The Timeline

Hi friends! This is Katie. International adoption is slow...just because we have not updated recently does not mean we are not moving forward but sometimes things seem to move along at an agonizingly slow pace.

We did get the approval from the USCIS to get our FBI fingerprints on April 8th! To do this we go down to the Department of Homeland Security by the airport and get our fingerprints taken.

I also went to a Holt seminar last night and the director of the China program was there to answer our questions and explain the process more completely. Here is the timeline as I see it for bringing home our precious, Melia.

April 8th fingerprints...1-7 weeks to have our fingerprints approved and receive our I-800A form...one week to gather the rest of our dossier material and have it notarized...one day to take it to Lincoln for State Authentication...send to Chinese Embassy in D.C. to get it doubly authenticated...wait 1-4 weeks to get our finalized dossier and then send to Holt to submit to China...at that point we can receive our referral, we should expect a referral in 1-6months from the Child of Promise Program...From referral acceptance to travel is 4-6months.

So, by my estimation the earliest Melia would come home is November of this year and the latest is April of 2012.

Most referrals of children are between the ages of 1 and 2 so that means our Melia is probably alive right now.

If you are reading this I would ask you to please send a prayer up to heaven for our daughter.

Our prayer requests:

~for her safety

~for healthy and enough food

~Christian caretakers to hold her, sing to her, talk to her

~Health. That she would stay free from colds and infections

~That God would prepare her heart and her eyes and her ears for her American family

~Peace in her mind and heart that surpasses understanding

~Attention from caregivers to help her learn attachment

Thank you for your prayer support of our daughter. We will keep you posted!