Adopting Selah: Our first moments together

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Adoption Timeline:

August 25 through September 3, 2011 Trip to Taiwan August 16, 2011 We receive an email from AIT saying that our visa appointment is in 2 weeks in Taipei!!! August 12, 2011 Fingerprint clearance emailed by our immigration caseworker to the National Visa Center August 8, 2011 Drove to Atlanta USCIS and got our new fingerprints taken...3 weeks early! July 26, 2011 Selah's care package arrives at the House of Hope. July 22, 2011 Since our fingerprints expired this month, today I sent our request to USCIS to be re-fingerprinted (can't travel with expired fingerprints). July 21, 2011 We received our Final Decree!! Selah is legally ours!!! July 11, 2011 We receive a notice from the IRS that we will be receiving our adoption tax refund check (in 6-8 weeks)! July 6, 2011 Court appointed social worker conducts a home study on behalf of Selah. June 25, 2011 Received our "change of country" approval letter from U.S. Immigration. June 24, 2011 COURT HEARING!!! June 7, 2011 His Hands receives our new POA from FedEx. Their administrative assistant will use it when she represents us in court on June 24. May 23, 2011 We receive an email from His Hands about our court date--June 24th!!! We also FedEx our new certified POA to TECO in Atlanta. May 16, 2011 Our Chinese translation of the new Power of attorney document arrives in the mail from Taiwan. April 26, 2011 We mail our "change of country" application to USCIS to get our approval switched from Ethiopia to Taiwan. We start the signing / notarizing / certification process for a new Power of Attorney document. April 25, 2011 We find out our dossier has been submitted to the court to apply for a court date! April 18, 2011 Our dossier arrives at His Hands Taiwan!!! April 15, 2011 TECO'd documents arrive from Atlanta. After scanning and photocopying each"authentication page", we FedEx our dossier to Taiwan!!! April 14, 2011 TECO'd marriage license arrives from Chicago April 11, 2011 We drive to the Taiwan Consulate (TECO) in Atlanta to submit our Tennessee documents for authentication. We FedEx our Illinois marriage license to the Taiwan Consulate (TECO) in Chicago for authentication. April 8, 2011 TN SOS certified documents arrive back to us. April 6, 2011 We FedEx our Tennessee documents to the TN Secretary of State for certification. April 5, 2011 Translated home study / power of attorney / adoption contracts arrived in the mail from Taiwan!!! Got all dossier documents county certified at local courthouse. Made 2 copies of every page of all documents. April 1, 2011 Certified marriage license arrived from the Illinois Secretary of State. March 16, 2011 Finalized home study in hand!!! Emailed it to His Hands for translation, along with the power of attorney. Received an email that it was at the translator that same day! March 2, 2011 Home visit with social worker. February 28, 2011 Received our county certified marriage license. February 25, 2011 Received our notarized background checks in the mail. Received Jennifer's notarized employment letter. February 23, 2011 Went to the doctor for our medical exams and received our notarized letters. Eric received his notarized employment letter. Power of Attorney signed, witnessed and notarized. February 21, 2011 Met with social worker to discuss changing our home study back to Taiwan, including how to file immigration paperwork with USCIS. Requested our criminal background checks at local police station. Requested a new employment letter for Jennifer. February 9, 2011 Discussed the baby girl's medical file with our friend who is a neonatal nurse (the little one is a preemie). That night we emailed His Hands to accept the referral!! February 6, 2011 Received a huge surprise from His Hands-- in our email was our referral, for a 3 1/2 month old baby girl!!! January 26, 2011 Accepted into His Hands Taiwan adoption program. November 15, 2010 Received unexpected email from His Hands Taiwan that they were accepting new applicants and had sent us their application packet. November 2010 Ethiopia dossier completed, but we didn't have the funds to submit to agency. Summer 2010 We prayed about a variety of adoption options; decided to begin the process for Ethiopia. April 2010 The child on Taiwan we'd been trying to adopt became unavailable. March 2009 Began the process to adopt a waiting child in Taiwan. Fall 2008 Started discussing the possibility of adopting again.

Adopting Selah

God is writing another story

Monday, August 29, 2011

Our first moments together

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