Knock NOC Out

During the last few weeks, as we wait for NOC in order to lighten up the situation have been thinking up Knock Knock jokes about our long wait for NOC.  My best one went as follows:

Knock knock
Who's there?
NOC
NOC who?
NOC when you expect it.

Adam's best was better in my opinion.

Knock knock
Who's there?
SARA (pronounced like sorry with an A at the end)
SARA who?
SARA it's taken so long.

A quick refresher on all these acronyms is in order:

NOC= No objection certificate= we can take guardianship of Anjali though not take her out of India.
CARA=Federal organization that issues NOC
ARC=State approval for the adoption
SARA=State organization that issues ARC and organization that is handling our adoption since our orphanage(MOC=Missionaries of Charity) are not licensed to do international adoptions.


It's Memorial Day Weekend and I am really hoping and praying we get confirmation that the NOC has been issued on Monday.   I can at least then start to make some plans for the summer.   On Friday, we got some troubling news.  CARA claimed that the gender of my daughter was not listed on her medical record AND they said that they did not have the Article 5 from the US Embassy.  The most troubling thing about this news was that the claims were not accurate.  I pulled out Anjali's medical record that was sent with our official acceptance and the new medical record that was done last month as required by SARA and both had her gender listed.  Furthermore, I have email confirmation that the Article 5 was sent to them back in November.  My caseworker was just as floored by this news as we were and she immediately got to work to get things cleared up. Thankfully, both the US Embassy and SARA  quickly responded that they had indeed already supplied this information and submitted additional copies to CARA just in case.  On Saturday morning, our caseworker let us know she received an email stating that NOC would be issued Monday.  My guess is that we won't get confirmation until later in the week or maybe even next week.  The CARINGS system that allows our caseworker to check to see online that NOC has been issued hasn't been updated in quite a while.

I was feeling especially angry with this news.  Normally, NOC gets issued quickly after the ARC is approved.  Although, this was probably just an oversight or misunderstanding or whatever, it felt personal like they are manufacturing reasons not to give the approval.  I am trying to remain optimistic and positive, but sometimes I just lose it and Friday was one of those days.
It's such a fight...every single step in this process has been a fight.  It is more difficult than any boxing match, I have been in.  On Friday, Adam and I watched the Bollywood biopic, Mary Kom, about the beloved Indian female boxing champ from Manipur.  Hers is a tremendously inspirational story.  The movie is available on the Google Play store.  At the height of her boxing career, she had twin boys and the road back to being a champion was an especially challenging one.  It is fascinating to watch women's boxing grow in India.  They just had the Women's Junior  World Championships this week and India came out with 5 medals including 3 gold.  The Washington Post this week did an article on young female boxers in Kolkata.  Mary Kom has played an immense role in the sports popularity amongst women and young girls.  After getting a bronze medal in the Olympics, she had a 3rd child in 2013 and is now eyeing gold in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.  The movie showed her tremendous devotion to her family and her phenomenal will power and I am reminded that it's worth the fight.  Anjali, you are worth the fight.

Mary Kom and her twin boys
image source:  http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/images/stories/mary-kom-ghk-660_110812044513.jpg