Where are you at in the process?

This is a common question that is asked in the world of adoption.

I have started this blog as a way of keeping everyone informed of what is going on and as a journal of our life changing journey.

Since this is my first entry and we are many months into our adoption process, I will give an overview of what has happened so far. This will be written in timeline form to bring you up to speed.

November 2007- discovered that adoption was more than likely God's plan to grow our family

June 2008-December 2008 began filling out paperwork and attending classes with an adoption agency that works with CPS

November 6-15, 2008- went to Russia with our church to work in orphanages


December 2008- made the decision to adopt from Russia instead of through CPS

December 21, 2008- submitted our preliminary application to our agency that handles international adoption

February 13, 2009- attended a two day orientation workshop for international adoption

February 25, 2009- submitted our formal application (11 days later), this application included doctor's report, financial reports, references, life insurance, etc.)

March 19th& 20th- attended 2 day seminar given by our agency

March 21st-continued reading 1 of our books for our required reading.

The remainder of March and part of April was spent preparing our house for our home visit.

April 10, 2009- Home visit from our social worker

April 21, 2009- Had a psychological evaluation (required by Russia)

April 21-June 5th- Waited on all documents to be turned in to make our file complete so the home study report could be written, reviewed, and approved.

June 5, 2009- Received the news that our home study was approved to adopt up to 2 children(ages 1-3 years of age).

June 11, 2009- Mailed USCIS our I600A form

June 12, 2009 -Assigned a dossier coordinator and began working on part I of our dossier for St Petersberg. A dossier is the paperwork that is sent to Russia.

June 14,2009- completed our part of the dossier (application, passport copies, 5 photo books of our family and home,etc.)


June 26, 2009- Sent a copy of our picture book to our social worker so she could verify the info, sign off, and have it notarized.

July 15, 2009- Received our agency's part of the dossier

July 20, 2009- Got our part of the dossier documents notarized

July 22,2009- Drove to Austin to spend the night so we could be at the office of the Sec. of State early the next morning

July 23, 2009- Took all documents to Secretary of State's office to apostilled (certified). Quickly sent them by overnight mail to our agency

July 27, 2009- We are now waiting for our agency to send all the apostilled documents to Russia. This will make us a waiting family in Russia!!