There are many things that we will need to have for K when he comes home this fall, some of which I have ideas about (bunk bed for the room he and Owen will share, a wheelchair) and many of which I don't know yet, but I figure we'll know more after we get to visit him some time this spring.
But one thing he does NOT need is stuffed animals. ;) His big brother and sister (Owen and Leah) have gone through their animals and picked out special ones that they want to give to him so he will have "buddies" when he comes home just like they do. And it's pretty sweet, because they're not just picking out the ones they don't want anymore, but they're choosing ones specifically for him. For example, Owen has a beanie baby squirrel, and a mini beanie squirrel that he's had for years: Winky and Baby Winky. He decided that he wants to give Baby Winky to K so they will both have a squirrel. Owen has also decided that K will need a special blanket, and so his "Auntie Sara" blanket, which is his second favorite most special one, he wants to give to K. That little boy waiting across the ocean doesn't have any idea the excitement he's got waiting for him here when his brothers and sisters finally get to have him around!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
"Room"
This blog's title was chosen, as I'm sure most are, very carefully. I've written primarily about the "more" part of the title - there will be more children in our home within the year if all goes well! More children, more love, more dishes, laundry, more time spent in the van going to therapy and appointments, more opportunities to watch the variety of different relationships between and among our children developing. Hopefully more sleep is part of that deal, too, though I'm not planning on it. ;)
Over the last week or two, the "room" part of the title has been rising in my awareness. For years we've tossed around the idea of adding on to this house. We live in the house that Matt's grandfather had built when he was married in 1939, and they raised Matt's dad and three daughters in this house. We've always said that despite the fact that times have changed that if they could raise four kids here, we could, too. Of course, Matt's grandparents weren't also trying to home school and run three small businesses out of the house as well. (Grandpa's truck farming was a small business, but it's only one, not three, and most of the mess for that happens outside of the house!) But now, even with our family growing beyond that "magic" number, we still knew we could make this house work. But...
The purpose of the blog is two-fold: first, to share about K's adoption, and secondly, to keep those who are interested up to date on the progress of the addition that we are putting onto the house, starting hopefully in May - "Room for more".
As odd as it seems, the decision to move towards the addition began before the adoption process for K began. For a long time we've told our parents that we would love to have them stay with us when they are unable or no longer want to live on their own. With the death of Matt's dad last July, many things were set in motion with his mother. She's always said that she wanted to stay in her house for a year after her husband died (his cancer was expected to be terminal), but what will happen beyond that year? We considered at that point doing a small cantilievered bump out of our current (very small) guest room so she would have the opportunity to take that room (again, this is all back when we still thought our income was way too low for international adoption, and "The Wall" was still fully in place, so we had no other plans for that room - that room is now set to become Owen and K's room.) However, in talking with her, she commented that if she came to stay with us that she would really need her own bathroom, which shifted work on the house to the addition we'd considered for years - there would be room for her to have a fairly private "suite" with two bedrooms and a bathroom. We want to be able to have this space so that she has the option of coming to stay with us if that ends up being the direction taken.
And we so hope that she will come. We currently bring supper over to her house six days a week, and it fills me with such joy to see Grandma and our four little ones laughing and romping and singing together. It saddens me to see how our society has become so separated into peer groups when there is so much to offer across peer groups - we all benefit! Matt and I got a tiny taste of this during the first year and a half of our marriage when we moved into this house with Matt's grandfather. "Families" are not only best for orphans, but also for moms and dads and grandparents, too! A number of adoption blogs that I've seen refer to Psalm 68:6 where God is shown to be the one who "sets the lonely in families" and I would have to say there's nothing about that to make it apply only to children! Our family has room for more.
