Water's Adoption Timeline

  Water's adoption went very quickly!  We weren't expecting that at all.  We were told to expect at least a 5-6 month wait to be chosen but that it would probably be closer to a year. D and I also assumed that when our family did get picked, the baby's birth mother would still be at least a month away from delivery.  As you can see below, it didn't quite go that way...

March: D and I decide against another adoption in the Marshall Islands and I begin researching domestic adoption in the US

April: D and I choose International Family Services and bombard them with questions for an entire month

May 3: We commit to a US domestic adoption with International Family Services and I begin working through all the paperwork and creating our family profile

May 10: We're fingerprinted for our FBI clearances

May 16: Family profile completed

May 31: Home study completed

July 3: Home study received by IFS

July 8: Completed and submitted IFS client info form and preference sheet

July 15: Our family profile books are sent to social workers in 10 US states

August 8: We're chosen!

August 9: We have our first phone conversation with the young woman who chose our family- this is also the day she's due to give birth

August 11: A flies to Seattle on the first available flight

August 16: Water is born at 1:43 in the afternoon

September 25: Water's adoption is finalized!

October 1/2:  We all fly back to Kwaj