SURPRISE!

If you haven't already, you must read my previous post (below) before reading this. The one titled "Disappointed... to say the least". At the end, you'll read that I know God is more than able to surprise me and I hope He does! (Go ahead and read it now... I'll wait.....)

Well, it happened in less than an hour! HAHAHAHA! I'm so overjoyed! Super Excited! Ecstatic! I don't need the USCIS form to complete our Dossier!!!!! I posted a message on our agency's board, and someone mentioned that the form we're waiting for isn't needed until our 2nd trip!!! I raced to the paperwork we got from the agency and sure enough, it says we don't need that form for the pre-file! I don't know how or why I missed that but I'm so grateful that it was pointed out to me! I feel like a goof, a dummy, clueless, (to put it mildly) but at the same time I can't shake the feeling that God might have blinded us from that fact. Maybe He wanted us to wait just a little longer to file. Hmmmmm. It'll be interesting to look back on after we receive our referral.

So, we have the photos pages to get finished and notarized by our social worker, and then the forms are going to be sent to the state for their apostille! Things are REALLY, FINALLY, SURELY moving now!

Thank you, my God, for a wonderful and quick surprise!

Disappointed... to say the least

I should be super excited...
ecstatic...
overjoyed!
Instead, I'm disappointed.

We finally got the appointment dates to have our fingerprints taken (they call it biometrics). But guess when it is! Not until April 19th! That's more than 3 weeks away. So once we have them taken, then there's even more processing time, sounds like more than 4 weeks more!

I just keep looking at how long things are taking when they should have been done already.

I'm just venting. I do know that God is in control and He's more than able to surprise me. So, I hope He surprises me.

Still waiting...

UPDATE:

Still waiting for letter to come that has our fingerprint appointments. It's been longer than other people have said, but, yes, I know it's all in God's time!

More waiting...

Well, another day has gone by and still nothing in the mail about our fingerprint appointments. I got a call yesterday from a good friend who told me to not worry, but that everything is in God's time. Hmmm, I keep hearing that... LOL

So, today, I'll check the mail again and let you know. :) Meantime, I've been keeping up with some other blogs of families who are in Russia or just got back from Russia with their new children. How awesome it is to watch it all unfold and to know that someday David and I will have the same experience. I'm so excited and terrified at the same time. OK, more excited. AHHHHHH.

If you're interested, here are a couple of their blogs, so you can see how things went over there and maybe what we're going to face on our second trip.
http://www.swingleadoption.blogspot.com/
http://diniadoption.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

When?! What?! WHY?!

I got the receipts for the forms ($$) we sent last week. The i600A receipt said "The estimated processing time for this application is (150) days." The fingerprint receipts said "estimated time...(1) year." I nearly had a breakdown.

After messaging with the other adopting parents on the agency board, they said all theirs said the same thing but it only took about a month for the whole process.

Let's all pray that is what happens for us! AHH

Got the Final Home Study Reports

Hi all. We received the GOOD reports yesterday. We also got our Marriage Certificate in on Monday. (Russia requires the date on the printed certificate be no more than one year old.) The only things we have left to get done are the FBI clearances and the photos of ourselves and our living areas. Woohoo! Pray that the government doesn't take too long and we get our papers soon!

-gettin' there!

i600A Mailed

I made copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, and attached a signed form that says they were exact copies. We filled out the i600A form and got a Cashier's check for a bunch of money. Packaged everything together in an Overnight Envelope, including the notarized Home Study Report and a Cover Letter with the list of everything inside, and sent it out today! They should receive it tomorrow and then after a week or two I'm going to check to see if it's been put in for processing. Yay! Finally!!!

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Got the go-ahead to file the i600A form using the Home Study Report we already received. We can get it in the mail probably by tomorrow! Woohoo! Now we're movin' forward! Whew!

Once the U.S.C.I.S. office gets our form and copies they'll contact us with an appointment for Fingerprints. Then they'll do a background check (hopefully they won't find out about that terrible secret -j.k.), we'll be cleared and we'll get a very important letter that will be a part of our Dossier to Russia.

Please pray that the clearances come through super fast, like

speedy gonzalez, and we can get all of this paper chasing behind us!

It's Here!!!...

...but it might need changed! boohoo!

We received 4 notarized copies of our long awaited Home Study Report but as I read through it I noticed several little errors. Some of which are probably insignificant but I don't want them to haunt me later! So, I have a message in to our Social Worker and I also faxed the changes to our Family Coordinator. We'll see what happens hopefully tomorrow.

oh so close!
But still waiting. *shrug*