GREAT NEWS! OUR I-800A HAS BEEN APPROVED!!!
Through a series of events, our application landed on the desk of a very dear lady at the NBC who has been a tremendous blessing to us. We are very, very grateful to her! She will also be reviewing our I-800 and we are very thankful for that too. She is a HUGE blessing!
I have started and stopped this update several times this week. I kept waiting for good news and when some would come, bad news would follow close on its heals. It has been a roller coaster!
Since our last update, we have been frantically working to get our home study updated to meet Hague Convention standards. We found out after we filed the I-800a that our home study did not meet the necessary standards for a Hague adoption. Thankfully, our home study provider worked very hard, gathering all of the additional information for the home study. They turned around information in a day that should have taken several. It was amazing! Things like additional background clearances, psychological information, updated family information, and updated financial data all had to be added to the updated study.
The home study process is really an amazing process in itself. Everyone should go through something like it at least once just to the get a copy of the resulting mini-novel. When this is all said and done, the home study would make a great outline for the autobiography of our lives! Not sure it would make the New York top ten list, but it would be fun to work on.
So, where do thing stand? Here is a quick check list with some time lines that we are praying for. All of these dates are estimated, we hope things move faster than this.
| I-800a -Â Â Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country | Application that must approved by the National Benefits Center giving us permission to adopt | Done – Praise the Lord! |
| I-800 – Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative | Application that has to be approved in order for Cameron to be adopted in the US. We are waiting for one more piece from the translator, but should have it soon. We hope to send this off on Monday. | May 14th at the latest |
| Travel Documents |
All these documents have to be apostilled by the Georgia Secretary of State. |
May 14th at the latest |
| Article 5 Letter | Issued by the US Embassy in Colombia once they receive our I-800 approval notification. | May 21st at the latest |
| Travel Visas | We can apply for these at the Colombian Consulate once we have the article 5 letter. | Before May 28th |
| Bon Voyage | Leave for Colombia to pick up our little boy! | May 28th or before |
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Please continue to pray for us. The next several weeks will be interesting to say the least. Thanks for you continued prayers and support.
Awaiting His Coming,
Patrick & Mary Ann Mulvehill
