I've had a few requests for our Kaz adoption timeline in pursuit of Alexandra Grace Morningstar, so I thought I'd piece one together from checkbook entries, memories, notes, old blog posts, FedEx receipts, and emails! Note that I'm only including the details that other adoptive families tend to wonder about (how long were your fingerprints in West Virginia, how long did your I-600A take, etc) and have left out things like our doctor's appointments, notarizing mortgage letters, etc.
Phase 1: Decisions
- Mid-October - mid-November 2007 - Lots of research. Deciding if we were ready for another kiddo, if adoption was the right path for our family, if international adoption was the right choice, deciding yes on all of those and choosing Kazakhstan because of the privilege of spending 2 weeks in the orphanage with our daughter-to-be
- Mid-November - early December - Telling family and close friends about our decision
- Early - mid-December - Intense agency research and interviews with agencies and parents who have adopted using each agency on our short list
- December 22 - Decided on World Partners and sent in application and passed out our reference forms
- December 27 - Accepted by World Partners - paperwork collection begins!
Phase 2: Paperwork
- December 26 - Decided on Families for Children in Salt Lake for our homestudy and initiated work with them
- December 31 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses requested from Maryland
- January 4 - Fingerprints sent to West Virginia for FBI clearance
- January 11 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses received from Maryland
- January 20 - Fingerprints received back from West Virginia with FBI clearance
- January 24 - We go public with our adoption plans
- January 28 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses sent to Maryland for apostille
- January 28 - FBI clearance sent to West Virginia for apostille
- January 31 - Final homestudy interview at our home (which was a great experience, BTW)
- February 7 - Apostilled FBI clearance received from West Virginia
- February 8 - Apostilled copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses received from Maryland
- February 14 - Completed homestudy received
- February 14 - CIS 171-H sent to Immigration Services
- February 28 - Invitation to CIS for fingerprinting for 171-H received
- March 11 - Fingerprinting at CIS for 171-H
- April 1 - Approved 171-H received from CIS
- April 2 - All remaining documents for Utah apostille sent to Lt. Governor's office
- April 10 - Dossier complete! All apostilled documents received from Lt. Governor's office
- April 13 - Dossier arrives at World Partners headquarters in Georgia
Phase 3: Waiting
Phase 4: We're Off!
Phase 5: Home Again
