In December, we waited through two consejos and didn't hear anything.
In January, we were notified that we needed to submit new information. For families with children already, Peru decided to require a psychological report on those children. The previous psych report was on the parents, with a paragraph about the other children's attitude toward the adoption and a report on the family dynamics. Now, you have to provide a personality profile and detailed information on each child. That took us a while to put together, so we were not able to get a referral in January or February.
Also in January, we were notified that there was a sibling group of three that had been cleared for adoption at the orphanage where we had volunteered. After much soul-searching, we decided to change our letter of intent and name these children. The main reasons were that this group is two boys and a girl, with a boy the oldest, and we thought that was a better fit with our other boys. Also, we thought it would help these children to be adopted by someone they had already met.
In March, we were asked to sign another letter indicating our intent to adopt this sibling group, and then were asked to send photos to be shown to the children. In Peru, children can request to only be adopted with their siblings, or even reject adoptive parents once they meet them, if the children are not comfortable with the adults. This is mainly protection against unfit parents, and we haven't heard of it ever happening. But in our case, apparently they thought it would help the children feel better about agreeing to be adopted if they could prepare them ahead of time that their new family were people they had met and also let them know they would be moving to the US. We will also be bringing Alex with us so the children can see how we interact with him and they can start bonding with him. Needless to say, Alex was very popular when we were in Peru--the children all liked having someone their own age to play with.
Given these latest developments, we expect a referral next week at the March 24 consejo. If so, we will apply to USCIS right away, and hope for better than the normal 6-8 week turnaround time for the I-800 application. We are ready to travel any time. However, the trip will likely start in mid-May.
Andrew will be home from college in May, and already has a paid day job and a volunteer evening job in his field of youth theater. He and Bear (our dog) can have some bonding time. Aaron would stay with a friend from high school until finals, then move back home. We would regret missing Aaron's 16th birthday in May, but will just have to celebrate before we leave. Neighbors and friends will help them out while we're gone. They may have a regular "tour de Champaign" for meals. Otherwise, there'll be a lot of frozen pizzas and pop-tarts.
We hope to be able to share good news in another 10 days or so.
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