Next Steps!

Many of you have expressed interest in our adoption process and questioned why it is going to take so long for us to bring little boy #2 home from China.  So, here is the cliff notes version of our adoption process and the timeline that takes us to November or December 2015 before we travel to bring him home.

I need to start by saying that this time around we are working through the process out of order.  Usually a family does not receive a referral for a child until after their home study is complete.  In our case, and because of how our little guy is classified, we were able to accept his referral before our home study.

Adoption Steps:
1. Home Study 
This is usually a 3 to 4 month process.  There are 4 different visits with a social worker, books to read, online training to complete, and paperwork to gather.  And no, we cannot reuse any of the documents we obtained for Zeke's adoption.

2.  USCIS Paperwork
Once the home study is complete you have to send it to US Customs and Immigration.  They review the home study, take fingerprints to do a national background check and issue a denial or approval based on their findings.  It usually takes 1 to 2 months to receive the necessary documentation from USCIS.

3.  Certification & Authentication
The home study, USCIS approval and all other documents required by China have to be sent to the State of Washington for certification and then to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco for authentication.  These two steps combined, because of government turnaround time and mailing, can take 1 to 2 months.

4.  Dossier to China
All of our paperwork is sent to China for review.  It usually takes 2 to 3 weeks for them to log in that they have received a dossier.  If it is accepted we will receive a official notice of Referral Acceptance.  This makes our EA (our current pre-approval paperwork) official and we can share photos of our little guy.  It usually takes about 3 months to receive an RA.

5.  Chinese Visas & Travel Approval
After the RA is received Chinese visas must be obtained (this takes about 1 month) and then you wait for Travel Approval (this takes approximately 1 more month).  

6.  Travel!!
Once the Travel Approval is issued travel can happen anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks later.

As you can see, it is the government turnaround time (on both sides) and the number of agencies that need to review our paperwork that makes it take longer than one would think.  And for every step there is another bill (or two or three!).  Someone asked me today what an international adoption costs and when I said roughly $40,000 all in (paperwork, fees, travel, in-country costs, orphanage "donation") jaws dropped. It is a unique process but it is the way God has called us to grow our family!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Robyn, Randy, Zeke & #2

Adoption Support

The shared excitement and outpouring of love we have received since our first post has been truly amazing!  Words cannot express how thankful we are for the family and friends supporting this second adoption journey with thoughts and prayers for us as well as Little Ross #2 on the other side of the world. 

Adoption is a journey of the heart, mind, spirit, and wallet!  It is the full package.  We know God has called us to adopt and become a family of four but honestly, it is a completely unexpected developement.  We are not prepared financially for this journey and are trusting that God has a plan to make it happen.  We believe that watching Him work in and through the people and circumstances surrounding this adoption will be truly miraculous.  

That said, we humbly ask you to consider becoming part of our journey to adopt Little Ross #2 as more than an observer.  First and foremost, your prayers for our little one in China, our current family of three, and the paperwork process we are embarking on are coveted and appreciated. Second to that is the opportunity to help us cover costs associated with adopting internationally. There are two ways to give that will help us throughout our journey.

1. AWAA: Eternal Family Fund
This fund is set up through our adoption agency to help families cover the cost of adopting internationally. Contributions will be accepted on our behalf and will be used to pay any costs that are routed through AWAA.  These include: 
Program Fees 
Home Study Fees
Post Adoption Fees
Travel Costs 

There are two ways to donate Eternal Family Program:
1. Check* - A check made payable to America World Adoption Association (AWAA) and the Eternal Family Program form found at http://www.awaa.org/forms/EFP_Contribution_Form.pdf should be sent to the following address: 
America World Adoption Association
Attn: Accounting Department
6723 Whittier Avenue, Suite 202
McLean, VA  22101

2. Credit Card* - Credit card contributions can be made at https://www.awaa.org/give/general_donation.aspx. Select Eternal Family Program from the choices at the top and fill in the required fields.  For "family name" please enter Randall and Robyn Ross.

