Our papers made it to India. Mary from Holt e-mailed me and said VCT is filing at CARA for NOC. Sounds like the military or something. They sent our paperwork to the Indian government and we will receive a Non-Objection Certificate in 4-6 weeks. Then our paperwork will go through the local Bangalore courts.
Also, Mary confirmed that they do inform the children of their new families when they receive the acceptance papers and that they have most likely shared our pictures with Victoria. :) :) :)
Pray for speedy NOC for us!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Our Papers are Going to India!
Our papers were sent to India on Friday, Feb. 20th (which was Melissa's Grandma's birthday)!!! The papers are sent to VCT (the orphanage that manages Victoria's foster care) and they will forward a copy to CARA (the Indian government) for their review and approval. CARA's approval is in the form of a Non Objection Certificate. This typically takes 1-4 months. Then we do yet more paperwork and then will wait for court processing.
Having our papers finally sent off is a huge relief! Holt carefully reviews them for accuracy and congruency, so knowing that they sent simply means "All's good to go!"
We also sent a small photo album - laminated pages with pictures on them - of our immediate family and our home for Victoria to see. I think she will get to see it shortly after VCT receives our papers. We wish we could be there to see her "see" us!!! Will and Logan drew her pictures as well. We will also be working on a video to send to her. She will finally see her goofy big brothers in action!
We can send Victoria anything that resembles a document - stickers, cards, coloring pages and anything else creative we can think of. Maybe I can find a "paper thin" blankie. :)
On a financial note, God provided all we needed before our papers were mailed in! We serve a wonderful loving God and have wonderful loving friends and family, too! You know who you are and we thank you! We are now saving for our travel expenses which will be upwards of $7,000.00. However, that is pocket change to God and we know He has brought us this far and he won't leave us hanging! We continue to save Melissa's teaching money, are planning for more rummage sales and praying for a grant. We refinanced our home which lowered our monthly payment. God is good. "Whatever we ask in His name ~ He will do it!"
Having our papers finally sent off is a huge relief! Holt carefully reviews them for accuracy and congruency, so knowing that they sent simply means "All's good to go!"
We also sent a small photo album - laminated pages with pictures on them - of our immediate family and our home for Victoria to see. I think she will get to see it shortly after VCT receives our papers. We wish we could be there to see her "see" us!!! Will and Logan drew her pictures as well. We will also be working on a video to send to her. She will finally see her goofy big brothers in action!
We can send Victoria anything that resembles a document - stickers, cards, coloring pages and anything else creative we can think of. Maybe I can find a "paper thin" blankie. :)
On a financial note, God provided all we needed before our papers were mailed in! We serve a wonderful loving God and have wonderful loving friends and family, too! You know who you are and we thank you! We are now saving for our travel expenses which will be upwards of $7,000.00. However, that is pocket change to God and we know He has brought us this far and he won't leave us hanging! We continue to save Melissa's teaching money, are planning for more rummage sales and praying for a grant. We refinanced our home which lowered our monthly payment. God is good. "Whatever we ask in His name ~ He will do it!"
Friday, February 6, 2009
Our I-800a has been approved!!!!!!!!
We got our I-800a approval notice in the mail today!!! This means that the US has approved us to adopt. This is an incredible mountain conquered in our adoption process and I feel like a burden has been lifted. All of our paperwork will be sent from Holt to India early next week and then we, yep, you may have guessed it, wait some more. It will take 6-9 months (give or take a month or so - this process is quite unpredictable) for our case to go through the courts in Bangalore.
We have also had truly amazing financial provision and are able to pay Holt's India Program Fee. This had to be paid before Holt could send our documents to India. God is always on time! We continue to raise funds, save and pray hard for the next steps of the process.
I, Melissa, dropped my brother Kevin, his wife Julie, and another couple, Steve and JoAnn Ulery, off at the airport today as they embark on a missions trip to Tanzania, Africa. I am so excited for what God is doing in each of their lives. Pray for them the next two weeks.
We have also had truly amazing financial provision and are able to pay Holt's India Program Fee. This had to be paid before Holt could send our documents to India. God is always on time! We continue to raise funds, save and pray hard for the next steps of the process.
I, Melissa, dropped my brother Kevin, his wife Julie, and another couple, Steve and JoAnn Ulery, off at the airport today as they embark on a missions trip to Tanzania, Africa. I am so excited for what God is doing in each of their lives. Pray for them the next two weeks.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Our girl is growing!
