Several people have been asking how it is going, so I wanted to write an update. I’m still trying to figure out everything myself, so please bare with me.

As of today, we have contracted our adoption agency, Madison Adoption Associates. They are based out of Delaware and are not licensed to do home studies in New Mexico. We have contracted with a New Mexico agency that is going to conduct our homestudy. We are working on paperwork for the homestudy and for the dossier submission through our agency. To date, we have spent almost $7,000 that has gone toward both agencies, postage fees, fees for fingerprinting and background checks, etc. To date we have received almost $3,000 in donations. We are humbled by the donations we have received from people, it’s so very generous of you. I want to thank each of you. I want to thank everyone who is praying for us, we can’t do this without you! Also, please continue praying for our future daughter, where ever she is right now that God will provide her a good caretaker until she is able to come home with us.

Upcoming appointments/costs:

We have our psychological exams coming up on May 3rd. The estimated cost is around $2,000. We also will have to have these documents translated to Spanish to a third party agency which can be around $300-$1,000.

We have to get medical exam towards the end of May. I’m unsure of the costs for this right now.

These two different exams are a part of the home study process. We have to do a bunch of training that is approved by Hague Convention and read three different books approved by Hague and write book reports on them. Then we will have appointments with our caseworker for the home study agency to interview us, more paperwork we have to do, and go over our house safety and finalization. The home study process takes about 4-6 months. (There are several other small things to do in this process too.) After the home study is approved and sent to our agency there is a fee of $300 for the home study review & networking.

As soon as the home study is approved, we have to get our I-800A and submitted to USCIS for approval. The estimated cost for this is $775, plus $85 each for FBI clearance of our fingerprints. All our paperwork will need to be translated for this. Not sure for the fees for this.

After our I-800A has been approved, we will then submit our dossier to Columbia. $5,000 is due at dossier submission.  The time frame, we are looking at for completing these next steps is August – October 2019.

Please continue to pray for us during this process as it is complicated and can be confusing. Pray that I’m doing all this paperwork correctly and everything goes smoothly with the process. Thank you!!!

Kayla