2013 is going to be a year of many changes for us, and a year of learning more fully than we ever have what it means to rely completely on God's provision for us. There are so many demands on our time, our finances, our emotions, but God has been so very obvious and intentional at showing us over the last year how he is orchestrating every detail, from the very small to the very large to complete his purposes, and so we are humbly waiting and watching for him to work in this, too. For various reasons, we are committing to doing this work (as well as the adoption) without incurring any debt. We have no idea how this is going to work, but we don't have to; if God is leading us in this direction, we are trusting that he will provide what we need as we do our best to follow him step by step.
We are so grateful for those of you who are holding us up in prayer as we walk forward. And we hope that as you follow along as I have a chance to post updates that you will be encouraged to see how very awesome, awe-inspiring our God is - this is what we are expecting to see as we watch this year unfold! I hope to have a chance before too long to post about some of the ways that we've already seen him providing for this project in ways that we would not have even dreamed on our own.
(And for those of you who are interested, I have a tiny peek at what we're doing on the house up on our design website.)
Over the last week or two, the "room" part of the title has been rising in my awareness. For years we've tossed around the idea of adding on to this house. We live in the house that Matt's grandfather had built when he was married in 1939, and they raised Matt's dad and three daughters in this house. We've always said that despite the fact that times have changed that if they could raise four kids here, we could, too. Of course, Matt's grandparents weren't also trying to home school and run three small businesses out of the house as well. (Grandpa's truck farming was a small business, but it's only one, not three, and most of the mess for that happens outside of the house!) But now, even with our family growing beyond that "magic" number, we still knew we could make this house work. But...
The purpose of the blog is two-fold: first, to share about K's adoption, and secondly, to keep those who are interested up to date on the progress of the addition that we are putting onto the house, starting hopefully in May - "Room for more".
As odd as it seems, the decision to move towards the addition began before the adoption process for K began. For a long time we've told our parents that we would love to have them stay with us when they are unable or no longer want to live on their own. With the death of Matt's dad last July, many things were set in motion with his mother. She's always said that she wanted to stay in her house for a year after her husband died (his cancer was expected to be terminal), but what will happen beyond that year? We considered at that point doing a small cantilievered bump out of our current (very small) guest room so she would have the opportunity to take that room (again, this is all back when we still thought our income was way too low for international adoption, and "The Wall" was still fully in place, so we had no other plans for that room - that room is now set to become Owen and K's room.) However, in talking with her, she commented that if she came to stay with us that she would really need her own bathroom, which shifted work on the house to the addition we'd considered for years - there would be room for her to have a fairly private "suite" with two bedrooms and a bathroom. We want to be able to have this space so that she has the option of coming to stay with us if that ends up being the direction taken.
And we so hope that she will come. We currently bring supper over to her house six days a week, and it fills me with such joy to see Grandma and our four little ones laughing and romping and singing together. It saddens me to see how our society has become so separated into peer groups when there is so much to offer across peer groups - we all benefit! Matt and I got a tiny taste of this during the first year and a half of our marriage when we moved into this house with Matt's grandfather. "Families" are not only best for orphans, but also for moms and dads and grandparents, too! A number of adoption blogs that I've seen refer to Psalm 68:6 where God is shown to be the one who "sets the lonely in families" and I would have to say there's nothing about that to make it apply only to children! Our family has room for more.
2013 is going to be a year of many changes for us, and a year of learning more fully than we ever have what it means to rely completely on God's provision for us. There are so many demands on our time, our finances, our emotions, but God has been so very obvious and intentional at showing us over the last year how he is orchestrating every detail, from the very small to the very large to complete his purposes, and so we are humbly waiting and watching for him to work in this, too. For various reasons, we are committing to doing this work (as well as the adoption) without incurring any debt. We have no idea how this is going to work, but we don't have to; if God is leading us in this direction, we are trusting that he will provide what we need as we do our best to follow him step by step.
We are so grateful for those of you who are holding us up in prayer as we walk forward. And we hope that as you follow along as I have a chance to post updates that you will be encouraged to see how very awesome, awe-inspiring our God is - this is what we are expecting to see as we watch this year unfold! I hope to have a chance before too long to post about some of the ways that we've already seen him providing for this project in ways that we would not have even dreamed on our own.
