June 2007 - Signed up with local agency to start the adoption process. The name of this agency was Accept. The plan was to pursue an independent adoption from India. We wanted to do this because 1) we wanted a child from Gujarat, the state in India where our family is from, 2) we had connections in Gujarat that would help us find a healthy child and move the process along quickly and 3) it was a cheaper option. An independent adoption is one where we find the orphanage, we find the child, and we do all the leg work. Accept would help us with the paperwork.
October 2007 - Our homestudy is complete. A homestudy is written by the adoption agency qualifying you to be an adoptive parent. They look at your financial and medical records, review reference letters from your friends, visit your home and look through all your closets, and interview you several times, both individually and as a couple.
November 2007 - Accept closes for financial reasons. We are so upset. We loved Accept. Our files are transferred to Adopt International. This agency is not approved by the Indian govt (CARA) so Adopt International can be our homestudy agency but they cannot help us with the India adoption. We go on the search for an agency that can help with the India portion of the adoption.
December 2007 - Our I-600A form is approved. This means that the US govt approves us for International Adoption.
January 2008- Finally found an agency to help us with the independent adoption from India. The name of this Agency was Children of India.
April 2008 - Things did not go as planned with Children of India. Eventually they too ended up shutting down. On the India side, ran into a lot of corruption when trying to adopt from Gujarat. Give up on adopting from Gujarat.
May 2008 - Called every agency I could find to see if they could help. No luck. No one would help with independent adoption from India and to go the traditional route of international adoption (where the agency gives us a referral) would take too long. I was getting a timeline of 12-24 months for referral. We give up. We did not want to start over and wait another 2 years before bringing a baby into our life. Took it as a sign that God did not want us to adopt from India. Started looking into domestic adoption within the US. Lots of fears about that but had no choice.
June 2008- Got a referral out of the blue for a 5 month old healthy baby boy in India. I belong to an online group of people trying to adopt from India. I almost unsubscribed from the group when we started exploring domestic adoption. Thank goodness I hadn't. A dear friend from the group emailed to say her agency had a healthy baby boy available for anyone who was ready with their paperwork. We had been ready forever and a day. We contacted her agency and literally overnight we had a son. The name of this agency is IFS.
This miracle happened after a trip we took to Temple Square in Utah. This deserves a separate posting and one of these days I will do that.
August 2008- our dossier (adoption paperwork) gets filed with CARA (the India govt agency overseeing adoptions). We hear it takes 3-8 weeks for CARA to issue a No Objection Certificate. We start planning Nathan's 1st birthday in Dec and his first Christmas.
October 2008- The orphanage license is up for renewal. No cases are processed until CARA renews the license. We are stuck. There goes the Christmas and birthday celebrations.
December 2008- Nathan turns 1. Still no NOC. We spend the holidays with my family in Maryland. We all go out to dinner to celebrate Nathan's 1st birthday. Orphanage license gets renewed.
January 2009 - Received the NOC on New Years Day. The best news ever. We are in Maryland visiting family for the holidays and we all go out to celebrate. We think Nathan should be home by March. We are just waiting on the court process.
February 2009 - The court says they want more documents. Seriously? So we send them and wait.
April 2009 - Court is all done. Nathan is legally ours. Now we wait for ICPC. That process could take up to three weeks. We decide not to wait to see Nathan. We plan on leaving for India this weekend. We will take custody of Nathan and then stay with family in Ahmedabad until ICPC is done. If all goes well, Nathan will be home in the US in the next few weeks. HOORAY.
Rajal
October 2008- The orphanage license is up for renewal. No cases are processed until CARA renews the license. We are stuck. There goes the Christmas and birthday celebrations.
December 2008- Nathan turns 1. Still no NOC. We spend the holidays with my family in Maryland. We all go out to dinner to celebrate Nathan's 1st birthday. Orphanage license gets renewed.
January 2009 - Received the NOC on New Years Day. The best news ever. We are in Maryland visiting family for the holidays and we all go out to celebrate. We think Nathan should be home by March. We are just waiting on the court process.
February 2009 - The court says they want more documents. Seriously? So we send them and wait.
April 2009 - Court is all done. Nathan is legally ours. Now we wait for ICPC. That process could take up to three weeks. We decide not to wait to see Nathan. We plan on leaving for India this weekend. We will take custody of Nathan and then stay with family in Ahmedabad until ICPC is done. If all goes well, Nathan will be home in the US in the next few weeks. HOORAY.
Rajal
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