The following e-mails are from Bonnie, our Vietnam facilitator. I e-mailed her just a little while ago to check in and get a status update, and find out what to do next. First she sent this:
Hi Shannon,
Now is the hard part!! At this time you are in the waiting for your
referrals part of the process. The current time estimate for referrals is
3 to 4 months from dossier submission. However, its possible it will take
longer since you are asking for two! When the referrals are issued you
will receive a phone call from me with the good news. Assuming you accept
your referrals we expect you to travel within 3 months of accepting them.
You did a great job of getting your dossier together.
Bonnie
I e-mailed her back to find out just where our dossier was, and to make sure she knew how to find us, since we'll be all over the East Coast/Midwest in July & August. She sent this:
Hi Shannon,
Your dossier is halfway to VN already and its delivery date is expected to
be tomorrow. Yes, I have your contact information. Don't worry, I'll find
you when the good news comes. Those are my favorite phone calls!
Bonnie
How cool is that? They didn't use our FedEx account, so I haven't been able to obsessively sit at the computer and check the status of our paperwork, so it was great to read that everything we've been working on for the last three months is just about there!
So, officially, now all we do is wait. We'll keep you updated as we know things.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Scrapbook
Today has been a day of frantically working on our scrapbook pages. They are the final part of our dossier, but they did not need to be certified or authenticated. Dan and I poured over pictures of the inside/outside of our house, and tons of pictures of us over the last several years. Dan scanned several pictures in this morning, and I went outside to take some shots of our house. We sent about 30 pictures to our facilitator, Bonnie, and had her help us make the decisions as to which ones to use.
So for your viewing pleasure, I present our two page scrapbook!
Caption: Our Home
Caption: The living room
(And yes, this isn't exactly "our" living room, but it is in our house! This is a picture we took back when we were first considering buying the place. So glad I saved them, because right now...well, we won't go there!)
Caption: Our Wedding Day
Caption: We like to travel.
Caption: Our family.
Caption: Shannon and Daniel MacDonald
So for your viewing pleasure, I present our two page scrapbook!
Caption: Our Home
Caption: The living room(And yes, this isn't exactly "our" living room, but it is in our house! This is a picture we took back when we were first considering buying the place. So glad I saved them, because right now...well, we won't go there!)
Caption: Our Wedding Day
Caption: We like to travel.
Caption: Our family.
Caption: Shannon and Daniel MacDonaldBonnie and I have e-mailed back and forth about 16 times today, working on picture choice, captions, etc. etc. etc. I finally got everything laid out, and it looks pretty good!
I will be spending the afternoon at Kinko's tomorrow, making a zillion copies of our dossier packets. We need to make three copies of each one for the agency, plus another copy of each one for us to keep. We're killing trees over here!
I will be spending the afternoon at Kinko's tomorrow, making a zillion copies of our dossier packets. We need to make three copies of each one for the agency, plus another copy of each one for us to keep. We're killing trees over here!
Picture Time
I thought that some of you might want to know what a couple of "dossier"'s actually looks like.
Well, they look a little like this:
And spread out, they look like this:
The "Authentication" from the Vietnam Embassy looks a little like this:
A close-up of the translation of the first page (the state certification page) looks like this:
And for some reason, the state certification pages gets another stamp, and it looks like this:
Fun, huh?
Well, they look a little like this:
And spread out, they look like this:
The "Authentication" from the Vietnam Embassy looks a little like this:
A close-up of the translation of the first page (the state certification page) looks like this:
And for some reason, the state certification pages gets another stamp, and it looks like this:
Fun, huh?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Dossier!
Yes, I know it's been over a month since either one of us has written anything, so here's a little update.
Our I-171H arrived late last month, and we were on a whirlwind trip to see Mr. Bradford and have some more things notarized. After an evening with him, and a couple of hours making sure everything was "just so" with our paperwork, we sent our dossier's off to the Secretary of State to get certified. We anticiatped them being in Tallahassee for 5 business days. We sent the documents on a Monday afternoon, and counted the travel days, business days, and weekend days and figured we wouldn't receive it from the SoS until the following Wednesday. Boy, were we wrong! Our dossier's arrived on Thursday...just three days after we submitted it!!! In fact, Dan and I were both out of town the day it arrived. Thankfully, Tyger was coming over to spend the night with Jack, or our entire lives would have been sitting on our doorstep for over 24 hours.
