Questions anyone?

There are still so many unknowns, even to us, about details of our adoption process.  For instance, we hope to have our first visit with Darya in August, but that's not for sure.  We just can guesstimate that and work to that goal.  It is my hope to have our FBI fingerprint appointments and get the I-171H (permission from US immigration) done within a month.  At this point, we're just waiting to hear from USCIS.  We should receive a card in the mail with our FBI fingerprint appointments and location on it.  Our social worker, I believe, has sent our home study to them directly for us, which is the last thing they need in order to give us that date.  After they receive everything and approve us, we will receive the I-171H, which will be sent to Darya's country with the rest of the dossier (doss-ee-ay). From then it will be about 6 weeks from the time we ship our dossier, which is the big stack of official paperwork, to our SDA appointment where we receive Darya's file and accept it.  

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone had any questions about our adoption or Darya or anything?


From Shelli: Are you allowed to correspond with Darya in any way? For instance, could you send her a soft picture frame with your photo in it to have now? Just wondering :-).
Unfortunately no.  Because of the way adoption works in her country, we don't have an official referral for her until our SDA appointment, and therefore neither she nor her orphanage has any idea we are coming for her until right before we arrive.  If we sent something, it would come as a surprise and I'm not sure if that's good or not, or it might even be discouraged.   If another family goes to her orphanage, I may be able to send something (but whether or not she really gets it is up to the orphanage workers).  I really don't know.  I would love to, though!!