Our Paper Pregnancy

"Paper Pregnancy" is what they call in the adoption world, the

timeline/paper process. We hope to use this page to update the progress of our journey to family. Much like a biological pregnancy, the adoption process can be divided into three "trimesters."

1st Trimester: official application to the agency, initial interview, pre-homestudy paperwork, begin fundraising, wait.

2nd Trimester: home study, government paperwork, waiting for a child to be referred to us, more paperwork, more fundraising, waiting.

3rd Trimester: after accepting a referral, more paperwork, and finally travel to Hungary for 6 weeks of bonding, paperwork and court hearings.

Below is a more detailed timeline:

• 1st Trimester
• 
  
• Spring of 2007: First began discussing adoption
• Spring of 2008: Get Married!
• Fall 2011: Began researching countries: Decided on Eastern Europe, specifically Moldova
• Summer 2012: Travel to Moldova to visit with John and Rachel Koon. Fall in love with former-soviet Europe.
• Early November 2012: Decide that our family will first be formed through adoption rather than Biological children.
• Late November/ Early December 2012: Call several agencies that work in Moldova and learn that Moldova's international adoption requirements don't match our adoption desires. Go back to our knees in figuring out God's call for our family.
• December 19, 2012: Decide on the Hungary program and apply with Lifeline in Birmingham, AL.
• December 20, 2012: Launch Blog
• December 24th and 25th, 2012: Tell our folks. Everyone is excited and supportive.
• Wait.
• January 3, 2013: Officially accepted as an adoptive family with Lifeline Children's Services.
• January 7, 2013: Got fingerprinted and mailed off paperwork for National background check.
• January 16, 2013: Have our official orientation interview with Jana and Stephanie.
• January 21, 2013: First home study visit with M (our social worker).
• January 25-27, 2013: Future Mom goes to Created for Care conference in Atlanta. 450 adoption moms were there.
• February 3, 2013: Future Dad finishes reading the Connected Child (Required Reading)
• February 4, 2013: Future Mom STARTS reading the Connected Child.
• February 9, 2013: Future Mom completes her 10 hour online certificate training

• 2nd Trimester

• February 12, 2013: Future Mom had her individual interview for the homestudy. Future Dad's is scheduled for Monday. After that, step 2 of 4 will be finished. 
•  February 18, 2013: Future Dad had his individual interview for the home study. 
• February 28, 2013: Went to a benefit banquet for our agency to learn more about their other components. Plus Christy Nockles performed!
• March 5, 2013: 3rd home study meeting to discuss parenting.
• March 9, 2013: YARD SALE! Raised over $2,600 for our kids!
• March 28, 2013: Final home study meeting with our home study case worker and our Hungary case worker.
• March 30, 2013: Aunt B got married!
• April 25, 2013: One month later, our home study is finally done and our I-800 got mailed off for immigration.
• May 1, 2013: Our next payment was due and we began preparing our Dossier.
• May 7, 2013: Our letter came in the mail with our appointment to get our bio-metric fingerprinting done.
• May 12, 2013: Mother's Day and the day we saw our kids picture on Lifeline's website.
• May 13, 2013: Call J, our social worker, to request more information about the children we saw on the website.
• May 14-19, 2013: Prayer and more prayer
• May 20, 2013: See the file on the children and say YES!
• May 23, 2013: Tell Future Dad's family about our kids.
• May 24, 2013: Tell Future Mom's family about our kids.
• May 30, 2013: Get fingerprinting done in Birmingham! Meet J and S (our social worker and case manager) at Lifeline's main office. Turn in our Dossier.
• June 6, 2013: Our dossier is appostilled and sent to Poland  to begin the translation. (with the exception of our I-800)
• June 20, 2013: Future Mom's birthday and our I-800 was approved!
• June 26, 2013: I-800 was sent to Poland to be translated
• June 28-29, 2013: Attended Crossings training with Lifeline to complete all necessary requirements.
• July 5, 2013: Get most of a referral... Still waiting on the official document.

• 3rd Trimester

• July 16, 2013: Get official referral and mail off immigration for visa approval.
• August 5, 2013: Get provisional approval for VISA!
• August 9, 2013: Official final approval from "the Ministry" in Poland
• September 30, 2013: Get travel date. 
• October 4, 2013: Arrive in Poland!
• October 5-22, 2013: Bonding in the foster home
• October 22-30, 2013: Bonding in a rental house
• October 30, 2013: Court date