And just like that, we became a family of 6! We waited and waited and seemingly out of nowhere we received the phone call. We wept as we heard they were ours. We are ECSTATIC to announce that we have accepted a referral for 3 year old twin boys. There is still a long process from here. It will still be 10 months to a year before we travel to bring them home and a lot has to happen before then. We have completed our referral acceptance to our agency and we are waiting on two documents to arrive before we begin filing the next phase of documents.
Our next big step will be to file for our I800. This is a petition to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to classify an adoptee as an immediate relative. This form, upon approval, gives us permission from the U.S. government to bring the boys home as our children to live in the United States. This process could take a few weeks or a few months. Once we receive our I800 approval we will complete another form that will alert the U.S. Embassy in Kenya of our approval. They will then create an article 5 letter. An article 5 letter states that we are approved as suitable adoptive parents and that the child(ren) will be able to enter and reside permanently in the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya will create this letter and send it to the Central Authority in Burundi. Once the Central Authority received this article 5, he will send our paperwork through the court process in Burundi. This is really an unknown time frame, but it has averaged around a 4 month process in the past. The counts in Burundi will work through a process to declare us as the boy’s legal guardians and they will finalize that by issuing an adoption decree, sometime called a court decree. An adoption decree is the document issued by the court upon finalization of an adoption, stating that the adoptee is the legal child of the adoptive parent. After an adoption decree has been issued, we will finalize our travel plans to bring the boys home. We will be in Burundi for 5 days and in Nairobi, Kenya, where the U.S. Embassy is located, for 5 days. We will have plenty to keep us busy around here while we wait. We are excited to transform our loft into a bedroom for our sweet boys. We will complete paperwork as needed and try to be patient when timing is out of our hands. We know God has been and continues to be in every part of this process. We are praying that all our paperwork moves and arrives in His perfect timing and during the least restrictive time, allowing things to move smoothly once in place. We appreciate that you understand that the boys are not ours until our court decree arrives. We must take great care to protect them in any way we are able. At this point that means nothing personal about them can be shared on this blog or any social media platform. We appreciate your care and attention in this matter. We ask you to join us in continued prayer. Prayer for our peace and patience. Prayer for the boy’s physical, spiritual, and emotional safety. Prayers that God will prepare their hearts for us and ours for them and more importantly that God will prepare their hearts for Him.
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AuthorMy name is Deidra Miller. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Dusty, for 17 years. We have two biological children and our family is growing again. We prayed for 2,786 days and God answered our prayers. More days (almost 4 years) have been added as we wait for God's perfect plan for our family. We can't wait to meet our beautiful twin boys! Archives
October 2022
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