So I've had numerous people ask me that one penetrating question: "When will you get to bring Elijah home?????" If only we had an actual date that I could put on my calendar and circle it a thousand times with a red marker.
Yeah, not so much.
But, we do have somewhat of an idea of how the next few months should play out. So, without further ado (um, is that a real word?), I present to you a very rough look at a 'typical' timeline when it comes to Ghanaian adoptions. (I say 'typical' because if you know anything about international adoption, you know that NOTHING is typical.)
Once you are 'matched' with a child there is a mandatory three month waiting period. Nothing happens. Everything stands still. You. Literally. Just. Wait. It's awesome.
Our three month wait is over on MAY 9th...YIPPPEEEEE!! (OK, I do have that date circled on our calendar.)
Once May 9th rolls around the Ghanaian Social Welfare will set a court date for us, which should be within 2-4 weeks. We don't travel to Ghana for that court date, but about a week or two after court we will be notified that the papers from court were processed and we'll get our little selves to Ghana ASAP to file our I600A (adoption lingo, just bear with me).
This will be the first of two trips that we'll make to Ghana. We'll probably stay for about a week, and Mr. Eli (praying, praying, praying) should get to hang with us for most of our time there.
But then we have to get back on a plane and come home. Without him. I know, it's just cruel.
So then we get to wait. And wait. And wait some more until the US Embassy and some really important people decide that we're all good and we do, in fact, want to make Elijah part of our family (um, too late; he was part of our family a LOOOOONG time ago).
OK, some other things have to happen too, but basically it'll be another 6-8 weeks before we get THE CALL (or email) telling us to book our tickets because everything is DONE.
Oh happy day!!!
So, if you're still confused, here's the short version: Hoping to be going to Ghana to file our I600A within the next 4-6 weeks. Then about 2 months after that we should be able to fly back and bring our baby home with us!
His first birthday is July 26th. Our prayer (and yours too, right?!) is that we are with him on his birthday, celebrating the first year of his amazing little life.
Thanks for taking this journey with us! Hopefully I'll be back on here with some new pics soon!!!!
