I have it right here in my hands. The most unassuming piece of paper you will ever see that will change your life drastically:
Our I171h approval is here!!!
Now all we are waiting for is the changed final page of our updated homestudy. Hopefully I will be able to pick that up this afternoon. Now I have to call the agency, so I'll say 'bye real quick now!
Natalie
TX
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Not all politicians are completely useless!!!!!!!
Last week I contacted Congressman Kevin Brady's office to ask for some help with our adoption. We had our fingerprints taken last Wednesday, November 5th by the USCIS over off Hwy 290. As I was instructed by M from the adoption agency, I immediately contacted our congressman (and both senators, too) to request that he help expedite the processing of our fingerprints. J from Mr Brady's office emailed me back on Friday, November 7th with a privacy act form that needed to be filled out and faxed back to the congressman's office. I filled it out and faxed it back along with an explanation letter first thing Monday morning. Monday afternoon, J called our home number, but I was already gone for work and did not return home until 10pm. Tuesday being Veteran's Day, the congressman's office was closed, so I could not return J's call until Wednesday morning. She then contacted USCIS for us and said she would call me back when she heard any news from them.
I worked a midnight overtime last night and returned home at 6:30am and went to take a nap a little after 7am. At 10:30am my cell phone rang. It was J from the congressman's office. She had some news.
USCIS HAS APPROVED OUR FINGERPRINTS AND WE SHOULD BE RECEIVING OUR I171H IN THE MAIL ANY DAY NOW!!!!!!!!
So now, my frantic journey begins again. Once I get that document plus a revised final page from our homestudy (our facilitator said the language of the last paragraph has to be changed in order for the SDA to accept me as a married single applicant), then I get to put some money in the pockets of Exxon/Mobil and Shell and Chevron and whatever other gasoline stations I pass along the way. I need to take both the I171h and the revised homestudy page to Austin and have them both apostilled and then get them to the Dallas area by Friday November 21st. From there they will travel with another potential adoptive couple to Ukraine and be handed to our facilitator sometime right before Thanksgiving. If all goes as planned, our facilitator will be able to submit our dossier on Thanksgiving and hopefully we (I) will receive an appointment with the SDA sometime in January.
However, that throws another wrench in the engine. We were planning on hosting Y again for the holidays. He would tentatively be here from December 20th through January 7th. There is a possibility if our dossier is submitted on Thanksgiving that I could receive an SDA appointment during that potential visit!!!
Yikes!!!
The hosting company is requiring payment of $3500 by Thursday, November 20th. So, Bill and I have decided that IF we get our I171h and get it apostilled and sent off to Ukraine next week as planned, then we will not be hosting Y for the holidays. We will, however, still honor our commitment to the other two families and pay one-third of the costs of travel for S and the translator. We will also host S and the translator for however long is needed. If we do not receive our paperwork in time, then we will continue with plans to host Y for the holidays.
Our reasoning is twofold:
1. $3500 is a lot of money to spend for less than three weeks of visiting if you are just going to be seeing each other again the next month.
2. There is the possibility that our SDA appointment would conflict with when Y is here visiting. I'm pretty sure that he has to be in Ukraine at his internat for us to be referred to him.
Either way, S will be here chaperoning the kids that do come for a visit. Hopefully that will not increase my time in country if we get an appointment date before January 7, 2009. At least we will get to visit with S before I go to Ukraine. Maybe she will agree to allow one of her subordinates to give permission for me to visit with Y while she is away and to begin the process so that I do not have to increase my stay in Ukraine too long (yes, I know, we're talking about Ukraine here).
Well, now that you've wasted your day reading this post, I think I'll go have some breakfast. I've had three hours of sleep and now I'm wired!!!
Natalie
I worked a midnight overtime last night and returned home at 6:30am and went to take a nap a little after 7am. At 10:30am my cell phone rang. It was J from the congressman's office. She had some news.
USCIS HAS APPROVED OUR FINGERPRINTS AND WE SHOULD BE RECEIVING OUR I171H IN THE MAIL ANY DAY NOW!!!!!!!!
So now, my frantic journey begins again. Once I get that document plus a revised final page from our homestudy (our facilitator said the language of the last paragraph has to be changed in order for the SDA to accept me as a married single applicant), then I get to put some money in the pockets of Exxon/Mobil and Shell and Chevron and whatever other gasoline stations I pass along the way. I need to take both the I171h and the revised homestudy page to Austin and have them both apostilled and then get them to the Dallas area by Friday November 21st. From there they will travel with another potential adoptive couple to Ukraine and be handed to our facilitator sometime right before Thanksgiving. If all goes as planned, our facilitator will be able to submit our dossier on Thanksgiving and hopefully we (I) will receive an appointment with the SDA sometime in January.
