To see all of the posts labeled ADOPTION, click here.
Here's our timeline:
January 2011 We announce our plans to adopt (after several years of serious prayer and planning; and a year of real lessons in trusting the Lord with our finances)
Saturday January 22: We had our first meeting for our home study. Our home study agency (Adoption Consultants Int'l, we LOVE our case worker!) agreed to let us pay the $1,200 home study fee in increments (which is good, since we wanted to get started and we didn't have $1,200).
Monday, January 30: We get our first adoption donation, from my sweet mom. THANKS MAMA! :)
Saturday, February 19: I launch my Etsy Shop, Nebraskaree Designs, to raise money for our adoption.
Sunday, February 20: With our friend Jamy & Jim Sullivan, we host an Adoption Benefit Concert to raise money for both of our families (the Sullivans were also planning to adopt from Ug*nda...although they have since had to put those plans on hold, due to some unforeseen and unfortunate events.) We raised enough to cover our home study, as well as some of the paperwork required to move forward - praise the Lord and thanks to His people.
Monday, February 28: Got our fingerprinting done for our background check. Should take 4-6 weeks to get that done, then our home study will be able to be completed.
Wednesday, May 4: Home study complete & received in the mail! Exciting, except then we realized there were 3 or 4 other pieces of paper we needed to gather before we could send everything off. Sigh.
Tuesday, May 24: Ship our home study to USCIS and await a fingerprinting appointment. Once we're fingerprinted, we'll begin waiting for USCIS approval to adopt and immigrate an adopted child to the US. (we just need to have this completed by the end of our second trip - but it can take a LONG time, so it was recommended we get the process started as soon as we have our home study in hand.)
Wednesday, May 25: Shipped our home study to our Babies Home in Ug*nda and request to adopt through them, we should hear in a couple of weeks where we are on the waiting list.
Wednesday, June 1: Received an email from our Babies Home: We are approved, we can let them know when we'd like to come and visit, identify our child, and begin the court process in Ug*nda. Eek!
At this point, we do not have quite enough $$ together to travel (we'll need about $4,000 for airfare, plus another $3,000 or so for legal fees to begin the process.)
Tuesday, July 5: USCIS fingerprinting appointment (this is to be approved by Homeland Security to immigrate our future child to the U.S.) It's an initial step, which we will finalize on our second trip to Ug*nda with the US Embassy there.
Summer 2011: USCIS Approval!! From the US side, we are pre-approved to immigrate our little guy back home to the US (pending court and visa approval, of course...)
Early August: First trip to Ug*nda (Just Renee; I met our little guy, met with our Ug*ndan attorney to get started on our case, and served at the Babies Home: Loved getting to love on all of the kiddoes there, serving the Mamas and staff who take care of them.)
Just in time for travel... we received EXACTLY what we needed financially. God provides. As a friend of mine said, "He is rarely early, but He's never late."
10/29/2011 We leave for our second trip to Ug*nda, for our court date on 11/1/2011. Matt & Luke were with me for the first 10 days, then I was there for 3 more weeks waiting for our paperwork to be completed and ready for the US Embassy.
11/1/2011 Court Date for legal guardianship
11/7/2011 Received our verbal ruling - Micah Marvin is OURS. Several days later we received the written ruling, which is what we need to turn into the embassy to apply to immigrate Micah Marvin to the states. Except his passport, which would be needed before we could be granted a visa... Right up until we arrived in country, the passport could be obtained before you even went to court, so we weren't expecting this wait. But wait we did...
11/25/2011 FINALLY got word that Micah Marvin's passport was ready. It felt like a looong 2 weeks waiting on that.
11/28/2011 Turned our passport and last paperwork into the embassy and scheduled an exit interview for that afternoon. We learned at 5:30 that day that we were APPROVED for M's visa and could travel on Wednesday. Yippee!!
11/30/2011 We say goodbye to our Ugandan and Ugandan/American friends and head for the airport. We flew home by way of Amsterdam & Minneapolis.
12/1/2011 Micah Marvin and Renee arrive HOME!
Thank you SO MUCH for joining us on this road, through your prayers, encouragement, and generous gifts!! We can hardly believe the Lord's blessing on our family.