Our adoption journey started in 2020 with a desire to expand our family through adoption. It has been a long, perilous, and emotionally draining road. Our journey started with a desire to adopt from Ukraine and included an initial referral trip to Zaproizhzhia, Mariupol, and Berdyans'k in eastern Ukraine, January 2022. Later in 2022, after it became clear that the war in Ukraine wasn't going to end quickly, we made the difficult decision to pivot away from Ukraine and pursue an adoption from India (thanks Chloe!). We have accepted a referral for a little girl from the southern part of India and are working hard to bring her home as quickly as possible.
Our dossier paperwork (an original and 3 copies) are on the way to India! Each copy of our dossier is 134 pages of content, notary, and apostille. In parallel, we are waiting on the No Objections Certificate (NOC) which is a legal declaration that we are ok to adopt an orphan from India. There is a seven step review process and we are in step one. Please pray that our paperwork makes its way to India and that we find favor as our request makes its way through the seven NOC steps. Once we have the NOC we can post pictures of our little girl.
Speaking of pictures, we received a new batch of photos and videos last week. She is starting to do the first tentative steps of crawling. Our baby is growing and developing so fast. This makes us happy but also hurts our hearts because we aren't there for her first year milestones. Continue to pray for her safety in the orphanage. She is getting fantastic care but not like the care she will get once she is home.
