It's Official!

We are dossier APPROVED!! We've been waiting what feels like an eternity to hear those words. The Slominski Seven will be EIGHT! We are heading back to Colombia!

It all started nearly two years ago when I first laid eyes on a photo of the cutest little one year old boy. He was being advocated for by an adoption agency online, and he just so happened to be in Colombia. I truly thought that several families would be lining up to welcome him home with open arms. He would surely be chosen in no time.

On March 9, 2022, an email popped into my inbox. It was from Nightlight, an adoption agency. I had signed up for their emails years prior and every Wednesday they send out an advocacy email highlighting a waiting child. I had received hundreds of these emails over the years, but this time, when I opened the email, the little face that had spoken to my heart was gazing back at me. AND he was being advocated for under the pseudonym "Shane". It seemed like fate. I forwarded the email off to Shane including a note to "Look at little Shane."

Knowing how long the adoption paperwork process would take and that Colombia matches children with the family furtherest along in the process, I thought we stood no chance. At some point soon after, I saw him listed with another agency, Madison Adoption Associates, with "ON HOLD" written across his photo. A family was pursuing him! 

Months go by and on November 12, 2022, I once again peeked at Madison's waiting child list, but this time that sweet little boy's photo was still there, but it no longer said "On Hold". Now he was 2 years old and still appeared to be waiting. Curiosity got the best of me and I reached out to Madison to inquire if this was indeed the case. 

I'd soon find out that he was still in need of a family. After chatting with Madison and reviewing his file, we reached out to Children's Home Society/Lutheran Social Services (CHLSS) to discuss the possibility of them being our Home Study Agency. 

I had been chatting with another Mama during this time who was in the process of adopting from Colombia, and Colombia had just retracted their approval. They had hoped to adopt the cutest little girl with Down Syndrome. They also had a blind son whom they were already parenting. Colombia had decided to take back their previous approval as they didn't feel the family could properly care for two special needs children. This had us extremely nervous right off the bat. Aria's needs were much more significant as were the needs of the little boy we were hoping would be ours. Would Colombia approve us? We didn't know, but we had to try. (As a side note, Colombia changed their minds on that beautiful family once again. They were allowed to complete the adoption and their new daughter is already home.)

After lots of discussion, on December 15, 2022, we said "YES - let's go get him" and started the mad dash of mile high paperwork. We knew it would be a long road ahead of us, and we were unsure 1) if Colombia would approve us, and 2) if our sweet boy would still be available by the time our paperwork got to Colombia. 

By the end of January 2023, we had pulled together our extensive list of home study documents and completed all the required trainings. We were hopeful to move the process along quickly, but a delay in the review of our documents and a delay in assigning us a social worker caused an unfortunate slow down in our momentum. 

We were finally assigned a social worker and soon found out that Colombia now requires 3 separate meetings versus just the one in-home meeting like we had done in the past. We scheduled the meetings as soon as possible to wrap them all up in a week, but sadly there was a death in the family of our social worker and we had to postpone our last meeting. 

We wrapped up our last home study visit on March 23rd and waited anxiously for our home study to be finalized. We were stuck in a holding pattern, not able to move forward until we had the finalized home study in our hands. It was a long 1 1/2 months waiting and checking in on the status of our home study. Finally on May 10th, our home study was complete, notarized and ready for pickup. I wasted no time and drove directly over to CHLSS, picked up our home study, and drove it straight to UPS to overnight it along with our I-800a application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Our next step would be getting USCIS approval. We knew it would be a long wait, but had no idea it would take as long as it did.  While waiting on USCIS approval, we pulled together the rest of our documents for our dossier (the collection of paperwork that would go down to Colombia). On June 3rd, our dossier was complete EXCEPT for USCIS approval. 

FINALLY on August 21st, after over 3 months of waiting, our I800a approval arrived in the mail! We sent a scanned copy over to Madison and just a couple days later our dossier was on its way to Colombia!!

Now we would wait yet again. This time for Colombia's response. Would Colombia accept our application to adopt? We were told that application reviews were taking around 4 months. There was nothing left to do, but to wait.

On November 3rd, we received an email from Madison with the subject line "Dossier Approved!" They said YES!! After nearly a year of worrying and wondering, COLOMBIA SAID YES!

Now on to the next big question, will they match us with our adorable little boy? We sure do hope so! 

Stay tuned!