However, that throws another wrench in the engine. We were planning on hosting Y again for the holidays. He would tentatively be here from December 20th through January 7th. There is a possibility if our dossier is submitted on Thanksgiving that I could receive an SDA appointment during that potential visit!!!
Yikes!!!
The hosting company is requiring payment of $3500 by Thursday, November 20th. So, Bill and I have decided that IF we get our I171h and get it apostilled and sent off to Ukraine next week as planned, then we will not be hosting Y for the holidays. We will, however, still honor our commitment to the other two families and pay one-third of the costs of travel for S and the translator. We will also host S and the translator for however long is needed. If we do not receive our paperwork in time, then we will continue with plans to host Y for the holidays.
Our reasoning is twofold:
1. $3500 is a lot of money to spend for less than three weeks of visiting if you are just going to be seeing each other again the next month.
2. There is the possibility that our SDA appointment would conflict with when Y is here visiting. I'm pretty sure that he has to be in Ukraine at his internat for us to be referred to him.
Either way, S will be here chaperoning the kids that do come for a visit. Hopefully that will not increase my time in country if we get an appointment date before January 7, 2009. At least we will get to visit with S before I go to Ukraine. Maybe she will agree to allow one of her subordinates to give permission for me to visit with Y while she is away and to begin the process so that I do not have to increase my stay in Ukraine too long (yes, I know, we're talking about Ukraine here).
Well, now that you've wasted your day reading this post, I think I'll go have some breakfast. I've had three hours of sleep and now I'm wired!!!
Natalie
Thursday, November 6, 2008
What a wonderful day!
Tuesday November 4, 2008 was certainly a historic and wonderful day for us!! Congratulations to President-elect Barack Hussein Obama (funny how the Republicans never mentioned John McCain's or Sarah Palin's or Joe Biden's middle name).
I spent my early morning walking the brats and dealing with paperwork associated with a mortgage refinance. Yes, they are still doing mortgage refinances even in this economic climate. Seems we are good candidates because we have enough income and we actually owe less on the house than it is worth.
Then, I reported for duty as a poll watcher at the Montgomery County central library. What an enlightening experience. It was a very well spent, energizing day of learning exactly what goes on when you vote. I watched a well organized precinct deal with about 500-600 voters, many of whom were at the wrong polling location or who had thought they were registered to vote but were not on Montgomery county roles. All were handled efficiently and with respect.
After polls closed, I went to the Montgomery County Democratic Party headquarters to watch the returns come in. Before I even got there, (and it only took 7 minutes), I heard that Obama had over 100 electoral votes to McCain's 30 or so. At about 10-10:30pm McCain came on TV to give his concession speech and about 30 minutes later Obama gave his victory speech in front of an estimated 250,000 supporters. Wow. I was able to go home to sleep at a decent hour knowing who had won the election. How unusual.
Once I got home I picked up the mail and noticed a letter from USCIS with ORPHAN written in green on the front!!!! We had officially received our notice to get our FBI fingerprints done! So, I woke Bill up and informed him we would need to be there between 8-11am the next day. M told us to go as soon as we got the letter, don't even wait one day, and that's what we did. It only took a painless 20 minutes or so of waiting and then the electronic fingerprints again. Only about the 5th time we've had our fingerprints done during this process.
Now it is time to bother the newly re-elected K Brady and J Cornyn and also K B Hutchison to see if they can speed up the processing of our fingerprints. Hope they don't find out that I voted a straight Democratic ticket.
Natalie
TX
I spent my early morning walking the brats and dealing with paperwork associated with a mortgage refinance. Yes, they are still doing mortgage refinances even in this economic climate. Seems we are good candidates because we have enough income and we actually owe less on the house than it is worth.
Then, I reported for duty as a poll watcher at the Montgomery County central library. What an enlightening experience. It was a very well spent, energizing day of learning exactly what goes on when you vote. I watched a well organized precinct deal with about 500-600 voters, many of whom were at the wrong polling location or who had thought they were registered to vote but were not on Montgomery county roles. All were handled efficiently and with respect.
After polls closed, I went to the Montgomery County Democratic Party headquarters to watch the returns come in. Before I even got there, (and it only took 7 minutes), I heard that Obama had over 100 electoral votes to McCain's 30 or so. At about 10-10:30pm McCain came on TV to give his concession speech and about 30 minutes later Obama gave his victory speech in front of an estimated 250,000 supporters. Wow. I was able to go home to sleep at a decent hour knowing who had won the election. How unusual.
