Approved by the U.S. to Adopt an Orphan

Holy Cow! This step took us much longer than we had expected. We thought 4-6 weeks and we'd be ready to get our papers rolling ... After our homestudy was complete, we had all other documents ready to be sent to Yakima, Wa. We had to get approval from the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to adopt an orphan by submitting the I-600A form - Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition. They look over the reason why, medical, finance and homestudy. We also had to get fingerprinted.

The CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) received our application Aug. 25th. We couldn't be fingerprinted until Sept.24th. We then waited and waited some more. Our Adoption Agency Director(Kathy Storro) was just about ready to call, when our 171 approval came in the mail today (Nov.10th). YIPPEE! It took 11 weeks! Much too long - I hope everything else doesn't get delayed and takes longer than we would like - although, it is all in God's timing:) When we have our little girl in our hands, we may be able to figure out why this step took sooo long...