Compiling Our Dossier

While we are waiting for our I-171H approval from USCIS we are in the process of compiling our dossier. Our dossier is compiled of MANY documents that will be sent to the country that we are adopting from. This set of papers is what the officials will review to give us permission to travel and adopt from their country.

In case any one is unfamiliar with a dossier and what it consists of, I have listed below the documents that make it up. I thought some of you may be curious and it will help you to track where we are as we get the documents completed and notarized.

1.) Petition for Adoption (will have this notarized this Friday or Saturday, depending on Rick's work schedule.

2.) Adoption Home Study (We have this completed and notarized)

3.) Home Study Agency License (We have a notarized copy)

4.) Social Worker License (We have a notarized copy)

5.) I-171H approval form (We are waiting to receive this from USCIS, was filed 2-8-08)

6.) Statement of Employment (Should have by mid next week)

7.) Statement of Health from Physician for Both Parents (Picking up and having notarized tomorrow, if all goes well)

8.) Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate (We already have this)

9.) Copies of both of our passports, notarized (Getting this done tomorrow)

10.) Letters of Clearance of Criminal Records, Child Abuse Clearance (we had this, but the notary expiration date was 3-18-08. Had to have it redone, waiting on new copy (could take a few weeks) : (

11.) Letter of Obligation (having notarized this Friday or Saturday, depending on Rick's work schedule)

12.) Power of attorney (having notarized this Friday or Saturday as well)


After we get everything notarized I will be sending the dossier (minus the I-171H and CIB clearance) to our facilitator. He will review it and check it's accuracy and completeness. Once we recieve our CIB (background check) and I-171H, I will also send those to our facilitator. This will complete our dossier. Then he will send each document to the state in which it was originated to have an apostille applied. An apostille is a sticker that the state government applies that certifies that the document is certified. Crazy, I know!

Once he receives all of the documents back with the apostilles applied, he will then mail our dossier to the facilitator in Eastern Europe. He/She will then translate our dossier to the native language. After it is translated it will be submitted to the SDA for approval.

Then we will wait some more to get an official approval and travel date from the girls' country. We've been told that the travel date is usually 30 to 60 days in advance. So then we will have to wait another 30 to 60 days to leave to begin our adoption. I've also been told by our facilitator that it will probably be 30 days in advance since we are adopting special needs children.

The international adoption process involves a lot waiting, but we are praying that it will go fast if that is God's will. Ultimately, it's all in God's hands and it will all happen when he plans for it to. But we are doing everything in our power to make it go as quickly as possible! So far so good!! The only set back has been the CIB having a nearly expired notary. Not a big deal though, as long as they get it back to us within a reasonable time frame. The first time it took 3 weeks. If it takes 3 weeks again, that will be okay.

I'm planning on having all of our dossier documents complete, notarized, and Fed-exed to our facilitator (minus the I-171H & CIB letter) by mid next week. Then we'll just be waiting on those 2 pieces to come in. Please pray that the I-171H and CIB will arrive quickly!! I'm going to be traveling with Orphan's Hope and some of the other adoptive mothers to the girls' country April 11th-19th. I'm SO excited!! I'm going to get to meet the girls! I'm excited about the whole trip and meeting all of the children! The main purpose we are going is to offer humanitarian aid and to strengthen the relationships with the directors. It's going to be a really positive experience and I am thrilled to be going!! We are also going to ask the director to keep Nadia and the older children in the baby home until we can get back to adopt them. We REALLY don't want to see any of them transferred!! That's why I am REALLY wanting to get our dossier submitted by then! I think that it would show that we are clearly making an effort to adopt her (and Zhenya) and will be back as soon as we are given our date. I'm not sure if it's realistic to think that it can happen by April 11th, but I'm praying hard that it will happen! With God all things are possible, but I have learned that it MUST be according to His will. He knows what is best!

Please pray for ALL of the older orphans all over the world to find families before they are transferred. They really need to be rescued and deserve a life with a mommy and daddy that love them!

Thanks for reading our blog and for all of your prayers!!

Kristy

A BIG Thank You!!

I just wanted to give a BIG thank you to whoever has been donating to our family fund as well as those who made donations to Nadia and Zhenya's Christmas Angel Tree accounts. We REALLY appreciate SO MUCH all of you that have donated! I wish that I could know who you are so I could thank you personally, but God knows who you are. I pray that he will bless you for being so kind to our family and the girls, I know He will!

Thanks so much, you have really touched my heart through your love and kindness! What an answered prayer!

Kristy

Home Study Fed-exed to USCIS Yesterday!

Our home study has been completed and send to USCIS!! Just pray USCIS will process it quickly!

One Medical Physical Down, One to Go

I just got home from having my medical physical for our dossier completed. I will have to go back at 8 a.m. in the morning to have my blood work done. Rick's appointment is next Tues. the 12th at 8 a.m. so he will have his blood work done then. Then we'll just wait on the test results to come back and have our notary go back to the Dr. office with us to notarize our form.

Fingerprints for USCIS Completed

This morning we had our federal fingerprint appointment for USCIS in Baltimore, MD. We got there 15 minutes before the door opened and still had to stand in line for another 20 minutes to get through security. Then when we got inside, the security guard at USCIS told us that they had moved the fingerprinting office across the street. Too bad the Pittsburgh, PA USCIS office didn't give us the correct address on our referral letter. But, everything worked out anyway. We walked across the street and there was no one in line in front of us. We were only there about 15 minutes from start to finish. That was great! So now they have our fingerprints and we are waiting for our home study agency to submit our home study.

Home Study Visits are Over!

Today was our last home study visit with Brenda. She was very positive and basically we received a great report. She is going to mail our completed home study to USCIS next week. She said that USCIS has been taking between 6 to 10 weeks and not to be surprised if we don't receive our approval until 10 weeks. That wasn't really what I wanted to hear, but we are just trusting God. He's in control of it all so we'll just keep praying and see what happens.

We will have to wait on a new copy of our state police clearance for our dossier. When Brenda got it back the notary's commission is going to expire March 1, 2008. That's not going to fly for our dossier! But we should get that back in plenty of time while we are waiting on our USCIS, I-171H approval letter. No one is going to have a perfectly, smooth adoption process. So we're just thankful that everything has gone so well up to this point!

The mysterious UPS package that was lost finally showed up!! It contained our fingerprint cards, background check & CIB clearance forms, and a personal check. It was sent to Brenda (our home study lady) about a month ago. She never received it and UPS had a tracker put out on it. Well, I guess the person whose door it was left on finally brought it to Brenda's house. We already had our fingerprints redone and got our clearances back, but at least it is accounted for! It's a relief to know our SSN's and personal information aren't floating around unaccounted for anymore! That was an answered prayer!!

Fingerprint Appointment Received

We received our federal fingerprinting appointment from USCIS yesterday! I can hardly believe how quickly we got our appointment. I just mailed the application to them last Wednesday, Jan. 23rd!!! It only took 8 days (including mailing time and the weekend) to get our appointment! I thank God for answering that prayer and for everyone that has been praying for us! Our appointment is next Wednesday, Feb. 6th. They are sending us to Baltimore, MD, which is great! We thought we would have to go to PA. MD is MUCH closer.

Please just continue to keep us in your prayers. We have our final home study visit tomorrow. Then that will be submitted to USCIS. Also our fingerprint referral notice said that the processing time frame for the Pittsburgh Office (our field office) is 6 to 8 weeks!! That's wonderful because the USCIS web-site said it would be October! Pray it will be approved even faster than 6 to 8 weeks!! We really need to get to Nadia before July!

Thanks everyone for your prayers!