Orphans Choir

Last week we went to a performance of the Ugandan Orphans Choir at the Children's Museum in Brookings. It was really fun to see those kids dance and sing! Most of the kids were 10-11 years old and all of them were orphans. They probably had more dance moves in one pinky than I will ever have in my entire body. So fun to watch!

Below is a picture of Ayin and his two cousins watching intently. 

 

 

Ayin thought the drums were a little too loud. 

If you would like more information on the Ugandan Orphans Choir or would like to host them, visit their webpage. Here. It was a great cultural experience and a really cool ministry. 

what the hey is a dossier

dossier

   Use Dossier in a sentence

dos·si·er

  [dos-ee-ey, -ee-er, daw-see-ey, -see-er; French daw-syey]  Show IPA

noun, plural dos·si·ers  [dos-ee-eyz, -ee-erz, daw-see-eyz, -see-ers; French daw-syey]  Show IPA .

a collection or file of documents on the same subject, especially a complete file containing detailed information about a person or topic.

Origin: 
1875–80;  < French:  bundle of documents with a label attached to the back or spine, equivalent todos  (< Latin dorsum ) back + -ier -ier²

Synonyms 
record, report, folder.

This week we had a meeting with our "dossier specialist" to go over everything that we will be working on in the next few weeks or months to come. In a previous post, I mentioned that the dossier could take 5-6 months to complete. But at our meeting, we were told 4 months at the most and probably less...so that's great! I am going to SUPER-SPEED through this paperwork as much as I can! 

It's nice to have another check list. Makes me think we are making progress and keeps me busy doing something. We are STILL waiting for our home study to be finalized, which we are assured will happen in the next week or two. We are trying to be patient. It's very long, very repetitive and very detailed. Our home study needs to be included in the dossier. 

We also need a copy of our home study to complete our I-600A form, which is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. This clearance can take 1-2 months, must be included in the dossier, and is basically permission from the US government to bring an orphan into the United States.

I already have a couple of things checked off my list and a few more things in progress. The birth certificates and marriage license will probably be the easiest documents we have to get. Everything else has to be notarized, which we are finding to be a bit of an inconvenience at times. For example, we need medical letters from our doctors stating that we are in good health, etc. The clinic does not have a notary on staff, so we will have to have a notary come down to the clinic and witness the doctors sign and date our letters. I have a feeling this is not the first time we are going to run in to this issue. Our adoption agency has notaries on staff, so we will probably end up arranging someone from that office to assist us. 

A birth certificate for each member of the family and our certificate of marriage. We had to get new copies of all of them so they date with in six months of the time we send our dossier. 

Here is my effort to organize some of the information we will be giving to our sources. Emailing the info makes things easy, but most of these requests will have to be done in person to assure they are done correctly and in front of a notary, etc.

After all the forms are completed and notarized, we are to send it to our dossier specialist. Once she gives us the green light that everything was done properly, we send ALL of the paperwork to Pierre to get the SD State Seal stamped on the front. 

And then it's mailed off! Once our dossier is in country, we can begin the process of waiting for a referral.

referral

   Use Referral in a sentence

re·fer·ral

  [ri-fur-uhl]  Show IPA

noun

1.

an act of referring; the state of being referred.

2.

an instance of referring.

3.

a person recommended to someone or for something.

A referral is a match to a child, or a child that the orphanage/adoption agency has recommended for us. We have the option to accept or reject any referral. If a referral is accepted, then we can begin to make plans for traveling, court dates, and US Embassy appointments. The estimated wait time for a referral is currently 3-12 months. 

So, to estimate a time frame...I am guessing the dossier will take 1-2 months. Then a 3-12 month wait for a referral, and another couple of months before we travel. Total estimate = 6-18 months. Hopefully closer to 6!! I guess I wouldn't be surprised if everything was finalized sometime in 2014...hopefully not any later than that.