So I haven't had much time to post lately. My three siblings are staying with me while my mom is out of the country, so it's been REALLY busy around here!
So, the good news is, we've basically finished our dossier - yippee! The only thing remaining is my employment letter, which my boss hasn't sent yet. Gotta love education during the summer. For my readers who don't know what I do, I'm a part time Hebrew school teacher to students with disabilities. I work on Sundays and then one evening per week. It's a GREAT mommy job! I've asked twice over the past three weeks and I'm getting rather tired of requesting this. I emailed a reminder today letting them know it is THE last piece of teh puzzle. Hope they get off their tushies soon and get it in!!! Other than that, we are DONE! We'll be having it translated and apostilled and then DH is off to Russia! Our agency takes care of the apostilling for us, which is nice, so this whole process so far has been extremely low stress. I'll look forward to being on the "officially waiting" list.
Anyway, that's it from here! I'll update if there's anything important, otherwise, it may be a week before I"m back on. We're just so insane until the sibs head home next week.
:)
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
August 8
Not much new to report. It looks like we'll likely be sending DH over to deliver our documents by the end of September. the bummer is, it could happen sooner, but there is a key person on vacation for two weeks. Ah well, if we're looking at all of this as "meant to be" then we have to believe each and every delay is going to bring us to our meant to be children. We're still waiting for the bank letter and that's the LAST piece of the dossier! Well, we still have to do our medicals, but we're holding on that purposely until last minute so they will be valid for a more useful time period. That's about it from the homefront!
:)
:)
Saturday, August 4, 2007
August 4
Nothing much new... We did find out for sure that only DH will have to go to Russia for the paperwork trip, so thats a HUGE relief. sorry there are no apostrophes, for some reason my keyboard is a bit wonky and every time I try, it pops up a ctrl+f box! So, no, Im not a terrible speller, just one with a keyboard problem.
Anyway, we had QUITE the trip to the bank! DS and I went there on Friday morning and we needed a letter for our dossier stating we had accounts in good standing and an amount in checking and savings. WELL, turns out there are MAJOR procedures for this type of thing and the woman was a bit rude and told me that there was no way to get this and that even if I could, it would come from corporate and therefore it couldnt be notarized. So, she ends up on the phone with corporate policies and procedures and then with legal, and it turns out they arent allowed to notarize for immigration purposes, but since its adoption, its fine. So, a half hour and one giant pain in the ass later, it turns out we have to wait 7-10 business days to get it in the mail, then we have to bring it to the bank to have the manager or assistant manager sign it and have it notarized. Yes, folks, Ims sure Im not the only one who can see MANY places that this can fall apart. Hopefully it will all be fine.
Also - Debbie - the regions well be submitting to are Tver and Smolensk. It was Tver that was causing the confusion, but its all okay now!
For my new blogging buddies (mostly from FRUA), Ill try to give a bit of a background so you all know more about me and where we come from. Ill try to get to that tomorrow or Monday.
:)
Anyway, we had QUITE the trip to the bank! DS and I went there on Friday morning and we needed a letter for our dossier stating we had accounts in good standing and an amount in checking and savings. WELL, turns out there are MAJOR procedures for this type of thing and the woman was a bit rude and told me that there was no way to get this and that even if I could, it would come from corporate and therefore it couldnt be notarized. So, she ends up on the phone with corporate policies and procedures and then with legal, and it turns out they arent allowed to notarize for immigration purposes, but since its adoption, its fine. So, a half hour and one giant pain in the ass later, it turns out we have to wait 7-10 business days to get it in the mail, then we have to bring it to the bank to have the manager or assistant manager sign it and have it notarized. Yes, folks, Ims sure Im not the only one who can see MANY places that this can fall apart. Hopefully it will all be fine.
Also - Debbie - the regions well be submitting to are Tver and Smolensk. It was Tver that was causing the confusion, but its all okay now!
For my new blogging buddies (mostly from FRUA), Ill try to give a bit of a background so you all know more about me and where we come from. Ill try to get to that tomorrow or Monday.
:)
Thursday, August 2, 2007
August 2
Happy birthday, Dad, you old fart!!!!!
Anyway, we just got back from Canada and we're pretty bummed about some news we got.
First, the good news I didn't have a chance to share before we left. On Saturday, our I-797C came in!!!!! That was teh paper we expected to take three months and it took less than a week! It was dated two days after our fingerprints were done - yay!!!!! Also, when we came home, we found BOTH copies of my state police clearance finally, so now we're just waiting for DH's second set (which he forgot to send a SASE for, so we'll see...)
