Calendar

Steps along the way

This page is laid out in reverse chronological order, with the most recent items here at the top. By the way, this page is done, because we're all home!

2001

• August 25th - We are home, finally! :) :) :) :) :)
• August 24th - Our whole family goes to the embassy to get the children's visas
• August 23rd - The children have a last visit at the doctor
• August 22nd - Our case is approved
• August 21st - The children's paperwork is submitted to the embassy for preliminary approval
• August 18th - The children's passports are ready
• August 3rd - Krista and her mom fly to Guatemala. Krista will stay until we can bring the children home.
• July 14th - Antonio, Carmen, and Felix are now officially our children! The adoption in Guatemala is complete today.
• June 16th - Our case enters the final court.
• June 15th - We finally receive INS approval!!
• May 24th - Krista's fingerprints cleared, and we write an appeal to INS for special consideration in expediting our case.
• May 16th - Our case has finished with the Guatemalan family court, and is at a halt until INS approval comes through.
• May 13th - We picked up most of the furniture for the boy's bedroom.
• May 12th - Krista gets re-fingerprinted.
• May 11th - Response from Price & FBI with the news that David's fingerprints had cleared, but Krista's were unclassifiable - they'd couldn't be processed. The lady at Price's office actually set up her reprint appointment downtown, and even called back to confirm! Wow!
• May 10th - We bought a van! Now we have a vehicle we can drive around in with all kids and a couple dogs
• May 9th - We got a direct line to an FBI contact form a mailing list, and faxed an information request to Price's office
• May 5th - We tried Helms' office again, but got quite a cooler response this time. Apparently most people just wait for regular mail . . .
• April 20th - We visit the INS office, wait all day, and get fingerprinted. The process continues undelayed!
• April 19th - We called Senator Helms' office, and reached somebody who dealt with adoption cases. She called the Charlotte INS office, and confirmed that our fingerprint cards were supposed to have been sent, and that our visit the next day would be a good idea.
• April 14th - Uh oh! A call to the general INS information center tells us that the Charlotte branch is taking 6 to 8 months to process applications!!! There is no way to contact the office other than showing up in person, or sending letters and hoping for a response. Last we knew, it was supposed to take 2 or 3 months. We have written to the Charlotte office asking for consideration, and have contacted our Representative, David Price, and filled out the form on his site appealing for help through this red tape.
• April 6th - Great progress! The social worker is already done her report, and will turn it in to the agency tomorrow. Turns out she is friends with a secretary at the lawyer's office that usually deals with The Family Network, who was able to quickly type up the report for the worker. We could be together as early as the beginning of June!
• March 21st  - The first day of Spring! We receive news today that our children will be visited today or tomorrow by the social worker in Guatemala. This pleasantly surprised us, because we had been expecting that to happen later.
• January 29th - we receive confirmation that our INS application has been received and will be processed in order received.
• January - Our dossier gets to Guatemala.

2000

• December 3rd - All our paperwork has come back to us, finally ready to be sent to the Family Network and Guatemala.
• November 11th - 14th - We go to Guatemala and visit our children for the first time.
• October 18th - The second half of the home study. Katrina visited us at our home. She got to see where and how we live, interviewed us individually about our lives and parenting philosophy, and gave us advice on what to expect when the children arrive.
• October 9th - We have a huge yard sale to raise money for the adoption. Many people from our church donated items to sell. Lots of people came, and we raised over $600.
• October 7th - The all-important dossier arrives, and we start figuring out how to gather the long list of notarized documents.
• September 30th - We send in the contract to The Family Network to adopt Antonio, Carmen, and Felix. We plan to visit them in the next month or two, and should be completed with the adoption process in 4 to 7 months.
• September 23rd - The first half of our home study. We meet with Katrina Midget and surprise her with news of our three prospective children.
• September 7th - we decide to try to adopt the Ortiz children, and announce so in church. God is going to have to provide a lot of money somehow for this to work. We also receive their medical records, in Spanish, and have a friend translate them for us.
• August - Krista discovers the Ortiz children, and falls in love. We initiate a request to find out more about adopting them.
• August 1st - We send a letter to Guam concerning a possible adoption possibility that David's sister heard about.
• July 19th - We sign the contract to join Bethany's biracial adoption program.
• April 19th - We find out that the birth mother has changed her mind, and doesn't want to place her baby for adoption after all. However, we also learn that she's stopped attending church and her counseling sessions. Pray for her as she needs to turn to God.
• April 5th - We finally finish all the forms (almost), and send them off to the Asheville office the next day.
• March 12th - We receive our adoption packet from Bethany, loaded with tons of forms to fill out. We start filling them out.
• February 8th - David gets a call from old friends with a promising lead to a private adoption.
• February 8th - We decide to go with Bethany, but as David reaches for the phone . . .

1999

• End of 1998 - Starting to get really serious, we're looking for an agency to team up with, and send away for all sorts of literature.
• Summer - We learn a lot from our pastor and his wife about their experience with a private adoption. Another family has adopted two boys, and later a girl. They've adopted privately and through agencies. We also learned about closed and open adoptions.
• Also early 1998 - We discover that several families in our church have adopted or are in the process of adopting.
• Early 1998 - Krista starts Dog Days to start saving money for adoption.
• April 6th - Today confirmed the fact that we cannot have biological children, because of David's infertility. We'd suspected something of the sort for some time, which is why we've been in the process for some time already.

1998

• 1997-1998 - This time was spent in learning about adoption. Krista in particular spent lots of time becoming savvy in adoption jargon, getting a feel  for the reputation of adoption agencies, and understanding the different kinds of adoption. We've also been spreading the word among family and friends, to try to network as much as possible.
• From the beginning onward - Prayer. God's guidance and provision have been and continue to be the critical component for a successful adoption and parenting.