Timeline

Well, I think I set a record in procrastination, but I have finally finished putting together the rest of this blog. It has been over 2 years since we adopted the girls in 2006, and my memory of events has faded. However, I have done my best to go through all of our documentation and e-mails from that year in order to recreate a timeline of events. I hope this will help others adopting from Peru to get a feeling for what will be expected as far as documentation, the pace for scheduling when things need to be completed, and maybe even give you ideas for fund raising. Hopefully, you can learn from our mistakes, and from the things we did right. Keep in mind this adoption was in 2006, and adoption laws have changed since the Hague Adoption Convention. Also, our adoption was in the state of Illinois which has its own peculiarities. At the time, all documents had to be no older than 8 months old for the dossier when delivered to the SNA in Peru except for medical reports which had to be less than 3 months old.

What follows is the timeline. I have tried to mark the documents according to their purpose and whether they needed to be notarized or certified. Future blog articles that follow this one will be the e-mail updates I sent to family and friends as events unfolded.

--Tim Brooks

December 18, 2005: Learned about the girls at church, and had their picture sent to me via e-mail.

December 22, 2005: Contacted David Miller, owner of the Hogar de Esperanza, to get information on adopting. He suggested coming to meet the girls and talking to other adoptive parents.

December 27, 2005: Ordered Andrea's birth certificate in order to apply for a passport to go to Peru to meet the girls.

January 1, 2006: Completed Villa Hope questionnaire from their website (Villa Hope/Dossier)

January 2, 2006: Contacted Illini Christian Services (ICS), a local children's services agency, to inquire about Home Study. (ICS/Home study)
NOTE: We had no idea who did home studies, so we did a lot of asking around. I had asked several people at church if they knew of an agency that did home studies. Our pastor at the time, Dave Hensleigh, got me in contact with Rick Champ, a member or our church and employee at ICS. He told me about their services and got us connected with a the agent who would do our home study.

January 4, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Called Villa Hope for information. I downloaded their preliminary application from their website.
• Contacted Hogar de Esperanza volunteer through e-mail to determine whether the girls had officially been declared "abandoned".
  

NOTE: Children must be declared abandoned in order to be adopted in Peru. This usually occurs after no contact has been made by a relative for 1 year.

January 5, 2006: 1st Home study home visit (ICS/Home study)

January 5, 2006: Completed Villa Hope Preliminary Application for Adoption (Villa Hope/Dossier)

January 6, 2006: Wrote Letter of intention to adopt to SNA

NOTE: We were concerned that the girls would be put on the “Angeles que aguardan” (Angels That Wait) list and another family might be trying to adopt them at the same time that we were working on adopting them. We didn't want to go through all the effort of filling out documents and the financial investment, and then end up finding out that the girls were already being adopted. So we asked Villa Hope how Peru would know that we were working on the adoption. They had us send a Letter of intention to adopt which we e-mailed to Maria Elena Baldassari along with pictures of our family, a copy of our marriage certificate, a copy of my birth certificate (we didn't have Andrea's yet) and a copy of our driver's licenses.

January 7, 2006: Completed ICS Home Study Application (ICS/Home study)

January 9, 2006: Fingerprinted For DCFS Foster Family license, an Illinois home study requirement (ICS/Home study)

January 10, 2006: Tim completes home study assessments (ICS/Home study)

• Autobiography
• Personal Assessment
• International Adoption Assessment
• Parenting Assessment
• Marriage Assessment
• Financial Worksheet
  

January 12, 2006: 2nd Home study home visit (ICS/Home study)

January 13, 2006: DCFS Application for family home license (ICS/Home study)

January 15, 2006: Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Authorization for Background Check (ICS/Home study)

January 15, 2006: Andrea completes home study assessments (ICS/Home study)

• Parenting Assessment
  
• Marriage Assessment
• Personal Assessment

January 16, 2006: DCFS Foster Family Home Information (ICS/Home study)


NOTE: Many of the following documents were completed before our first trip to Peru to meet the girls. We refrained from making a large financial investment other than our flight to Peru and the cost of applying to Villa Hope and ICS. However, I decided to get as many documents completed as possible before we met the girls, so that we would be able to hit the ground running if we decided to go ahead with the adoption after meeting the girls.

