A lot of people have been asking, "How long does the entire process take?" I wish we had an answer. What I do know is what we have completed and how long it took us to do those steps. I wanted to document some of our time frame so we would remember ourselves, but also to help other people who are in the process or praying about adopting an international child.
May 2009: We began praying and researching a couple of different agencies and options available.
June 2009: Identified an agency, Bethany Christian Services, and completed a preliminary application. We were approved, but were told we needed to wait until Rowen turned 1 at Christmas. (That was a blessing to have that extra time to wait)
January 2010: Completed our formal application to Bethany Christian Services and were approved.
February 2010: Began our home study. The home study consisted of 3 meetings with one of our case workers, Autumn Andretta, at her office and our house. The process taught us a lot about ourselves and the adoption process. It definitely was a great experience. It was during this time that we identified the age (1-5 years old) the sex (little girl) and the special needs (deaf/hard of hearing with other minor correctable needs)
April 2010: By the end of April our home study was totally completed and written up for approval by the higher ups at Bethany.
May 2010: We filed our Immigration paper work (I-600A). We were told this would be a 4-6 week process. It wasn't :)
June 2010: Began work on our Dossier. We weren't prepared for the amount of work, time and energy that goes into this document. We have a greater respect for our case workers and other families who are working on their Dossier. Basically, it includes every document both legal and personal that we sent to Ethiopia. Every document (40+ documents) had to be notarized, thank you Aunt Shelley and Aunt Lauren, authenticated by the county clerk and then sealed by the Secretary of State office from which the document originated. This included birth certificates from Maryland for me and New York for Coty. We had a couple of "redos" on notarized forms and other rewrites of information, but we finally wrapped it up.
July 2010: By the end of July we had our entire Dossier completed with our immigration paper work in hand.
August 2010: We turned in our completed Dossier on August 2, 2010. At that point we concluded 7 months of hard work and prep work on our part to get to the point where we are today. Our documents arrived in Ethiopia around the end of August.
September 2010: WAITING
What are we waiting for? According to Mr. Sebilu, our Bethany representative and country director in Ethiopia, here is what the next few months should look like in the process.
Be aware that Ethiopian courts close annually for 1-2 months between August
and September.
1. Sebilu receives the dossier and takes it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be authenticated.
2. The authenticated documents will be translated into Amharic.
3. The translated documents will be verified and registered in the Ministry of Justice.
4. Copies of the dossier are given to the Addis Ababa city Government Social and Civil Affairs Bureau. The Bureau will inform our Director when they have children to refer.
5. An official referral will be sent to the adoptive family and the family will respond with an official acceptance letter.
6. Once a referral is accepted, the Orphanage center and Sebilu will submit an application to the Court asking for a date to hear the case of adoption of the given child to the prospective adoptive family.
7. The Court will asses the above application and give an appointment (court date) to hear the case. At the same time the Court will write a letter to MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) asking for their suggestion/recommendation. The orphanage representative, adoption agency representative, birth parent(s), adoptive parents, and child (depending on his/her age) are required to be present on the day of court appointment.
8. After interviewing the above persons and reviewing the letter or recommendation from MOWA, the Court will give a verbal decision on the day of appointment.
9. The Court issues a written declaration that the child will be adopted by the specific family (usually 3-7 days after the verbal approval).
10. Once court approval (written declaration) is in hand, our in-country team them works to secure the child’s birth certificate and passport. Once those are secured, an application for a Visa appointment is made.
11. Once an Embassy appointment is secured, the family will be given the invitation to travel. Once they arrive, they will take all the documents and go to the Embassy appointment, after which meeting they may travel home.
We are not exact on the time frames from this point forward. We are planning on having her home around the spring of 2011, but that is our plan. We will keep you posted as we learn new information. Please keep praying for our daughter and for us. We know God has already chosen the little girl for us, we are just waiting for his timing to reveal her to us. I recently came across this video on youtube of a couple who adopted from Ethiopia. We can't watch this video without crying our eyes out in anticipation.