The Monday after our dossier's arrived from the SoS, they were off again, this time traveling to the Vietnam Embassy in Washington, DC. I sent them on 3/12, and have been obsessively checking fedex.com 20+ times a day. But I am SO excited to report that our dossier's are on their way back to us! They left DC this afternoon, and should arrive at our house no later than 3:00pm tomorrow. We were anticipating their arrival for Monday afternoon, just based on the timelines of other adoptive parents we have been in contact with. It's just so exciting to know that it will be here tomorrow!
Now, in case you didn't know...we are currently remodeling the kitchen/dining room! Right now there is nothing in the dining room, including carpet and light fixtures. The floor is bare, and the ceiling has no popcorn! Our loft is filled with dining room furniture, as is our living room. Just tonight Dan has been working on scraping the popcorn off the ceiling in the kitchen. This comes after a two week endeavor that Pop and I had in the kitchen scraping wallpaper and texture off every inch of the kitchen. Once the popcorn is off, Dan will re-texture the walls, and will put knockdown on the ceiling. Then the dining room and kitchen will be primed and painted. Next will be refinishing the cabinets and replacing fixtures. And finally...NEW FLOORS! We're also looking at some tile to do backspashes along the walls, but we haven't purchased any tile yet. The final touches to the rooms will be new light fixtures, and the pocket door that Dan is putting in.
All of that is to say...we are going a little crazy around here. This weekend Dan and I will be frantically doing "family activites" together and snapping photographs, and we are searching through anyone we know with photos of our house to find an indoor photograph of our house that we can attach with our dossier. So, if you were ever looking for a way to help us out with our adoption, you can do so by submitting any pictures to me that you might have of the inside of our house, or of the two of us doing some type of "family activity". :-) Just send them on!
In all seriousness, we have one final step before we are "Dossier to Vietnam" or DTV. We need to create a two page scrapbook of us. It will include 6 pictures with simple captions. One photo of the inside of our house, one of the outside, and 4 of the two of us. We are contemplating taking four different outfits out and doing various activites and then changing clothes so they don't look like they were all taken the same day. :-)
We are waiting for updated copies of our homestudy to arrive (hopefully Monday), and once we have those in our hands and the scrapbook, we will submit them to our agency. We could be DTV by next week, if things continue to run smoothly. Once we are DTV, thats when the real wait begins. We've been told that once we are DTV we're looking at a 3-4 month wait for referrals, and a 2-3 month wait for travel. What a wonderful wedding anniversary it would be to be in Vietnam, and with children!! The time frame is what we would be looking at if we were adopting only one child. We have been warned that with adopting two, we might wait a little bit longer than normal. So, cross your fingers and say a prayer. We'd love to be back in the states with our little ones by the holidays.
Our I-171H arrived late last month, and we were on a whirlwind trip to see Mr. Bradford and have some more things notarized. After an evening with him, and a couple of hours making sure everything was "just so" with our paperwork, we sent our dossier's off to the Secretary of State to get certified. We anticiatped them being in Tallahassee for 5 business days. We sent the documents on a Monday afternoon, and counted the travel days, business days, and weekend days and figured we wouldn't receive it from the SoS until the following Wednesday. Boy, were we wrong! Our dossier's arrived on Thursday...just three days after we submitted it!!! In fact, Dan and I were both out of town the day it arrived. Thankfully, Tyger was coming over to spend the night with Jack, or our entire lives would have been sitting on our doorstep for over 24 hours.
The Monday after our dossier's arrived from the SoS, they were off again, this time traveling to the Vietnam Embassy in Washington, DC. I sent them on 3/12, and have been obsessively checking fedex.com 20+ times a day. But I am SO excited to report that our dossier's are on their way back to us! They left DC this afternoon, and should arrive at our house no later than 3:00pm tomorrow. We were anticipating their arrival for Monday afternoon, just based on the timelines of other adoptive parents we have been in contact with. It's just so exciting to know that it will be here tomorrow!
Now, in case you didn't know...we are currently remodeling the kitchen/dining room! Right now there is nothing in the dining room, including carpet and light fixtures. The floor is bare, and the ceiling has no popcorn! Our loft is filled with dining room furniture, as is our living room. Just tonight Dan has been working on scraping the popcorn off the ceiling in the kitchen. This comes after a two week endeavor that Pop and I had in the kitchen scraping wallpaper and texture off every inch of the kitchen. Once the popcorn is off, Dan will re-texture the walls, and will put knockdown on the ceiling. Then the dining room and kitchen will be primed and painted. Next will be refinishing the cabinets and replacing fixtures. And finally...NEW FLOORS! We're also looking at some tile to do backspashes along the walls, but we haven't purchased any tile yet. The final touches to the rooms will be new light fixtures, and the pocket door that Dan is putting in.