Okay, so the not so great news. Looks like we might all have to make THREE trips to Russia. One of the two regions we're submitting to may require both parents to be there just to turn in the paperwork. Yep, that's right, we may have to drag our two year old all the way to Russia to hand someone a packet of paper and leave. How freaking fabulous. That's a major time and expense we weren't expecting. not to mention, the hell of that much travel on our poor kid. Ugh, this sucks. If you're the praying or finger crossing sort, please keep us in mind that maybe this won't be the case and only DH can go. That would be such a bummer.
That's it for today!
:)
Anyway, we just got back from Canada and we're pretty bummed about some news we got.
First, the good news I didn't have a chance to share before we left. On Saturday, our I-797C came in!!!!! That was teh paper we expected to take three months and it took less than a week! It was dated two days after our fingerprints were done - yay!!!!! Also, when we came home, we found BOTH copies of my state police clearance finally, so now we're just waiting for DH's second set (which he forgot to send a SASE for, so we'll see...)
Okay, so the not so great news. Looks like we might all have to make THREE trips to Russia. One of the two regions we're submitting to may require both parents to be there just to turn in the paperwork. Yep, that's right, we may have to drag our two year old all the way to Russia to hand someone a packet of paper and leave. How freaking fabulous. That's a major time and expense we weren't expecting. not to mention, the hell of that much travel on our poor kid. Ugh, this sucks. If you're the praying or finger crossing sort, please keep us in mind that maybe this won't be the case and only DH can go. That would be such a bummer.
That's it for today!
:)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
July 26
Go figure, our FBI fingerprints showed up today IN A FEDEX OVERNIGHT ENVELOPE! Here's where it gets really odd, though. It was the envelope we sent, because it was folded in half, BUT, it wasn't the shipping label we supplied with our account info on it. How bizarre! It gets stranger... The dates on the fingerprints are the dates the woman told DH they were shipped, BUT, the date on the letter of procedure attached is from Tuesday - the day DH called. It's all very strange, but I have them, so I truly don't care!
Still waiting for the state police clearance for me. It's been 4 weeks now. DH got his over a week ago. yes, I'm still whining about this, but seriously, come on folks.
That's all that happened today.
:)
Still waiting for the state police clearance for me. It's been 4 weeks now. DH got his over a week ago. yes, I'm still whining about this, but seriously, come on folks.
That's all that happened today.
:)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
July 25
So, we had our fingerprints for our I600A done yesterday. It was a piece of cake, really, in and out. It was actually pretty cool - they use something called "aquaprints" andthey wet your fingers and then put them on a touch pad and it it scans them into a computer. It was really quite cool. Anyway, that's that, so now we wait...
Today, FINALLY notarized the last of our dossier forms for one region. We have to do the rest of the papers for the second region. We'll get those all in the mail tomorrow and then we're just waiting. It's nice, really. I'm looking forward to having some time left in teh summer without meetings, appointments or anything. I just want to hang out with my sweetie pie!
That's about it for now. Still waiting for our FBI prints to come back. They didn't use the Fedex envelope we sent (HOW AGGRAVATING!) and they sent DH's on Thursday and mine on Monday and neither has arrived. My state police check is still in limbo also - DH's got here a week ago. Anyway, hopefully those things will get sorted out soon and we'll be moving!
:)
Today, FINALLY notarized the last of our dossier forms for one region. We have to do the rest of the papers for the second region. We'll get those all in the mail tomorrow and then we're just waiting. It's nice, really. I'm looking forward to having some time left in teh summer without meetings, appointments or anything. I just want to hang out with my sweetie pie!
That's about it for now. Still waiting for our FBI prints to come back. They didn't use the Fedex envelope we sent (HOW AGGRAVATING!) and they sent DH's on Thursday and mine on Monday and neither has arrived. My state police check is still in limbo also - DH's got here a week ago. Anyway, hopefully those things will get sorted out soon and we'll be moving!
:)
Monday, July 23, 2007
July 23
Well, we had our INS appt today! I'm so so so so SO glad we decided to go in person rather than mailing the documents in, because we'd heard the wait to be fingerprinted can be weeks, but that's not apparently always the case if you go in person, because we're going TOMORROW! I'm REALLY hoping that means itwon't take 3 months to get our paperwork through, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
The other lesson learned is that you must ALWAYS pay for things with money orders. I paid for my state police check with a check and DH used a money order and he got his back last week and my freaking check JUST cleared. Mind you, we sent these out weeks ago. fun... So, I'm still waiting for that.
Otherwise, we're ALMOST done with our dossier. We'll be submitting the last few papers tomorrow, so that's super exciting! yahoo!!!!!
