So when does Joseph come home?

    We've talked to lots of people about our adoption of Joseph.  Adoption can be a confusing thing...most people aren't sure of what the time-frame is, what the costs are or even whats involved in the process.  I'm going to try to stick a few posts in here or there to explain some common questions we get so that hopefully people will have a better idea what's going on with our adoption.

    People are always wondering when Joseph can actually come home.  Well, right now we're still waiting on our "verbal referral" from his country.  We've already sent all of our many months of hard work (our dossier) to his country and we're just waiting to hear back that they accept it and are sending it along to the next step.  Basically, from what we've been told, it sounds like we could get our "verbal referral" at any point now.  Once we get that, it could be anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks before we get a "written referral" and travel dates to make our first trip to his country. 

    We've been waiting for weeks now for our "verbal referral."  I'm trying to be patient, but this mama would really like to see things moving along!  We were originally thinking we could have travel dates sometime as early as the end of November...maybe more like mid December.  Not sure how accurate that it.  We've been told that we just have to wait.  You can count on the fact that I will be posting just as soon as I get any kind of email saying we have that "verbal referral."  At least at that point, the clock will be ticking on us finally getting some information about future travel dates!

    Once we travel for that first trip (one week) to meet our little boy, review his medicals, spend some bonding time with him...then we come home and work on more official paperwork to adopt him.  The wait is typically 4-5 months until we can go back for a week and then bring him home with us.  That is probably going to be some of the worst months of my life...leaving our boy there and waiting so long to go get him.  But that's the process and that's what we have to walk through to bring him home.  We didn't sign up for this because we thought it was easy ;)  God will provide the strength we need to get through that.

    So...thats the process and the time-frame for now.  As a learn more, I'll keep people posted.  communication on this process has been a bit sketchy...but luckily I have an "adoption pro" for a friend who is adopting from the same country in Eastern Europe as us and she tends to run through the time frames for me and give me a heads up as to what is coming next or what we are waiting on.
 
    Thanks for following our adoption journey...we are incredibly blessed by all those that have prayed for us and Joseph and who have helped donate to get him home!