We finally got our adoption decree from the Burundi courts today! This is a huge step!
Most families that we have talked to were able to travel right after they got the decree. Typically, they take three to four weeks to process and actually get you the decree, so it is usually pre-dated by 3-4 weeks. There is supposed to technically be a 30 day waiting period from decree to travel, but by the time people get their decree that period is pretty much up and they're ready to go once they get their visas. Our case seems to be unique in that we received the decree today, and it is dated today. Sort of a bummer, because now we have to wait to travel until AFTER the wait period. We knew that we would need 2-3 weeks to get our visas anyways, so this really only adds a few weeks to the wait time. It is frustrating, but still a huge step. Right now we have tentative travel date!!
We are hoping to travel May 15 to pick up our boy! Woo hoo!! We will be in Burundi about a week, and then travel to Nairobi to the US Embassy for the medical appointments and check out process. Most likely we won't get back to Austin until June 1. Memorial Day will happen when we are in Kenya which means the embassy will be closed...so it just changes things by a few days.
There is still a chance that this might change by a few days here or there, but it is looking pretty realistic!
Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support.
Our adoption fundraiser link is:
adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
Thanks to those of who have so generously donated...and thanks for your continued support on this long but beautiful journey. We cannot WAIT to have our boy, Kenny, home!
Much Love,
The Bauchers
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Update on Kenny
Hey Family and Friends. We've had a lot of people asking about when we will be able to go get Kenny...and unfortunately we still don't have an answer. We do know that his case is with the courts in Burundi and that his case is assigned to the slow judge. Which is a huge bummer. Our understanding was that there is a court date, a thirty day wait period, and then we will have the final adoption decree which we need to get our visas, and we can go as soon as we have those. We've had some relatively unclear communication that they are "waiting for the judge to sign decree" which makes me think maybe the court date has happened....but we're not sure about the 30 day wait period. We're hoping we are in that time period now, but really have no idea. Communication is inconsistent and vague...and from the other families we've talked to there hasn't really been any specific pattern of how these things happen....
The good news is there have been three families who we've spoken with who have traveled to get their kids in the last month. They've visited the school that Kenny is going to and said it is amazing. They teachers speak in English all of the time and are great with the kids. I am happy to know that while we wait for him to come home, he's at least in a good school environment!
There is a family that lives just a few miles from us that is also adopting a 5 year old boy who is in the same orphanage and class at school as Kenny. They are there picking him up NOW and were able to deliver a little care package to Kenny. We sent him a photo book with pictures of Brian and I and the kids along with a few videos, and some beyblades of course at Colton's request.
While we are very anxious to get him home, we continue to pray for his health and safety.
Hopefully we will be updating you all soon that we are getting ready to travel.
Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support!
Peace,
Kristen
The good news is there have been three families who we've spoken with who have traveled to get their kids in the last month. They've visited the school that Kenny is going to and said it is amazing. They teachers speak in English all of the time and are great with the kids. I am happy to know that while we wait for him to come home, he's at least in a good school environment!
There is a family that lives just a few miles from us that is also adopting a 5 year old boy who is in the same orphanage and class at school as Kenny. They are there picking him up NOW and were able to deliver a little care package to Kenny. We sent him a photo book with pictures of Brian and I and the kids along with a few videos, and some beyblades of course at Colton's request.
While we are very anxious to get him home, we continue to pray for his health and safety.
Hopefully we will be updating you all soon that we are getting ready to travel.
Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support!
Peace,
Kristen
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Quick adoption update
Hi Family and Friends. I just wanted to check in and give everyone a quick update as to where we are in the adoption process. We recently received our United States Customs and Immigration I-800 Approval, so that is another big check mark checked off on our to do list! Now we are in the process of working on our visa application for Kenny. It is a fairly complicated process as the original has to be hand delivered to the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. We have to fill out some paperwork which we will get done today and then mail it off to our agency, who mails it to a Kenyan lawyer. After that happens, we will receive our Article 5 which pretty much means he can enter into the US....so that is a big step! Once we get the article 5, we are also then assigned a court date in Burundi. We do not have to appear for the court date, but the Burundian lawyer that works with our agency will go to that. After the court date, there is a 30 date waiting period, some more paperwork, and then hopefully we will be able to travel. It is hard to put an exact timeline on everything, but things are progressing. We are hopeful that we can travel in April or May...obviously the earlier the better.
We have not had any direct communication with Kenny. To be honest, I don't even know if he knows about us yet! I've heard they wait until travel dates are more imminent to tell the kids. We do know he is going to Bujumbura International Montessori School in the capital of Burundi. They teach in English, so we are hopeful he is learning some English to make the transition home a bit easier. There are multiple other families that have been travelling and picking up their kiddos which is neat to see. We are a part of a Burundi Adoption Facebook group and recently learned there is a family just a little bit ahead of us in the process that is also bringing home a 5 year old boy from the same orphanage and they live about ten minutes from us! So that will be really neat for Kenny to have a familiar face so close by.