Once I got home I picked up the mail and noticed a letter from USCIS with ORPHAN written in green on the front!!!! We had officially received our notice to get our FBI fingerprints done! So, I woke Bill up and informed him we would need to be there between 8-11am the next day. M told us to go as soon as we got the letter, don't even wait one day, and that's what we did. It only took a painless 20 minutes or so of waiting and then the electronic fingerprints again. Only about the 5th time we've had our fingerprints done during this process.
Now it is time to bother the newly re-elected K Brady and J Cornyn and also K B Hutchison to see if they can speed up the processing of our fingerprints. Hope they don't find out that I voted a straight Democratic ticket.
Natalie
TX
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
almost done with paperwork
We have been informed by HouCIS that our fingerprint letter should be mailed out today! Finally! We have also been informed that we should have our fingerprints taken the day we get the letter if at all possible. Then we get on the phone/email/mail and annoy our congressman to implore USCIS to expedite our I171h so that we can have our paperwork over to Ukraine by Thanksgiving.
Hopefully we will get Y here for another 3 wk visit over the holidays and then hopefully I will be submitted and invited to Ukraine not long after that.
Natalie
Hopefully we will get Y here for another 3 wk visit over the holidays and then hopefully I will be submitted and invited to Ukraine not long after that.
Natalie
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Crossing our fingers
All of our dossier papers have been forwarded to the agency for apostilling. Hopefully everything is there and correct. Now all we are waiting on is the invitation for fingerprinting from USCIS.
Hope to see everyone Saturday afternoon!
Natalie
Hope to see everyone Saturday afternoon!
Natalie
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!
Woo Hoo! The kids will be coming to visit us again! The B family will be hosting T again, and the C family will host older brother V for the first time. And we will be hosting Y again! S will be coming as the guardian and we expect her to stay most days with us.
They will be here for a little under three weeks. Tentatively just a few days before Christmas and leaving the first week of January. That means that Y will spend his first Christmas and New Years with us and his first Birthday with us! He will be a teenager, but maybe I'll buy him one of those first birthday thingys for kids.
We are planning on having a party at our house sometime after Christmas and before the kids go back to Ukraine. I should have off on Thursdays and Fridays (barring any OT), so most likely it will be the evening of 1/1/09 or 1/2/09. Email me at adoptyaroslav@yahoo.com and let me know which day works best for y'all!
Gotta go now.
So excited I could pee.
Natalie
They will be here for a little under three weeks. Tentatively just a few days before Christmas and leaving the first week of January. That means that Y will spend his first Christmas and New Years with us and his first Birthday with us! He will be a teenager, but maybe I'll buy him one of those first birthday thingys for kids.
We are planning on having a party at our house sometime after Christmas and before the kids go back to Ukraine. I should have off on Thursdays and Fridays (barring any OT), so most likely it will be the evening of 1/1/09 or 1/2/09. Email me at adoptyaroslav@yahoo.com and let me know which day works best for y'all!
Gotta go now.
So excited I could pee.
Natalie
Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, we had our updated homestudy done early Sunday morning, and then I got to go to Reliant and watch the Texans actually win a game.
What was even more amazing was that Goofy behaved while the social worker was at our house. Okay, he spent most of that time outside, but at least he didn't bark or whine or jump on the fence demanding attention. Nala did all the whining for the three dogs that went outside. Miko is a people dog, so he stayed inside and gave a tour of the house. Tigger gave tons of head-butts as well. He thinks he is a dog.
We are almost done with our dossier as well. We are waiting on a visit with the CPA to verify Bill's income and verify that we own our house and are up to date on our mortgage. We are also waiting on the Doctor's forms and our fingerprint releases. Just picked up my employment letter update today, got the marriage certificate update on Monday, rewrote my letter to the SDA and added some new pictures.
Also, I will be sending our I600a off in the mail right after work. Express Mail, of course. With a nice little cover letter explaining that I will be traveling alone and that Bill and I will re-adopt Y after we get him back to TX permanently.
Ahhhh. It's nice to feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Natalie
What was even more amazing was that Goofy behaved while the social worker was at our house. Okay, he spent most of that time outside, but at least he didn't bark or whine or jump on the fence demanding attention. Nala did all the whining for the three dogs that went outside. Miko is a people dog, so he stayed inside and gave a tour of the house. Tigger gave tons of head-butts as well. He thinks he is a dog.
We are almost done with our dossier as well. We are waiting on a visit with the CPA to verify Bill's income and verify that we own our house and are up to date on our mortgage. We are also waiting on the Doctor's forms and our fingerprint releases. Just picked up my employment letter update today, got the marriage certificate update on Monday, rewrote my letter to the SDA and added some new pictures.
Also, I will be sending our I600a off in the mail right after work. Express Mail, of course. With a nice little cover letter explaining that I will be traveling alone and that Bill and I will re-adopt Y after we get him back to TX permanently.
Ahhhh. It's nice to feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Natalie
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