Past Due Update

Hello all! I've gotten quite behind on keeping our blog updated. At the end of September, AWAA of NC went through the relicensing process with the State. All went well, but I needed some recovery time afterwards. Following that, Ciara had two mosquito bites that turned in to cellulitis in both her lower legs, and we've just been busy. Things are getting back to normal now.

We did receive our I 171 H on September 19, 2007. AWAA of NC's site visit was on September 25, so I did not get a chance to work on anything until October. On Friday, I scanned in all of our dossier documents (a total of 29 documents, 79 pages all together), obtained four money orders (two for the US Department of State and two for the Ethiopian Embassy), and overnighted everything to our agency. Yesterday, we received the response below:

I am sending your dossier by FedEx overnight this evening to the courier in Washington, DC. He will hand carry your dossier for final authentication at the Department of State and Ethiopia Embassy. Your dossier will then be sent to Ethiopia to Gladney’s in-country representatives. They will take your dossier to be translated into Amharic and to be authenticated in Ethiopia. They will then hold your dossier ready to be submitted to the courts once you have received and accepted a referral.

You are now officially placed on waitlist to receive a referral! Currently, families have waited up to three to five months to receive a referral. Please keep in mind that this timeline is subject to change at any time. Congratulations on making it through the tedious dossier process!

I will be in touch with you as soon as a referral is ready for you. I ask for your patience during this time and completely understand that “waiting” is probably the most difficult (yet exciting!) part for most parents.

So, now the real wait does begin. I will try to be better about keeping this blog up-to-date.

Update on Our Wait for USCIS Approval

We received an update from our agency about the status of our I 171 H approval from USCIS. Below is the message that we received from our agency.

"She (USCIS) reported that she is processing applications filed May 9-11, 2007. She reported that your I-600A was filed 5-11-07, so she said that you should be hearing from CIS within the next week or so."

I'm very excited with this news!

Four Months of Waiting and Preschool Begins

Today marked four months since we submitted our I 600 A to USCIS (Immigrations). We had our fingerprints done at the end of July and our home study arrived at USCIS at the beginning of August. After four long months, we still haven't received our I 171 H. This is the only piece of paper that is keeping us from finishing up our dossier and getting our paperwork off to Ethiopia. I can't say that Sean and I are patient, as much as, we've just given up being excited each day as we check the mail thinking that it has arrived. Our 6 year wedding anniversary is Saturday--so we're hoping that maybe we will receive an anniversary gift from USCIS on Saturday. We'll update everyone when and if it arrives.

On another sad note (at least for this Mama), Ciara started Preschool today. She's in Mrs. Angela's 3 year old class and seems to really like her teacher. She was exhausted after I picked her up and took a 3+ hour nap. The picture included is of Ciara getting ready to go to preschool today.

Trainings Completed!

Good news to report! While we still don't have our I 171 H from USCIS, we did finish up our training hours that are required for this adoption this evening. We so far have accumulated a little over 14 hours of training (10 were required), but we do plan on continuing our education as we wait for our little one.

On another note, Ciara sat down on the bed beside me this morning and asked me, "Can we go get my baby sister." Oh, how I wish it were that simple. I explained to her that one day we will receive a call and will find out if it will be a baby brother or a baby sister. She interrupted me with a squeal of excitement (I guess we will be printing out her own set of those pictures when we receive them. I can't imagine all the people in Wal-Mart and other stores that she will tell the good news to and all the questions that will lead to.) I then explained that some people would have to finish up some really important paperwork and then Mommy and Daddy would fly to Ethiopia to get baby brother or sister. All the while, I was thinking that I was going to completely confuse my child's thinking about how children come into this world, that adoption is just paperwork, etc. but I didn't really know how else to explain it. I know that a three year old can't comprehend all of this, but I really wished that her Daddy hadn't already left for work this morning and could have answered this question.

We had our picture taken for the new church directory tonight. Both of us can't wait to have to get our family portrait redone and were busy calculating just when that might be. It will be so exciting to be a family of four and then who knows what! Sean keeps on talking about starting our second phase of parenting when we are in our 50s. On that note, I'll close for tonight. I need to go hit the bike if I'm going to be able to still run around and chase little ones in my 50s.

