Adoption Update: We have our I-171H!

The approval from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for our adoption arrived in the mail on Monday. The approval is a form, the I-171H. I had imagined that it would be a very official document, possibly with a watermark and a seal or something along those lines. It is just a piece of paper with a checkmark next to our approval and the expiration dates for our fingerprints and paperwork. Our application was processed much faster than I had anticipated – it took USCIS just one month to send us our approval.

This week marks our fourth month on the waiting list with our adoption agency. Our agency, Families for Children in Utah, announced this week restructuring plans. The restructuring includes hiring several new adoption coordinators to help families through the adoption process, and a name change – the Taiwan and Haiti adoption programs will now be managed by For Every Child (FEC) Adoption Services, a new organization affiliated with Families for Children. What does that mean for us? There is a new Waiting Family Coordinator who will be responsible for helping us through the adoption process. It also means the fees for our adoption program are increasing by about $1000 – with added staff and services, I guess that should be expected. The restructuring and additional staff were much-needed and I am happy with the changes our agency is making.

We are hopeful we will receive a referral of a child sometime at the end of this year or early next spring.