(And for those of you who are interested, I have a tiny peek at what we're doing on the house up on our design website.)
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Future details
I haven't been posting much because not much is going on here on our end right now. Supposedly the translation of the dossier was to be completed, and it submitted yesterday, but we haven't heard anything to finalize that.
It will be interesting to watch how the political situation in K's country right now impacts the timing of the processing of the dossier and our approval to go visit. This whole adventure as far back as I can think (I'm sitting here going, "since last fall, no wait - since last spring! No wait - at least as far back as fall 2010 with Reu's diagnosis when I was just pregnant with Rin) and likely even further, has been so obviously intimately coordinated that I can't help but believe that this interesting twist has a very specific purpose as well.
Anyway, the title of this post relates to one of my concerns for the fall. We home school our children, and one reason we choose to do this is because home schooling allows each child to have an "IEP" (Individualized Education Program - something that the public school system offers for children with special needs who will not be well served by a "normal" classroom environment. Of course, I never thought about it in those terms, but tailoring education to the needs/strengths/weaknesses of each child is one large draw of home schooling for us.) This, to me, makes home schooling an ideal situation for a child with special needs. Say Reuben has a night with a bunch of seizures and he's wiped out the next day. In a "normal" setting, he would miss a day of school. In a home school setting, he can just lay low, maybe read a few books with me, and then continue on the next day, or for an hour in the afternoon that same day, or whatever. Appointments for various medical care can fit into the routine of school, and he is free to work at his own pace of learning based on his own strengths and weaknesses. This is very much what I'm hoping for K, too. My best understanding of where he's at is that especially for the first year he's home, one of the most important things he needs to learn is what it is to have a mom and dad and brothers and sisters, what it means to be a son and brother himself - what it means to be loved! And in that environment, he will learn so many other things he needs to learn, much like an infant learns. What he doesn't need is to be sent to school all day long. No matter how good their therapies are, what he needs most are those things learned in the context of the family that he's been missing for so long. He's had enough "institution" in his life to last for a good long while! ;)
But in MN, there are compulsory attendance laws, as I'm sure there are in most states, and for K, being over the age of 7 when he gets home, he needs to be in school. For Owen (and the others as they get older), I have to send in a letter to the school superintendent on a yearly basis informing them of our decision to homeschool, and also informing them of which standardized test I will administer. I am not required to report the scores of the testing, but I AM required to do additional evaluation if any child scores in the bottom 30% of their age/grade.
Hm. How do you think K will do? Even if you put aside the fact that he's not going to have a very good grasp of English, his cognitive impairments are not going to make for a good score. I thought I was going to be stuck dealing with a whole rigamarole of issues right in the fall right when he's coming home to make sure we didn't get in trouble for having a truant child!
But I've been emailing with the MACHE (a MN homeschool association) special needs coordinator, and after a few back and forths found out that not only is this not going to be the big issue I thought, but that instead it's a very simple thing - in fact, the "additional evaluation" only has to be done ONCE for the child. Not even once per year, but once total! (Not that I don't want to have him evaluated, as I'm sure we'll be in touch with people who are working with him and us regularly, but to not have to have that added as a "one more thing" every year is a wonderful thing!) And like the standardized testing scores, I also don't have to report anything to the school district of the results of the evaluation - it is purely for my benefit as his teacher to help me do what will best serve K as he grows and learns!
This may not seem like much, but it is a beautiful thing to know that this, too, is not something I need to worry about. Over and over we've seen that "worry" does not have a place in the changes that this year is bringing. Obedience removes the need to worry. :) "Therefore do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 I love that word "guard." Not worrying is a means of protection for our hearts and our minds. Wow.