*Although AWAA is a non-profit organization, they do not provide tax receipts for donations to the Eternal Family Fund (although they do provide an email or mail confirmation that funds were donated) and request that you speak to your tax preparer as to whether or not the contribution qualifies as a  tax deduction.  Please note that an administrative fee of 5% will be charged to offset processing fees and the work of America World staff in tracking and accounting for all contributions.  (This fee suprised us at first but after researching other fundraising websites, we found that an administrative fee is standard and can often be more than 5%.) 

2. Direct Donations
There are many fees and costs not routed through our adoption agency.  If you choose to make a donation directly to us to help cover these costs please know that we will use it ONLY for adoption expenses.  These expenses include:
State Certification Fees for Documents
Consulate Authentication Fees for Documents
USCIS (Immigration) Document, Fingerprint and Processing Fees
Mailing and Courier Service Fees
Travel Visa Fees

Thank you for considering joining our journey in a very tangible way.  We know not everyone is able to give; please do not feel obligated. 

Thank you for your continued prayers!
Robyn, Randy & Zeke

An interesting side note: 

We were in the same position regarding accepting the referral of a child in December 2012! We received Zeke's file for review at the end of November and accepted it on December 2, 2012. (This picture was sent to us on December 12, 2012 . . . he has certainly grown!) This time around we saw Little Ross #2's face for the first time on December 3, 2014.  Two amazing Christmas gifts almost exactly two years apart!

Adopting Again!

Dear Friends and Family,
Yes, you read correctly, "Adopting Again!"  Much to our surprise we are adopting from China again!  Let me start at the beginning . . . 

Randy and I still receive update emails from our former adoption agency America World Adoption.  These updates usually pertain to upcoming events, office hours, seminars, and adoption stories.  Lately these emails have been advocating for little ones who are "children of focus." These children are ones that cannot currently be matched with an adopting family.  Boys often fall into this group.

On December 3rd I came home from work and Randy asked if I had seen the most recent AWAA email update.  I shook my head and he said, "Sit down, you need to see this.”  (I need to mention that Randy RARELY, if ever, reads the AWAA emails.)  By the tone of his voice and the look on his face I knew he was very serious about what he was going to show me. 

I sat down and he said, "Take a look."  Staring back at me was an adorable little boy.  I read the information provided and can only describe the feeling that came over me as “knowing.”  I looked at Randy and said, “Are you getting the same feeling I’m getting?”  Yep, we both felt like we were supposed to find out more about this child; that we were supposed to knock on this door and see what happened.  (WHAT??!  We aren’t adopting again!)  The crazy thing was that the email said that ANY family who was interested in finding out more about this child could inquire (currently working with AWAA or not).  We inquired.

I emailed our former family coordinator, Aimee, to ask about the referral file and we waited. The next day (the 4th) I heard back from Aimee and she said that another family was reviewing the file.  She had noted our interest and would let me know if the status of the file changed. On Friday the 5th I received another email from Aimee letting me know the file had been returned and was available for review.  Were we still interested? What we thought had been a closed door had now been firmly pushed open.  We asked to be sent the file for review.  

Since we received the file on a Friday afternoon we had the weekend to read, process, research, and pray about our decision.  We had to let Aimee know one way or another by 9:00am on Monday.  The more we processed and prayed, the more we had an overwhelming peace that this was, in a word, right.  (It still makes my head spin to think about that!)  We let Aimee know that we wanted to move forward.  After taking the next steps required by AWAA and Chinese Children's services we decided to accept the referral!  YAY! (Sorry, we cannot share any information about or photos of Little Ross #2 but will do so when we can.)

In the last ten days we have reapplied and been accepted to adopt through AWAA for a second time, sent in our referral acceptance paperwork (which puts this little one "on hold" for us until our paperwork can catch up) and started collecting documents for our home study and dossier.  Now we race the clock.  We have no more than 6 months to complete a home study, collect all of our paperwork and get our dossier sent to China.  Last time around it took us four months so we are praying for a similar turnaround this time. It's a good thing we know God has a plan and He has given us a peace that we are doing what we have been asked to do or we wouldn't be sleeping through the night!    

More to come soon!

We appreciate your prayers!

Robyn, Randy & Zeke

P.S.  We have not mentioned to Zeke that he is going to be a big brother but we know he will make a great one!