Skylar, Colton, and Emory are very excited to bring Kenny home. They talk about it a lot, and they often pray for his safety, health, and his quick arrival! I know these last few months will fly by in many ways....but it is definitely harder to wait when you have a sweet little face and name to put with your little one. Before we were matched with Kenny, it was more just an idea on the back burner as we stayed busy with the everyday activities that come along with have three kids. Now that we're matched, we are ready to bring Kenny home!! We do have a few pictures of him, but we are not supposed to post of social media. If you'd like to see one, feel free to shoot me a message.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Love,
The Bauchers
www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
We have not had any direct communication with Kenny. To be honest, I don't even know if he knows about us yet! I've heard they wait until travel dates are more imminent to tell the kids. We do know he is going to Bujumbura International Montessori School in the capital of Burundi. They teach in English, so we are hopeful he is learning some English to make the transition home a bit easier. There are multiple other families that have been travelling and picking up their kiddos which is neat to see. We are a part of a Burundi Adoption Facebook group and recently learned there is a family just a little bit ahead of us in the process that is also bringing home a 5 year old boy from the same orphanage and they live about ten minutes from us! So that will be really neat for Kenny to have a familiar face so close by.
Skylar, Colton, and Emory are very excited to bring Kenny home. They talk about it a lot, and they often pray for his safety, health, and his quick arrival! I know these last few months will fly by in many ways....but it is definitely harder to wait when you have a sweet little face and name to put with your little one. Before we were matched with Kenny, it was more just an idea on the back burner as we stayed busy with the everyday activities that come along with have three kids. Now that we're matched, we are ready to bring Kenny home!! We do have a few pictures of him, but we are not supposed to post of social media. If you'd like to see one, feel free to shoot me a message.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Love,
The Bauchers
www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Finally, some BIG NEWS!
Hi Family and Friends. Thanks so much to all of you who have continued to keep us in your thoughts and prayers on our adoption journey. We've finally had some progress in the last month and we are so excited to share.
The adoption committee met several months ago to match families with kids. We were not matched and were bummed, but were told we are next on the list for a boy within our agency. Then in mid-August we got a call from Jackie, who is the head of our agency (International Child Foundation in Phoenix), saying that another family who had been waiting for a very long time had been matched with a 5 year old boy but had decided to pursue a different path. She asked if we wanted to be matched with him, and we of course said yes! I wasn't exactly sure what all it would entail to have him officially "re-matched" with our family, but Jackie ensured us this happens and lot and it wouldn't be a problem, it would just take time....and she wasn't kidding when she said it'd take time!
So today, just a month after we got that call from her, we have an official referral letter from Burundi matching us with a 5 year old boy named Kenny. We are so excited, nervous, overjoyed, and everything in between :) We are planning on telling the kids tonight...as we wanted to make sure the match was really going to happen before sharing the news with them. I think in their heads they always thought we'd have a "baby brother" and the age will be a bit of a surprise, but we're hoping he fits right in to the delightful circus we already have.
The next step will be completing paperwork with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. Then we will have everything mailed over to Burundi for it to process through their court system. This will mean more waiting, probably 6-9 months...I think it would be realistic for us to plan to travel to pick him up towards the end of this school year.
We also learned of an Montessori school in Burundi that we are enrolling Kenny in for this school year. They teach the kids English which we think will be a big benefit while we wait to bring him home. It is called Bujumbura International Montessori. So we are hoping this will be a good experience for him!
Also, we wanted to thank all of you who have supported us financially through this process. It has been a huge blessing for a family. Our fundraising site can be found at:
www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
We so appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and support. Keep them coming!
We'll hopefully have more frequent updates now as we feel like we are finally getting the ball rolling almost 2 years into the process!
We love you all and God Bless!
Kristen and Brian
The adoption committee met several months ago to match families with kids. We were not matched and were bummed, but were told we are next on the list for a boy within our agency. Then in mid-August we got a call from Jackie, who is the head of our agency (International Child Foundation in Phoenix), saying that another family who had been waiting for a very long time had been matched with a 5 year old boy but had decided to pursue a different path. She asked if we wanted to be matched with him, and we of course said yes! I wasn't exactly sure what all it would entail to have him officially "re-matched" with our family, but Jackie ensured us this happens and lot and it wouldn't be a problem, it would just take time....and she wasn't kidding when she said it'd take time!