It will be interesting to watch how the political situation in K's country right now impacts the timing of the processing of the dossier and our approval to go visit. This whole adventure as far back as I can think (I'm sitting here going, "since last fall, no wait - since last spring! No wait - at least as far back as fall 2010 with Reu's diagnosis when I was just pregnant with Rin) and likely even further, has been so obviously intimately coordinated that I can't help but believe that this interesting twist has a very specific purpose as well.
Anyway, the title of this post relates to one of my concerns for the fall. We home school our children, and one reason we choose to do this is because home schooling allows each child to have an "IEP" (Individualized Education Program - something that the public school system offers for children with special needs who will not be well served by a "normal" classroom environment. Of course, I never thought about it in those terms, but tailoring education to the needs/strengths/weaknesses of each child is one large draw of home schooling for us.) This, to me, makes home schooling an ideal situation for a child with special needs. Say Reuben has a night with a bunch of seizures and he's wiped out the next day. In a "normal" setting, he would miss a day of school. In a home school setting, he can just lay low, maybe read a few books with me, and then continue on the next day, or for an hour in the afternoon that same day, or whatever. Appointments for various medical care can fit into the routine of school, and he is free to work at his own pace of learning based on his own strengths and weaknesses. This is very much what I'm hoping for K, too. My best understanding of where he's at is that especially for the first year he's home, one of the most important things he needs to learn is what it is to have a mom and dad and brothers and sisters, what it means to be a son and brother himself - what it means to be loved! And in that environment, he will learn so many other things he needs to learn, much like an infant learns. What he doesn't need is to be sent to school all day long. No matter how good their therapies are, what he needs most are those things learned in the context of the family that he's been missing for so long. He's had enough "institution" in his life to last for a good long while! ;)
But in MN, there are compulsory attendance laws, as I'm sure there are in most states, and for K, being over the age of 7 when he gets home, he needs to be in school. For Owen (and the others as they get older), I have to send in a letter to the school superintendent on a yearly basis informing them of our decision to homeschool, and also informing them of which standardized test I will administer. I am not required to report the scores of the testing, but I AM required to do additional evaluation if any child scores in the bottom 30% of their age/grade.
Hm. How do you think K will do? Even if you put aside the fact that he's not going to have a very good grasp of English, his cognitive impairments are not going to make for a good score. I thought I was going to be stuck dealing with a whole rigamarole of issues right in the fall right when he's coming home to make sure we didn't get in trouble for having a truant child!
But I've been emailing with the MACHE (a MN homeschool association) special needs coordinator, and after a few back and forths found out that not only is this not going to be the big issue I thought, but that instead it's a very simple thing - in fact, the "additional evaluation" only has to be done ONCE for the child. Not even once per year, but once total! (Not that I don't want to have him evaluated, as I'm sure we'll be in touch with people who are working with him and us regularly, but to not have to have that added as a "one more thing" every year is a wonderful thing!) And like the standardized testing scores, I also don't have to report anything to the school district of the results of the evaluation - it is purely for my benefit as his teacher to help me do what will best serve K as he grows and learns!
This may not seem like much, but it is a beautiful thing to know that this, too, is not something I need to worry about. Over and over we've seen that "worry" does not have a place in the changes that this year is bringing. Obedience removes the need to worry. :) "Therefore do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 I love that word "guard." Not worrying is a means of protection for our hearts and our minds. Wow.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The dossier has arrived
I have signature confirmation that our dossier has arrived in K's country and has been received by the person who will be working on getting it translated!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
It's off. For real.
I waited until I actually saw action on our tracking number, but I can now confidently say that the dossier is on its way to K's country. Whew.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
...or maybe not
The dossier is sitting on my shelf right now, hoping to go out tomorrow morning.
What a reminder that the timing of this adoption is in God's hands, and not my own. I've worked so hard at waiting patiently when it was my turn to wait patiently, and to keep things moving along when it was in my power to do so.
