Adoption 101!

Heather and I were excited when we received our Ethiopian Adoption Program packet in our email last week. I printed off all the information as soon as I could and we marked a night on the calendar that was free to sit down together and sign the paperwork. On Tuesday night of this week we tucked the boys into bed and pulled up a chair at the dinner table to take the next step of our adoption journey.  After signing all the papers and reading the information we are really thankful for America World Adoption and the time they take to educate their clients on the entire adoption process. Here is what we learned Tuesday night together.

The first phase of the process is the application and dossier-building phase.  If you are like us you probably have no idea what a dossier is. We learned that a dossier is a package of information about the prospective adoptive family that is sent to the government of the country where the adoption takes place. It includes everything from an extensive home study done by social service professionals, to our medical history, marriage certificate, criminal background check and financial statement. We also have to complete several hours of education classes as part of our dossier as well. This phase can take a few months or more and can cost up to $6,300.00 according to the budget we have been given that lists all the fees for the forms and studies we have to submit. We also learned that America World Adoption provides us with a family coordinator that will help us with every step of the process including building our dossier! This will be the next step in our adoption journey once we raise the funds we need to get started.

After we have all our documents together, our home study completed, and classes are finished the next phase is submitting our dossier to the country we are adopting from. In our case that is Ethiopia! Our dossier will have to be translated and then reviewed by the government of Ethiopia before we are allowed to adopt. If they accept us as worthy adoptive parents then they will begin to send us child referral packets. These packets contain information about orphaned children that need a loving home. We will prayerfully consider each child and when we accept one of the referred children we move on to the next step. This will no doubt be the hardest phase of the process for us. How do you choose just one child to love and give a home to? Please pray for God to direct our hearts to the child he desires us to adopt! This phase of the process can cost up to $7,700.00 and can take up to a year or more.

The third phase of the process is our official acceptance of the child referred. American World Adoption will send in a letter of recommendation to Ethiopia saying that they recommend us as adoptive parents for the referred child and we send in a signed acceptance letter saying we accept and desire to adopt this child! Once the letters are received our family coordinator will secure us a court date in Ethiopia to begin the legal process of adopting our little girl. This phase includes two trips to Ethiopia for Heather and I. We will spend time with our child and fill out the legal paperwork on the first trip, and then on the second trip we will bring home our new adopted daughter! This phase can cost up to $20,000.00 (mostly due to travel and legal expenses) and can take a few months or more. Once we are home we start the final phase of our adoption journey.

The final phase includes post adoption paperwork and follow up visits. Once we arrive home we have to get all of our child’s US citizenship paper work finished and some follow up visits from DSS and American World Adoption will take place to make sure everyone is adjusting well. Once this phase is completed our little Ethiopian girl is officially a Compton and a US citizen!

It was great to sit down together and learn so much about the journey we are taking. It also gave us some real goals to set out in front of us. We are prayerfully considering how to raise the funds we need and stepping out in faith trusting that God will direct each part of the process. We know that there are no guarantees and that this journey could be a very difficult one but we are compelled by the love of our savior to step out and no longer just live for ourselves but to reach out and share that same love with those in need. We can think of no greater need than a child’s need for a family that loves them.

Will you pray for us as we take this journey?  If so please email us at thecomptonsjourney@gmail.com and subscribe to our blog at www.thecomptonsjourney.blogspot.com.

Fundraising Goal’s

Phase 1 = $6,300.00 (Dossier building and home study)

Phase 2 = $7,700.00 (Dossier submission)

Phase 3 = $20,000.00 (Travel and legal expenses)

Phase 4 = $1,500.00 (US citizenship and follow up)

Total = $35,500.00

*If you would like to donate to our adoption fund (we need to raise about $35,500.00) please click on the paypal donation button on the right hand side of the screen. Thank you so much! 

 

Sincerely

The Compton’s!