My Adoption Timeline

For someone who is “organizationally challenged”, the paperchase of early stage adoption is painful. I selected a homestudy agency that sent a social worker to my house to make sure the house (and the inmates in the house) were fit to welcome a baby. I had to gather birth certificates, police clearances, FBI clearances, mortgage letters, address references, personal letters of support…. Let’s just say it made my top secret government clearance process look like a job application at McDonalds by comparison. It didn’t help that my address history for the past 10 years reads something like this: Khartoum, Nairobi, Washington, Chicago, Boston, LA, Freetown, Sierra Leone, Basrah and Baghdad, Iraq, Minneapolis…..

2/12/06

Everyone’s adoption timeline varies greatly by family, by agency, by state, by country and by fate. Here is my timeline so far. (As you can see, fate has played a big role in my dossier completion date.) My agency estimates 8 months from signing to referral for an infant girl with no ethnicity preference. So that means any day now, right? Unless fate has more to say…..

 

4/10/06

Everything has changed so much since I wrote the above words when I was so eagerly anticipating my referral.  On the eve of our trip to Kaz, my beloved younger sister died suddenly. 

4/25/05

Signed with Adoption Miracle

4/26/05

File 1600 application with BCIS (formerly INS).

4/27/05

Homestudy visit by social worker .

5/30/05

Signed with World Partners Adoption.

6/6/05

Homestudy Approved.

6/28/05

Homestudy submitted to BCIS

8/09/05

171-H Received.

8/10/05

Dossier Complete! Sent to WPA

8/11/05

Dossier Not Complete – new FBI clearance requirement.

9/10/05

FBI clearance comes through

9/12/05

Dossier Dossier Complete (Redux)!

9/20/05

Dossier goes for translation

9/27/05

Dossier Not Complete! New paperwork requirements instituted.

10/18/05

Dossier Complete! (3rd time a charm). New docs sent to WPA

11/11/05

Dossier sent to Kaz Consulate.

1/30/06

Dossier presented to MFA

3/10/06

Referral received!

3/16/06

Referral accepted

3/27/06

My beloved sister Margaret dies suddenly and my world collapses

3/29/06

Receive travel dates for April 8.  I tell WPA I cannot travel that soon

3/30/06

Receive revised travel dates for April 18.

4/2/06

Margaret’s memorial service

4/17/06

Depart for Almaty

4/19/06

Arrive in Almaty

4/20/06

Travel to Kokshetau and meet Annabelle for the first time