January 18, 2006: Enrolled in Adoption Learning Partners (Villa Hope/Dossier)

January 18, 2006: Villa Hope Release Form (Villa Hope/Dossier)

January 18, 2006: Letter from Employer - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: I had to have it notarized again 2/9/06 because the notary's license expired.

January 21, 2006: Completed 1-600A (Villa Hope/Dossier)

January 23, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Signed Education Requirements document
• International Adoption Agreement
• Peru Post Placement requirements acknowledgment letter
  
• INS inquiries
• Applicant's Acknowledgment Letter
• Out of state fee schedule acknowledgement
• Signed Fed Ex Client Account document for Villa Hope

NOTE: The Fed Ex Client account is used to send all the documents to Villa Hope, and Villa Hope charges to your Fed Ex accound when they send out documents during the legalization process.

January 24, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Our Children Statement
• Statement of Motivation
• Financial Statement

January 25, 2006: 3rd Home study home visit (ICS/Home study)

January 26, 2006: Tim's Physical - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier) (ICS/Home study)
NOTE: Physicals are time sensitive, meaning they can't be older than 3 months old when they are submitted to Peru with your dossier. I was in a hurry to get things done, and jumped the gun on this one. Most insurance companies only pay for one physical per year. I was able to work it out with my doctor to have my physical updated later so that it met Peru requirements. However, you should make sure to ask for physicals toward the end of your process. This can be somewhat of guessing game.

January 26, 2006: Ordered new birth certificate for Tim (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: Just like physicals, birth certificates are time sensitive. They must be less than 8 months old. While I already had a certified copy of my birth certificate, it was from 1973. I used that one to get my passport, but I needed a newer one for the dossier.

January 29, 2006: Andrea's autobiography given to ICS (ICS/Home study)

January 30, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Peru Post Placement Agreement - Notarized
• Conviction Statement - Notarized
• Letter of Request to Secretaria Nacional de Adopciones - Notarized

February 2, 2006: Given information on adoption fund raising site run by relatives of a family at church: Lifesong for Orphans

February 2, 2006: Received home study rough draft for corrections (ICS/Home study)

February 2, 2006: Ordered Social Security Card for Andrea (Villa Hope/Dossier)

February 11, 2006: Pictures we received from David Miller, owner of Hogar de Esperanza

Loren, Donna and Veronica

Veronica, Loren and Donna

February 24, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Copy of photographs of home and family - Notarized
• Copy of Driver's License
• Marriage Certificate - Certified Copy
  

February 25, 2006: Flight to Lima, Peru to meet the girls

February 26, 2006: Bus ride from Lima to Trujillo

February 27, 2006:

• Met the girls!
• Met Maria Elena and Anne Baldwin of Villa Hope
  
• Sent photos of the us with the girls to SNA to reconfirm interest and show we had met the girls.

Tim, Andrea
Donna, Veronica and Loren

March 4, 2006: Made our decision to adopt!

March 5, 2006: Wrote the girls a letter telling them that we would like to be their parents. We told them that we had to leave for now because we had to finish a lot of documents for the Peru and U.S. government, but we would be back as soon as we could to come get them. I'm pretty sure they didn't understand why we couldn't take them with us right then.

March 6, 2006: Departed Hogar de Esperanza for Lima by bus

March 7, 2006: Returned to the U.S.

March 9, 2006: Andrea's physical exam - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier) (ICS/Home study)
NOTE: We had to go ahead and get Andrea's physical because it was needed for the home study, and the home study was needed for INS.

NOTE: We made up our minds while in Peru that we wanted to adopt the girls, so as soon as we returned we went full speed on finishing the paper work and sending it to Villa Hope.

March 9, 2006: Sent to Villa Hope (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Copy of 3 most recent of 1040
• Villa Hope Affidavit of Knowledge and Acceptance of Terms - Signed and Notarized
• Identification Verification
• Dossier Registration Form (Fed Ex Account Number)
• Letter of Request to SNA - Notarized
• Autobiography or previously Approved Home Study
• Marriage Certificate - Certified Copy
• Birth Certificates (Tim, Andrea and boys) (the boys birth certificate were older than 8 months, so I had to send new ones later) - Certified Copy
• Deed to House - Certified Copy
• Fee schedule
• Copy of insurance cards
• Copy of passports - Signed and Notarized (We forgot to sign are passports before copying and sending them, so we had to do it again later on)
• Villa Hope Release Form
• Letter from Employer - Notarized
• Education Requirements document
• International Adoption Agreement
• Peru Post Placement requirements acknowledgment
• INS inquiries
• Our Children Statement
• Statement of Motivation
• Financial Statement
• Tim's Physical Exams (Had to resend physical with later date to meet the 3 month window requirement. - Notarized
• Villa Hope Peru Post Placement Agreement - Notarized
• Conviction Statement - Notarized
• Copy of photographs of home and family - Notarized
• Copy of Driver's License
  