This week has been a reminder that it's never really in my hands. The simplest way to share this story is to clip it from the email I sent to our adoption agency worker.
~~~
So here's the story.
Yesterday [Thursday] morning the mail came with our apostilled FBI clearances back from [an agency in Washington, DC that offers walk-in services for apostilles on important documents such as these]. I lifted the apostille on each to check, and, yes, they were both FBI fingerprint clearances. I noted a tiny 1" x 1/4" post it note saying "Columbia" on one of them, which I thought odd, but I took it off, and looking at their packing slip which clearly said the correct country, I brushed it off.
We'd gotten our other documents notarized Wednesday evening, so Thursday afternoon, with the apostilled clearances back from DC, we all six of us piled into the van to go to the MN SOS for the state apostilles. We were the last people through for the day, but got them without a problem. So then off to the UPS/DHL place by the grocery store. Matt took our youngest to pick up a few groceries, and I took the older three to mail off the dossier. I took one last check through against the checklist to make sure I had everything, and that it was all in the proper order. All good. Send it off, though they note that it's after the cut off for Thursday, so it will go out Friday morning. No problem.
I wake up this morning [Friday], and am in the middle of starting our home school day when I get a phone call. From the walk-in service in DC. She wants me to check something on the documents they sent us. I explain I don't have them - they were sent to Eastern Europe last night. She says they were the wrong ones - belonging to someone else who lives in MN. Ours are sitting in front of her on her desk.
I had sent our dossier with *someone else's* FBI clearances!!!!! As the panic began to rise it was immediately quenched by Isaiah 26:3-4 which has been rolling through my mind all week long - starting Sunday, the day before any of these papers even showed up! So choosing that over panic, I hung up with her and called DHL, hoping that maybe they could track it down before the airplane took off or something.
It was on the counter in front of the lady I spoke to at DHL. "Don't send that package!!!" I told her. So the kids and I ran over there and got our dossier back out of the DHL envelope, and sent the wrong clearances back to DC while the DC office sent ours to us today, so we should get them tomorrow [Saturday], and will take ONE MORE LOOK over the dossier, and then send it to K's country on Monday.
So for some reason God saw it fitting to 1) delay our sending of our dossier which I cranked on all week to be able to send as soon as I had everything back but 2) to have it delayed only one business day, and not weeks or even months that it could have been delayed if this situation had played out fully!
~~~
Can you even imagine the complications if our dossier had ended up in K's country with someone else's FBI clearances? Serious time delay here! Not to mention the delay it would be for the couple whose clearances I almost sent with our dossier.
Yesterday (Saturday), the younger two and I went to the DHL office since we were next door for another errand anyway. We spent 30+ minutes in there while the young man behind the counter tried his best to figure out how to send documents to K's country, and I finally asked him if I should just come back Monday. He breathed a sigh of relief and agreed.
So, the plan is that I will pack us all up and drive to our favorite local DHL office tomorrow morning and get this dossier sent. But this time, fully reminded that there is an intricate balance of timing surrounding this adoption that I have no idea about, and try as I may to hurry things along, K is going to come home at just the right time.
What a reminder that the timing of this adoption is in God's hands, and not my own. I've worked so hard at waiting patiently when it was my turn to wait patiently, and to keep things moving along when it was in my power to do so.
This week has been a reminder that it's never really in my hands. The simplest way to share this story is to clip it from the email I sent to our adoption agency worker.
~~~
So here's the story.
Yesterday [Thursday] morning the mail came with our apostilled FBI clearances back from [an agency in Washington, DC that offers walk-in services for apostilles on important documents such as these]. I lifted the apostille on each to check, and, yes, they were both FBI fingerprint clearances. I noted a tiny 1" x 1/4" post it note saying "Columbia" on one of them, which I thought odd, but I took it off, and looking at their packing slip which clearly said the correct country, I brushed it off.
