mission_adoption

Some things just take time

Boy.  When I heard that it takes a year or more to process an international adoption, I figured that it was because the foreign governments moved slowly, presumably to ensure that their children will be well cared for.  I'm discovering that it's also pretty slow on the front end, even if one is conscientious. 

Our home study is on hold pending receipt of our medical forms and the police clearances.  Our Immigration approval is on hold pending our final home study.  Our dossier is incomplete without both of those things, and the medical and police forms.   So, we are in a holding pattern.

I found out today that the HIV test that we had to have will take a few more weeks to get results.  Apparently, the Army sends these to the States for processing.  Since we are about to head to Italy and then Georgia, we're definately stalled.  But I guess that when August comes around, I'll be ready to move forward with a new focus - Dossier prep!

How long does it take?

This is the most oft posed question to adopting families.  At least to this adoptive family.  And there's no answer.  A great many variables affect the timing - speed of organizing paperwork, turnover of documents by the government offices, the rules of the country from which adopting.   Last year, Ukraine totally stopped all foreign adoptions.  Now they're happening again, but it's always possible that they will shut things down again.  I watch chats on several message boards and it appears that families are traveling and coming home with new family members.  I've been in communication with a couple who started the process as late as this year and already have dates to travel and meet their new child.  So, how long does it take?  Anywhere from 6 months to over a year.  I'm being attentive to our documents, but I can't claim to have been as swift as possible.  My hope is that they will be submitted to Ukraine this fall.  Let's see how it goes....

Medical forms

Mike and I had back to back appointments today for the medical clearance forms.  I realized a few minutes in that I had scheduled with a nurse practitioner rather than a doctor, but she assured me that we'll be able to get everything reviewed and signed off by a doctor.  I don't want to risk having things kicked back because they want to see a doctor signature rather than a nurse.  I hear that they are particular about details and this seems like a big detail (is that an oxymoron?)

We still have to go back to finish them up since the forms required TB and other tests.  So we both got stuck and then were done for today.  In a couple weeks, all the results should be in and we'll get to finish up the form.

What we've done so far...

To chronicle a journey, it seems appropriate to begin at the beginning.

Around mid-February, we decided that we wanted to start the adoption process.  As an idea, it had been bopping around our heads for a long time and now the time felt right.  I started researching and learned very quickly that international adoption is no easy feat!  When I discovered the various fees and how they added up, we had another big talk and decided that this was still what we wanted to do.

We got in contact with  American Adoption Professionals Abroad, a home study agency here in Germany.  They helped me lots by asking the right questions; this focused us on some things that helped refine the research process.  We talked and talked and decided that we want to adopt a boy younger than Marisa from an East European country.  This narrowed down to Ukraine after even more research.  It was liberating to have this much figured out!

Next we set about deciding on an agency.  I talked to anyone and everyone I knew who had adopted or even people I didn't know.  I joined several groups on Yahoo and another chat on Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption.  There's lots of good information to be had from these sources - but there's also plenty of misleading and downright mean information out there.  Finally, we decided on  About a Child.  I can't say exactly what led us to choose them - it just felt right.

At the end of April, we had our official home study meeting.  We had already done the hard part when we completed the home study questionnaire.  It seemed to take forever!  So by the time the meeting at home happened, it felt easy.  I always say that we're not interesting enough to have anything to hide, so I wasn't nervous.  I didn't even dust.

So, this is where we are.  We've still got a couple forms to submit for the home study and we've begun to pull things together for the dossier.  I hope to get our I600A submitted to CIS this week.