Another Baby Todd

Happy Monday! Due to some technical difficulties at our agency, we are still waiting with held breath to hear that our application with India is complete. Still, as we wait, I started to look back on how things went in 2020 vs. today. I can’t wait to see how things go with our US application in the coming weeks as well as our application to India. 💕

When we received notifications from the US side of this process that we were ready to go for fingerprinting, I e-mailed our agency and asked if this is going fast because it felt so fast! Turns out, we are pretty much on schedule for the average timelines on the US side. But you know what? It’s really cool when normal feels fast. It’s less cool when fast feels slow, but that is what reflecting is for, right?

Adoption 2020
Started Process: 1/8/2020
Applied for approvals: 8/31/2020
Overall – Start to Applications: 9 months
US Approval: 16 week wait (4 weeks longer than average)
India’s Approval: 2 week wait (10 weeks shorter than average)

Adoption 2025
Started Process: 8/4/2025
Applied with US: 9/12/2025
Applied with India: 10/?/2025
Overall – Start to Applications: 2 months!

So how can I not be amazed looking back like this? It took us almost 9 months in 2020 to apply with both countries for approval. We were able to accomplish that in just over 2 months this time (assuming we will be applied with India this week of course 😁).

We could not have done this without help from so many people. Our home study, medical appointments, personal evaluations, travel to my birth state, friends in Sam’s birth state.. I can’t express my gratitude enough for everyone rushing these steps with us!

💕 I can’t wait to tell my daughter each of your names and how each of you helped her come home faster that we could have done on our own. Thank you!💕

So what comes next? We are required to have approval from both India and the US before we are eligible to be matched with our daughter. Approval timelines can be unpredictable for so many reasons. Our hope continues to be that approval will come from both countries by the end of the year, but as with everything, we know that the wait can take longer. In the meantime, we will have more paperwork to gather, grants to apply for, and a house to prepare for a new little one!

Amara and Dad being silly in the kitchen.