Just Waiting

I know it has been awhile since we have posted. We are simply just waiting. We are almost done compiling all of the documents for our dossier. Our home study, the agency's license and a few other documents are now finished being authenticated by the Texas Secretary of State. We are still waiting on our I 171 H from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Once we receive that, we will take it, our certified copies of originals of our passports, our limited power of attorney, and our last reference to be authenticated by the NC Secretary of State. After that, we have to scan all of the authenticated documents (and make a copy for us) and send everything to Gladney. Then, our dossier will be sent to the US State Department for authentication before finally being sent to Ethiopia. Our wait for a referral officially begins when we receive our Gladney approval (we've already received this), our USCIS approval (the I 171 H) and have submitted our dossier to Gladney.

Sean and I taught two Transracial Parenting classes this past weekend for the NC Division of Social Services Post Adoption Conference in Greensboro, NC. While there, we ran into a family that I had worked with while I was the Director of New Life Christian Adoptions. I got to see there children (one of whom was adopted through New Life). He had just turned a year old in July and is as cute as a button. He let me hold him and gave the best hugs. I was doing pretty good with this waiting until then--holding a little one again felt so good. Ciara is going through her independent phase now, so cuddle time is usually only allowed by her at bedtime and in the morning or if she gets hurt.

Fingerprinting, Home Study Completed, Gladney Approval and Passports Received

We just returned from vacation yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful to have time together and a break from our regular jobs and this paper pregnancy. Our vacation was filled with many firsts...Ciara's first time playing putt-putt, her first time flying a kite, her first time fishing (she caught two, Sean caught three, and I caught none), and her first time eating the fish that she caught (she said they tickled her tummy). The picture above is of one of the fish Ciara caught (with Daddy's help, as she dropped the pole when she saw a fish was on it) and of Ciara and Daddy at Tweetsie.

We went on the 28th for our fingerprints. We left Garden City, SC around 7:15am and traveled to Charlotte. Our appointment wasn't until 2:30, so when we arrived around noon, we decided to go ahead and get a bite to eat. Around 1:00, we decided to head over to the Application Support Center and just see if they could go ahead and fingerprint us. We were in and out in about 15 minutes for both of us. To our knowledge, they were able to get clear fingerprints on both of us. We then traveled on to the NC mountains where we continued celebrating Ciara's birthday (it began at the beach with Sean's side of the family and continued in the mountains with my side of the family).

After grabbing a bite for supper yesterday, we hurried home to check the mail. Sure enough, both Sean and I received our passports (they are still processing Ciara's). We also received our official letter of approval from Gladney and two copies of our home study (both dated on July 31--Ciara's birthday). We will work on completing our Power of Attorney (we needed our passport numbers first) and notarized copies of an original of our passports this week, as well as getting our home study sent to the Texas Secretary of State for Authentication. We also received my employment letter and our "Statement of Accounts in Good Standing" from our bank back from the Virginia Secretary of State without any issues. The only item remaining that we need to receive before we can finish our dossier is our I 171 H from USCIS. I must say that it feels like we need to celebrate a little more with all of these documents coming in.

Fingerprinting Appointment Times and Other News

Today we got the long awaited actual fingerprint notices. We are to appear at the fingerprinting office in Charlotte at 2:30pm on July 28th. The notice stated that we could expect our USCIS approval (I 171 H) by late August or September, which is much sooner than either of us expected based on recent info. The USCIS website currently states that they are processing I 600 A applications dated March 26, 2007 (ours was dated May 11, 2007). We are very excited.

Today I took the first round of our dossier paperwork (our FBI clearance packets, our letter to the Ethiopian government, two letters of recommendation, our physicals, letters from our physicians, our dossier financial form, Sean's employment letter, a letter confirming our health and life insurance, our birth certificates, and our marriage certificate) to the NC Secretary of State to be authenticated. I am supposed to be able to pick it up tomorrow after 11 am. I also mailed off my employment letter and our "precious" bank letter (5 rounds before we got it approved) to the Virginia Secretary of State. We anticipate that our home study will be completed soon. We have completed all of the paperwork that we can at this point and will just have to wait for our home study, passports, and I 171 H to complete our dossier. After that, we send everything to our agency, it then goes to the US State Department, and then it is off to Ethiopia. Then, the real wait begins.