We'd gotten our other documents notarized Wednesday evening, so Thursday afternoon, with the apostilled clearances back from DC, we all six of us piled into the van to go to the MN SOS for the state apostilles. We were the last people through for the day, but got them without a problem. So then off to the UPS/DHL place by the grocery store. Matt took our youngest to pick up a few groceries, and I took the older three to mail off the dossier. I took one last check through against the checklist to make sure I had everything, and that it was all in the proper order. All good. Send it off, though they note that it's after the cut off for Thursday, so it will go out Friday morning. No problem.
I wake up this morning [Friday], and am in the middle of starting our home school day when I get a phone call. From the walk-in service in DC. She wants me to check something on the documents they sent us. I explain I don't have them - they were sent to Eastern Europe last night. She says they were the wrong ones - belonging to someone else who lives in MN. Ours are sitting in front of her on her desk.
I had sent our dossier with *someone else's* FBI clearances!!!!! As the panic began to rise it was immediately quenched by Isaiah 26:3-4 which has been rolling through my mind all week long - starting Sunday, the day before any of these papers even showed up! So choosing that over panic, I hung up with her and called DHL, hoping that maybe they could track it down before the airplane took off or something.
It was on the counter in front of the lady I spoke to at DHL. "Don't send that package!!!" I told her. So the kids and I ran over there and got our dossier back out of the DHL envelope, and sent the wrong clearances back to DC while the DC office sent ours to us today, so we should get them tomorrow [Saturday], and will take ONE MORE LOOK over the dossier, and then send it to K's country on Monday.
So for some reason God saw it fitting to 1) delay our sending of our dossier which I cranked on all week to be able to send as soon as I had everything back but 2) to have it delayed only one business day, and not weeks or even months that it could have been delayed if this situation had played out fully!
~~~
Can you even imagine the complications if our dossier had ended up in K's country with someone else's FBI clearances? Serious time delay here! Not to mention the delay it would be for the couple whose clearances I almost sent with our dossier.
Yesterday (Saturday), the younger two and I went to the DHL office since we were next door for another errand anyway. We spent 30+ minutes in there while the young man behind the counter tried his best to figure out how to send documents to K's country, and I finally asked him if I should just come back Monday. He breathed a sigh of relief and agreed.
So, the plan is that I will pack us all up and drive to our favorite local DHL office tomorrow morning and get this dossier sent. But this time, fully reminded that there is an intricate balance of timing surrounding this adoption that I have no idea about, and try as I may to hurry things along, K is going to come home at just the right time.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
and it's off!!
Success! We got down to the Secretary of State office to get our documents apostilled in time to be the last people they served for the day. And, as a bonus, there were a few items that were acceptable (to K's country) to bundle together, and they were able to do that for us, so instead of 9 apostilles at $5 each we were able to do it with 6! We have seen God providing what we need for this adventure not only through having the funds we need to pay what we need to pay, but also through things costing less than we expected (like not having to pay for parking for our fingerprints, or Matt's first medical papers being done without an appointment, or even the fact that when we had to have our second medical examinations done where we actually had to see the doctor, Matt conveniently had the flu, so our doctor coded the visit as a flu visit which is less expensive than a physical - who knew that having the flu at just the right time would be a piece of God providing what we need?)
The ice sculptures were completely gone. Not just melted, but apparently they're done, and were removed. Oh well. There's always next year.
We brought our things in to the DHL location where, not only was their estimate for cost ($74) better than FedEx's option ($125 or $100 depending on speed), but the estimate was high and we only ended up paying $72 something. ;) Okay, so that's maybe not enough to really make a difference in the whole big picture, but it does make for a smile.
So now we sit back and wait again! The dossier will fly across the ocean to the agency in K's country where it will be translated. Once it's translated, it will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice, and then we wait for them to review and approve it and invite us to travel to meet our boy!
It's hard for me to wait.