March 9, 2006: Sent I-600A application with payment of $685 to U.S. Citzenship and Immigration Services
NOTE: After sending the trip and this fee, we were running out of money, so we were starting to get stressed about how to pay for all the fees. So, we began planning ways to fund raise.

March 13, 2006: Guardianship Letter - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

March 13, 2006: Received Life International Matching Grant Kit

March 14, 2006: Met with pastor about asking for help for funding from the congregation, and received his "Letter from Pastor" that we needed to submit to Life International (Now Lifesong for Orphans). They agreed to match our fundraising up to $4000.00

March 15, 2006: 1st Background Check Letter From Police Department - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: The Notary commission expired on the first background check before the dossier could be sent to Peru, so we had to get a second one later on.

March 16, 2006: Received I-600A receipt, and notice of FILING DATE (Villa Hope/Dossier)

March 20, 2006: Received Orphan Application Fingerprint Referral Notice (fingerprints in Hammond, IN) (Villa Hope/Dossier)

March 28, 2006: Went to Hammond to get fingerprinted for I-600A background check (Villa Hope/Dossier)

March 29, 2006: Made up fund raising refrigerator magnet to be sent out with our fund raising letter.


March 30, 2006: 1st family meeting with psychologist for psychological evaluation (Villa Hope Dossier)

March 23, 2006: Adoption Learning Partners Certificate of Completion (Villa Hope Dossier)

April 2, 2006: 2nd family meeting with psychologist for psychological evaluation (Villa Hope Dossier)

April 5, 2006: Boys' Physical Exams - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier) (ICS/Home study)

April 9, 2006: Began church fund raising with video testimony



April 13, 2006: Villa Hope Formal Application completed (Villa Hope/Dossier)

April 13, 2006: Sent out fund raising letter to friends and family

April 13, 2006: DCFS background check finally completed. (ICS/Home study)
NOTE: This was the background check that required us to get the first fingerprinting way back on January 9th. It took over three months, and we even called our congressman to try to get help with getting it completed. This check really held up our home study being completed. There was nothing we really could have done to speed this up. It was the cause of a lot of stress and consternation.

April 17, 2006: Home Study Criminal Conviction/Arrest History Statement (ICS/Home study)

April 17, 2006: Psychological Evaluation completed - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

April 17, 2006: Sent to Villa Hope (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Guardianship Letter - Notarized
• All Physical Exams - Notarized
• Villa Hope Formal Application

April 18, 2006: Home Study completed - Notarized (ICS/Home study)

April 18, 2006: Psychological Evaluation sent to Villa Hope - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

April 19, 2006: ICS Home study and recommendation letter sent to Villa Hope - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

May 1, 2006: Ordered new birth certificates for the boys - Certified Copy (Villa Hope/Dossier)

May 1, 2006: 2nd Background Check Letter From Police Department - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: The Notary commission expired on the first background check, so we had to get second a one.

May 24, 2006: (Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Copy of passports - Signed and Notarized
• Copy of College Diplomas (Proof of Profession) - Notarized

June 7, 2006: Receive photos of our girls from another adoptive family that are at the orphanage completing their adoption.

Donna, Loren and Veronica

June 8, 2006: Dossier Sent to Peru! (Villa Hope/Dossier)

June 27, 2006: Bank Balance Verification - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

June 24, 2006: I-171H Arrives (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: However, it seems that Illinois is the only state in the union that, by law, holds back the complete form until they have names of the children. So, the wrong box is checked, but Maria Elena submits the dossier anyway while we wait for the right I-171H:
"YOUR ADVANCE PROCESSING APPLICATION IS BEING RETAINED AT THIS OFFICE"

June 29, 2006: Issue Date For Foster Parent License (ICS/Home study)

July 5, 2006: Requested by Maria Elena for SNA(Villa Hope/Dossier)

• Dr. Statement that Tim was seen on April 5th, 2006 - Notarized
• Dr. Statement that Andrea had physical on April 16, and travel clinic on 17th - Notarized

July 5, 2006: Issued Foster Parent cards (ICS/Home study)

July 13, 2006: Loren's Birthday

July 13, 2006: I-600A Application approved (Villa Hope/Dossier)

July 15, 2006: I-171H Arrives (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: This time the right box is checked:
"YOUR ADVANCE PROCESSING APPLICATION HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO THE AMERICAN CONSULATE OR EMBASSY AT LIMA, PERU."

