Our adoption journey...

No it was not the last document. There were a few additional requests but we have managed to gather it all together with the help of family and a very efficient translator. The support has been amazing and everyone is constantly reminding me that all will be well and soon Raju will be with us. I had not spoken yet about Raju's name, we had already some time ago decided to give him a second first name and therefore his official name will be Julian Raju. The orphanage has in fact started calling him by his new name eventhough we thought perhaps to transition gradually or continue calling him Raju as a nick name. His dad has a nick name so we didn't see any problem with it. But now we don't want to confuse him any further so we are now using his full first name even though it takes some getting used to :) Time has been flying by as we have been quite busy work wise. This weekend I have a quiet weekend planned and Monday I shall try and remain calm but I so hope the fir...

Since we knew our file is going to court I have been suffering from positive adoption stress. I am so excited to know that we are on the final leg of our journey. Last week however we were asked to clear the issue of Raju’s citizenship. We had already researched this and decided that we would apply for Belgian citizenship for Raju. Initially we were asked to write a declaration to that effect, witness the signatures and send it to India. Piece of cake, Monday all was ready and posted. It was not to be this simple though... the court wanted an official document from the Belgian authorities that Raju will be issued with a Belgian passport. Positive stress immediately reversed into negative stress... where did I start! First port of call was our Central Authority who was of course unable to issue such a document but advised me to contact the embassy. The lady at the embassy was so excited about the adoption (kept congratulating me :))and explained to me the process of getting th...

We have a date! 5 th of November will be the first court date for our file. This is what they call a scrutiny check. Once we pass this, there will be another hearing. Hopefully we will only need two in total. I am beyond excited; it is so good to hear that things are moving. I am sure that many adoptive parents would agree that the bureaucracy is by far the most stressful thing. Perseverance is the message, in the end you will get there J don’t let it discourage you if a document is missing or gets lost. Many prospective parents ask how long does it take, but there is no hard and fast rule, every file is different. At the beginning I too looked at the official sites to see the official time lines set out but soon realised that reality is very different. So everybody spare a positive thought, prayer on the 5 th of November so all will go well. Don’t worry I will remind you on the day ;)