Hurry Up and Wait

Hallelujah! The mailman brought us a precious gem this morning - three copies of our notarized home study! As I write this, one of those copies is already on its way to the USCIS field office in Philadelphia, and the countdown to our I-171H has officially begun!

Those of you who understand the significance of this moment, dance a little jig with me, will you?! And for those of you who are wondering what all the excitement's about, allow me to explain...

The adoption process is a series of hurry-up-and-waits. First, it's "hurry up and get the preliminary paperwork completed," followed by a wait to move into the home study phase. Then it's "hurry up and get the home study materials together," followed by a wait to schedule the meetings. And sprinkled throughout the first several months are lots of little "hurry up and send a request for this-or-that document," and the ensuing wait to retrieve them.

However, most of the early hurry-up-and-waits are relatively condensed and not too painful. The "Big Ones" begin at the end of the paper chase, with the submission of the I-600A to USCIS. Here's how it works (I'm an amateur, so bear with me):

Big One #1: The I-600A/I-171H

• The I-600A is an application to adopt internationally, which is processed by the United States Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Upon approval of the I-600A, the adoptive parents receive the coveted I-171H, which is essential for bringing an adopted child to America.
  
• Once we have the I-171H, our dossier is complete. We can zip up to Harrisburg to have all the documents certified by the Secretary of State, and then ship the dossier off to Washington, D.C. to be reviewed, translated, and delivered to Rwanda.
• Here's the catch: it takes an average of 8-12 weeks for the I-600A to be processed. Some people have waited as long as 5 months, others have set a record with 2 weeks! In most cases it's the longest wait for any of the dossier documents, but you can't get the wheels turning on it until the end of the paper chase, because that's when the home study is finished.

Big One #2: Rwandan Government Approval

• Once our dossier arrives in Rwanda (after a few weeks of traveling to our adoption agency, the U.S. State Department, the Rwandan Embassy in D.C., and finally to Kigali, Rwanda), we will wait several months (probably at least 4-6) to receive the government's approval to adopt a Rwandan orphan.

Big One #3: Child Referral

• Once we're approved, the powers-that-be in Rwanda will work on choosing a child for us. This portion of the adoption process has recently undergone some changes, so I don't know exactly how it works. Families currently in this stage have been assured they will receive their referrals no more than 2 months after approval.

As you can see, we have plenty of waiting ahead of us! There is some relief tonight in knowing we've at least entered the first of the Big Ones. It feels like we've been pushing a cart uphill for months, and we're getting close to cresting the top. Pretty soon we'll be able to give one more good shove and the load will take off on its own! Maybe not as quickly as we'd like, but its progress will be, for the most part, out of our hands.

Well, if you've muscled your way through this much of an incredibly long and technical post, you deserve something a little lighter! A new friend of mine who is also adopting from Rwanda inspired me to document some of our paperwork. See her humorous post here.

First, allow me to introduce The Notebook. Not very creative, I know, but it's what we call it. It might not look like much, but it represents many precious hours of labor! Annabell and Liam grew in my uterus. I can't contribute that part of myself to this baby, so instead I'm using The Notebook. In that light, here's a photo of "pregnant" Alison:

The Notebook holds calendars, to-do lists, copies of all correspondence, instruction guides from our agency, and receipts from every expenditure. It also houses The Folders, which contain originals and copies of the documents we've worked so hard to collect.


To-Do lists are like oxygen. Here's a photo of my master list, which I created in the beginning of the adoption process after receiving our dossier guidelines from the agency.


That's all for tonight, folks! Thanks for sticking with me!