So today, just a month after we got that call from her, we have an official referral letter from Burundi matching us with a 5 year old boy named Kenny. We are so excited, nervous, overjoyed, and everything in between :) We are planning on telling the kids tonight...as we wanted to make sure the match was really going to happen before sharing the news with them. I think in their heads they always thought we'd have a "baby brother" and the age will be a bit of a surprise, but we're hoping he fits right in to the delightful circus we already have.
The next step will be completing paperwork with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office. Then we will have everything mailed over to Burundi for it to process through their court system. This will mean more waiting, probably 6-9 months...I think it would be realistic for us to plan to travel to pick him up towards the end of this school year.
We also learned of an Montessori school in Burundi that we are enrolling Kenny in for this school year. They teach the kids English which we think will be a big benefit while we wait to bring him home. It is called Bujumbura International Montessori. So we are hoping this will be a good experience for him!
Also, we wanted to thank all of you who have supported us financially through this process. It has been a huge blessing for a family. Our fundraising site can be found at:
www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
We so appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and support. Keep them coming!
We'll hopefully have more frequent updates now as we feel like we are finally getting the ball rolling almost 2 years into the process!
We love you all and God Bless!
Kristen and Brian
Monday, December 18, 2017
Hi Family and friends! We hope this time of year finds everyone healthy and happy as we joyfully await celebrating Christmas!
Having not posted in awhile, we wanted to give everyone a quick update. The adoption committee in Burundi met back in August and matched the rest of the families from our agency that applied in 2015 and half of the families from 2016 with children! What great news this was. Burundi continues to be progressive in their attitude towards international adoption and is working towards streamlining procedures to make things move a little bit quicker for families and the kiddos. Our agency is hopeful that the next time the committee meets, the remaining 2016 families (which is us!) would be matched with a child. The committee is expected to meet at the beginning f 2018. We are hopeful that we will be matched then. That would mean a trip to Burundi to meet our child, then we would come home and wait for the remaining processes to take place before we would travel back to Burundi and bring our kiddo home for good!
We are in the process now of updating our home study and renewing our 1-800A approval for from the USCIS. More paperwork fun! The good news is this was much less extensive then the first round of paperwork.
We want to thank you all for your continued support and prayers through this process. We are still very excited about this journey!
For anyone who is interested in donating to our adoption fundraising page, the address is www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
Take advantage of those tax deductible donations while you can in 2017!
Thanks again and we hope your family has a blessed and safe Christmas!
Love,
The Baucher family
Having not posted in awhile, we wanted to give everyone a quick update. The adoption committee in Burundi met back in August and matched the rest of the families from our agency that applied in 2015 and half of the families from 2016 with children! What great news this was. Burundi continues to be progressive in their attitude towards international adoption and is working towards streamlining procedures to make things move a little bit quicker for families and the kiddos. Our agency is hopeful that the next time the committee meets, the remaining 2016 families (which is us!) would be matched with a child. The committee is expected to meet at the beginning f 2018. We are hopeful that we will be matched then. That would mean a trip to Burundi to meet our child, then we would come home and wait for the remaining processes to take place before we would travel back to Burundi and bring our kiddo home for good!
We are in the process now of updating our home study and renewing our 1-800A approval for from the USCIS. More paperwork fun! The good news is this was much less extensive then the first round of paperwork.
We want to thank you all for your continued support and prayers through this process. We are still very excited about this journey!
For anyone who is interested in donating to our adoption fundraising page, the address is www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
Take advantage of those tax deductible donations while you can in 2017!
Thanks again and we hope your family has a blessed and safe Christmas!
Love,
The Baucher family
Monday, April 3, 2017
Still waiting....
Hi Family and Friends. We hope this update finds everyone doing well. Here in Austin we have been enjoying some fabulous weather (with a storm here and there) and have had a lot of time outside which is great for us, and for the kiddos. Skylar is busy with softball this Spring, and Emory is playing YMCA soccer which she is really enjoying so far. Brian is helping coach the soccer team and I am helping with softball...it's been really fun to have some one on one time with the kids doing things they enjoy! Colton also just started wee ball last week. Brian and I missed the game because of a 100k bike ride we were doing for the Rosedale School...but we heard he enjoyed every second and was very enthusiastic. I can't wait to watch him.
We have had quite a few questions lately about how things are going with the adoption. The good news is, they're still going. Bad news is, we do not really have anything new to report. Our dossier (the package with ALL of our paperwork) is with the Burundian government so we are eligible to be matched with a child at any time. Burundi is still working hard and very progressive with adoption compared to other African countries, but it is still a very slow process. We are waiting for the "Central Authority" to meet and match more children with waiting families...and praying that one of the times they meet, they will match us with our son! We are still faithful that this will all happen in God's timing, so while we continue to wait, we feel patient and satisfied enjoying the time with have as a family of five. We really have no timeline, other than that they Central Authority hopes to meet every three months. They met last summer, then again in December, so they could be meeting again soon. There is not really a specific order or list of waiting families, so that leads to the uncertainty of how many times the Central Authority will actually meet before we will be matched with a child. Once the match takes place, we hope to go meet our son...then come back and wait some more until they're legally ours and we will travel for our trip to bring our child home. It all seems a little surreal still, but we know this WILL happen, we just do not know when.
