John & Ashlee W.

Updates

• Update 2

  

  Home Study Update

  August 6, 2025

  Happy summer! I can't believe a new school year is almost already here.

  We returned from our 6-week cross country camper trip recently and are finally getting back into the groove. We had an absolute blast: drove 10,365 miles in 43 days and visited 25 states & 16 national parks. A few highlights from our trip from each family member:
  🚲 Ellie: playing with friends & riding her “wittle bike” around the campgrounds
  🐴 Lowina: riding her first horse Sienna & visiting with besties
  ⛳️ John: epic golf rounds especially Torrey Pines in California & the sketchy drives through NPs
  🦬 Ash: epic animal spotting & the little moments bringing our family unit closer together

  You may recall that before we left, we rushed to finalize our visits with our social worker and brought our paperwork with us on the road with the hopes that we could mail everything off and start the next step in our wait. Our initial timeline they shared was early July for a draft of our home study for us to review. We had a few interactions with our agency throughout our time away but largely all was silent. After returning home, I was eager for an update so I reached out to get an updated timeline and we were told they'd have it for us soon (thank goodness we're used to delays!).

  Well, today is the day we get to review all of our hard work coming to fruition! John and I will get to go through every word with a fine tooth comb to ensure it's ready to be submitted to USCIS as part of our I-800A application, which they currently are saying is a 3-4 month wait.

  We plan to get our review back to them before end of the week so we're hoping that means we'll have our application off to USCIS before school starts 🤞

  Enjoy the rest of your summer and look forward to seeing everyone now that we're back in Greensboro and off the road!

• Update 1

  

  Final Stages of Home Study

  June 5, 2025

  Hey everyone!

  First of all, thank you for your support of our growing family - financially, spiritually and physically - all of the above & more. We could not be more excited to welcome another child into our family and the girls are very eagerly (and impatiently!) waiting for another sibling. If you ask Ellie, she wants a baby, probably a brother, and Lowina is set on a brother. Who knows what life will bring!

  This part of the process often is the "easiest" given we are fully in control and can move as quickly as we want, but we know there is a lot of waiting around the corner. Our girls keep us busy and time is already flying, so we're hoping that allows us a bit more grace & patience this time around. Send us all the good vibes!

  Here's the big update you were waiting for... We've had a busy few months after making the decision to adopt again. We've been in the depth of paperwork overload. Last time, John led the paperwork process, and this time, I am managing it all and trying to do three steps at once before summer break, which has proven to be an interesting challenge.

  Here is a quick overview of the process & where we’re at:

  Step 1 is completing our Home Study which involves loads of paperwork, appointments and three home visits with our social worker. We wrapped our final home study visit on Monday and are waiting for one last piece of paperwork to arrive before we check this box.

  Step 2 will be submitting for our I-800A (think pre-immigration approval) once our home study is written and approved. Right now, we're thinking it will be either late June or July that we'll have the home study in our hands. Our I-800A paperwork is complete and ready to submit once we get that! The I-800A approval typically takes 3-4 months to come back.

  Step 3 will be submitting our dossier to South Africa after our I-800A is approved, and then the real wait begins! We've already gotten the majority of our paperwork completed for the dossier as well, so it's just a waiting game at this point minus a few final approvals & documents we still have left to complete!

  Shew... what a mouthful. Now, for the fun part & what's next!

  Lowina graduates from Kindergarten next Wednesday! Time is FLYING! Shortly after, we leave for our 6+ week trip across the country with the full family in a 21' travel trailer, and we are all so excited (and some of us nervous, too!). We get to spend a lot of our trip with family & friends, which is the greatest blessing.

  We kick off our trip in Hilton Head with the Wagner crew, will get to enjoy lots of stops along the way with Uncle Jacob & maybe a few other surprise family visits, plus we get to meet up with two of our fellow families we met in South Africa on the West Coast! Follow along the journey on my instagram @JustAnotherWagnerAdventure

  One of the reasons we rushed to get everything done at once is because of this trip. We are bringing all of our paperwork with us on the journey, because we suspect there will be a change order (or five if it's anything like it's been so far!). And who knows, maybe we’ll even have our home study completed so we can submit our I-800A from somewhere on the road.

  Stay tuned for more process updates as time rolls on!

  All the love,

  Ashlee

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