The NOC wait....

Here is a quick update for those following....

Last you heard we had accepted a referral for a 3 yr. old (now 4 yr. old) little girl. We sent our dossier (paperwork) over to the orphanage for their approval. They will then pass our dossier on to the NOC committee in India. The NOC committee meets once a week and consists of different staff and directors in CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority). CARA will look at all of the family's dossier documents, referral documents, and approvals. There is no way to know how many dossiers are waiting in line for approval ahead of us. This NOC approval could take months to be completed which is why we do not have a time frame idea yet. Please pray for a quick and easy NOC approval for our family! 

Meanwhile, while we wait for our NOC approval, we are working on several other adoption "to-do's" on our end. Today, we applied with the U.S. Department of State for an Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration for little K so that we can bring her into the country. Please pray that our application will be processed quickly and that her visa will be approved!

We are also working on applying for a few grants to help out with our travel expenses when the time comes. The main grant that we are applying for is through Show Hope Organization. They only take a certain number of families based on their circumstances. Please pray if we are eligible, that we will receive a grant or grants to help with our India travel expenses! 

Lastly, we are brainstorming on India t-shirt design ideas so that we can have another t-shirt fundraiser. We are open to suggestions! We will also be hosting a final fundraiser dinner in the spring to raise the remaining funds needed to bring K home. If anyone has a connection with a venue, entertainment, food, etc in the Greensboro area, please email me at megananne1020@hotmail.com. We would love to have our family and friends involved in this event. 

We have roughly about $12,000 left to raise for us to be done with our fees, travel expenses, court expenses, etc. The Lord has been faithful in providing for us so far in this adoption process through fundraisers, donations, savings, etc. and we know that He will see us to the end. Your prayers and support are greatly needed and appreciated in this final year of our process. We are one day closer to bringing little K home from across the world! Yay!

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/smith-india-adoption/159909

Love you all!

Ryan and Megan

It's a Girl!

In celebration of World Adoption Day today, we figured it was the perfect time to share our latest India update with you guys!

It has been a long & exciting 4 months so here is a recap....

On July 24, we received "the call" with news from our agency that they had a referral for us. I (Megan) was actually away on a girls weekend so this news, although very exciting, did not come at the most opportune time (a.k.a. I was freaking out)! Our family coordinator, Elise shared some information about the child and told me she would send me the records. Ryan and I were shocked/excited/nervous/every emotion possible when we opened the email.

We had received a referral for a sweet, precious 3 yr old little GIRL!

Her picture immediately brought me to tears. I didn't know what to do in that moment other than cry. After communicating with Ryan via phone all weekend while I was away, I headed home so we could get to work. We were informed that same day that India's adoption authority (CARA) was putting some new guidelines into place in the near future for all international adoptions. This meant we had to act fast to secure our referral with India.

We had to immediately meet with doctors to review her medical files [shout out to Dr. Norris & Dr. Amos for working under such short timelines], talk with our family coordinator about what to do next, and pray A LOT for confirmation that this was the child that God would want in our family. After a crazy couple of days we accepted the referral on July 27.

We were so nervous on the days in between because we were ultimately choosing our child. It was a major decision, but one that was made evident by the Lord and we were filled with peace when we told our family coordinator, "yes, we accept this little girl." It was the hardest, but most precious few days that we had ever experienced because of how huge this decision was.

So you may ask, "what took so long for the announcement?" Well, we had to wait for her original documents from the orphanage and sign them before it became "official." Sounds easy right? Get the papers, sign them, move on......well after waiting about a month for these documents, we found out that they had been lost in the mail. Our family coordinator was actually planning a trip to India at the time, so she ended up retrieving the documents by hand and bringing them back with her. Hallelujah! We received them on October 16. 

Signed. Sealed. Delivered. >>>> Our dossier has been sent to India and we are now just waiting on our signed referral docs to come back from the Secretary of State from being apostilled. 

It is funny sometimes how God works to show us that He is present and to test our faith in Him. As most of you know we originally started in the Ethiopia program and with a big leap of faith, we switched to India. And then, with another big leap of faith we went with 1 female instead of 2 males. Everything has been the complete opposite of what we had planned, but that is why we are thankful that we rely on an Almighty God for all our decisions instead of relying on our own simple minds.

Thank you for reading and for keeping our daughter in your prayers!  We do not have a timeline yet on when we will get to bring her home, but we will be sure to update our blog when we find out!

Here's to #worldadoptionday !

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. Psalm 63:3

To visit out fundraising site, click here. 

#worldadoptionday

pink packet for a GIRL!

 

 

We are APPROVED by India!

Hey guys!

Quick update on a couple of things......

We just got a call yesterday from our family coordinator at AWAA saying that CARA in India has looked over our home study and has approved us to adopt from their country! This is great news because now we can officially begin the search for our son or daughter-to-be!

Now we have to let AWAA know specific criteria we are looking for in a child. Once we do that, then our FC can begin looking on the CARA website each day to see if she can match us with a child or children!

When I mentioned specific criteria, that means we have to decide 1 or 2 children, boy or girl, age range, etc. This is especially difficult for us because we are so open to any child, so having to pin point is going to require a lot of PRAYER!

Good news is the India program doesn't really have a waiting list for referrals. This means that we could potentially be matched with a child or 2 by the end of the summer depending on if we find the right one.

It is so strange and foreign to us to think of searching for our child online like you would a house, but we are praying right now that God will make it known which child He wants for us. We are also praying for knowledge, patience, and peace. Easier said than done, I know! :)

So that is the update on the India progress! As for our fundraising efforts....we had a GREAT turn out last night at our Jamberry Adoption Fundraiser. Our online party will be available through midnight on June 23, so there is still time to order online! All proceeds are being donated to our adoption fund! Please check out the online store if you would like to help support us! Also - if you would like to host a Jamberry Nail Wrap Party with Melissa, 30% of all YOUR sales will donated back to our adoption as well.

Check out the online sale HERE!

A BIG thank you to all who came out last night and to Melissa for being such a generous & supportive friend!  :)