All of that is to say...we are going a little crazy around here. This weekend Dan and I will be frantically doing "family activites" together and snapping photographs, and we are searching through anyone we know with photos of our house to find an indoor photograph of our house that we can attach with our dossier. So, if you were ever looking for a way to help us out with our adoption, you can do so by submitting any pictures to me that you might have of the inside of our house, or of the two of us doing some type of "family activity". :-) Just send them on!
In all seriousness, we have one final step before we are "Dossier to Vietnam" or DTV. We need to create a two page scrapbook of us. It will include 6 pictures with simple captions. One photo of the inside of our house, one of the outside, and 4 of the two of us. We are contemplating taking four different outfits out and doing various activites and then changing clothes so they don't look like they were all taken the same day. :-)
We are waiting for updated copies of our homestudy to arrive (hopefully Monday), and once we have those in our hands and the scrapbook, we will submit them to our agency. We could be DTV by next week, if things continue to run smoothly. Once we are DTV, thats when the real wait begins. We've been told that once we are DTV we're looking at a 3-4 month wait for referrals, and a 2-3 month wait for travel. What a wonderful wedding anniversary it would be to be in Vietnam, and with children!! The time frame is what we would be looking at if we were adopting only one child. We have been warned that with adopting two, we might wait a little bit longer than normal. So, cross your fingers and say a prayer. We'd love to be back in the states with our little ones by the holidays.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Our I-171H Arrived Today!
The I-171H is the piece of paper from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) that says we are approved to bring adopted child(ren) into the US. Essentially, it is the only approval required by the US government as pertaining to adoption. (I believe it also implies that we have met all state requirements for our State of residence as well. Regardless, the homestudy states that State requirements have been met.)
With this piece of paper our dossier is ready for authentication and certification. (Or at least it will be once we get a couple passport photos taken.) One (certification I think) is the process of the state essentially stating that the notary was a valid notary and they believe that the notary process was properly performed. The other (authentication) is the process of ensuring the certification is valid. Essentially it means we have to get it rubber stamped in triplicate, and we have one set of stamps down with two to go.
Receiving the I-171H clears one of the three major waiting hurdles for putting together the dossier. The "nice" thing is that the remaining two (authentication and certification) are pretty much involve handling the whole package rather than coordinating all the pieces.
With this piece of paper our dossier is ready for authentication and certification. (Or at least it will be once we get a couple passport photos taken.) One (certification I think) is the process of the state essentially stating that the notary was a valid notary and they believe that the notary process was properly performed. The other (authentication) is the process of ensuring the certification is valid. Essentially it means we have to get it rubber stamped in triplicate, and we have one set of stamps down with two to go.
Receiving the I-171H clears one of the three major waiting hurdles for putting together the dossier. The "nice" thing is that the remaining two (authentication and certification) are pretty much involve handling the whole package rather than coordinating all the pieces.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Vietnamese New Year
Happy Tet!
Chuc Mung Nam Moi!
Welcome the year of the pig!
Wishing you all a happy Tet! Have a wonderful new year :)
Chuc Mung Nam Moi!
Welcome the year of the pig!
Wishing you all a happy Tet! Have a wonderful new year :)
Friday, February 16, 2007
Family
A child who becomes your child through adoption completes a family. Just as when you commit to your spouse or partner there are no biological ties, yet a family was formed. This child enters a family the same way! It is not blood and flesh that form a family, but the heart.
-Michele Johnson-Bergmeier, adoptive mother
-Michele Johnson-Bergmeier, adoptive mother
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Dossier Update
I'm filling out my Vietnam Dossier Tracking Sheet right now, and the following is what I have left to do before sending it to get the state certification!
I still need the following:
~Home Study - Should arrive today via FedEx
~Copy of agency license & non profit (status) - Just e-mailed to obtain that, although I believe it will come via FedEx with our home study
~Copy of agency license & non profit (status) - Just e-mailed to obtain that, although I believe it will come via FedEx with our home study Apparently this is not necessary for Vietnam
~Passport size photos - Do you know how freaking expensive these are??? &7.99 for two! We need 24 total. :P You do the math.
While I wait for those things I still need to fax to our country coordinator:
~our application form
~our latest police record reports (since they are dated differently than the ones from January)
~the photocopy of our passport certification
Once those things are finished and in my hand I will be able to make three copies of the packet and then send the originals to the Secretary of State for certification!
