We received our Letter of Invitation yesterday! The light at the end of this very long tunnel is getting pretty bright!
We've had many people comment on the length of our process - it has been LONG! But I want to clarify that our process with the twins really hasn't even hit the 1 year mark. It's just that the road getting to A and J was pretty twisty and turn-y.
We first started out heading towards Ethiopia, but then ended up switching agencies and countries, when we accepted the referral for a little girl in the DRC. In February of 2012, we lost that referral. On March 30, 2012 we accepted the referral of Shako and Omba (aka little A and J). Our process from there has looked like this:
April 13 - sent 2 documents to Assistant Stork to be authenticated in Washington DC
April 23 - our authenticated documents and amended home study met up
May 16 - sent our request for i600/171h changes - these changes needed to be made because we added a child! :)
June 11 - received i600 (revised) approval in mail
July 5 - found out we passed Court #1 in DRC
September 13 - sent immigration paperwork to CCI (our agency)
September 24 - received Adoption Judgement document - passed Court #2 in DRC
October 24 - 30 day non-appeal period is over
October 25 - received Certificate of Non-Appeal and Adoption Deeds for both children
November 9 - paperwork sent to Immigration (stateside) - approval should come in 1-4 weeks
November 11 - received new Birth Certificates for both children
November 12 - received translations on CONA and Adoption Deeds
November 13 - received translations on Birth Certificates
November 15 - 2nd biometrics appt - our 1st set of fingerprints expired, so we needed to do a 2nd
November 28 - Yellow Fever vaccinations
December 10 - kids passports are ready
January 10, 2013 - 1st Embassy Appt - our lawyer, JB, is present
January 15 - received Letter of Invitation from DRC
January 17 - sent our visa application, passports and yellow fever cards to DRC Embassy in Washington, DC
Coming up...January 23 - 2nd Embassy Appt for JB and A and J
There it is - what this past year has looked like - we did a lot of checking our mailbox and our email inbox!
Just a step or 2 more to go! We'll keep you up-to-date! :)
We've had many people comment on the length of our process - it has been LONG! But I want to clarify that our process with the twins really hasn't even hit the 1 year mark. It's just that the road getting to A and J was pretty twisty and turn-y.
We first started out heading towards Ethiopia, but then ended up switching agencies and countries, when we accepted the referral for a little girl in the DRC. In February of 2012, we lost that referral. On March 30, 2012 we accepted the referral of Shako and Omba (aka little A and J). Our process from there has looked like this:
April 13 - sent 2 documents to Assistant Stork to be authenticated in Washington DC
April 23 - our authenticated documents and amended home study met up
May 16 - sent our request for i600/171h changes - these changes needed to be made because we added a child! :)
June 11 - received i600 (revised) approval in mail
July 5 - found out we passed Court #1 in DRC
September 13 - sent immigration paperwork to CCI (our agency)
September 24 - received Adoption Judgement document - passed Court #2 in DRC
October 24 - 30 day non-appeal period is over
October 25 - received Certificate of Non-Appeal and Adoption Deeds for both children
November 9 - paperwork sent to Immigration (stateside) - approval should come in 1-4 weeks
November 11 - received new Birth Certificates for both children
November 12 - received translations on CONA and Adoption Deeds
November 13 - received translations on Birth Certificates
November 15 - 2nd biometrics appt - our 1st set of fingerprints expired, so we needed to do a 2nd
November 28 - Yellow Fever vaccinations
December 10 - kids passports are ready
January 10, 2013 - 1st Embassy Appt - our lawyer, JB, is present
January 15 - received Letter of Invitation from DRC
January 17 - sent our visa application, passports and yellow fever cards to DRC Embassy in Washington, DC
Coming up...January 23 - 2nd Embassy Appt for JB and A and J
There it is - what this past year has looked like - we did a lot of checking our mailbox and our email inbox!
Just a step or 2 more to go! We'll keep you up-to-date! :)
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