Miracles on Thanksgiving or This Turkey is Gonna Freeze Her Tail Feathers Off!

At about 11:20pm I received a call from M with some interesting news.  Needless to say, I had to wake up Bill and now I don't think either one of us will be able to sleep.

Let's go back a couple of days.  On Wednesday morning I read an email from M saying that she had heard from our facilitator on Tues evening that he may not be able to submit our paperwork today because there may not be enough slots left open.  Apparently there were less than two dozen slots available after dossiers were submitted on Tues.  He didn't think that would be enough to leave us an open slot on Thurs (we couldn't submit on Wed because of Y's age).

So, needless to say we were prepared emotionally to tough it out until next year.  Then my laptop died.  D-E-D dead died.  Apparently the hard drive is ok, but the motherboard quit, and if you know laptops, that means "go buy a new one."  So now I have a nice new MacBook and a 40gb external hard drive that my new Mac may not be able to get files and photos off of.  But, I can use the PCs at work in the union office to email files to me so that I can save them on my new Mac.

Anyways, back to M's late night phone call.  She said she had some interesting and exciting news for us.  Apparently our facilitator was able to get our dossier 'submitted' today (insert angels singing here), along with another couple from KY in the same boat (married adopting single).  BUT, there was a 'bit of a discussion' and it turns out that the SDA wants "one more piece of paperwork."

Imagine that, in the Ukraine no less!?!

Oh, and they want it by Monday.  So ... we can get the paper, apostilled and everything to M Fri, that's not a problem, but how to get it to Ukraine in time?  Well, it seems the father in the other family in our situation is retired and he has offered to fly the paperwork over to Ukraine for us.  He only asks that we split the cost of the airfare (about $1300).  Otherwise, we take our chances with being submitted (or not) next year.  Wow.  How nice!

M also advised me that she had received three invitations on Wed for families that had submitted less than two weeks ago.  Each of those invites were for early to mid Dec.  Ouch!

That kind of conflicts with when we were planning on hosting Y again!  And his internat caretaker and her translator at our house!  So, first thing tomorrow I am going to stop payment on the check for Y's hosting and then call the host agency and tell them what is happening.  If I end up getting a date in Jan, I don't know what we'll do yet, but if I get a date in Feb then I'll see if I can send them another certified check.  They may not be able to get him a plane ticket, though.

I was actually going to go out and shop early tomorrow morning and get Y something for Christmas and his birthday.  Well, I guess I probably won't do that now.  Gotta go email the hosting agency after I throw Tiggy off my desk for messing up all my paperwork (don't worry, he's a cat and he has at least three lives left).

Natalie

TX

Speed Racer - or - Around the State in 8 Hours

452 miles in one day. Whew.

Thank goodness gas is only $1.85/gallon and I drive a hybrid. Total trip cost, about $50 (including gas, tolls and food) and 4 hours of sick leave.

After several phone calls yesterday morning, I was told that the updated page of our homestudy had not yet arrived at the agency as of 10:45am, but that they would provide me with paperwork that could be apostilled in its place, so I took 4 hours of sick leave and left work a few minutes after 11am. I endured I45 traffic for about an hour driving from IAH to Friendswood to pick up said paperwork. Just as I exited I45 and was about 15 minutes from the office, K called to say that DHL had just arrived with the back dated paperwork. Woo hoo! It did not need to be apostilled, nor did I need to pick it up, the agency would overnight it to M directly. So, I turned around and sped back up I45 to the Sam Houston Tollway to catch Hwy 290 westbound. Not the cheapest way to go, but at least I didn't have to deal with traffic on I45 or the 610 Loop.

Oh, yeah - speed 'limit' signs miraculously all turned into speed 'suggestion' signs as I approached. And my normal average mpg went from 34-35mpg (in an SUV hybrid) to about 28mpg. The left lane was my new best friend. And so were all those nice tractor trailer drivers who blocked the cops radar guns for me! I also found out that there is a whole lot of nothingness between Houston and Austin; especially after you pass Brenham, aka "Blue Bell." And I didn't even take the time to get some ice cream, bummer.

Total trip time from Friendswood was 2 hours 50 minutes and I arrived in Austin right at 3pm. I found the correct building very quickly, but it took another ten minutes of circling two blocks to find one open parking spot. After I poured all of my change into the meter and earned my 51 minutes, I walked one block over to the state building on Brazos. I signed in at 3:16pm and rode the elevator down to the basement. There was already one person finishing up her apostilles when I walked in and another man waiting ahead of me. If it wasn't for that one guy who was in the wrong department and who wouldn't take no for an answer, I would have been in and out of there in less than five minutes. But, the nice clerk finally got through to him and about 20 minutes later I had my apostille for our I171h in hand and directions to the nearest UPS store. Five minutes walking down the street, two minutes petting a gorgeous do, and another five minutes later I was out of the UPS store with my I171h on it's way to M. Heck, I even got back to my car with 16 minutes to spare on the meter.

Total time spent in Austin - less than one hour.

Then it was back on I35 headed north to Hwy 290 until I could find the nearest pit stop. I actually had to make two pit stops on the way back. It seems all that caffeine was catching up to me. Unfortunately, I also saw all speed limit signs again on the way back home, so that trip took about 3 hours. And what is it with dark winding country roads that you are unfamiliar with - why is there no opposite direction traffic on the straight parts, only the curvy parts so that you have to turn off your high beams just when you need them most? Is that some sort of Murphy's Law or something? (I'm referring to FM1488 from Hempstead to Magnolia here.)

So, our dossier will be on it's way Wednesday morning to hopefully be filed with the SDA on Thursday!!!

The Prettiest Piece of Paper I've ever seen!

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

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

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

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

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