The other lesson learned is that you must ALWAYS pay for things with money orders. I paid for my state police check with a check and DH used a money order and he got his back last week and my freaking check JUST cleared. Mind you, we sent these out weeks ago. fun... So, I'm still waiting for that.
Otherwise, we're ALMOST done with our dossier. We'll be submitting the last few papers tomorrow, so that's super exciting! yahoo!!!!!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
July 22
Just a quick update. Head is throbbing! Why? Because Harry Potter 7 arrived on my doorstep yesterday afternoon around 4PM, I was up until 2AM reading it, and finished it around 4PM today. In between, I managed to go to the beach and berry picking with DS, go out to dinner last night, and somehow amuse a two year old and a thirty-two year old. Gotta love the multi-tasking that is mommyhood. Anyway, it was a great read and NO I will NOT tell anyone anything, so stop asking!
Anyway, tomorrow we're off to INS to file our I-600A. It's our first official "hurry up and wait" and the last big hurdle before submitting our documents to Russia. Word is, it's taking around 3 months now because everyone is rushing to get their INS paperwork in now before the fees change on the 30th. Major bummer there, because apparently the Boston office used to be great and it used to take around 3 weeks. Ah well, such is our luck...
:)
Anyway, tomorrow we're off to INS to file our I-600A. It's our first official "hurry up and wait" and the last big hurdle before submitting our documents to Russia. Word is, it's taking around 3 months now because everyone is rushing to get their INS paperwork in now before the fees change on the 30th. Major bummer there, because apparently the Boston office used to be great and it used to take around 3 weeks. Ah well, such is our luck...
:)
Saturday, July 21, 2007
July 21
So, we picked up the finalized copy of our homestudy yesterday. It was less than one month from the day we met with the agency until it was done. They were phenomenal through all of it. If you live in MA, I have to tell you how much I just LOVE A Red Thread Adoptions. If you ever need them, go check them out. They are helpful, warm, caring, and really just seem to love what they're doing. I can't say enough about them. When we picked up our homestudy, they also had a little card about hte name, and red thread bracelets for FIVE - one for each of us, and one for eachof the two children we are trying to adopt. How cool is that?
Anyway, today, we have to get a few forms notarized (let's hope the notary is on at our mall bank branch) and then on Monday, we'll send out the last of our forms to our Russian agency for our dossier. After that, we just have to wait for our FBI check to come back and MY CORI. DH got his back yesterday and we sent it the same day - grrrrr.
Wish us luck on Monday at our INS appt. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the 2 year old. Do I bring him or see if I can find someone I can beg to watch him? It's so hard when everyone lives in tehopposite direction of where I need to be! Ugh, what a dilemma....
Anyway, today, we have to get a few forms notarized (let's hope the notary is on at our mall bank branch) and then on Monday, we'll send out the last of our forms to our Russian agency for our dossier. After that, we just have to wait for our FBI check to come back and MY CORI. DH got his back yesterday and we sent it the same day - grrrrr.
Wish us luck on Monday at our INS appt. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the 2 year old. Do I bring him or see if I can find someone I can beg to watch him? It's so hard when everyone lives in tehopposite direction of where I need to be! Ugh, what a dilemma....
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
July 18
It's beena whirlwind of a week and I've been too crazy to post any updates!
Here are the things that have been going on...
1. Our homestudy is official!!!!! The CORI we were waiting for came back on Monday, and everything was notarized today! We have our appt with INS on Monday, so we'll be picking up the paperwork to bring with us - yahoo!
2. We completed a BUNCH of paperwork for our foreign dossier and had it notarized on Monday. We only have a few more forms to do for the Tver region and we stillhave to work on the Smolensk region after that.
3. We're in the process of taking pictures of our house, family, etc. If anyone has any GREAT pictures of us and the famiy they'd like to share, we'd love to include them!
I think those are the major things. INSANE, I tell ya!
Cute thing of hte week, though, is if you ask DS where we're going on a plane next year, he says "to Russia" and if you ask him why, he says, "to get me a boy and a girl". How adorable is that!
:)
Here are the things that have been going on...
1. Our homestudy is official!!!!! The CORI we were waiting for came back on Monday, and everything was notarized today! We have our appt with INS on Monday, so we'll be picking up the paperwork to bring with us - yahoo!
2. We completed a BUNCH of paperwork for our foreign dossier and had it notarized on Monday. We only have a few more forms to do for the Tver region and we stillhave to work on the Smolensk region after that.
3. We're in the process of taking pictures of our house, family, etc. If anyone has any GREAT pictures of us and the famiy they'd like to share, we'd love to include them!
I think those are the major things. INSANE, I tell ya!
