More good news! We got our I797C! Don’t worry, 10 months ago, that wouldn’t have meant anything to me, either. Basically, it’s THE paper we needed to be ready for a referral. We filed the I-800A, which asks the US to approve us as adoptive parents, to say that we’re cool to adopt a baby from a Hague Convention country. We got fingerprinted by Homeland Security, and now we are approved to be matched with a child of either geneder, under 18 months at time of referral and under 3 years at time of taking custody.
Just to be clear, referral is when we are matched with a child. We’ll get pictures and a name and some medical information. This will happen probably this June. This will be a HUGE. DEAL! This is NOT when we travel to Thailand and get to bring our baby home. That will take another 9-10 months of paperwork between both countries. The Thai gov has to approve US as the child’s parents, saying we can take the child out of Thailand, and the US gov has to approve THIS specific child, saying we can bring him/her into the US. Apprently this can not take place on over email. 😉
The other evening I was tearing up as I told Trent about this family’s surprise referral of a baby girl right before Christmas. Carson’s ears perked up and he looked over with wide eyes and said “What? Are we getting a girl?” We said, no, we’re talking about another family. “Oh, okay,” he said with a smile. “But don’t forget: I want a baby brother.” 🙂 Noted.