Process Update Pt 2 (actual process update)

That's a please-tickle-me face if I've ever seen one

See? Towels. And balloons that ended up being WAY bigger than I thought they'd be.

Of course this popped moments later.

This week, we've had our I-600 filing date (which I wrote about here) on Monday, our first and second visits to the IOM on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, and received the email that gives us the date for their birth family interview. If you're not adopting internationally, the I-600 if the document that the US government uses to determine if a child meets the definition of a legal orphan. The IOM is the medical office embassies use to determine if people who want to migrate are healthy enough.

The embassy changed the way they do the I-600 and the visa. Previously, the birth family came for the visa exit interview, after the I-600 was approved. I think the way they're doing it now makes more sense, since the interview is important to deciding if they can approve the case here, or if the case needs to be sent to Rome for further review. A family we met the first time we were here is adopting a sibling set of three, and they were a week ahead of us in the process. They just had their case sent to Rome because the birth father wasn't briefed well enough and answered some of his questions confusingly.

I don't blame him; it's pretty intimidating! The mom sent me some advice so we can learn from their experience. It's not that their kids don't meet the definition of legal orphan -- they definitely do -- it's that everything needs to be clearly approvable, or the case gets sent to Rome. This family's case will be approved, it will just take a month+ longer than they were hoping, which requires making some really hard decisions concerning that extra time. So please be praying the birth mother and grandmother will be briefed well on how to answer their questions clearly so that there is no confusion.

The IOM visits, other than taking a long time, were fine. Mirah's birth certificate date makes her too young to test for tuberculosis, but Stella got hers done. Yay no tuberculosis! They also had their physicals done. Oddly enough the part when they cried the most was having to stand on the scale and have their height taken.  ..? We had been waiting for over two hours by this time, so I don't really blame them for being fed up.

Now we don't have anything to "do" until the birth family interview on Wednesday. If it goes perfectly, we should be home fairly quickly after that (within a week, we hope!). PLEASE be praying this is the case.