We received our quarterly update on Victoria with a new picture which I will post on here at some point. She was 12# in August when she arrived at VCT and now she's 22#. Growing - just wish we could watch her grow! We are thankful she is thriving in her environment. There wasn't any other big news in the update. Just that she's healthy and attending speech therapy twice a week. Her motor skills are listed as "good" too. She must be gaining some muscles on those little bones. All the better to run from her big brothers.
We are expecting our paperwork to be processed here in the US in the next week or two. We received correspondence from USCIS and they want an addendum to our home study from our social worker. Mary from Holt said we should receive approval within two weeks after the addendum is received. Then our dossier will be couriered to India and we'll wait 6-9 months for the courts to process it.....
Life has been a bit hectic here. We are in the process of refinancing our house which will lower our payment. As soon as we began the refinancing, we had a pipe break in our basement and flood part of it, so we had to quickly get some remodeling completed down there. In the midst of that, Billy fell 9' off a ladder and broke his ankle and has to be off it for 6 weeks. We are learning much through all of it and can see God at work as well. What the enemy means for destruction, we will turn around for God's glory!
Tomorrow is Logan's 5th birthday. It's bitter sweet as we believe 4 is the perfect age. Logan had a blast at his birthday party at the fire station yesterday and is looking forward to more presents tomorrow. Both boys have literally been bouncing off the walls this weekend!
We are expecting our paperwork to be processed here in the US in the next week or two. We received correspondence from USCIS and they want an addendum to our home study from our social worker. Mary from Holt said we should receive approval within two weeks after the addendum is received. Then our dossier will be couriered to India and we'll wait 6-9 months for the courts to process it.....
Life has been a bit hectic here. We are in the process of refinancing our house which will lower our payment. As soon as we began the refinancing, we had a pipe break in our basement and flood part of it, so we had to quickly get some remodeling completed down there. In the midst of that, Billy fell 9' off a ladder and broke his ankle and has to be off it for 6 weeks. We are learning much through all of it and can see God at work as well. What the enemy means for destruction, we will turn around for God's glory!
Tomorrow is Logan's 5th birthday. It's bitter sweet as we believe 4 is the perfect age. Logan had a blast at his birthday party at the fire station yesterday and is looking forward to more presents tomorrow. Both boys have literally been bouncing off the walls this weekend!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
We accepted a referral!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has truly been a Merry Christmas for our family! We are pleased to introduce you to our daughter, Victoria Rani. She is 3 years old and is in a foster home in Bangalore.
We did not expect to get a referral of a child until our paperwork had been processed here in the US, but we got "the call" on November 20th. :) When I heard Dean from Holt say her name, my heart just soared!
"Rani" in the Hindi version of the original Sanskrit means "Queen". In its Hebrew form it is derived from an expression meaning "She is singing." And every time we speak her name, Victoria, we will be speaking victory into her life. As broken and fragile as she is now, she will rise up with confidence in her Lord and strong in stature as a queen and will sing songs of victory in the "rain of the Spirit"!!!!
As a result of her life circumstances and malnourishment, Victoria has mild speech and motor skill delays. She is also very small. As of October 28th, she was only about 19#. But she is growing and already playing "catch-up" with her foster family. She has speech and language therapy once a week.
We are amazed at the gift God has given us for Christmas this year. He is soooooo good! She should be home for Christmas next year. We expect to travel to pick up our small package sometime this summer or fall.
We will be able to visit our missionary friends in Mysore, Tim and Karla Shamala. Again, God is so good and simply wants to bless His children. There are two orphanages we could have received a child from. One is in Pune which is far away from Mysore and the other is in Bangalore which is within reasonable driving distance from Mysore. We always believed God would make a way for us to visit with them and He has!
Please begin praying for Victoria and continue to pray for our family. Stay tuned for many more updates!
We did not expect to get a referral of a child until our paperwork had been processed here in the US, but we got "the call" on November 20th. :) When I heard Dean from Holt say her name, my heart just soared!
"Rani" in the Hindi version of the original Sanskrit means "Queen". In its Hebrew form it is derived from an expression meaning "She is singing." And every time we speak her name, Victoria, we will be speaking victory into her life. As broken and fragile as she is now, she will rise up with confidence in her Lord and strong in stature as a queen and will sing songs of victory in the "rain of the Spirit"!!!!
As a result of her life circumstances and malnourishment, Victoria has mild speech and motor skill delays. She is also very small. As of October 28th, she was only about 19#. But she is growing and already playing "catch-up" with her foster family. She has speech and language therapy once a week.
