The process of adopting a baby is a tedious one. Many people ask us about the process, so we thought we would share some of that with you. El proceso de adoptar es muy trabajoso, muchas personas nos preguntan como es el proceso, entonces pensamos en contarles un poco de eso.
The first thing we had to do was identify which adoption agency we wanted to work with. Our number one criteria was that the agency facilitated adoptions in Colombia. Secondly, we were looking for an agency that was friendly and eager to help us understand the adoption process. The agency we ended up choosing was Children's Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS), located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Olga Tasso is the person at CHSFS who has helped us since the beginning, and she has been a wonderful resource. Our entire experience with CHSFS has been really great. For more information about CHSFS and their Colombia programs, you can browse their website: http://www.childrenshomeadopt.org/Colombia_Adoptions.html
La primera tarea que nos toco hacer fue identificar la agencia de adopcion con quien queriamos trabajar. El criterio mas importante era que la agencia facilitara adopciones en Colombia, segundo buscamos una agencia simpatica y listos para ayudarnos entender el proceso de adopcion. La agencia que escojimos es Children's Home Society & Family Services(CHSFS), que esta localizada en St. Paul, Minnesota. Olga Tasso es la senora quien nos ha ayudado desde el principio y ella ha sido un buen recurso para nosotros. Toda nuestra experiencia con CHSFS ha sido muy buena. Para mas informacion acerca de CHSFS y sus programas en Colombia, puede mirar su pagina web: http://www.childrenshomeadopt.org/Colombia_Adoptions.html
Next, we began all the paperwork - applications, a homestudy (we had our homestudy done through Adoption Consultants, Inc. Michelle Warner is our social worker, and she is terrific, too!), fingerprints, background checks, petitions, notarized documents ... so much to do! Just today we received our appointment notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete our "Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition," which means we go in for more fingerprints and background checks that will hopefully result in official approval to bring our baby back to the United States. In addition to this, we are currently working on putting together our dossier (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dossier). Once all this is done, we simply wait for our referral - a picture of our baby with his/her medical history - and then we travel to Colombia to get our baby.
Nuestra suguiente tarea fue empezar con todos los papeles ... aplicaciones, un estudio de la casa (el estudio lo hicimos con Adoption Consultants, Inc. Michelle Warner es nuestra trabajadora social, y ella es maravillosa tambien!), huellas digitales, pasado juicial, petitciones, documentos notarizados ... mucho que hacer! Hoy mismo recibimos notificacion del Servicio de Inmigracion de los Estados Unidos para completer nuestra peticion para traer un huerfano a los EEUU, lo que significa es que vamos para hacer mas huellas digitales y pasado juicial que ojala resulta en aprobacion oficial para traer nuestro bebe a los EEUU. En adicion a esto, tambien estamos en el proceso de alistar los documentos para el dossier. Cuando ya tenemos todo hecho, simplemente esperamos la foto de nuestro bebe con su historia medica - y despues viajamos a Colombia para recoger nuestro bebe.
Somewhere in between all of this, Jaimie traveled with her mom, Sue, to Colombia to visit different orphanages. We'll tell you more about that trip later ... but the most important decision that resulted from that wonderful time spent with Edelmira and Jose (Jose's parents) was that we identified the orphanage from which we will adopt. More about the orphanage in a later post.
Entre todo esto Jaimie viajo con la mama de ella, Sue, a Colombia para visitar los diferentes orfanatos, mas tarde les contamos de ese viaje ... pero la decision mas importante que resulto de ese tiempo maravilloso que pasamos con Edelmira y Jose (los padres de Jose Fernando) es que identificamos el orfanato desde que vamos a adoptar. Mas tarde les contamos mas del orfanato.
Adoption is a long process, and it takes a lot of dedication to jump through all the hoops, but it is very worth the effort knowing that some little person is waiting for us to come and bring him (or her) home!
El proceso de adopcion es largo y uno necesita mucha dedicacion para cumplir con todo, pero vale la pena saber que al final, hay una pequena persona esperando que le llevamos a su hogar!
Besos
XXXX
Jose & Jaimie
