I was talking to some friends yesterday at church who are very interested in international adoption, and one thing we were talking about is how complicated and intimidating the process can be when you're first thinking about it, and also how expensive it is. This is all true, but the good thing is that it doesn't all happen at once - the process and the fees that are due are spread out over many months, and you kind of learn what to do and raise the money as you go along.
Looking back over the year+ that we've been going through this adoption process, and this is what it has been for us so far:
- Contacted Amazing Grace, a local adoption agency, to start the home study process - Sept 2009
- Gathering documents, doing required training, etc - Sept-Dec 2009
- Started home study - Jan 2010
- Started home study again - Mar 10, 2010 (we had to start over with a new social worker for various reasons, but mostly because our previous one was about to have a baby)
- Decided on Ethiopia, and applied with AAI (Adoption Advocates International) - Mar 2010
- Finished home study - June 2010 (and began looking at AAI's dvds and info on their waiting children)
- Gathering documents for dossier - June-Aug 2010
- Dossier sent to Ethiopia - Aug. 26, 2010
- Chose the boys - Sept. 28, 2010
- Case submitted to court - Oct 29, 2010
- Court date assigned - Dec 16, 2010
- Court date - Jan 17, 2011
We were kind of slow getting going, mostly because it took one of us (**cough** Darren **cough**) a while to finish all the required training (10 hours each, including online courses and reading books). :) Also, when we started out, we were still praying and deciding about where to adopt from, Ethiopia or Uganda; we really only settled on Ethiopia in March, after adoptions were shut down in Uganda for several months. Some people go through this process much more quickly than we did, especially if they already know which country they're adopting from and which agency they're using, or sometimes even which specific children they want to adopt.
Looking back over the year+ that we've been going through this adoption process, and this is what it has been for us so far:
- Contacted Amazing Grace, a local adoption agency, to start the home study process - Sept 2009
- Gathering documents, doing required training, etc - Sept-Dec 2009
- Started home study - Jan 2010
- Started home study again - Mar 10, 2010 (we had to start over with a new social worker for various reasons, but mostly because our previous one was about to have a baby)
- Decided on Ethiopia, and applied with AAI (Adoption Advocates International) - Mar 2010
- Finished home study - June 2010 (and began looking at AAI's dvds and info on their waiting children)
- Gathering documents for dossier - June-Aug 2010
- Dossier sent to Ethiopia - Aug. 26, 2010
- Chose the boys - Sept. 28, 2010
- Case submitted to court - Oct 29, 2010
- Court date assigned - Dec 16, 2010
- Court date - Jan 17, 2011
We were kind of slow getting going, mostly because it took one of us (**cough** Darren **cough**) a while to finish all the required training (10 hours each, including online courses and reading books). :) Also, when we started out, we were still praying and deciding about where to adopt from, Ethiopia or Uganda; we really only settled on Ethiopia in March, after adoptions were shut down in Uganda for several months. Some people go through this process much more quickly than we did, especially if they already know which country they're adopting from and which agency they're using, or sometimes even which specific children they want to adopt.
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