name a few. Once the home study is complete, then we will begin to work on the dossier. The dossier is a bunch more paperwork including the home study, fingerprints, and many other documents, that are compiled and sent over to Micah’s country. Once the dossier has been authenticated, an official referral is issued and then we can travel to meet Micah for the first time. This first trip will be about a week long and the purpose is to bond with the child and make sure you are committed to bring the child into your family. We are hoping to make this first trip sometime this fall or sooner. After that, the process continues in his country with a court date at which time the adoption is finalized and then we return to his country to get him. There is typically about 2-4 months between the two trips. The second trip is also about a week long. This is a VERY simple rundown of the overall process and there are lots of “mini” steps along the way that were have not included here.

This seems like a very long wait to us but many people have reminded us that it is about as long as a pregnancy, so we’ll keep that in mind!  It’s one thing to carry your baby in your womb close to your heart and a whole different thing to know that your child is thousands of miles away. We pray often that God will protect him, bring caretakers into his life that will show him understanding and love, and prepare his little heart for his new family waiting for him. We trust that the God who made Micah in the first place will continue to guide his life and ours.

So where are we at in the process? We are about three fourths of the way through our home study, our commitment paperwork is in country, and we are beginning to chip away at the requirements of the dossier. We so appreciate your prayers as we go through this busy time in preparing for Micah and we are grateful to those who have already given of their resources to help us get there.