I Lost 10 Inches in 10 Seconds!!

That's right, I lost 10 inches in 10 seconds!! Want to know my secret to trimming down? It's not liposuction!....

Today I donated 10 inches of my HAIR (Don't I wish I lost 10 inches off of my thighs) to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.

After Chloe went to be with Jesus I vowed that I would let my hair grow longer and donate it to Locks of Love so that they could use it to make a hairpiece for another child that has lost their hair to chemotherapy. Upon looking deeper into Locks of Love, I have found that they make hairpieces for children regardless of the medical diagnosis resulting in hair loss. Which is great!! I decided that today was the day to make it happen.

If you are interested in Locks of Love, please click on the title of today's post.

Thanks!!

No News

We don't have anything new to tell really. We are just waiting on the letter from the Exec. Dir. of the WV Board of Social Worker Examiners. Our facilitator feels that this should be enough for our dossier. I'm praying so. Apparently, there are other states that also do not have home study agency licenses. You have to supply a copy of the law and a notarized letter from a state official. I guess we won't know for sure how ours will be affected until our dossier is submitted. We're just putting it in God's hands and praying for His will to be done. I believe that it will all work out. The waiting is so hard! I just can't wait to get them home!

I'm still collecting our other dossier documents. Some of them are taking longer than expected, but should be in very soon. I've decided to wait until I get all of the documents before I have anything notarized. I found out that when they are sent to the state to be apostilled, that we will have to pay a fee for each notary that we have used. So if I use the same notary for everything, then that's just one fee.

Thanks for all of your prayers!!

Potential Problems With Our Home Study

We have encountered some potential problems with our home study. As part of our dossier we have to enclose our social worker's license and home study agency license. The first problem is that the certificate that we were given was a copy. It's okay that the certificate is a copy, but the notary was also a copy and was notarized in September of 2007. That's not a big deal. Our social worker is sending us a new copy with a fresh, original notary.

The issue that we are really concerned about is her home study agency license. It was a business certificate from WV State Tax Department. What we are required to have is an official license stating that our social worker is certified by the state of WV to conduct home studies. In addition to that the business certificate expires on June 30, 2008. The SDA wants all of your documents enclosed with the dossier to be at least 6 months away from expiration. Well, it's already February and we are at least a month away from being able to submit our dossier to our facilitator. That doesn't include the time involved for sending ALL of our dossier documents out to the state of origination for apostilles. It also doesn't include the time involved for translation and submission to the SDA.

So basically as it stands right now, we do not have a valid license for our home study agency and the business certificate that we do have is going to expire too soon. I spent most of my day yesterday trying to get some answers about the home study agency license. What I was able to find out is that the state of WV does not even issue a license for home study agencies to operate. The SDA is wanting something from us that doesn't even exist in our state! I was told by the executive director of the WV Board of Social Worker Examiners that the state has a "no scope of practice" law and that our social worker IS operating as required by WV law. I looked up our social worker's license and found that she is in good standing with the state and has had no complaints and has the level of license that she needs to conduct home studies. I wasn't really worried about that, I was just looking for some proof that she is legitimate for the officials at the SDA.

The Exec. Director that I spoke to is supposed to write a letter on their letterhead stating that our social worker is authorized to conduct independent home studies in the state of WV and that there is a "no scope of practice" law that allows her to be able to do this. She said she would have a copy of the law attached to the letter. However, she was not happy about having to get her letter notarized and was clear that it was an inconvenience for her and that she would do it when she had time. Her words were, "I will have to walk all the way down the hall, get on the elevator, walk all the way down to the State dept. and then I'll have to find a notary in there, just so they can watch me sign the letter. She also let me know that this isn't her level of work, that she is over the board of directors, and doesn't deal with adoption of any kind. Her job is to oversee the board and to investigate complaints on social workers. But she couldn't direct me to anyone or another department that could help me, so I felt like she was the one. She said she has had to fulfill the same request for other adoptive parents numerous times in the past. So that tells me that maybe the state of WV needs to get their act together!! They need to either appoint an official to handle these issues or else they need to integrate it into an existing department. I will be writing our congressman! I was less than thrilled with her level of enthusiasm to help me, but what can you do? So I am just praying that she will follow through and do this for us soon. Please pray for us!

Then we don't know that the SDA is going to accept this in lieu of an agency license. Our facilitator seems to think they will and it will be fine. But then we still have the issue that Brenda's business certificate is going to expire.

Needless to say, I have thrown my "mental" time line (of when we should have things done) out the window. I've surrendered it to God and whatever happens is because it is His will. That's a lesson Chloe taught me.

Please keep us in your prayers, that this will be resolved and that the SDA in the girls country will accept this in lieu of the agency license.

Thanks!!

Kristy

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.