Not really that far, but we do have a better idea of where we're going.
We're still sort of figuring out how best to use the blog but the goal is still to post at least once a week. It seems like more people are checking in and reading than we really expected. We're certainly not professionals so there's bound to be some less than ideal organization or writing. Leah catches most of my grammatical and punctuation errors, but I don't make it easy on her when I write the posts. Thanks for following along though and giving us an outlet. It's always nice to know when you put yourself "out there" a little bit, there's actually someone listening.
We recently got some more clarity on how the rest of the adoption process now that our homestudy is complete. All we can really do is still take it one step at a time, but it's nice to know all the steps we have to get through. As of January 22, we were officially accepted into the WACAP India program. As part of the "Welcome Packet", they provided us a "Y chart" (now I know what that is) with all the major milestones. It was really the first time we saw this level of detail on everything involved since we embarked on this process.
I've added that chart to this post, below. You'll notice the green arrow, which is where we sit today in the process.... so a little ways for us to go yet before we bring a child home...
Hopefully it all goes smooth and quickly, but so much of that is out of our control. For example, our adoption process was briefly delayed due to the government shutdown. Last week we completed our I-800A paperwork, which is submitted to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). WACAP actually reviews the paperwork and submits it on our behalf to USCIS. So while our papework was in the mail to WACAP, the federal government shutdown. Therefore, USCIS wasn't accepting or reviewing any adoption applications. Thankfully, the government shutdown only lasted one business day. It sounds like the Senate was only really successful at kicking the can down the road 3 weeks, so we could be back in the same place again soon. It should take about 6 weeks for that paperwork to get approved, so we're hustling to get everything submitted, but we don't really know how long it'll take to process. Let's hope the politicians in DC learn how to work with each other like the rest of us in the real world.
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