Adoption Update

Pam ~ It's been a busy past week, so I missed updating you all on a MAJOR milestone in our adoption journey.

OUR I-171H CAME IN THE MAIL!!!

Last Wednesday I had a half-day at school {because of Thanksgiving being the next day} so I got home before Nathan.  I never get the mail, but since it was cold and dreary weather, I decided to go ahead and get it so that Nathan wouldn't have to when he got home.  And there was the envelope from USCIS!!!!

I am so thankful for having heard from fellow adopting moms that the I-171H isn't a very obvious document.  It's "official" title is "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition."  Can you see why we all call it the I-171H form?????

Anyways......
The only place on the form that I-171H is written is the very bottom right corner in very tiny letters!!!!!!

I texted Nathan right away to tell him that it came in the mail.  Just NINE days after our biometrics apt.!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

The last "paperwork" item for our dossier is putting together our photo pages.  I don't know why this has been a stress to me, but it has.  I finally made myself sit down tonight and go through our photos.  We have to have 2 "formal" photos of Nathan and I {facing the camera, smiling, etc.}, 1 photo of the outside of our house, 1 photo of the main living area inside our house, and 4 "casual" photos of Nathan and I {with family/friends, "hanging" out, etc.}.

Would you like to see what I have come up with????  {minus the photo of our main living area ~ it's still on my camera}

I'm really hoping that these will be okay.  Now all I have to do is get them printed, and put them together with some journaling on card stock.  I'm open to suggestions from any adoptive moms who've BTDT!!!!

Productive

WARNING: This is a loooooooooooong post!!!!

Pam ~ We were soooooooo productive yesterday!!!!  It felt GOOD!!!!  Both Nathan and I had taken the day off work because we had our biometrics appointment in the morning.  At first, I was just going to take the morning off and then go into school for the afternoon, but I decided to make it an "adoption day" and took the whole day off.  I'm glad I did!!!

7:00 - Wake up {Hooray for sleeping in!!!}

8:20 - Leave for Des Moines

8:35 - Arrive in Des Moines and try to find a parking spot

8:45 - Walk into Federal Building

8:55 - Fingerprinted

9:10 - Leave USCIS office

9:20 - Arrive at Capital Square and try to find the right building

9:35 - Walk into the Secretary of State's office

9:40 - Talk to a nice lady about getting our two papers notarized and state certified

9:45 - Talk some more, sign, and wait

9:50 - She tells us her fee is $575!!!!!

9:50 - Laughter!!!!  It's just $10.

9:55 - Leave with certified papers!!!!

10:10 - Arrive at Walgreens

10:15 - Photos taken

10:25 - Purchase M&M's along with photos :-)

10:30 - Heading home!!!!!!!

It was such a blessing that everything went so smoothly.  We really didn't have any sort of a wait to speak of at any of the places and we got everything accomplished by 10:30 a.m.  The only part I am worried about is two of my fingerprints.  Apparently my right hand ring finger, and my left hand pinky don't make good prints.  the lady said that she "hoped" they would accept them, but if they didn't I would get a letter in the mail.  I am praying that I never get that letter!!!!  Will you pray with me that they accept ALL my fingerprints?????

The majority of the rest of our afternoon was spent working on grant paperwork.  We finished all the paperwork to submit our application to God's Grace Adoption Ministries, Inc. and it should be in the mail by tonight {Nathan is taking it to be weighed and mailed after work today}!!!!  We have our application for Show Hope all done except for a letter from our agency that we are waiting for and we are hoping to be able to mail that application by the end of this week.  And then we started the application for Lifesong.  The hard part of that one is done and now we just have to gather the other needed documents.

We made soooooooooooo much progress and it was so much fun to just be able to spend the day together.  The dossier paperwork is almost done!!!!!!  I keep intending to post a list of the documents we have been working on, but since I often type these posts at school during my students' nap time, I never have the list in front of me.  Maybe I'll get that done tonight????

Please continue to pray along with us that God will bring in the rest of the money we need to be able to submit our dossier.  I am fairly confident that we will have all the paperwork {minus our I-171H form, unless it comes quickly} done by the end of November, and we are praying that we will be able to mail it before the end of the year.  We still need $2700 in order to do that. 

PLEASE PRAY!!!

Adoption Update

Pam ~ We mailed our I-600A yesterday!!! Now you may be wondering, "What is an I-600A?" Good question. :-)

The I-600A is a United State Citizenship and Immigration Services {USCIS} form that is also called the Application for the Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. This form allows the USCIS to begin processing our request to bring orphans into the United States.

In order to submit the I-600A form, we had to have a completed Home Study. In addition to the I-600A form and our home study, we submitted copies of both our birth certificates, our marriage license, our home study agency's license, along with a cover letter and a check for $830. Needless to say, we packaged all these important documents in a padded, water-resistant manila envelope and prayerfully mailed it at the post-office.

Now we have to wait to be contacted with a date, time, and place to go be fingerprinted. After the fingerprinting is done, we will wait some more until we receive our I-171H form in the mail!!! The I-171H is basically our letter of acceptance and permission. It doesn't sound so exciting, but it is a HUGE step in the paperwork we need for our dossier. It sounds like IA is one of the states that has a longer wait time to get this processed, so we are happy to have it done and in the mail!!!

While we wait for this to be done, we are continuing to work on the rest of our dossier paperwork. I am typing this post at school, so I don't have the list of the documents we still need to complete in front of me, but I'll try to remember and list a few of them {since I know that you are just dying to know}.

~ Police Reports
~ Three letters of reference
~ Proof of medical insurance
~ Proof of life insurance
~ Application Letter
~ Family Photo Sheet
~ Copies of our passports
~ Two passport photos of each of us
~ Dossier Checklist {that's not what it's called, but it's the general idea}
~ A few others that I can't remember :-)

I am leaving right after school today to attend a two day teacher's conference so these documents are having to wait a few more days. Nathan and I are planning to sit down on Saturday {hopefully} and talk through a plan on when/how to complete the rest of these documents. Our personal goal is to have the paperwork done in the next month or two, and then just work hard and wait on the Lord to provide the rest of the needed finances to submit our dossier. He has a plan and we are excited to see how He will provide. Wouldn't it be GREAT if we could submit our dossier before Christmas?!?! What a wonderful Christmas present that would be!!!!

{By the way, since I will be out of town on Friday, our "Fund-Raising Friday" post will probably be on Saturday.}