Adoption Process overview and pictures

The adoption process for India is a little different than Vietnam. I'm going to do a general overview of our timeline below. Then, enjoy the pictures!

1) Adoption application June 2010

2) Homestudy July 2010

3) IL DCFS approval August 2010

4) USCIS fingerprinting and Dossier sent to Dillon International September 2010

5) The children's home prepares our case for CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) in New Delhi. September 2010

5) USCIS I800 preapproval granted. October 2010

6) Signed official referral papers October 2010

7) I800 approval, US immigration sends our approval to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire, who then sends our approval to the US Embassy in New Delhi November 2010

8) Article 5 issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi and provided to CARA December 2010

Here's what's left (in order)

• CARA receives Article 5, our case will put forth for CARA approval. Our case will go before a committee for the approval of the No Objection Certificate (NOC).
• Once CARA grants the NOC, they will send the NOC to the children's home in Kolkata.
• The Children's home will then submit our case to the Kolkata courts for the guardianship process. This takes two steps: scrutinization of paperwork, and guardianship hearing.
• Once guardianship is granted, we are the legal guardians of Sarah. The children's home can then submit a request for Sarah's Indian passport.
• Once we have the passport, we will call the US Embassy in New Delhi to make an appointment for the visa interview.
• At that point, we get our tickets and fly to India!

At this point, we really don't know when we'll be traveling but we can say it will be SOON!

One of the first picture they sent of Sarah

A little out of order but this is when she was about 10 months

7 months

November pictures.

Happy Birthday little princess!

Again, out of order. 10 months