Status Update

July 10, 2022

So where are we now? That’s a great question. This adoption has had times where it was flying and other times that have been painfully delayed… but we are getting out of a slow period and hopefully picking up some steam.

We started our home study this time around way back in February 2021. Among buying and selling a house, Ravi having oral surgery, moving, COVID delays, administrative headaches, changing adoption policies and regulations, adoption agency staff turnover, and raising a preschooler it took about 7 ½ months to have the completed paperwork and report done. Last time our home study process was closer to three months. So, in September we registered with CARA and by the end of October we had the necessary approvals to start reviewing children’s files. The “matching” process was also much harder this time around for a variety of reasons. It was heart wrenching. I’m still not sure how much we’re ready to share from that period because of how emotional it was. But we were so excited to eventually match with a beautiful little girl from Tamil Nadu officially, in December. We had more rounds of approvals to go through now that we had a specific child to adopt; specifically, US Immigration and getting the No Objection Certificate (NOC, we like to pronounce it “knock”). By March we had both of those approvals and all that was needed is to get registered and pass court.

We sent all the necessary documentation in March and the SAA (specialized adoption agency, aka orphanage) had expressed some hope that we would pass court by the end of April. We were really hoping for that too since the courts in Tamil Nadu close for the entire month of May. I guess it’s too hot to work. So, we were really hoping we would travel mid-June to get our girl. While we tried to not get our hopes up, it’s impossible not to. It turns out that the judge was reassigned in our district, and they were awaiting the new judge’s appointment and arrival. So, the last few months have been a struggle due to the lack of progress and unfulfilled expectations.

At the end of June, we finally got what we waited over three months for, our court petition was filed and now our case is registered in the court. This means that we could finally be assigned a court date.

With registration under our belt, we received a court date for 7/7/22. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the date while trying to stay busy so time would “fly.” The day before the court date, we received a message from the SAA with the link to attend the court hearing virtually! So, we appeared in court at 2AM that next day, which is way better than having to fly to India for the 10-15 minute of questions they had for us like last time. There was another adoptive couple on the same call that answered the judge’s questions first. We did get a chance to see baby girl briefly when they held her in front of the screen and asked if she was the child we had selected. The court hearing ended abruptly and then we tried to go back to sleep.

Though that long wait has been difficult we’ve been very fortunate to get semi-regular updates on our little girl, including photos and videos. Our daughter turned 1 at the beginning of June and we received a video of her SAA singing her happy birthday and sharing cake with all her little friends. It was such a sweet video! Yet it was so hard for us to see her birthday celebration and know we are missing out on yet another milestone. We did also get to have a video chat with baby girl, and she shocked us by getting up and walking over to the window during our call! We had no idea she could walk because all the videos they send of her, she is laying on her back or trying to crawl in a dress that is so big it looks like it is swallowing her whole. It was great to be able to see and talk to her, even though she was not interested in hanging around to chat.

We do have another court hearing scheduled for 7/19/22. We are hopeful that we can pass court soon and move on to the next step. But in the meantime, we are feeling grateful that our little girl is growing, walking, and looks like she has several caregivers that are so good to her.

-Ryan and Leah