Thanks for supporting us and loving our new little girl wherever she is.
May 2009: We began praying and researching a couple of different agencies and options available.
June 2009: Identified an agency, Bethany Christian Services, and completed a preliminary application. We were approved, but were told we needed to wait until Rowen turned 1 at Christmas. (That was a blessing to have that extra time to wait)
January 2010: Completed our formal application to Bethany Christian Services and were approved.
February 2010: Began our home study. The home study consisted of 3 meetings with one of our case workers, Autumn Andretta, at her office and our house. The process taught us a lot about ourselves and the adoption process. It definitely was a great experience. It was during this time that we identified the age (1-5 years old) the sex (little girl) and the special needs (deaf/hard of hearing with other minor correctable needs)
April 2010: By the end of April our home study was totally completed and written up for approval by the higher ups at Bethany.
May 2010: We filed our Immigration paper work (I-600A). We were told this would be a 4-6 week process. It wasn't :)
June 2010: Began work on our Dossier. We weren't prepared for the amount of work, time and energy that goes into this document. We have a greater respect for our case workers and other families who are working on their Dossier. Basically, it includes every document both legal and personal that we sent to Ethiopia. Every document (40+ documents) had to be notarized, thank you Aunt Shelley and Aunt Lauren, authenticated by the county clerk and then sealed by the Secretary of State office from which the document originated. This included birth certificates from Maryland for me and New York for Coty. We had a couple of "redos" on notarized forms and other rewrites of information, but we finally wrapped it up.
July 2010: By the end of July we had our entire Dossier completed with our immigration paper work in hand.
August 2010: We turned in our completed Dossier on August 2, 2010. At that point we concluded 7 months of hard work and prep work on our part to get to the point where we are today. Our documents arrived in Ethiopia around the end of August.
September 2010: WAITING
What are we waiting for? According to Mr. Sebilu, our Bethany representative and country director in Ethiopia, here is what the next few months should look like in the process.
Be aware that Ethiopian courts close annually for 1-2 months between August
and September.
1. Sebilu receives the dossier and takes it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be authenticated.
2. The authenticated documents will be translated into Amharic.
3. The translated documents will be verified and registered in the Ministry of Justice.
4. Copies of the dossier are given to the Addis Ababa city Government Social and Civil Affairs Bureau. The Bureau will inform our Director when they have children to refer.
5. An official referral will be sent to the adoptive family and the family will respond with an official acceptance letter.
6. Once a referral is accepted, the Orphanage center and Sebilu will submit an application to the Court asking for a date to hear the case of adoption of the given child to the prospective adoptive family.
7. The Court will asses the above application and give an appointment (court date) to hear the case. At the same time the Court will write a letter to MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) asking for their suggestion/recommendation. The orphanage representative, adoption agency representative, birth parent(s), adoptive parents, and child (depending on his/her age) are required to be present on the day of court appointment.
8. After interviewing the above persons and reviewing the letter or recommendation from MOWA, the Court will give a verbal decision on the day of appointment.
9. The Court issues a written declaration that the child will be adopted by the specific family (usually 3-7 days after the verbal approval).
10. Once court approval (written declaration) is in hand, our in-country team them works to secure the child’s birth certificate and passport. Once those are secured, an application for a Visa appointment is made.
11. Once an Embassy appointment is secured, the family will be given the invitation to travel. Once they arrive, they will take all the documents and go to the Embassy appointment, after which meeting they may travel home.
We are not exact on the time frames from this point forward. We are planning on having her home around the spring of 2011, but that is our plan. We will keep you posted as we learn new information. Please keep praying for our daughter and for us. We know God has already chosen the little girl for us, we are just waiting for his timing to reveal her to us. I recently came across this video on youtube of a couple who adopted from Ethiopia. We can't watch this video without crying our eyes out in anticipation.
Thanks for supporting us and loving our new little girl wherever she is.
