Well, I think God had a lesson to teach me through my impatience. Writing that post yesterday was cathartic and taught me a lot. And this morning, after four days, the orphanage wrote back.
It was brief, but encouraging. He said they do indeed have adoptable youngsters, but that there are many legal hurdles to adopting internationally from Zambia. He mentioned the residency requirements specifically.
I wrote back immediately, assuring him that we’d done our homework and are aware of the requirements. I cited the recent adoptions by some friends and said that the judges were waiving the requirements for approved homestudies. If he was willing to allow his kids to be adopted, we were prepared to tackle the hurdles.
So, this afternoon I began downloading all the forms and doing more research into passports, the I-600 and I-600A, IR3 and IR4 visas, and readoption. I added many new links to my Independent Adoption page. I am going to order certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license as soon as I can figure out how many we need. And I’m going to call and get started on our homestudy.
I admit, up until now it hasn’t felt truly real, even after writing to the orphanage. But now that I can start filling out immigration forms and applying for a passport, I feel ready to announce it to our family and friends.
And that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.
Posted on February 5th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: Fostering/Adoption
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