NOC

Once you accept a referral you have to wait for the No Objection Certificate, this is granted by CARA in India.

Things didn't go as smooth as we wanted. Once we signed the referral it transpired our home study was about to expire as they are only valid for two years. So again we had to update the file before it could be transmitted to CARA to apply for the NOC. Updating the home study involved interviews with the social worker, pshychologist, police and doctor. This time we made sure our home study reflected Raju's age, we didn't want the NOC to be refused because it didn't correspond with the home study. Finally in January 2012 the file was complete and transmitted to CARA.

What followed was a stressful time. There was a series of demands for extra documents and questions from CARA to the orphanage. The orphanage was as frustrated as we were but they were very helpful. I contacted CARA several times and was told all the time that it would be issued next week, but weeks passed with no news.

Finally on the 18th of June I received that all important email with the NOC, only to discover they addressed it to the wrong central authority. So we could not file in court without the corrected NOC. Luckily this did not take as long as the initial one and it was received on the 9th of July.

So now we are waiting for the court, this could take anything from 2 months to 6 months...

In the mean time I try to keep myself busy organising Raju's rooms and reading and corresponding with other parents.  One very valuable source when adopting from India is Ichild on yahoo groups. Through there I got in touch with a few other families who adopted from the same orphanage. They have all met Raju when they went to pick up their children and all gave me the same feedback... he is a happy boy :)