Exciting Movement!

(Working on more paperwork!!)

Hi friends and family,

This is a VERY overdue blog post and so many of you have been asking where we are in the adoption process now and what’s next. We have so appreciated your questions and prayers! The last few months have been extremely busy with moving and a new job and all that entails so hopefully this post will help explain what has happened with our process the last few months and ways you can be praying moving forward. We are truly so excited about some of the movement that has happened in the last few months with our adoption!

The biggest news that many of you are aware of is that in August we were matched with the most beautiful 20 month old little girl! We are just in love!! We wish we could share more details and her picture on our blog, but for the protection of our process and different rules related to that, we are waiting to share anything publicly until she is legally declared our daughter. Matching was a huge step in the process and one of the hardest, most emotionally draining parts so far as we discerned files and prayed over them. We were actually about to match with a little boy before our sweet girl and that fell through for a variety of reasons. That was extremely hard as we felt attached to his adorable picture and had begun to imagine life with him in our family, but all along the Lord was preparing our hearts in many ways to say yes when our little girls file was emailed to us. Matching with our daughter was such a surreal feeling! Thank you for praying for that day to happen! We are truly rejoicing at the thought of welcoming a little girl into our family!

And now to the next steps. In a simplified version, we are waiting for multiple approvals on both the U.S. side and India side before we legally become our little girls parents and can travel to bring her home. We’ve listed the steps below and what has been completed in the last month or so.

1. Originals and signing off on the referral. This is basically when we received all of our little girls original documents and medical info from India and signed off on all of it. (completed in August!)
2. I-800 approval (received this September 25!)
3. Fill out DS-260 form (finished this October 9!)
4. Wait for something called Article 5. This usually takes 5-9 weeks but could be shorter or longer. This is where we currently are in the process along with step #5.
5. Dossier and home study update. While we are waiting for article 5 to be issued, we are updating our home study because we’ve moved and filling out lots of paperwork for that along with home visits. We are also pulling together a massive pile of paperwork called a dossier that will be sent to India. This basically tells India everything about us from tax returns and bank statements to the layout of our home and our home study.
6. Apply for something called a No Objection Certificate or NOC from India. This is a huge step in the process where India basically states they have no objection to this particular child being matched and placed in our home. It can take anywhere from 1-4 months to receive this approval and sometimes longer.
7. Court! During the court process we may have multiple hearings or just 1. It could take a few weeks or months. Everything really depends on the judge we get and the process in our daughters particular state. Lord willing, the judge will issue us verbal approval and then written approval. Once we receive written approval that we pass court, our little girl is officially and legally our DAUGHTER!!
8. Apply for a passport and visa! This is the really exciting step as we prepare and plan for travel!
9. Travel!!! Obviously we cannot wait for the day when we can travel to bring our little girl home! Typically this trip takes 10-14 days in country. 

So as you can see, while we still have a lot of waiting and paperwork to be done, we are getting closer to bringing our baby home! To know that we are just a few steps from travel feels exciting and surreal at the same time. The adoption process can be overwhelming and draining at times, but our agency has been absolutely amazing at holding our hands and walking us through each step of the process. Seeing our sweet girls face is very motivating as we work towards getting paperwork updated and mailed out. We can feel the prayers of so many of you along with your support as you’ve asked about the process and let us know you are praying! 

Here are some specific ways you can be praying right now:

1. Please pray for perseverance as we work through SO MUCH paperwork and getting everything updated and corrected to reflect a job change and new address. This can feel a little bit overwhelming at times. Pray that God would give us grace to do just one step at a time. 
2. Pray that our approvals would come through quickly. We are so eager to get our little girl home! It’s been estimated that the steps above until travel could take anywhere from 6-12 months or more, and that is especially unknown with COVID-19 and so much shut down. We’ve seen a lot of hopeful movement though with india adoption processes and we are praying that we will have our little girl home next year sometime. Would you pray for that with us? And most of all, would you pray that we would submit to Gods timing and trust and be patient in the waiting? It can be so hard, but we truly believe God has good things for us as we wait and He will bring our little girl home at just the right time.
3. Please pray for our daughter. For her health, for her safety, for her caregivers, for her heart. Please pray that God would already be preparing her heart to join our family.
4. Pray for us as a family. Please pray that God would strengthen our marriage and our relationships with our children, family, church family and friends so that we are truly in the best position to welcome our little girl home. We are praying that God would strengthen our faith as we wait and that we would grow as a family during this time. 

Thanks SO much for praying for us! We truly cannot say thank you enough! God has been so good to us and we are praising Him continually as we wait for our daughter to come home! This process has stretched and shaped our faith in some incredibly cool ways as we’ve watched Him work and for that we are so thankful. We really appreciate your prayers and support!