While I'm doing that I need to work on this:
~Family and home Pictures - working on that this weekend (Here are the instructions for it: 6 photographs of your family and home on two pages with simple captions. 4 photos reflecting family life, 2 photos of your house . Tell a story about who you are through your photos and notes about the photos. Place photos on two 8 1/2x11 sheets of paper. Type your name and address at the top of each photo page. Then take high-quality color copies of your photo pages and send three sets along with your originals to us.) Will need to e-mail for clarification on exactly what they want to show as family life; i.e. can we have pictures at theme parks, outside, etc. or do they need to take place within our home.
I still need the following:
~Home Study - Should arrive today via FedEx
~Copy of agency license & non profit (status) - Just e-mailed to obtain that, although I believe it will come via FedEx with our home study
~Passport size photos - Do you know how freaking expensive these are??? &7.99 for two! We need 24 total. :P You do the math.
While I wait for those things I still need to fax to our country coordinator:
~our application form
~our latest police record reports (since they are dated differently than the ones from January)
~the photocopy of our passport certification
Once those things are finished and in my hand I will be able to make three copies of the packet and then send the originals to the Secretary of State for certification!
While I'm doing that I need to work on this:
~Family and home Pictures - working on that this weekend (Here are the instructions for it: 6 photographs of your family and home on two pages with simple captions. 4 photos reflecting family life, 2 photos of your house . Tell a story about who you are through your photos and notes about the photos. Place photos on two 8 1/2x11 sheets of paper. Type your name and address at the top of each photo page. Then take high-quality color copies of your photo pages and send three sets along with your originals to us.) Will need to e-mail for clarification on exactly what they want to show as family life; i.e. can we have pictures at theme parks, outside, etc. or do they need to take place within our home.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Busy Day
Dan and I both have come down with colds! Mine started on Saturday night/Sunday morning at 2am with a really sore throat. I didn't think much about it until late Sunday evening when my ears started hurting, the headache hit, and my throat became so sore that I couldn't swallow. Dan's in the same boat as me, and it's probably a toss up on who's sicker. However, he worked all day yesterday, and I worked on adoption stuff all day yesterday. You can read in the post previous to this one all that we got accomplished last week. I apologize for not keeping you updated closer to the date of things happening, but it was a very busy week!
Yesterday I spent much of the early afternoon e-mailing with Bonnie, who is our VN coordinator. Dan faxed her lots of documents, and she e-mailed in return that everything looked good so far. We went on to e-mail about an employment letter for me (which states that I am a homemaker and Dan's salary is sufficent for our household), which will need to be notarized before submitting it.
Along with e-maing back and forth with Bonnie yesterday, I spoke with Mr. Bradford about getting together with him to notarize our remaining documents. We will meet him at his house Wednesday evening at 6pm. Once these final papers are notarized, we have only one thing left to do before sending our dossier's for certification/authentication. We need to make a small scrapbook, with pictures of our home and us. It will need to tell a story of our home and our lives together. I will work on that tomorrow during the day and I am hopeful that we can get our dossier's in the mail by next week, if not sooner. (I forgot that we also have to get 12 passport photos taken of each of us...we'll need to do that tomorrow afternoon as well)
I also drove out to the Orange County Sheriff's Office today. I was able to get another copy of our non existant police records, and at no charge to boot! I was very happy about that. After the OSCO, I went to the USCIS office and dropped off our tax returns. Here's to hoping that the immigration officer now has everything she needs to process our I-171H. :-)
Yesterday I spent much of the early afternoon e-mailing with Bonnie, who is our VN coordinator. Dan faxed her lots of documents, and she e-mailed in return that everything looked good so far. We went on to e-mail about an employment letter for me (which states that I am a homemaker and Dan's salary is sufficent for our household), which will need to be notarized before submitting it.
Along with e-maing back and forth with Bonnie yesterday, I spoke with Mr. Bradford about getting together with him to notarize our remaining documents. We will meet him at his house Wednesday evening at 6pm. Once these final papers are notarized, we have only one thing left to do before sending our dossier's for certification/authentication. We need to make a small scrapbook, with pictures of our home and us. It will need to tell a story of our home and our lives together. I will work on that tomorrow during the day and I am hopeful that we can get our dossier's in the mail by next week, if not sooner. (I forgot that we also have to get 12 passport photos taken of each of us...we'll need to do that tomorrow afternoon as well)
I also drove out to the Orange County Sheriff's Office today. I was able to get another copy of our non existant police records, and at no charge to boot! I was very happy about that. After the OSCO, I went to the USCIS office and dropped off our tax returns. Here's to hoping that the immigration officer now has everything she needs to process our I-171H. :-)
Long time no update
First of all....our DCF clearance came back last week, 1/30/07!!!!! This is important because everything that follows in this entry could not have happened without it.
