Blogging: a schedule

I mentioned that one of my goals is to blog more.  I have set up a schedule to do just that.  My goal is to blog at least 3 times a week.  So, here is my schedule:  Mondays: my life, Tuesdays: homeschooling, and Thursdays:  adoption.  Occasionally I will add in Wordless Wednesdays and Photo Dump Fridays.  So, today is Thursday...

Let's start off with an adoption time line.  The number one question after we announced we were adopting Hannah and Isaiah, is when are they coming home.  In short, no idea!  The adoption world is very unpredictable.  So many things have to happen in a certain order before the children can come home.  Sometimes these "things" happen quickly and the children are home in a very timely manner (insert hysterical laughter from all my adoptive mama friends).  More often than not, these things do not go quickly or happen without issue.  So, here is a rough run down of what needs to happen:

Home study finished!  This is a big one...we are at a standstill until this is done.  The hubby and I will be meeting with the social worker on January 17th to get this ball rolling...quickly, I hope.  Since we changed countries there are, obviously, some changes that need to be made to the home study.  After this meeting we will have a better idea when this will be finished.  I am praying for the end of January!

Then we have to file a form called the I-600a, which is the application for the advance processing of orphan petition.  This form carries a ridiculous fee along with it and the processing time for this form is currently 75 days. 

While waiting for this document to be approved we will be getting together all paperwork that we need for a dossier.  This isn't too difficult...just some very specific paperwork that needs to be notarized and sent to our agency.  They will put everything together in a nice, little packet. 

Once the I-600a approval is returned, our agency will add the approval letter to our dossier and send it off to Ghana.

This next part I just copied straight from my email...much easier. 

Our in-country liaison will provide your dossier to a lawyer in Ghana. The lawyer will then complete the petition for adoption and file this with the Court. The Ministry will then file a report supporting the adoption. Once this is complete, the Court will set a hearing date. At that time, you and your husband or one of you will go to Ghana and present yourself to the court to receive the Adoption Decree. This is usually about 3 months after sending your dossier.

So, in case you have lost track, we will be making our first visit to Ghana about 135 (business) days after our home study is finished.  IF...that is a very big IF...our home study is finished by the end of January we should be traveling to Ghana to meet our little darlings some time in August.  We will be staying in Ghana for 10-14 days.  In that time we will be spending a ton of time with our little ones and we will also have a court date.  At this point we will officially adopt Hannah and Isaiah!  Very exciting!  We also hope to be able to file the next necessary form while in country.  This forms is the I-600.  This is a petition to classify the orphan as an immediate relative.  This seems obvious to me...um, we just adopted them in court...they are our son and daughter!  The government loves paper work!  

Then, we wait!  I imagine this will be the most difficult part of the whole process.  I can't imagine spending two weeks with my children and then leaving them.  I am really not looking forward to this part of the process.  

This form takes a minimum of 60 days to be approved but it seems it is usually longer so I am praying for no longer than 75 days!  Once this is approved our in-country liaison will, with power of attorney, pick up our children's visa packets.  Then the visa interview and hopefully a printed visa...with no issues or hold ups would be nice.  Once the visa is issued we will be on a plane to bring home our baby's!!!  This trip will be about 7 days long.  

So, if all goes well (HA!) we will be bringing Hannah and Isaiah home around Thanksgiving time! ( I think in an earlier post I mentioned October...this would be great but I forgot to count business days only...oops...so in reality we are looking at closer to the end of November.)  

Typing this all out kind of makes me sad.  November seems ages away! 

Waiting....