Court update

We received our first update on the court processing in Bangalore. The quoted part below is from the orphanage with explanation to follow.

"...and Victoria Rani- The dates for the 1st hearing has not been given but they have been seen by the scrutiny officer for her report. Since court closes on the 24th of April it does look like it may not pass before that. However I am trying to think positive:-))"--end of VCT email.

The Bangalore court closes for Summer Recess from 24 April-25 May. While the courts don't always close completely, we are hearing from VCT not to expect any movement during summer recess this year. We are hearing the same thing from BSSK regarding the Summer Recess in Pune which is from 5 May-7 June.

The scrutiny officer has to review each case prior to the 1st hearing. Often times, this does not happen before the first hearing and the hearing gets postponed. It is good news that at least the scrutiny officer has reviewed our case, but it does take a while for the order to be given so that may not happen before the court closure.

Continue to pray for speedy processing!

NOC Received!!!!!!

We received CARA's NOC (India's central government's No-Objection Certificate)!!!!! That means that the central government has approved us to adopt. Now VCT (Victoria's orphanage that oversees her foster care) will file with the local attorney/courts. We will know when the first hearing will be in a couple weeks. Our case has to go through 3-5 hearings each scheduled about 4 weeks apart. Unfortunately, the courts are closed in June for holiday. :(

Now we complete yet more paperwork, the I-800 to be specific, and some attachments with it.

This is such good news and our NOC came sooner than we expected!!!

We were pretending to pat Victoria's head in the kitchen the other day - at the height she is..... and Will and Logan keep saying, "I can't wait to rub her head!"

Victoria's Video of Her Forever Family

We have enjoyed putting together a video for Victoria this weekend. The boys did most of the narrating. They gave her a tour of our home and showed her where her shoes and toothbrush are. It was fun putting the little pink Dora toothbrush in with the two Spongebob ones. We showed her around the yard, the boys riding bikes and jumping on the trampoline and took her down to the swings on the lake. We couldn't yet film her room because it's far from being finished. It still has a double bed in it and we haven't painted it yet, so even if we did film it, she wouldn't recognize it when she comes home. We'll send her snapshots of it soon. We have a friend who will edit the video for us next week and add some music to some snapshots we plan to add at the end. What a blessing that will be! I am praying that God will guard her heart and give her understanding beyond her years - that when she sees pictures of us and watches the video, she will begin to understand we are her forever family.

The Papers Made It!

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!

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!"

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.

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!