Why so long to wait on a child? This is
a question we have received several times over the past few months. I wish more than anything that we could give
you an answer to this, but we don't have one.
International adoption takes time to process everything. If you take into account that we are adopting
from a third world country, then you must consider the process/time that paperwork
takes to travel and go through the hands of many different people. Although some things are done through the
internet, Ghana has a lot of time when internet is down or it works at
"dial up" speed. They don't
have the resources and amount of workers we have here to help process our case
quickly. I think this leads us to the
question: where have we been in the process and where are we now?
Our journey to adoption started long before we applied
through our adoption agency. Last year (2012) we started praying about
adoption. We explored a variety of
adoption choices and agencies, but certain doors began to close. We really felt like God was calling us to
adopt, but nothing was opening up so we weren't sure what to do. At the end of last summer we decided to stop
looking for ourselves and wait on Gods timing.
It was around Christmas that we felt God calling us towards
International adoption. We talked to a
local (national) Christian agency that we really felt like God was wanting us
to work with. We loved the local and
international people that worked in our agency so we applied to adopt (Jan
2013). It cost $500 to apply and we
weren't sure where we would find the extra money, but God provided. The week we turned in our application I
received a $500 bonus at work. YES,
exactly $500 which is what we needed. We
knew we were doing what we were supposed to because God provided in our time of
need. Once we filled out the application
we had to decide on a country. We had
prayed about which country for months, and we both mutually felt like God wanted
us to adopt from Africa. We waited 3
weeks on a response to see if we were accepted to the program. We applied to the Ghana and Ethiopia program,
but of course Ghana was on my heart because I had traveled there previously on
a mission trip. The door to Ethiopia
closed because we did not meet the requirements. We waited 3 more weeks to hear from the Ghana
program. I remember we checked our
e-mail daily waiting on a response. In
February, we finally received our acceptance and welcome to the program. At this point we knew God was leading us to
adopt from Ghana. We entered the Ghana
"pilot program" with our adoption agency. This program was only accepting a limited
number of applicants because it was new and they were unsure how the process
would work. They took in 25 families and
we were at the tail end of those 25. This
brings me to explain the timeline of events for us.
In late February, we received our adoption paperwork packet
in the mail. It didn't seem like a lot
at first, but then I read the instructions and WHOA was I OVERWHELMED! We had in our hearts to do whatever it takes
so we did the paperwork without complaints! We didn't know at the time that
this was just the beginning of A LOT of paperwork! We started our home study in
March and completed it in June (2013). A homestudy includes paperwork of things
such as: finances, employment references, personal references, debt statements,
our style of parenting, family involvement, ect. After the paperwork is completed we did
individual interviews with our social worker (whom we love) and a joint
interview about why we felt called to adopt.
Our social worker came out to the house for a tour and went through her
checklist of things for us to have done prior to adoption. For example, we had to do an evacuation plan
and have a fire extinguisher, but I suppose this will be good to have in the
future! HOME STUDY COMPLETE! Next up:
DOSSIER
The dossier... WHAT?! That was on my mind when I first saw
those words. Who knew there were so many
different things to fill out and do for adoption? We sure didn't, but this is where adoptive
moms come in to help. During this
process the Lord has sent so many wonderful adoptive parents into our lives. Our church has started a support group, and
we have met people through other people.
We have heard countless numbers of adoption stories and each one has a
different story. You learn that other
adoptive parents are the BEST resources to have during this process. I have probably ask 100 questions to women I
had never met prior to adoption. These
women are becoming some of my closest friends.
Adoptive moms understand adoptive moms, and there's really no better way
to put that. We all go through the paperwork,
emotions, and waiting period together.
Even trying to explain this process to anyone besides an adoptive
family, it's still hard to understand. DOSSIER- a BUNCH of endless paperwork
that approves you to adopt your child, but of course worth every second of your
time gathering it. This includes: USCIS
approval, birth certificates, marriage certificates, financial and debt
statements, reference letters, employment letters, insurance coverage,
homestudy, power of attorneys, passport information, tax information, pictures
of our home and family, police clearances, and reasons to adopt. That's not all of the paperwork, but that's
the bulk of it. USCIS takes the longest
at 6-8 weeks for approval. This is a
special fingerprinting/biometrics done
at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration office in Memphis that
approves us for adoption. It all sounds
like a lot, and of course it is, but well worth the time that it takes.
So what now?! Well, we mailed our 318 pages of our dossier
to Ghana Tuesday evening. We spent
months preparing for the day it was mailed off so we celebrated!!!! This is a
happy time because the bulk of our paperwork has been done! That doesn't mean it's over, but for right
now we can breathe! Once our dossier arrives in Ghana (this can take weeks) it
will be approved and we will go on the "official" waiting list to be
matched. We are approved for a female
ages 0-4 yrs. During this time we PRAY,
PRAY, PRAY! We pray for our daughter to
have good caregivers, to be healthy, to feel our love worlds apart till we can
bring her home, and to be safe. Chances
are that she has already been born and she is waiting for us too. It brings tears to our eyes to think that she
is somewhere waiting on us all alone, but we pray God provide comfort to her
until we arrive. Our estimated wait time
to be matched is 3-12 months. With Ghana
being a pilot program this could change at any time. There have not been enough Ghana adoptions to
know an exact timeline so we just wait.
We pray it's sooner than later, but we also pray for Gods PERFECT timing
because we know this is HIS plan.
What to do while waiting? What can you do to help?! PRAY! We
ask that everyone please pray for us as we await being matched with the
daughter God has in store for us. A lot
of people tell us "she's so lucky to have you waiting", but the truth
is we are so blessed that God called us to be her parents. We know she will change us in ways we never
knew existed. We already love her and we
don't even know her yet. Please pray for
strength as we wait, pray for her to stay healthy and taken care of while she
waits, and pray that God continues to provide for us through this process. We know that adoption is expensive, but we
also trust that God provides. We have
several fundraisers that we would love you to be a part of. This Sunday 9/22 we have a Facebook auction
called The Richardson's Adoption Auction which runs through the following
Sunday 9/29. We will have several
wonderful items donated by some amazing people with 100% of proceeds going
towards our adoption. We are graciously
taking donations and look forward to starting this fundraiser! We are also
planning another rummage sale on November 16.
We are already collecting stuff for this and are graciously taking
donations. Please feel free to be a part
of our story, share our story, and ask any questions that you may have for us. Most of all, please pray for us! We just continually ask people to pray
because we know that God provides every need for us. He has given us strength, patience, love, and
an overwhelming amount of support through this time. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and
family for your support as we continue this journey in our lives.
Love you all so much,
Sarah and Sean :-)
Goodbye dossier paperwork 9/17 & HELLO waiting/referral time:
