Wednesday, October 31, 2012

4th and final home study visit and a hiccup

Last night was our fourth and final home study visit. Yay!
For this visit our Social worker came in and asked us if we had any questions for her which our only question was when will the home study be ready?
She told us to expect the rough draft to look over on Friday.
We were asked a few final easy peasy questions about our insurance and how the military works and then we were done!

That was the nice part of the day.
The hiccup occurred due to my error which really makes my upset.
I sent off our I800a Immigration paperwork first extension supp 3 on the 17th.
It had a due date of the 28th.
Yesterday on the 30th it came back to me lacking 45 cents postage.
I can't believe it.
They received it on time but refused to pay the 45 cents which is their right and it was too late to come back to me by the time it came two days after the deadline.
I immediately called USCIS but they said there is absolutely nothing they can do.
A deadline is a deadline and they can not bend the rules.
I even spoke to the supervisor after my Officer transferred me after I began sobbing.
I am just so mad at myself for not adding enough postage.
The post office has a machine which I weighed it on and entered the zip code and it spit out the needed postage.
However, a friend just let me know the reason why is that I put it in an 8X10 envelope to avoid folding which always requires more postage.
Good to know. Now that I messed that up big time.
This means we now have to pay the $720 Immigration fee plus $85 X 4 for our fingerprints now instead of when we receive our LOA in about 5 months.
That $1,060 will be due here in a few weeks and I have no idea where it will come from.
It's always something with adoption but this mess up was my fault and I feel just terrible. :(

Monday, October 29, 2012

3rd home study visit and update!

Sunday was our 3rd of 4 home study visits for John's adoption.
For this visit the social worker went over all of our paperwork necessary for an international adoption.

Certified copies of all of our birth certificates.
Certified copy of your marriage certificate  
Verification of employment on company letterhead
Income verification (usually copies of your federal tax returns for the last three years)
Proof of life insurance, including the names of beneficiaries
Proof of health insurance;
Verification of all monetary assets on institution letterhead (including checking account, savings account, 401k balance, stocks, money market accounts, mutual funds, etc.)
Debt information (balances on your credit cards, cars, house, etc.)
Mortgage or rent information (amount of monthly payment and amount of equity you have if you own your home).
Results of a recent physical exam's for everyone in the home.
Results of a criminal background check for everyone over 18 in the home.
Fire safety inspection
Letter from your veterinarian stating that all your pets are healthy and current on their vaccinations
Photographs of you, your spouse, and any children already living in your home
Photographs of the front, back, and inside of your home
Copy of any previous home study (if applicable)
8 notarized written references

As you can see we are glad to be almost done with this part of the process as it's a lot of work!
For this visit the social worker came into the dinning room only our home.
She interviewed our children, asking them how they felt about having another brother and how general chit chat to get to know them better.
Since my parents live with us she also interviewed them asking more or less the same questions but with more time spent on their health issues.

We hope our 4th and final visit will be either Tuesday or Thursday of this week.
Then our social worker will write up the home study including all the information in the letters and interviews.
When that is done she will send a copy to us, our adoption agency and the home study office to make sure it's all correct.
Finally when we have all ok'd the home study it will be notarized and we will receive copies as well as one to send to USCIS (Immigration) for our I800a authorization to bring an child into the county.
This can take up to 3 months for the USCIS to be approved so we are trying to hurry things through to meet our dossier reuse deadline.

Last week we were lucky enough to receive an update on John.
The director said the following;
"John" is going to school, in first grade now. He is a smart boy. His personality is outgoing. He is healthy and happy. They just hope you are able to come get him soon. They appreciate you adopt him. The orphanage has staff takes him to school and help him with school work after school.

We were SO happy to get the update and know he is doing so well!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

2 down, 2 to go!

We have finished our second of four home study visits for John's adoption.
On Sunday our social worker came over and sat at our dinning room table and conducted our personal interviews.
We also went over the financial statement since we wrote it up wrong last time not including any assets and had our income listed with the amount after taxes instead of before.
It looks much better now!
For those of you who are curious about the home study portion (I know we were) our social worker didn't go any farther than the dinning room table for this visit.
For our next visit she will interview the rest of the family.
This interview was supposed to be tomorrow and I was very excited she was speeding things along for us.
However, we are still awaiting my husband's birth certificate that is taking FOREVER and the agency won't agree to any more visits until that arrives which should be in TWO WEEKS.
My advice is as soon as you know you are going to adopt, order those certified copies of your birth certificates. I would hate for anyone else to be held up in the process like we are.

When I heard that yesterday I was upset and sad and I didn't want to be in that place in my mind.
SO, I did something positive and sent John his first care package.
We have sent a message to the orphanage through our agency, asking if John knows he is being adopted but they never answered.
This package could be a very big surprise for him then if he doesn't already know!
In it we have a letter translated into Chinese tell him all about us and our life and how very much we want him for our son.
We also included photos of us and our home and his room.
Just for an added touch of love we included money for the orphanage to buy him a celebratory cake.
He has seen many of his friends receive cakes for their birthdays that their adoptive families have bought for them.
NOW he is getting his own cake to celebrate not only his birthday we missed in August but the fact that he has a family.

One last bit of positive news is our adoption fund.
Did you notice that to the right?
It is now almost $300!
While we have a long way to go it is such a gift to know people truly care about helping us bring John home and into our family.
THANK YOU!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

1st Home Study Visit

Today was our first home study visit for John.
We were familiar with the social worker because she had just been here to do our 6 month post adoption report on our son we brought home from Ch*na in March of this year.
She arrived on time and stayed just shy of an hour and a half.
For those of you that wonder what a home study visit is like I can tell you how ours went.
The visit consisted of her taking notes on our views of family and discipline.
We went over finances and made sure there was no criminal history.
The tour of the house was quick. She looked for smoke detectors, made sure we had fire extinguishers, medicines out of reach and cleaners locked up.
I love to keep a tidy house, ok I am somewhat anal about cleaning but even if I we not she only peeked in rooms and did no looking in closets, under beds and never saw the underneath of my sparkly clean toilet seat. (Ha!)
So while it makes you feel better to have your home spotless, it isn't really going to matter.
What's going to matter is that you have a safe home with room enough for your newest family member.
I would like to say that after her visit next Sunday she will be done and ready to write up the report.
However, we are thinking it will be a 4 visit home study which is different from our previous home study in another state.
We are hoping and praying to reuse our dossier from our last adoption but that has a timeline and we are pushing the limit to get this done.
Please keep us in your prayers that we can accomplish this and keep on our timeline to bring John home early summer.
We received an e-mail from a mom that visited John in his orphanage and while she said he is healthy and being cared for he needs to come home soon so if you could please pray for John we would appreciate that.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The announcement!

It is with great joy we announce that we are adopting again!
He will join our family with three older sisters, one older and one younger brother.
John is currently living in Ch*na and has just had his 7th birthday.
We are told he is very smart and is in school now.
John is special in that he was born with one of the 200 types of dwarfism call Achondroplasia.
To learn more about dwarfism, click HERE for the Understanding Dwarfism site.

The road to international adoption is a long one with seemingly endless amounts of paperwork to chase down, sign, notarize, authenticate, etc.
However, it can't be that bad as we are doing it AGAIN!

Right now we are at the home study part of the adoption.
This means that our backgrounds are being checked.
Our finances are being checked.
Job and insurance status, Check!
Home and family life, semi-normal. Ha!
Once we are all checked out and our paperwork is in order the social worker will come for two visits.
This Sunday is our first visit and we are more than ready!

We are also working hard on fundraising right now because adoption is very expensive and adopting two in two years wasn't in our finances but was for sure in our hearts.
If you feel so moved feel free to donate from the link on our site which would be VERY appreciated.

Along this process I'll keep you up to date where we are at and what's next.