About Time for an Update
Hmmm, post number two for the blog, but I haven't yet sent out announcements so people can find it. Got to get that done soon!
Okay, so what's happened since the last post? Well, we submitted our application to the adoption agency (New Hope) on the 14th of June, and also sent in our I-600A form to the USCIS (formerly INS). Everything arrived just fine to New Hope, and they are now reviewing our package and preparing everything we'll need to get the dossier together.
Unfortunately it wasn't so smooth with the USCIS. We messed up and sent too much money to them, and since they can't simply process a refund, they sent everything back and told us to try again (by checking the box on the form that said we didn't send enough...go figure!). We checked, double checked, and triple checked the amount and sent it in again. Hopefully we won't go all the way back to the end of the line. Now we wait for them to process the paperwork and send us a date to get our official fingerprints for the federal background check.
On the 19th, we had our first homestudy visit with our social worker (Phil). He's a great guy (I'm not sucking up because our adoption rests in his hands...really!). Anyway, he and his wife have two adopted daughers from China, and since we don't cause any alarms to go off in his mind (murderers, pychos, etc.), he'll be a great advocate and resource for us throughout the process. He got us set up for our first major task: local background check and fingerprints!
We went to the Mobile Police HQ on the 21st to get the background check and fingerprints. Neither of us have a record (are you surprised?) and the fingerprints went well enough. We won't know for sure until we hear that the Alabama Bureau of Investigations scans them and likewise finds no bad info on the two of us. The worst we expect here is that they get picky over the prints and force us to redo them.
After that, we stopped by a floring place we had visited the day before to put a deposit down on new carpet. The carpet in our house was junk (not a good enough four letter word to describe it, but I'm trying to keep it clean here). It was what came with the house and the builders obviously went cheap on it. It gets installed on the 29th and we can't wait (though the house will be in a bit of chaos for all the moving of furniture and such). The next big project will be an addition to the house (three bedrooms doesn't afford me an office with two kids, so we're expanding!). More on that later.
We're in the process now of writing auto-biographies. Nothing like "My Life" at almost 1000 pages! Just a few pages each. I'll post mine here when I'm done, and hopefully convince Heather to do the same.
Monday the 28th we have a meeting with the adoption agency that Phil goes through for the home study. They like to meet their clients and give us a lot of paperwork. Fine by us! If we're not actively doing something for the adoption, we feel like we're wasting time. That'll only be worse during those gaps between dossier completion and referral, and then referral to travel time.
Not sure how often we'll post updates, but I'll try to get at least one in each week.
All our best,
James, Heather and Anna
Okay, so what's happened since the last post? Well, we submitted our application to the adoption agency (New Hope) on the 14th of June, and also sent in our I-600A form to the USCIS (formerly INS). Everything arrived just fine to New Hope, and they are now reviewing our package and preparing everything we'll need to get the dossier together.
Unfortunately it wasn't so smooth with the USCIS. We messed up and sent too much money to them, and since they can't simply process a refund, they sent everything back and told us to try again (by checking the box on the form that said we didn't send enough...go figure!). We checked, double checked, and triple checked the amount and sent it in again. Hopefully we won't go all the way back to the end of the line. Now we wait for them to process the paperwork and send us a date to get our official fingerprints for the federal background check.
On the 19th, we had our first homestudy visit with our social worker (Phil). He's a great guy (I'm not sucking up because our adoption rests in his hands...really!). Anyway, he and his wife have two adopted daughers from China, and since we don't cause any alarms to go off in his mind (murderers, pychos, etc.), he'll be a great advocate and resource for us throughout the process. He got us set up for our first major task: local background check and fingerprints!
We went to the Mobile Police HQ on the 21st to get the background check and fingerprints. Neither of us have a record (are you surprised?) and the fingerprints went well enough. We won't know for sure until we hear that the Alabama Bureau of Investigations scans them and likewise finds no bad info on the two of us. The worst we expect here is that they get picky over the prints and force us to redo them.
After that, we stopped by a floring place we had visited the day before to put a deposit down on new carpet. The carpet in our house was junk (not a good enough four letter word to describe it, but I'm trying to keep it clean here). It was what came with the house and the builders obviously went cheap on it. It gets installed on the 29th and we can't wait (though the house will be in a bit of chaos for all the moving of furniture and such). The next big project will be an addition to the house (three bedrooms doesn't afford me an office with two kids, so we're expanding!). More on that later.
We're in the process now of writing auto-biographies. Nothing like "My Life" at almost 1000 pages! Just a few pages each. I'll post mine here when I'm done, and hopefully convince Heather to do the same.
Monday the 28th we have a meeting with the adoption agency that Phil goes through for the home study. They like to meet their clients and give us a lot of paperwork. Fine by us! If we're not actively doing something for the adoption, we feel like we're wasting time. That'll only be worse during those gaps between dossier completion and referral, and then referral to travel time.
Not sure how often we'll post updates, but I'll try to get at least one in each week.
All our best,
James, Heather and Anna
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