A better shot

One advantage to the *long* time frame for this first stage of this adoption process is that we had another chance to get a nicer family photo to include with our dossier. We took one on Easter, but half of the kids looked either miserable or horribly faked - not exactly the look we were going for.

We tried again this Sunday, and came out with a winner. The differences are subtle, perhaps, but I feel much better sending this along as a representation of our family! Krassi and Leah in particular look much more engaged, and even Rinnah's smile looks more like *hers.*

No mail today (Memorial Day), so its just another day of waiting for the fresh document before we go get apostilles.

Little bits

We've got the I800A approval, so now it's just a collection of little bits before we actually can stick it in the mail. This morning our wonderful neighbor (who I still think of as a new friend, but we've actually known them for nearly a year now) ran down to stay with the kids so Matt and I could run quickly down to the bank to get a stack of dossier papers notarized. She probably cut our time by 2/3 because Matt and I can both buckle and unbuckle our own seat belts!!!

So, CHECK, that's done. Next bit is waiting for a re-done document from our home study agency (they're responsible for the homestudy which we've had for a while, as well as a few other single-page documents.) One of the documents they'd sent us must have been stuck in the envelope literally hot off the press because it arrived with the printing smudged. We decided it would be best to have a clean copy so as to not risk any complications down the road.

Once we've got that one back in our hands, then the whole stack of notarized documents needs to be taken to the State Department to be apostilled, and then we can stick it all in an envelope off to our primary agency!

They will combine it with some documents that they have in their possession, and send it across the ocean.

Wait for it...

We really need a new header for this blog, especially considering that Gloria is not only not pictured in the one we have now, but she's actually already older now than Evania was when that picture was taken!

This, however, does not pass muster, so we'll just have to wait for another night. No, this is not the best photo of the night, but it's also not the worst, either, believe it or not!

But that's not really why I'm taking the time to post tonight (posts with photos are just more fun!)

The REAL reason is that...we've gotten our I800A approval letter from the USCIS!!!

Over the next week we've now got a few papers to get notarized, and then the whole bundle to run down to the State Department to get appostilled, and then we can send the whole thing (our dossier) to our primary agency who will send it to Bulgaria!

That puts us here on the time line:

• we've submitted our commitment documents, and they've been accepted.
• we're well on our way to having our home study completed - just waiting on background checks to be returned - everything else is done
• we have the completed home study, and have submitted it with our I800-A application to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services)

 

• we have approval on our I800-A, so now we can submit that along with the rest of our dossier (fancy name for all of the documents we need to collect and send) to the Bulgarian Minister of Justice

 

• when our dossier is approved by the MOJ, we will receive our invitation to travel for trip #1 (this is the point at which B will be informed that she has an interested family) 
•  after trip #1 we can submit our I800 to USCIS, and upon approval of that, we can send final documents to Bulgaria to allow them to finalize the adoptions
• once the adoptions are finalized, we will be given travel dates for trip #2 when we get to go pick up our girls and bring them home

WHO ate your homework??

Owen's turning into quite the joker, able to make funny plays on words and other humorous junctions that are turning the corner from a child's sense of humor to a more sophisticated type of humor that makes me really laugh, too!

Today, Krassi came home from therapy with "homework." His speech/feeding therapist gave me a baggie with a handful of Sour Patch Kids for him to practice chewing, as he seemed to enjoy them well enough (comparatively - remember, this is "Krassi-I-hate-all-things-eating" we're talking about) in the therapy session, and they provide a good combination of mouth-engaging flavor and chew potential. As we climbed into the van, I let Rinnah, Vania, and Reuben each have one, and when we got home, Owen eyed them right away and asked if he could have one. I told him they were Krassi's homework, but I'd already shared one with the kids who were with me, so, yes, he and Leah could each have one as well.

His response? "Ha ha! Krassi'll be like, 'Sorry, my brothers and sisters ate my homework!'"

Last prints done

Monday at noon was our appointment to get our last set of fingerprints - this one for our USCIS application. Grandma's appointment was at noon on Tuesday. Go figure. ;)

However, we decided to take our chances, and just bring Grandma along with us to our appointment on the outside chance that they would do hers that day, too.

Last time we had our USCIS biometrics appointment we made the (wrong) assumption that the University Ave. address was near the capital and other government buildings downtown. Um, nope! But we ended up finding it in time for our appointment. This time we were better prepared. After all, we knew where the building was because we'd been there before, right? Um, nope!!! Turns out their office moved locations (just slightly) just after we had our biometrics done for Krassi.

Even with that hiccup, we arrived in plenty of time for our appointment and were delighted when the security guard/traffic controller waved Barb on in when we asked if we could get hers done at the same time. Phew.

And then hiccup number two - nowhere on the informational form that tells you what you need to bring to the appointment does it mention your social security number, and although Matt and I have ours memorized, Grandma most certainly does NOT!

Thankfully we had our archaic cell phone along, so could call home, and talk Owen through how to find the key to the lockbox, guide him to the correct lockbox, and talk him through how to find the place within the lockbox where Grandma's card is kept. Got it! - he reads off the number, and I'm copying it down on a piece of scrap paper in the car (no cell phones allowed in the building). Just as I get ready to read it back to him, I hear, "Oh! That's Papa's card!" He he! Good thing he caught that! No good trying to do things with the Department of Homeland Security with someone else's Social Security number!

And even with all that we were back home in less than an hour to relieve our babysitters, to whom we were very grateful for their help!


B and T, we're working on it! We're on our way, even though you don't know it yet!

"Mom" and "Dad"

On Tuesday Krassi's speech therapist brought him out to me and announced that she's started teaching him two new signs: Mom and Dad.

In her words, "Every child ought to be able to say, 'Mom,' and, 'Dad.'"

I agree. ;) Even if it takes months, which it likely will, it sounds like a great goal to me. Maybe not as practically "functional" as more, drink, yes, no, but definitely something worth working toward.

More fingerprints

I've had friends around here asking where things are for B and T, and the answer is there's still no real exciting news, but for what it's worth, we've received our summons from the Department of Homeland Security to come and get fingerprinted (yes, this is the third set of prints we need!) next week (me and Matt on one day, and Barb on the next).

Just one more indicator that things are really progressing.

So that's where we're at!