NUMBER OF CHILDREN 3

July 17, 2006: SNA requests "Name Affidavit" stating that Timothy E. Brooks is the same person as Tim E. Brooks since my name on my birth certificate is Timothy and the name on both my driver's license and passport is Tim. - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)

July 28, 2006: Last set of documents sent to Peru (almost) (Villa Hope/Dossier)

July 31, 2008: Sent "Letter of Non-Employment" by e-mail for Andrea because she does not work outside the home. (Villa Hope/Dossier)

August 8, 2006: Affidavit of Support under section 213A of the Act - Notarized (Villa Hope/Dossier)
NOTE: This form, one for each child, is completed in Peru, but must be notarized before leaving.

August 22, 2006: WE GOT THE CALL THAT WE'RE APPROVED!

August 24, 2006: Placement and Acceptance Agreement (Villa Hope/Dossier)

September 8, 2006: Maria Elena sends e-mail saying "Some minutes ago SNA confirmed to me officially the designation of Loren, Donna and Veronica for the Brooks family."

September 8, 2006: Sent acceptance letter to the secretaria Nacional de Adopciones del MIMDES

September 8, 2006: Booked flight to Peru through Orbitz for September 11th, 2006 with return date of October 12th.
NOTE: This return date was pretty much a guess. We based the time that would be required on another family who had just completed their adoption in July of a daughter and son from Hogar de Esperanza also using Villa Hope. It took them 5 weeks.

September 11, 2006: Tim, Andrea, Josh, T.J. and Andrew fly to Peru.
NOTE: We brought with us forms I-600 and I-864 (Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Act) - Notarized, one for each child. Visa fees were $380/child cash in Peru.

September 26, 2006: PERUVIAN ADOPTION COMPLETE!

September 29, 2006: Veronica's Birthday

October 12, 2006: Tim, Josh, T.J. and Andrew return to the U.S.

October 16, 2006: Visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in Peru. Andrea pays the $380/per child fee

October 17, 2006: Andrea, Loren, Veronica and Donna come home to the U.S.

How It All Started

Our adoption adventure began on December 18th, 2005, the Sunday before Christmas. At that time a couple from our church had just returned from a month long mission trip to an orphanage in Trujillo, Peru. This couple had just moved to Champaign, IL from Washington D.C. around October. They had moved into the area to go back to school, but they had some time before the next semester started, and so they had a desire to work at an orphanage in Peru for a month before settling into their new life in Champaign. They had only been attending our church for a few weeks before they set off in November for their mission in Peru.

Prior to leaving they told our pastor about what they were about to do. He gave them an opportunity to speak to the congregation of our church in order to raise money for the library they were going to build at the orphanage, Hogar de Esperanza. They raised $2000 that Sunday, and they left the following week for Trujillo.

When they returned from Peru a month later, they gave a Powerpoint presentation to the church to show us the projects they were able to complete while working at the orphanage. They also showed some pictures of some of the children that needed families. One of the pictures was of three little girls. Now, we have three biological sons, and due to my wife's painful pregnancies we were not going to have any more biological children. We had discussed the possibility that maybe in a few years we might adopt a baby girl, but it wasn't on our minds at this time. But suddenly without having any clue of what was going to happen to me that day, I found myself thinking, among other things, that "those girls could be my daughters". I was also thinking about my nephew, whom my sister and brother-in-law had adopted as a baby from Peru some sixteen years earlier, and how it would be cool for him to have Peruvian cousins.


Veronica, Loren y Donna
(This is the picture I saw at church)

That particular Sunday, my wife, Andrea, was at home with one of our three boys who was sick. I had serious doubts that this little spark of an idea I was having was really going to blossom into anything. However, on a whim I decided to have, Bill Glick, a member of the church tech team e-mail the picture of these girls that I had just seen so that I could show my wife when I got home.