Thanks again to all who have helped us raise money for the adoption so far! We have raised over $16,000 which has been such a blessing as we have paid agency fees, legal fees, etc. We still have several more large payments in the future, so we are continuing to pray for guidance and know that God will bless our finances as much as He has blessed every other piece of this puzzle.
If you're interested in making a tax deductible donation, please visit www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily and please feel free to share the link!
Thanks again for all of your questions, prayers, support, and everything else!
Much Love,
Kristen and Brian
We have had quite a few questions lately about how things are going with the adoption. The good news is, they're still going. Bad news is, we do not really have anything new to report. Our dossier (the package with ALL of our paperwork) is with the Burundian government so we are eligible to be matched with a child at any time. Burundi is still working hard and very progressive with adoption compared to other African countries, but it is still a very slow process. We are waiting for the "Central Authority" to meet and match more children with waiting families...and praying that one of the times they meet, they will match us with our son! We are still faithful that this will all happen in God's timing, so while we continue to wait, we feel patient and satisfied enjoying the time with have as a family of five. We really have no timeline, other than that they Central Authority hopes to meet every three months. They met last summer, then again in December, so they could be meeting again soon. There is not really a specific order or list of waiting families, so that leads to the uncertainty of how many times the Central Authority will actually meet before we will be matched with a child. Once the match takes place, we hope to go meet our son...then come back and wait some more until they're legally ours and we will travel for our trip to bring our child home. It all seems a little surreal still, but we know this WILL happen, we just do not know when.
Thanks again to all who have helped us raise money for the adoption so far! We have raised over $16,000 which has been such a blessing as we have paid agency fees, legal fees, etc. We still have several more large payments in the future, so we are continuing to pray for guidance and know that God will bless our finances as much as He has blessed every other piece of this puzzle.
If you're interested in making a tax deductible donation, please visit www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily and please feel free to share the link!
Thanks again for all of your questions, prayers, support, and everything else!
Much Love,
Kristen and Brian
Friday, December 9, 2016
Adoption Update!
Hi Family and Friends! We hope this holiday season finds everyone doing well. Looking back, both Brian and I are very thankful we got through our busy time of paperwork before the holidays started. It has been nice to not have to worry about tracking things down here and there. We did get an update from Jackie, the head of the agency we are working with: International Children Foundation (ICF). She was the one we sent all of the paperwork to and she passed it on to Pierre, the lawyer in Burundi. We heard from Pierre that he has finished translated everything and he should be picking it up at the notary in Burundi today, and he will deliver it to the Central Authority on Monday. Once that happens, we will be eligible to be matched with a child. Of course, the wait time from there is very unknown. The Central Authority has to have a specific meeting to match waiting families with children, and we could go through multiple meetings without being matched. The regularity with which they meet is pretty up in the air as well. There is supposedly one coming up, and there was on back in the summer (June I believe). While we are anxious to be matched, we also believe that all will happen in God's perfect time! Our biggest fear is the transition of our new child into our already hectic family, so we believe that when God has all of our hearts and minds ready (especially Skylar, Emory, and Colton), we will be matched :)
We also just wanted to give an additional thank you to everyone who has donated to support our adoption. So far, we have raised almost $15,000 dollars. You have no idea what a blessing this is to us! The financial burden of international adoptions was our biggest hurdle to starting this process, and we trust that God will continue to bless our finances as we prepare to bring a new child into our family. Please know we couldn't do it with out your support, so thank you so much for being a part of our story.
If you are still interested in making a tax deductible donation, please check out our Adoption Fundraiser Page at www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
We will continue to post updates and share news as we have it! Thank you all again and Merry Christmas!!
We also just wanted to give an additional thank you to everyone who has donated to support our adoption. So far, we have raised almost $15,000 dollars. You have no idea what a blessing this is to us! The financial burden of international adoptions was our biggest hurdle to starting this process, and we trust that God will continue to bless our finances as we prepare to bring a new child into our family. Please know we couldn't do it with out your support, so thank you so much for being a part of our story.
If you are still interested in making a tax deductible donation, please check out our Adoption Fundraiser Page at www.adopttogether.org/baucherfamily
We will continue to post updates and share news as we have it! Thank you all again and Merry Christmas!!
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