I-800A

Or in other words......we sent our  Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country in to Citizenship and Immigration today.


Our Social Worker got our HS written, approved and back to us in 9 days!!!!!! She was amazing. I need to do something nice for her. This is the last item we need to complete our dossier before we send it to China. It is also unpredictable as far as wait times.


 Some people have waited 90 days and others 26. Let's hope we are on the latter end of those wait times. We also sent a notarized original to the service who is preparing our dossier. Our hope is that she will have all of the paperwork authenticated and ready to go when we get the I800a approval. 


One step closer to Henry!

PA!!!!!

We got the great news this morning that CCCWA Pre Approved us for adopting Pin Pin! I feel like I can finally relax! Our Home Study has been approved and this week will we send off our I800A (Immigration) paperwork. We will then wait several weeks for a fingerprinting appointment and then seveal more weeks for approval. After ALL of that, our dossier will be complete and sent to China to be logged in. Whew! I started crying when I got the email...mostly out of relief. This is a great day!!

**Oh! The Seattle trip was a success. We applied for both kids' passports. The agent who helped us assured us we had everything we needed for Leah and to expect to see the passports in 4 weeks. Whew!

Passport Troubles = Road Trip

We took the kids out of school early to apply for their passports. They were so excited. Were. I forgot to put the SS# down and it was too late to run back home and get them. On top of that, the lady who works at the PO told me that I did not have the proper documentation for Leah. I freaked a little. Anyone who knows me, knows my attention to detail, and I was sure that I had everything I needed. We went home, and I called the US Dept. of State, only to be told something entirely different than what the gal at the PO said. After hanging up and fuming for about 15 minutes, I called BACK and was able to talk to someone who checked and double checked what is is we need to get this to happen. The hiccup is that Leah does not have a certificate of citizenship that proves she is a citizen. She has only the final adoption decree from the hearing a few weeks ago. Now, this should be enough. According to the law, this IS enough to prove her citizenship, but the people in charge of handling this do not seem to know this. I am beyond frustrated at this point. It just so happens that Saturday, March 10th, is National Passport Day. Of course, the regional office is in Seattle, but this is an opportunity to talk face to face with the people in charge of processing the passport. So, it looks like the Howard family will be taking a short road trip to Seattle tomorrow. I cannot take the chance of mailing it out from Spokane, and in 6 weeks, have everything returned because someone is confused to as what counts as proper documentation. So, we will go straight to the source. The good news is that we will be able to take the kids to Pikes Market and have a little fun.....

Waiting.....

Our agency FINALLY uploaded our file to the CCCWA for Pre-Approval. They say it could take 7-10 days to show up in the database as approved. I know for a fact, though, that some families have had to wait a month to get PA. This is so difficult because until we get that PA, anything can happen. With Leah, we had completed all of the paperwork and were logged in to China's database. so when we found her, it went rather quickly and we met her only 3 months later. Doing it this way, "finding" a child first, before the homestudy and not being PA, in a word: stinks. People do know that we are adopting, and some even have seen pictures of Pin Pin, but having to keep this blog to myself until PA has been both torture and therapy to my "I won't believe it until I see it" attitude. Yes, I have faith, but I have to be realistic to a point as well. So....here goes the first of a ton of waiting!

Leah gets readopted and the Home Study is complete!

Leah was readopted on February 24th. It was a very special event which means she will get a US birth certificate and most importantly, she is now a US citizen. We can now apply for her passport (and Noah's)so they can travel with us to meet their new little brother. We will do this next week.

Today was our last home study visit. Our social worker is a fast worker and efficient and will have the draft ready for Gladney's (our adoption agency) by the END OF THE WEEK!!! We could potentially mail off our I800a (Immigration paperwork for Pin Pin) in two weeks! After that, we have to wait several weeks to get a fingerprinting appointment. After that, we wait 6-8weeks for approval. After all of that, our dossier will be complete and can be sent to China to get logged in (LID), which is what we want to happen ASAP. The dossier is made up of 12 items (including home-study) that have to be certified or notarized and then authenticated. The gathering of this paperwork is what has taken over my life since January 1st. The following is what we need for a complete dossier:

1. Letter of Intent to Adopt (LOI)

2. Home Study Report

3. Certified Birth Certificates

4. Genera Phys. Exam letter

5. Financial Statement

6. Employment Letters

7. Certif. of Good Conduct

8. Immigration Approval

9. Passport Photos

10. Family Photographs

11. Certified marriage certificate (there is a snag with this one but it is being fixed)

12. Color copies of passports

The only items we need are the complete Home Study report and immigration approval. We have managed to get everything else in 4 weeks. The sooner we get the Dossier to China, the sooner we can get to our son. 

New Picture!

So here is a picture taken in November! Our Agency just sent us a few new ones...boy is he handsome. I burst into tears looking at that face! We are moving right along with the paperwork. As far as the first round of prints that were going to take 3 agonizing months, we found a way around it...or through it. The FBI has a field office in Airway Heights (they are all over the place) that will sent your prints electronically to the FBI. It took three minutes and by the time I got back home,  I had clearance and was able to forward that to our SW. She was so excited we found out about this and is going to give her other families the option of doing this....hmmmm 30 minutes VS 3 months....not a tough choice!
 So, it looks like our HS will be complete by Mid-March instead of the end of April. One step closer. The next big item on our agenda is to complete Leah's adoption next Friday. We will go to court and by 3:30, she will be a US citizen. After we get the official adoption decree, she and Noah will apply for their passports.
We are still waiting for the PA so we can shout it from the mountaintops...You'll hear me screaming when it gets here!

Happy/Frustrated

Happy Friday! And it IS a happy day. There are two Fed Ex envelopes on the dining room table; one for the social worker and one for the adoption agency. They are the fruits of our labor these last four weeks. After I send them off in the morning, we have to sit and wait for the final HS visit and notarized copies. After that, we have to get fingerprinted again at the USCIS (?)...Immigration. The reason we are so frustrated is that the first set of fingerprints, for the FBI, are taking a long time. The HS needs those prints to be completed BEFORE allowing us to apply for I800A....and round 2 of fingerprinting. I am proud that we have done so much in such a small amount of time, but frustrated at the red tape. The good thing (I guess) is that as soon as I drop those envelopes off, it is out of my hands. I am trying not to let my heart wander to Chen Ping ( Pin Pin). He does not yet know he has a family who is adopting him and won't know until summer some time. I just have to pray he stays healthy and for the patience to deal with the wait.