Cute thing of hte week, though, is if you ask DS where we're going on a plane next year, he says "to Russia" and if you ask him why, he says, "to get me a boy and a girl". How adorable is that!
:)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
July 12
Well, here's teh insanity explained a bit more. We knew our social worker would be coming for our safety inspection this Wed. We realized there was NO WAY we'd pass. I had started ages ago to refinish our cabinet doors in our kitchen but burned way out and never finished. As a result, we had no doors on most of our cabinets. Also, DH had started to replace the floor and had never finished, so we had two floors. It was basically atrocious, so we had a gate keeping DS out and never worried. Yeah, that was NOT going to fly. So, I spent EIGHTEEN hours Sat/Sun painting and my cousin came Mon/Tues and replaced the floor. In the meantime, Dh emptied out our back master bedroom which we've been using as sotrage because we hadn't replaced the red shag carpet that was put in in the 70s. So, all in all, we spent Sat 10AM-midnight working. Sunday 10AM-5PM, Monday 9AM-midnight, Tuesday on and off all day for me and then 4PM-midnight for DH, and Wed 9AM-2PM. We literally put our last bag of clothes we hadn't had chance to fold in my backseat TEN MINUTES before our social worker arrived!!!!! The visit went great. The house looked good and passed fine. Our social worker is really really great nad even brought roses! We're now officially done except we need the stupid criminal record board to send our records. They're really taking their time, which is annoying, because otherwise it would be done and notarized by today, but whatever...
In other news, as we were going INSANE, our Russian agency sent us all of our dossier paperwork to get started on! We went on Wed and notarized the paperwork that didn't require work and we started to work on teh other stuff today, but really, we just needed a BREAK! We'll go great guns tomorrow, but today we just needed a rest. It's really moving along now, though!!!
Oh, also, we have an appt with INS to submit our homestudy and apply for our I-600A on July 23rd - wish us luck that it will move quickly!!!!!
In the meantime, some before and afters of my kitchen...
The ugly ass cabinets
The lovely green (sorry for the swatch of yellow)
The NEW kitchen!!!!!
The same backwall ALL yellow! It looks really dark, but it really isn't that dark yellow.
In other news, as we were going INSANE, our Russian agency sent us all of our dossier paperwork to get started on! We went on Wed and notarized the paperwork that didn't require work and we started to work on teh other stuff today, but really, we just needed a BREAK! We'll go great guns tomorrow, but today we just needed a rest. It's really moving along now, though!!!
Oh, also, we have an appt with INS to submit our homestudy and apply for our I-600A on July 23rd - wish us luck that it will move quickly!!!!!
In the meantime, some before and afters of my kitchen...
The ugly ass cabinets
The lovely green (sorry for the swatch of yellow)
The NEW kitchen!!!!!
The same backwall ALL yellow! It looks really dark, but it really isn't that dark yellow.
Monday, July 9, 2007
July 9
Just a quickie today as I'm EXHAUSTED! It's been a long three days, and I'll show why tomorrow.
So, today, we got ALL of the dossier paperwork from our agency. A bunch of it was already filled out and ready to go, so all we have to do is get it notarized. Some of it needs some work, but that won't happen until Wednesday afternoon, because we have our two final homestudy visits tomorrow and Wed and we just can't possibly squeeze one more thing into our lives right now. It's all moving so quickly, I'm worried about the "hurry up and wait" that's coming soon. I hope we'll get lucky and INS will get things back to us quickly - but I'm not betting on it.
Anyway, that's the basic info of the day. I'll try to update more tomorrow, but honestly, until Wednesday, life will be pretty insane!
So, today, we got ALL of the dossier paperwork from our agency. A bunch of it was already filled out and ready to go, so all we have to do is get it notarized. Some of it needs some work, but that won't happen until Wednesday afternoon, because we have our two final homestudy visits tomorrow and Wed and we just can't possibly squeeze one more thing into our lives right now. It's all moving so quickly, I'm worried about the "hurry up and wait" that's coming soon. I hope we'll get lucky and INS will get things back to us quickly - but I'm not betting on it.
Anyway, that's the basic info of the day. I'll try to update more tomorrow, but honestly, until Wednesday, life will be pretty insane!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
July 8
Not much going on except house CRAZINESS trying to get things together for our home visit on Wednesday. I spent SEVENTEEN house painting my kitchen this weekend and it's not totally done. Ugh. If I never see a paintbrush it will be too soon! I'm also a little tipsy. Our neighbors invited us over and appartently I have a very low tolerance these days and two large glasses of wine later and my spelling sucks. I'll be back tomorrow for a more coherent post.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
July 5
Some new craziness today!