Leah fills her days with making things to give to K. Today she made a chain out of paperclips that she wants me to bring on our first trip. She was open to the idea of saving it until he gets home. ;)
The ice sculptures were completely gone. Not just melted, but apparently they're done, and were removed. Oh well. There's always next year.
We brought our things in to the DHL location where, not only was their estimate for cost ($74) better than FedEx's option ($125 or $100 depending on speed), but the estimate was high and we only ended up paying $72 something. ;) Okay, so that's maybe not enough to really make a difference in the whole big picture, but it does make for a smile.
So now we sit back and wait again! The dossier will fly across the ocean to the agency in K's country where it will be translated. Once it's translated, it will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice, and then we wait for them to review and approve it and invite us to travel to meet our boy!
It's hard for me to wait.
Leah fills her days with making things to give to K. Today she made a chain out of paperclips that she wants me to bring on our first trip. She was open to the idea of saving it until he gets home. ;)
closer...
Just got our FBI clearances back from Washington, DC today with the appropriate apostilles.
This afternoon we go downtown to get regular MN apostilles (9 of them!) for the other documents, and then, on our way home (after we check out the ice sculptures at the MN Winter Carnival) we will stop at the DHL store to send the whole dossier across the ocean!!
This afternoon we go downtown to get regular MN apostilles (9 of them!) for the other documents, and then, on our way home (after we check out the ice sculptures at the MN Winter Carnival) we will stop at the DHL store to send the whole dossier across the ocean!!
Monday, February 4, 2013
A good mail day
There is news today!
I picked up the mail today and right on top was something to me from the FBI - and beneath it one for Matt. Yay! We're both verified as having nothing on our records. These two letters are one of the significant pieces of the dossier.
Even more exciting to me was that under those two letters was our I-800-A approval letter from US Immigrations (USCIS)!!! We are officially approved to bring an adopted child into the United States! This is the piece of the dossier that we were planning on having to wait until the end of March to receive!! Getting it today means that our tentative timeline is moved up almost two months. We're now looking at potentially being able to travel sometime in March instead of mid to late April.
So this week is "finish up the dossier week." We were able to get out yet this afternoon to the post office and mail our FBI letters to Washington, DC to be apostilled. Our adoption agency recommended a walk-in service where instead of mailing our items directly to the State Department, we mail them to the service who will walk them in the next day and then mail them back to us. Walk ins apparently take priority over mail-ins, so we could get those back by the end of this week.
And in the meantime I have a small stack of papers to be notarized, and then to take downtown to be apostilled and then I can bundle them all up and send them across the ocean to be translated and approved by the Ministry of Justice in K's country, and once they give THEIR approval, we will be able to travel to meet him and spend some time with him!!!
Lots of exciting things all in one day.
I picked up the mail today and right on top was something to me from the FBI - and beneath it one for Matt. Yay! We're both verified as having nothing on our records. These two letters are one of the significant pieces of the dossier.
Even more exciting to me was that under those two letters was our I-800-A approval letter from US Immigrations (USCIS)!!! We are officially approved to bring an adopted child into the United States! This is the piece of the dossier that we were planning on having to wait until the end of March to receive!! Getting it today means that our tentative timeline is moved up almost two months. We're now looking at potentially being able to travel sometime in March instead of mid to late April.
So this week is "finish up the dossier week." We were able to get out yet this afternoon to the post office and mail our FBI letters to Washington, DC to be apostilled. Our adoption agency recommended a walk-in service where instead of mailing our items directly to the State Department, we mail them to the service who will walk them in the next day and then mail them back to us. Walk ins apparently take priority over mail-ins, so we could get those back by the end of this week.
And in the meantime I have a small stack of papers to be notarized, and then to take downtown to be apostilled and then I can bundle them all up and send them across the ocean to be translated and approved by the Ministry of Justice in K's country, and once they give THEIR approval, we will be able to travel to meet him and spend some time with him!!!
Lots of exciting things all in one day.
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