Upon arriving at home, I reminded Andrea about that couple that had gone to Peru, and told her how they had just come back and had showed the church what they had accomplished. I then, sort of half jokingly, said, "How would you like to double the size of our family?" I showed her the picture, and to my surprise she was totally open to the idea, and told me to investigate it further. My oldest son, who was 8 years old at the time, came in while I was showing the picture. We asked him what he thought of the idea of adopting these girls as his sisters. Once again, to my surprise, he was very open to the idea, and thought it was a good thing to do. My middle son, who was 5 years old, said he didn't want any sisters at all, but we kind of discounted that as what any 5 year old boy might say. Our two year old didn't have an opinion. :)

So, the next thing we needed to do was figure out was what we should do next. Having never adopted before, we had no clue. I decided to contact the owner of Hogar de Esperanza, Dave Miller. Dave is an American business man with a BIG heart. He built the orphanage after seeing the many street kids begging for food on his many trips to Peru. Dave told me I should contact some other families who had adopted from the orphanage, and then we should come down to the orphanage to meet the girls to make sure this is what God wanted us to do.

We took his advice on both counts. I was able to get some good information on how to get started with the adoption process, and what we should expect as far as time and money from the contacts that he had given me. Through the advice of one of the families I spoke to, I went ahead and started the application process for the adoption agency with Villa Hope. And after some investigation and some help from people at church we found a local agency to do our Home Study (more on these subjects later). We also ordered tickets for our flight to Peru which would be at the end of February, 2006. This would be the first time either my wife or I had traveled out of the country.

Obviously, we needed passports. Here I will depart from my story to mention to anyone considering international adoption that you might want to start work on getting a passport if you don't already have one. You'll find that as you gather documentation for the adoption, that a lot of documentation is time sensitive. Peru has strict requirements on how old certain documents can be. Most of them can be no older than 6 months, and some can be no older than 3 months. We needed our passports right away because, not being independently wealthy, we didn't want to invest in too many of the fees for the home study or the adoption agency until we had met the girls and made sure this was the right thing to do. So, we wanted to meet them as soon as possible so we could get the process started. We got our tickets for late February because we needed 6 to 8 weeks to get our passports. You will need birth certificates to get a passport if you have one lying around use that instead of ordering new ones. You need to hold out on new birth certificates until you get your home study done and some other documentation completed, so that your birth certificate age is within that 6 month range.

Back to the story...

We arrived in Lima, Peru late on February 25th, 2006, and took an 8 1/2 hour bus ride on Cruz Del Sur bus lines to Trujillo on the 26th. We arrived late that night, and we were met by David Miller at the bus station. We were quite relieved to have arrived safely since our Spanish was very limited, and we were international travel novices. Having arrived in Trujillo late on the 26th, we would have to wait yet another night to meet the girls. When we woke up on the morning of February 27th, we were given a tour of the orphanage by David Alenskis who was a "year long" American volunteer at the orphanage. We were filled with anticipation to finally meet the girls. Of course, we didn't want the girls to know that we were specifically looking at them for adoption because we didn't want to get their hopes up in case things went badly. So they didn't know who we were when we happened to cross paths on our tour. It was a bit anti-climatic when they said "hola", and walked away. However, within ten minutes, David Alenskis told us that our lawyer from Villa Hope was there, and asked if we would like to meet her. Of course, we were a little shocked. We weren't quite sure who our lawyer was. It was just a nice coincidence that Maria Elena Baldassari the Peruvian lawyer for Villa Hope and Anne Baldwin, the Executive Director for Villa Hope from Alabama happened to be visiting Hogar de Esperanza on the same day that we arrived. They heard we were there and wanted to meet us. We talked about the girls for an hour, and then we all took a tour together of the children's casitas (the 4 dormitories housing the girls and boys). Maria Elena being there turned out to be quite fortuitous for us. Because she speaks both Spanish and English, and because she has a great gift with working with children, she was able to break the ice, and bring all the children out of their shells. This enabled us to quickly bond with all the children, and really started off our week long visit on the right foot.


Anne Baldwin and Maria Elena Baldassari Donna, Veronica and Loren


Tim and Andrea Donna, Veronica and Loren