John & Ashlee W.

Updates

• Update 7

  

  Our Dossier is Ready!

  May 12, 2026

  Today feels like one of those milestones that’s hard to put into words 💛

  After months and months of paperwork, appointments, fingerprints, notarizations, certifications, waiting, and redoing forms… we finally received all of our documents back and are officially mailing our dossier to South Africa 🇿🇦

  This next step means we now enter the waiting process for our Section 17 approval through the South African government.

  We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about when we’ll finally get to meet our daughter, and the honest answer is: we truly don’t know.

  Right now, most families are waiting over a year just for Section 17 approval, so we’re preparing our hearts for this to still be a long journey, likely another 1-2 years minimum before we’re able to meet her in South Africa.

  It’s hard holding so much hope while also knowing so much of this process is completely out of our control. But even in the waiting, we know every single step is bringing us closer to her.

  In the meantime, we’re staying busy (and honestly a little overwhelmed 😅) preparing for all the big changes ahead:
  ✨ Getting ready for the girls’ birthday party
  ✨ Planning our adoption fundraiser garage sale on May 30
  ✨ Downsizing and preparing to move full-time into our camper before leaving for South Africa
  ✨ Prepping our home to become an Airbnb
  ✨ Trying to soak in every bit of this season, even the chaotic parts

  And for everyone asking... yes, we’ll still be coming back to Greensboro often, including Thanksgiving this year and early 2027 for another home study update.

  More than anything, we just want to say thank you. Thank you for checking in, sending good vibes, supporting, donating, encouraging us, sharing our story, and loving our daughter from across the world before we’ve even met her.

  Some days this journey feels impossibly long. But we already know she is worth every single step 💛

• Update 6

  

  Little Sister Coming Soon!

  April 6, 2026

  BIGGEST NEWS!!! We’re thrilled to announce another little sister will be joining us soon 🎀🎀🎀

  Just before we got our I-800A approval, our agency reached out to see how things were going and shared that there was a child that they wanted to discuss with us. We were in a bit of shock because last time, we didn't get that phone call until 15 months after we submitted our dossier to South Africa, and this time we hadn't even submitted our dossier yet since we were waiting on paperwork!

  They shared a photo with us and a bit about her story, then promised to email over more information soon. We impatiently waited on that email and within an hour after receiving it, we called them back to share we were excited to move forward! From there, we had to schedule a meeting with an international pediatrician to review her file then fill out more paperwork to start the next part of the process.

  Now we wait for our agencies to review our documents and submit paperwork to the government to start the official approval process. This likely will take a few weeks and luckily, we had all of our dossier paperwork ready to be mailed off for apostilles as soon as we got the I-800A paperwork back so we're also waiting on NC and Florida to process our apostilles, so we can officially be dossier registered and start waiting on the post-match confirmation process!

  As some of y'all may know, we share almost everything with our girls (age-appropriate, of course), so we waited a few days before we folded and decided to let them know about our growing family. They are OVER THE MOON about a new "baby" sister! Now that our girls know, our secret is not so secret anymore since they are so excited to tell everyone (even Spider-Man and King Julian when we visited Universal Studios for spring break 🤣).

  We still have a long road to go with the government delays. Last time, we waited 15 months between match and traveling to meet Lowina, and we suspect it will be a minimum of that this time. Some families have already been waiting 2 years to go meet their kiddos with all of the backups & delays, so we'll be working hard to prepare ourselves plus doing some additional fundraising to help with the final costs to get this process finalized.

  As always, we thank everyone for their support of our family and our journey!!

• Update 5

  

  I-800A Approval (Finally!!)

  March 24, 2026

  Spring has officially arrived in NC!! The flowers are blooming and the pool is open at our house which officially signals the start of our favorite season coming soon.

  This week, we FINALLY got our I-800A approval (basically pre-immigration status approval) which means we are onto the next step of paperwork before becoming an official dossier registered family with South Africa! We've had our dossier paperwork ready to go for months so we just need to get the final apostille stamps on everything before we're ready to mail off our paperwork!

  Our I-800A approval took less than one month last time around so we've been trying to be patient this time around with the multiple government shutdowns & budget cuts drawing out this part of our process, knowing that more delays are likely to come through the rest of the process.

  We're also getting ready to host our first big adoption fundraiser - a garage sale with all proceeds going directly towards funding our adoption! We'll be collecting donations of gently used, resellable items throughout the next two months leading up to our garage sale fundraiser on May 30th at our house!

  As always, thanks for following along our journey and more exciting updates to come soon!

• Update 4

  

  Happy Holidays!

  December 19, 2025

  I can't believe it's already December and we're almost finished with the year! What started this year with a lot of disappointment after not being able to follow through with fostering turned into a big shift that has changed our lives in so many ways with the decision to adopt again!

  We spent a lot of this year focused on paperwork and all of the things to get officially submitted to and in the long wait to meet the next addition to our family. We have no clue what the timeline looks like, but we're expecting 2-3 years until we travel to South Africa to meet our little one.

  We did have another week of progress. This week, John and I drove to Raleigh to get fingerprints as the (hopefully!) last step in our I-800A wait process. Once we get that back, we can officially submit our dossier to South Africa, which is super exciting! Last time, we waited one year and three months before finding out about Lowina, so who knows what will happen next.

  It's been a wild year - lots of change and transformation for our entire family. We're excited about some of the big changes to come in 2026 and will be sharing more as we can!

  Dropping our holiday card link here too: https://www.canva.com/design/DAG6SBtwVy8/ZKjHyZhy2lc053Bd4Kk8OA/view?utm_content=DAG6SBtwVy8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h216ce40fee

  Happy Holidays everyone!

• Update 3

  

  Home Study FINALLY Complete!

  November 12, 2025

  Wow... I can't believe it's been over 3 months since I posted our last update and we got home from our cross-country roadtrip. There's been a TON of change since we've gotten home and we'll have lots more life & family updates coming over the next few months.

  After more than three months of submitting additional paperwork with request after request from our different agencies, we finally got word this morning that our home study has been approved! I'm going to pick it up today so we can get it mailed out and start the next step in our waiting process.

  The next step is submitting our I-800A application. Earlier in the year, they told us it was a 3-4 month wait but we're expecting much longer now with the government shutdown backing everything up. Please send us all of the good vibes that we can move quickly through this process and finally get our dossier submitted to South Africa to start the "real wait."

  I can't believe that I thought we would've been able to get this thing out before school started and now we're almost to the holiday season! Before we can submit our dossier, we have a payment of over $10,000 due to our agency, so we're thankful for any additional support you can give to our family before that is due.

  Wishing everyone the happiest holiday season this year ❤️🎄

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