It's not anything fully accomplished... but we received a receipt for our I-600A form from US Customs and Immigration Services. So it was received before the fee change date and our forms have been filed. We have 1 year to submit our Home Study but I am hoping it will only be a couple of weeks. We are still waiting to receive the final copy of our Home Study. Then we can take it with us on a Wednesday for a walk-in fingerprinting appointment to the USCIS office in Yakima. (Sounds like a fun trip, huh?!)
Getting closer.
08 August 2007
01 August 2007
What would you like me to bring you from Africa?
This post isn't related to our adoption process; but our family adoption process. In case you haven't seen our two children recently or they didn't make clear how excited they are about our new baby, here's a funny story for you.
My good friend, Becky, is going on a three week mission trip to Rwanda and leaves in about a week. We spent the day together at the zoo recently and Ocean pointed out Africa on a map in the African Savanna exhibit. He announced that our baby is in Ethiopia which is in Africa. (He's quite smart). Becky showed him Rwanda, where she is going and ask him if he would like her to bring back a present for him from Africa. He jumped up and down and said "Yes! Yes!" She ask him what he thought he would like for her to bring back for him and he (still jumping up and down) answered "My baby!"
My good friend, Becky, is going on a three week mission trip to Rwanda and leaves in about a week. We spent the day together at the zoo recently and Ocean pointed out Africa on a map in the African Savanna exhibit. He announced that our baby is in Ethiopia which is in Africa. (He's quite smart). Becky showed him Rwanda, where she is going and ask him if he would like her to bring back a present for him from Africa. He jumped up and down and said "Yes! Yes!" She ask him what he thought he would like for her to bring back for him and he (still jumping up and down) answered "My baby!"
UGH!
Well, I was preparing to send our Dossier in to AGCI (All God's Children, International) to be checked over and then sent on to DC for US authentication and then off to Ethiopia for translation.....
Then I discovered that there are some papers that need to be fixed. Both of the notaries that signed off with our doctors on Caleb and my medical forms have commissions that expire soon, as well as the one at Caleb's work that stamped on his proof of employment document. And we can't have any of our documents expiring before our adoption is complete. So now I have to go back to both of our doctors offices, probably with my own notary and have the papers signed again. To make matters worse, just yesterday (prior to realization of the notary expiration fiasco) I took Caleb's medical form back to his doctor along with a new copy to be redone because the doctor had used white out on a mistake! Now I have to go back and bug them yet again! I'm not looking forward to it!
Then I discovered that there are some papers that need to be fixed. Both of the notaries that signed off with our doctors on Caleb and my medical forms have commissions that expire soon, as well as the one at Caleb's work that stamped on his proof of employment document. And we can't have any of our documents expiring before our adoption is complete. So now I have to go back to both of our doctors offices, probably with my own notary and have the papers signed again. To make matters worse, just yesterday (prior to realization of the notary expiration fiasco) I took Caleb's medical form back to his doctor along with a new copy to be redone because the doctor had used white out on a mistake! Now I have to go back and bug them yet again! I'm not looking forward to it!
25 July 2007
USCIS I-600A form sent in for approval
Today I just sent in our I-600A Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition to US Customs and Immigartion Services (USCIS) in Yakima. I believe I wrote about this a little in a previous post titled "update". In that post I stated that I needed to send in a completed copy of our home study document. Which is true that document is needed in order to approve us for international adoption however I do not have that quite yet. Apparently in Washington State you can send in your I-600A form prior to home study completion and submit the home study when it is completed. We will actually travel to Yakima when we have our completed home study and get a walk-in fingerprinting appointment. We choose this way to get our USCIS approval (rather than waiting the week or two and sending our home study along with the form) because we just found out that the I-600A form fees are increasing July 30th!
So I hurried up and sent in our stuff before July runs out so we can still fall in the old (cheaper!) fee schedule!
So I hurried up and sent in our stuff before July runs out so we can still fall in the old (cheaper!) fee schedule!
Home Study Complete!
We've completed all our home study visits with our social worker, Diane. It's been really great working with her. We've learned so much and feel really prepared for our new baby. Or two! Through out the last month or so we've decided that we will be open to wherever God is leading our family and are having our paperwork approve us for a sibling pair. Not that we definitely will get a sibling pair but we want to be open and our paperwork needs to reflect that.
We just got to look over the 1st draft of the home study document. It's 15 pages long! And the whole thing talks about us! I felt like it was a great compliment to our parents in how they raised us in faith, had consistent and appropriate discipline and encouraged us in our talents. And now we can build off that foundation for our family!
We just got to look over the 1st draft of the home study document. It's 15 pages long! And the whole thing talks about us! I felt like it was a great compliment to our parents in how they raised us in faith, had consistent and appropriate discipline and encouraged us in our talents. And now we can build off that foundation for our family!
20 June 2007
First Home Study Meeting
We just had our first home study meeting with our social worker, Diane. She was really nice and we had great conversations. She seemed impressed by how much paperwork we had completed. But needs the rest of it before our third meeting. Some interesting things she told us: We are by far the youngest couple she's done a home study for (and she's been doing it 18 years). Also she told us a couple times that we were really "bright" and "smart" and had thought through a lot of the adoption issues well. What a complement especially since we are the youngest adoptive parents she's interviewed! Also at the very end of our meeting when she was getting up to go, she told us that some couples she meets with she can tell right away that they will be great adoptive parents and she really feels that with us! She said she's honored to work with us.
Wow!
So we set up our second meeting with her for next week and I can't wait!
Wow!
So we set up our second meeting with her for next week and I can't wait!
Update
So much for keeping this blog updated! We've been so busy in paperwork I haven't shared so much great info.
We received our Home Study paperwork and Dossier paper work a couple weeks ago and have been fervently working on them.
The home study is a combination of paperwork and interview meetings with a social worker so that she can learn about us, our parenting style, etc. In the end a "home study" document is written up about us and we (hopefully) are aproved to adopt by the social worker!
The Dossier (pronounced with a silent "r") is a packet of documents that are required by Ethiopia to adopt in the proper layout and order. One of the main items of the dossier is the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) aproval. This consists of getting an appointment for fingerprinting and submitting a completed copy of our home study and can take a few months before the approval is received. While we wait for the USCIS approval we can fininsh the rest of the paperwork for the dossier. Once we receive the USCIS approval and have completed the dossier then we get placed on the waiting list for a child.
The home study needs to be completed before the Dossier so that is our first priority although some of the paper work overlaps. There were medical forms for both home study and dossier and so I wisely made one doctor appointment and had both filled out at the same time.... and also got a tetnis shot to my surprise!
We received our Home Study paperwork and Dossier paper work a couple weeks ago and have been fervently working on them.
The home study is a combination of paperwork and interview meetings with a social worker so that she can learn about us, our parenting style, etc. In the end a "home study" document is written up about us and we (hopefully) are aproved to adopt by the social worker!
The Dossier (pronounced with a silent "r") is a packet of documents that are required by Ethiopia to adopt in the proper layout and order. One of the main items of the dossier is the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) aproval. This consists of getting an appointment for fingerprinting and submitting a completed copy of our home study and can take a few months before the approval is received. While we wait for the USCIS approval we can fininsh the rest of the paperwork for the dossier. Once we receive the USCIS approval and have completed the dossier then we get placed on the waiting list for a child.
The home study needs to be completed before the Dossier so that is our first priority although some of the paper work overlaps. There were medical forms for both home study and dossier and so I wisely made one doctor appointment and had both filled out at the same time.... and also got a tetnis shot to my surprise!