Married one year, began talking about adoption
2000 – Mission trip to Africa (Botswana), saw orphans first hand, fell in love with the people
9/2/09 – First serious conversation, realized it was time to act, lots and lots of prayer
9/5/09 – Told kids and Priscillia
9/6/09 – For the first Sunday since orphan emphasis at our church, no crushing sobs when seeing the pictures – we simply hadn’t been obeying before!
9/7/09 – My birthday – told friends about adoption
9/8/09 – Began researching agencies, homestudy organizations, lots of spiritual attack this week
9/13 – 9/15/09 – Staff retreat where God really confirmed what we were doing about 100 times
9/21/09 – Sent pre-application in to Gladney $300
10/6/09 – Offer from friends to match all donations between now and end of year up to $5000!
10/8 – 10/10/09 – yard sale – $1801.19 – Exactly enough to cover homestudy!
10/15/09 – first homestudy meeting with Catholic Charities $900
10/20/09 – adoption physicals
11/2/09 – USCIS mailed off $830
11/5/09 – got local fingerprints completed
11/9/09 – homestudy meeting #2
11/10/09 – FBI fingerprints mailed $?
11/12/09 – mailed Gladney paperwork and $1875
11/17/09 – most of dossier notarized
11/18/09 – homestudy meeting #3
12/8/09 – received homestudy to review
1/15/10 – homestudy agency FINALLY received FBI results
1/21/10 – officially approved as a client of Gladney, moved to a CASEWORKER!
1/26/10 – started adoption training course (online)
1/28/10 – Mailed off passports
2/19/10 – Received passports
2/22/10 – Received I-171 from USCIS – FINALLY!!!!
2/23/10 – Got all documents authenticated
2/23/10 – Mailed dossier to Gladney
3/1/10 – Remailed 3 corrected documents to Gladney
3/4/10 – ON WAITLIST!!!!
3/15/10 – Dossier in Ethiopia!
11/2/10 – RECEIVED REFERRAL for twin 3.5 mo girls
11/4/10 – verbally accepted referral
12/30/10 – received court date of 2/28/11
2/22/11-3/4/11 – court trip, no MOWA letter
3/4/11 – found out investigation needed b’c of discrepancies in ppwk and birthmom’s testimony; she was not able to relinquish rights at court
4/19/11 – investigation of girls’ background complete
5/6/11 – birthmom’s second relinquishment interview along with all necessary paperwork redone and submitted to court; waiting on a MOWA letter
6/1/11 – pass court – the girls are officially Underhills!
6/23/11 – paperwork submitted to embassy
7/6/11 – heard nothing for 13 days; in country staff met with Embassy
7/8/11 – Embassy replied with 3 problems with paperwork: missing fingerprints (they previously said they received them), translation problems, and incomplete child history form; we decided it wise to start the process of updating our paperwork as it expires 8/18/11
7/11/11 – Embassy “found” the fingerprint updates
7/12/11 – identified translation errors
7/13/11 – paperwork retranslated; homestudy update visit
7/14/11 – paperwork resubmitted to Embassy; Embassy requested birthmother to come to Addis for another interview – scheduled for Wednesday
7/15/11 – homestudy update mailed off to USCIS
7/17/11 – birthmother was found and brought to Addis in hopes of getting into Embassy for interview early
7/18/11 – birthmother not able to get in early, must wait for Wednesday appt
7/19/11 – found out Embassy is requesting pictures and video from other families; man drove down south to retrieve picture/video DVD for several cases
7/20/11 – birthmother met with Embassy but no word on how it went
7/21/11 – pictures submitted to Embassy for our case – no videos available; everything they have requested is in!!!
7/25/11 – Embassy finally replies and says that there is information that’s incorrect on our paperwork
7/28/11 – Same paperwork resubmitted to Embassy and explained to them – this time they say they’re “satisfied” – hoping to clear soon!
8/1/11 – FINALLY given Embassy clearance – WHOOP!
8/7/11 – Left to go pick up my girls – accompanied by my fabulous Aunt Nancy!
8/9/11 – Girls in my arms!!! (Whew!)
8/11/11 – Embassy Date – Annndddd… passed!!!
8/13/11 – FAMILY DAY!!! ARRIVED IN NASHVILLE!!! WE ARE ALL TOGETHER, SLEEPING UNDER ONE ROOF!!!!!
Underhill Family
