Adoption Timeline

December 15, 2011
We decide to adopt and fill our an application with Dillon Southwest Adoption Agency.
February 1, 2012
We go to an adoption orientation at Dillon Southwest Adoption Agency
February 4, 2012
We decide to adopt a sibling pair!
February 6, 2012
Apply for the Ethiopia program with America World Adoption
February 24, 2012
We sign a contract with America World Adoption Agency
March 3, 2012
We have our first fundraiser yard sale.  We brought in almost $3,000 toward our adoption!
March 13, 2012
Our case worker comes to our house to perform our home visit and 1st home study meeting.
March 22, 2012
We change adoption Agencies.  Because of there policies about adopting unrelated children and sibling groups, we are now partnering with A Love Beyond Borders Adoption Agency.
April 2, 2012
We have our final appointment with our case worker for our home study.
April 14, 2012
Contract signed and sent to A Love Beyond Borders.
May 4, 2012
We have our second fundraiser yard sale bringing in $1700
May 21, 2012
Our home study has been sent to the Yavapai County Courts to be approved.
June 13, 2012
We get a notice in the mail that the courts have processed our home study and we are approved to adopt!
June 20, 2012
We receive our original home study in the mail.
June 21, 2012
We mail our USCIS application and our grant application.
July 25, 2012
We had an appointment to get our finger prints taken for immigration.
August 19, 2012
We found out that we got a matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans.
August 20,2012
We received our I-171h...approval from USCIS to adopt
August 22, 2012
We sent our dossier to the Secretary of State to be certified.
August 30, 2012
Our dossier comes back from the Secretary of State
August 31, 2012
We send my birth certificate to the secretary of state in California.
September 4, 2012
I send an incorrectly certified document back to the AZ Secretary of State.
September 8, 2012
Document comes back from AZ Secretary of State and we find out it is not notarized correctly.
September 10, 2012
We get the document notarized and send it back to the AZ Secretary of State.
September 21, 2012
The document comes back and is till not correct.  We correct it again and send it back to the Secretary of state.
September 26, 2012
We learn that our document got lost with FedEx!(can you see God's timing)
September 28, 2012
We had our third fundraising yard sale bring in $1300.
October 3, 2012
We finally get our lost document back and submit our dossier!
October 9, 2012
We get news that a large portion of our dossier needs to be done over again.
October 11, 2012
The incorrect documents make it back into our hands.
October 15, 2012
We send the corrected documents to the Secretary of State for authentication.
October 30, 2012
Our corrected document come back.  One was notarized wrong.  We re-due it and get it back in the mail to the Secretary of State
November 6, 2012
We send our dossier to our adoption agency for the second time.
November 25, 2012
We get news that our dossier is in translation and it will be sent to Adoption Avenues later today.
December 8,2012
Our Dossier is in Ethiopia!
February 24, 2013
We left our Ethiopian agency a few weeks earlier and accept the referrals of two wonderful kids!
March 18, 2013
We get our ammended home study in the mail and send our request to ammend our I-171h to USCIS.  Meanwhile we are waiting on the commune documents we need from D.R.C. for our case to go to court.
April 3, 2013
Our Dossier is finished being translated and will be sent to our attorney in D.R.C. soon.
April 5, 2013
We get a $10,000 grant!
May 8, 2013
We learn that ABI has had out commune documents for a while and we are already submitted to court.  We should get judgement within two weeks!
August 21, 2013
We got judgement for both of the kids.  They are officially Pehls!
September 2, 2013
We update USCIS fingerprints.
September 7, 2013
Both Hands Fundraiser
September 16, 2013
We get the Act of Adoption and birth certificate for Isryelle.  This completes the court documents that we need for our little girl.  After all the documents are translated, we will be able to file for her visa.
September 28, 2013
Our case worker makes another home visit to update our home study.
October 31, 2013
We have all our paperwork to file our I-600.  We mailed it yesterday and it made it to USCIS today.
December 10, 2013
Our I-600's are approved and our U.S. Embassy investigations have started.