Dossier on it's way to Colombia

Excellent news!! Our dossier (all our adoption paperwork) is on it's way to Colombia as of today!

What this included:

·     Birth certificates for the entire family (one from another state that was a little tricky to get)

·     Marriage certificate

·     Psychological testing for Jerrod & Melissa

·     A home study (3 visits with a social worker and a very long document created)

·     Doctor's physicals (we had to get this re-done 3 times due to errors in notarizing)

·     Fingerprinting for the state of Iowa

·     Fingerprinting for the FBI (twice, three times for Melissa, since they lost the first ones, then both of ours expired)

·     Fingerprinting for immigration approval

·     A Shutterfly photo book for our daughter (the fun part)

·     Application to ICBF (Colombian social services)

·     A letter about our family and why we want to adopt

·     Employment letters (about 3 or 4 re-dos here for various reasons)

·     Copies of tax returns (originally 2010, then updated to be 2011)

·     Letters of reference from our amazingly supportive friends!!

I think that's all.... and a mere 13-14 months to gather and complete said list.

What's Next:

1.   Translation of the Dossier into Spanish

2.  Approval from ICBF (we hope to have this by the end of 2012, but we are resigned to the fact that it is out of our control)

3.  Once approved we are officially on the waiting list

4.  Current waiting list time is estimated to 6 - 9 months.

So, right now we are waiting to be waiting.  At least now we are waiting on someone else and not feeling like we are the bottleneck (ha!).

Are we really done with paper work?

Woo-hoo!!!!

We received word from our agency yesterday that ALL of our paperwork is complete and ready to send to Colombia.  We thought we were done at the begining of September, and just to redo a few (6) minor things.  We never thought when we started over a year ago that it take more than 6 months...  Oh well we believe the timing will working out perfectly for the daughter we are meant to have.  Not that it makes waiting fun.

What happens next...

• Our paperwork is translated into Spanish
• Then it is submitted for approval (hoping for 1 month, could be longer though)

We hope we will be approved by the end of 2012....  Which means we will officially be on the waiting list.  Currently the waiting list is considered 6-9 months.  I've read rumors that the waiting list timelines should be updated anyday now.  Let's hope they are shorter and not longer.

On a side note, I tried practicing my Spanish a little on a trip to Cozumel.  I can tell that I need to get a lot farther than level 1 on Rosetta stone to communicate much more than very basic things.  It's fun to practice though.

And, we really aren't done with our paperwork.  In 2013 we'll have to update our homestudy and immigration approval...  So only done for now.

Adios for now!