We started off the morning at the police station having our fingerprints done for the FBI. Man, you just feel like such a criminal, even when the officer is super nice and helpful. It's just hte concept of it! So, we did that and DH bought the money orders we'll need to have those processed. We'll next day Fed-Ex them tomorrow.
Then, we got an email from our foreign placement agency and they sent letters we have to sign and have notarized to the state criminal agency board. So, I took mine with me when I went out this afternoon and stopped by the bank to have it notarized on the way home. After a LONG wait (everyone else was out because of the holiday week) the one notary there freed up and I got it signed and headed to the post office. Popped it in the mail, got in the car and realized, OH SHIT, i forgot to include the check. So, back to the post office to beg the clerk for help because I did NOT want to go to the bank again. Thankfully, it's a small post office and the guys there were helpful and really interested in the adoption so they helped me fish it out of hte outgoing mail, ripped it open for me and then taped it back together once I had included the check and the SASE. To talk about how nice people are, ALL of hte people in line let me cut in front not once, but TWICE when I had to run up to buy a pre-stamped envelope and then to have it taped back together. I was totally feelin' the love today, I'll tell ya!
Oh, so in other news, apparently, INS is increasing their fees as of Julyu 31, so we have to get our paperwork in for the I-600A (petition to adopt a foreign orphan) before then because of the fee increase, but mainly because everyone else is scrambling and the wait is expected to go from 3 weeks to 3 MONTHS! Ugh. Everything had been so well and now that will be a MAJOR slow down. Not much we can do, however, so we just move on.
So, here I am back at home after our adventure. My poor kid kept BEGGING me to just go home. So, we're outside playing now and I'm a dork outside with my laptop. Better go hang out with my guy!
:)
We started off the morning at the police station having our fingerprints done for the FBI. Man, you just feel like such a criminal, even when the officer is super nice and helpful. It's just hte concept of it! So, we did that and DH bought the money orders we'll need to have those processed. We'll next day Fed-Ex them tomorrow.
Then, we got an email from our foreign placement agency and they sent letters we have to sign and have notarized to the state criminal agency board. So, I took mine with me when I went out this afternoon and stopped by the bank to have it notarized on the way home. After a LONG wait (everyone else was out because of the holiday week) the one notary there freed up and I got it signed and headed to the post office. Popped it in the mail, got in the car and realized, OH SHIT, i forgot to include the check. So, back to the post office to beg the clerk for help because I did NOT want to go to the bank again. Thankfully, it's a small post office and the guys there were helpful and really interested in the adoption so they helped me fish it out of hte outgoing mail, ripped it open for me and then taped it back together once I had included the check and the SASE. To talk about how nice people are, ALL of hte people in line let me cut in front not once, but TWICE when I had to run up to buy a pre-stamped envelope and then to have it taped back together. I was totally feelin' the love today, I'll tell ya!
Oh, so in other news, apparently, INS is increasing their fees as of Julyu 31, so we have to get our paperwork in for the I-600A (petition to adopt a foreign orphan) before then because of the fee increase, but mainly because everyone else is scrambling and the wait is expected to go from 3 weeks to 3 MONTHS! Ugh. Everything had been so well and now that will be a MAJOR slow down. Not much we can do, however, so we just move on.
So, here I am back at home after our adventure. My poor kid kept BEGGING me to just go home. So, we're outside playing now and I'm a dork outside with my laptop. Better go hang out with my guy!
:)
Monday, July 2, 2007
July 2
LOTS going on today!
First, we got a draft of our homestudy as it is thus far. It's looking good!!!!! Looks like we'll be approved for TWO KIDS - yahoo!!!!!!!!! Now, we'll just have to cross EVERYTHING and hope that two kids will be ready for us to bring home.
Secondly, the foreign placement agency got our application fee and letter and is already sending us paperwork to fill out! I think her goal of having our dossier complete at the same time as our homestudy is actually going to happen. How frickin cool is that? Let's just hope that things continue to move smoothly and nicely. I'm so ready to be a mommy to two more awesome kiddos!
:)
First, we got a draft of our homestudy as it is thus far. It's looking good!!!!! Looks like we'll be approved for TWO KIDS - yahoo!!!!!!!!! Now, we'll just have to cross EVERYTHING and hope that two kids will be ready for us to bring home.
Secondly, the foreign placement agency got our application fee and letter and is already sending us paperwork to fill out! I think her goal of having our dossier complete at the same time as our homestudy is actually going to happen. How frickin cool is that? Let's just hope that things continue to move smoothly and nicely. I'm so ready to be a mommy to two more awesome kiddos!
:)
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