Thursday, May 11, 2017

INDIA - Dossier time!

Hello all!  Much needed update follows!
     We are adopting this little girl we told you about earlier!  Her name is Abha, and I'll just tell you right now, she's adorable.  I hesitated posting more details because for a while it was back and forth.  Do we have her or don't we?  Can we pursue or not?  We prayed and prayed for wisdom and calm and that Abha find a safe family, as things were uncertain and thankfully God answered our prayers AND allowed that we be the family for Abha which was just icing on the cake.  I firmly believe that God is guiding Abha to a family and also guiding our story, we feel privileged that it could be us entrusted with Abha.  So far so good!  We are two approvals into the 6-step gauntlet.
     We were matched with her on March 20 after much uncertainty.  There was a system error that appeared that we could not continue with her referral, but then the region said they were under the impression we were matched, so that was good news! Then a few weeks later the central authority said no, because of the previous mistake another family had reserved her.  Then a few weeks later after our agency appealed on our behalf, the central agency granted us the reservation and matched us with her.  Phew!  Talk about a roller coaster!  So we continued on with the immigration paperwork, and one of the papers appeared unacceptable.  After about a week, and a discussion with the supervisor, it was decided that the paper was acceptable.  NOW we are ready to obtain the necessary documents to fill out the DS-260 to obtain a visa for Abha to eventually travel to the US!  In the meantime, our acceptance dossier (see following pics) is traveling through India being approved (the next two approval steps) and will hopefully end with our NOC (no objection certificate) then it's the two court processes.  Little by little, we inch through!  Also we are going to be getting more info from the orphanage about her likes and dislikes and details about her day.  Hopefully in a little while we'll be able to send her gifts and pictures.  Once we pass court, I can share pictures.  Until then, I want to show you what an international dossier looks like, in case you ever wondered. I'll give you a hint.  It looks like a mountain of papers.


Yipes!  Imagine the postage!  It'll give you nightmares!