We are amazed at the gift God has given us for Christmas this year. He is soooooo good! She should be home for Christmas next year. We expect to travel to pick up our small package sometime this summer or fall.
We will be able to visit our missionary friends in Mysore, Tim and Karla Shamala. Again, God is so good and simply wants to bless His children. There are two orphanages we could have received a child from. One is in Pune which is far away from Mysore and the other is in Bangalore which is within reasonable driving distance from Mysore. We always believed God would make a way for us to visit with them and He has!
Please begin praying for Victoria and continue to pray for our family. Stay tuned for many more updates!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Fingerprinting's Done!
On December 9th we went to Michigan City to get our fingerprinting done for USCIS. Our appointment was for 8:00am and we had our google maps ready and left in plenty of time. Little to our knowledge the office had recently been moved from Hammond, IN to Michigan City and the "Dunes Plaza" address we googled was the "Dunes Plaza" resort homes along the lake. AAAHHHH!! Not the place we wanted to be!
Horrible thoughts of having to reapply and repay fees started invading my mind. Billy told me to call the number on the USCIS paperwork and I just laughed and said that would be like telephoning the Space Station! We drove around and found a place to stop and ask for directions. Yep, you guessed it, I (Melissa) ran in. The not-so-friendly guy told me to come back in 10 minutes when their offices opened and I firmly told him I HAD to be at this other place at 8:00. I think he noticed my desperation and proceeded to give me quite unclear directions to the "Dunes Plaza" shopping center. The Holy Spirit led us there and when I saw the big blue letters "Application Support Center" on the side of a building, I got all teary-eyed and gave all glory to God. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes and then went across the street to IHOP and ate a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting.
Fortunately, when go to pick up our daugher in India, Holt will provide us with a knowledgeable driver to take us to the places we need to be. We won't return home without her simply because we couldn't find the place! Like my sister-in-law said, "Google maps may not work the same in India."
Thank you Lord for giving us direction when we need it!
Horrible thoughts of having to reapply and repay fees started invading my mind. Billy told me to call the number on the USCIS paperwork and I just laughed and said that would be like telephoning the Space Station! We drove around and found a place to stop and ask for directions. Yep, you guessed it, I (Melissa) ran in. The not-so-friendly guy told me to come back in 10 minutes when their offices opened and I firmly told him I HAD to be at this other place at 8:00. I think he noticed my desperation and proceeded to give me quite unclear directions to the "Dunes Plaza" shopping center. The Holy Spirit led us there and when I saw the big blue letters "Application Support Center" on the side of a building, I got all teary-eyed and gave all glory to God. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes and then went across the street to IHOP and ate a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting.
Fortunately, when go to pick up our daugher in India, Holt will provide us with a knowledgeable driver to take us to the places we need to be. We won't return home without her simply because we couldn't find the place! Like my sister-in-law said, "Google maps may not work the same in India."
Thank you Lord for giving us direction when we need it!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We're #1 on the list!!!!!!!
Well, kind of anyway. I talked with Mary at Holt today and after getting many questions answered I thought I would inquire as to where we are on the waiting list. We are #7 overall, but #1 that's not an NRI couple. NRI means "Non-resident Indian". In other words, there is some preference given to NRI couples. India desires to place as many children as they can with families in India and then they try to place them with Indian families outside of India. So sometimes the wait can be longer for families who are not of Indian descent.
We will be mailing our I-800a paperwork to the US Government this week. It will take 90-120 days to process. I thought we couldn't get a referral of a child until this was approved, but Mary told me today that we could get one at any time! Yeah!!!
We are so excited that "the call" could really come at any time, but also have a great financial need. We still need close to $5000.00 by the time we get a referral. We are applying for a grant, so pray for favor for us ~ and literally for a financial miracle. God's hand has been upon this entire process and we continue to trust in Him and know He's working out every part of this process. Maybe soon this blog will get much more active!
We will be mailing our I-800a paperwork to the US Government this week. It will take 90-120 days to process. I thought we couldn't get a referral of a child until this was approved, but Mary told me today that we could get one at any time! Yeah!!!
We are so excited that "the call" could really come at any time, but also have a great financial need. We still need close to $5000.00 by the time we get a referral. We are applying for a grant, so pray for favor for us ~ and literally for a financial miracle. God's hand has been upon this entire process and we continue to trust in Him and know He's working out every part of this process. Maybe soon this blog will get much more active!
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