Yesterday was a big day. Today is even BIGGER! 7/22/2014 we submitted the most important paperwork in our lives. The dossier that is sent over to South Africa, the last thing before getting matched with our adopted child is COMPLETED!!!! Well, basically. As with everything in this process, nothing is as quick or simple as we originally thought. We keep saying that we are learning a lot, because we totally are. This has been a fun, long, detailed ride so far and we know it's only the beginning.
On Saturday we received our USCIS 797 approval to adopt our child from an immigration standpoint from South Africa. We received it a little earlier than expected...which was a great surprise! So, we had to get 26 documents apostilled (basically meaning we needed to bring our notarized documents in the dossier over to a secretary of state to have someone place a seal/certificate saying that we had a legal public notary witness on each of the documents.) Confused yet?! We were too. Austin got that done, we had to have 3 documents re-notarized because the notary's signature didn't match their records. SO many details. Anyway, after all of that, Austin proudly hand delivered our dossier to the global office of our adoption agency. They said they would let us know this morning if it was all set and sent off to South Africa! Turns out, we are missing a copy of Austin & I's passports. We have one, but need another. Something so simple and small...blocking our completion. Austin & I are taking care of that small detail this afternoon, and then turning it back in to the agency. Our agency said it will be in the mail traveling to South Africa by Friday. YES! YAY! WHEW! Hopefully by the end of the day I can breath a sigh of relief :) :) So glad Austin is so even keeled. Because I am not!
What comes next? Once South Africa receives our plethora of info, we "wait" for them to process it and refer a child to us! (To our agency, but ultimately to us.) :) :) I keep putting the word wait/waiting in parenthesis because Austin and I don't view it like that. Will we need patience in these next 12-18 months while waiting? YES. Absolutely. BUT we want to view this time, as God's time. He has a child already planned for us, and however long it takes is how long it is supposed to take because it's His plan and not ours. Is this SO much easier said then done? YES. I know I am all positive right now, but I know this will a hard period of time. The good news is, Austin & I are a team. We love being married, and having our family of two. We will enjoy and cherish the time where it is just us two until our child joins our family forever. We also have a lot to continue to learn on how to parent an adopted child. And We want to learn as much as we can about South Africa, this beautiful birth country of our baby! We want to be able to teach & show our child where they came from and we want it to be a part of our family's life! So yes, we have a lot of "waiting" time but we have a lot to learn and we will continue to prepare our hearts and minds for our little one. :)
In His Love,
Austin & Meg
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Dossier almost Done!
It has been a long time since the last post! Hard to believe we've already celebrated the Fourth of July! The month of June specifically was quite a blur for us. Lots of documentation that we had to get in order. After we completed our home study, we felt very accomplished and thought our adoption process was nearing it's "waiting period" while we waited to get matched.
Well, we were wrong. We had NO idea all of the work for our Dossier was about to begin. The Dossier is a packet of information that includes our home study, as well as many other forms, letters, pictures, etc. that describe/reflect Austin & I. We had to get tax forms for past years, referral letters from our friends and family, police and medical clearances - just to name a few. We felt as though we had already done all of that work for our application to adopt, but now we were going into even greater detail than before, specifically for our child's birth country of South Africa! It was easy to get overwhelmed at the daunting task, but Austin's calm and strong leadership skills helped us organize our thoughts, and track down necessary paperwork. We again had to rely heavily on others around us. Not only did our amazing friends and family write recommendation letters for us, but much of the needed documentation was also to be notarized. Meaning a third party had to be present when signing the required piece of paperwork. Our close friend is a notary and her help has been tremendous. Our individual doctors also have been happy to help in this crazy journey!
About two weeks ago we got our fingerprints done. That was the final step we had to take individually for our USCIS approval. Instead of ink being involved, there were scanners that just scanned our fingers, and the print showed up on the screen. It was cool to see technology used in that unique way. Now, we wait for USCIS to process our fingerprints and give us the last form we need for our Dossier. We are thinking in the next two weeks we should be receiving that. Then, we need to send all of our documents (it's at least got to be 100 pages by now!) to the Secretary of State to get apostilled and we will send it to our agency to look it over and then off to South Africa it will go. What a great feeling that will be! Our target is for that to all be done by August. Before we know it August will be here! We pray with God's faithfulness we will have that step accomplished by our goal date, if not, His plan is wiser than ours!
Meanwhile, Austin & I have also gotten to experience a couple of weddings this Summer which has kept us busy! My amazing brother and his beautiful wife tied the knot in Wisconsin in June, friends got hitched in Georgia and this weekend we are New York bound for my college roommates wedding!! Lots of love surrounding us :) Best events to go to! So much fun to get to experience them with my husband and best friend! Brings back the best day of our lives.
I hope everyone is enjoying a fun, safe summer! I'm sure it's going as quickly as ours is, summer always has a tendency to do that...unlike winter...
In His Love,
Meg & Austin
Well, we were wrong. We had NO idea all of the work for our Dossier was about to begin. The Dossier is a packet of information that includes our home study, as well as many other forms, letters, pictures, etc. that describe/reflect Austin & I. We had to get tax forms for past years, referral letters from our friends and family, police and medical clearances - just to name a few. We felt as though we had already done all of that work for our application to adopt, but now we were going into even greater detail than before, specifically for our child's birth country of South Africa! It was easy to get overwhelmed at the daunting task, but Austin's calm and strong leadership skills helped us organize our thoughts, and track down necessary paperwork. We again had to rely heavily on others around us. Not only did our amazing friends and family write recommendation letters for us, but much of the needed documentation was also to be notarized. Meaning a third party had to be present when signing the required piece of paperwork. Our close friend is a notary and her help has been tremendous. Our individual doctors also have been happy to help in this crazy journey!
About two weeks ago we got our fingerprints done. That was the final step we had to take individually for our USCIS approval. Instead of ink being involved, there were scanners that just scanned our fingers, and the print showed up on the screen. It was cool to see technology used in that unique way. Now, we wait for USCIS to process our fingerprints and give us the last form we need for our Dossier. We are thinking in the next two weeks we should be receiving that. Then, we need to send all of our documents (it's at least got to be 100 pages by now!) to the Secretary of State to get apostilled and we will send it to our agency to look it over and then off to South Africa it will go. What a great feeling that will be! Our target is for that to all be done by August. Before we know it August will be here! We pray with God's faithfulness we will have that step accomplished by our goal date, if not, His plan is wiser than ours!
Meanwhile, Austin & I have also gotten to experience a couple of weddings this Summer which has kept us busy! My amazing brother and his beautiful wife tied the knot in Wisconsin in June, friends got hitched in Georgia and this weekend we are New York bound for my college roommates wedding!! Lots of love surrounding us :) Best events to go to! So much fun to get to experience them with my husband and best friend! Brings back the best day of our lives.
I hope everyone is enjoying a fun, safe summer! I'm sure it's going as quickly as ours is, summer always has a tendency to do that...unlike winter...
In His Love,
Meg & Austin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)