This is what we've been doing since last Tuesday.
Last week was a busy one for us.
On Monday, 1/29, our DCF clearance was mailed to our agency, and they received it Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday evening, 1/30, our social worker had our home study draft completed and in my inbox. I printed it out, made some notes, and then Dan checked over it. After we made some ammendments to it, we went to bed.
Wednesday morning, 2/1, I talked with the social worker and she made the corrections to the document. She sent us an updated copy, and we approved it.
Thursday, 2/2, at noon I dropped off our "Home Study Facts" paper, signifying that we approved of the home study. She then sent it to the agency to be proofed and signed/notarized.
Monday, 2/5, it was finalized, and should be on it's way via FedEx to the Orlando immigration office. Also Monday I faxed all of our dossier paperwork to our coordinator. She has approved all of our documents that we've collected so far, and I am waiting to hear back from her to find out what final paperwork I need for our dossier's, so I can send them for certification (at the state level) and authentication (at the federal/Vietnam level).
Today, 2/6, I will drive to the local CIS office and drop off our tax returns for the last three years. (Apparently this is a new requirement for adoption in our state anyway) Once the immigration officer has those and our home study she can begin processing us for our I-171H (which will be our permission to adopt internationally). She's running about a month behind on paperwork, although I am not complaining...some states are running 4-5 months behind on their I-171H's!!!
This week I will be going back to the sheriff's department to get a second copy of our police check clearance, and we will be filling out our Vietnam application for adoption and getting it notarized. (We have to fill that application out for the VN government as part of our dossier).
That's all for now! Publish
This is what we've been doing since last Tuesday.
Last week was a busy one for us.
On Monday, 1/29, our DCF clearance was mailed to our agency, and they received it Tuesday morning.
By Tuesday evening, 1/30, our social worker had our home study draft completed and in my inbox. I printed it out, made some notes, and then Dan checked over it. After we made some ammendments to it, we went to bed.
Wednesday morning, 2/1, I talked with the social worker and she made the corrections to the document. She sent us an updated copy, and we approved it.
Thursday, 2/2, at noon I dropped off our "Home Study Facts" paper, signifying that we approved of the home study. She then sent it to the agency to be proofed and signed/notarized.
Monday, 2/5, it was finalized, and should be on it's way via FedEx to the Orlando immigration office. Also Monday I faxed all of our dossier paperwork to our coordinator. She has approved all of our documents that we've collected so far, and I am waiting to hear back from her to find out what final paperwork I need for our dossier's, so I can send them for certification (at the state level) and authentication (at the federal/Vietnam level).
Today, 2/6, I will drive to the local CIS office and drop off our tax returns for the last three years. (Apparently this is a new requirement for adoption in our state anyway) Once the immigration officer has those and our home study she can begin processing us for our I-171H (which will be our permission to adopt internationally). She's running about a month behind on paperwork, although I am not complaining...some states are running 4-5 months behind on their I-171H's!!!
This week I will be going back to the sheriff's department to get a second copy of our police check clearance, and we will be filling out our Vietnam application for adoption and getting it notarized. (We have to fill that application out for the VN government as part of our dossier).
That's all for now! Publish
Thursday, January 25, 2007
One down, one to go!
Got our FDLE clearance. Cleared 1/12/07.
Just waiting on DCF now.
Crossing my fingers that it arrives before 2/1/07 so we can keep on schedule.
Just waiting on DCF now.
Crossing my fingers that it arrives before 2/1/07 so we can keep on schedule.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
One Month
Dan and I have joked about how we're going to take "monthly" pictures like women often do when they are pregnant. Since we started the process exactly one month ago today, what better day than today to start? We've also talked about doing something special as we go through this time of waiting. So look for a new picture and a little update on the process on the 20th of each month.
Here we are, one month into the adoption!
Saturday evening found us heading out to Laura and Chris Bravo's house for what we thought was going to be a quiet birthday dinner and a movie with the two of them. We had no idea when we were driving over that we would be walking into a surprise party! (My first words when we walked in was to tell everyone that it's generally a good idea to not park in front of the house where the surprise party is taking place...). Anyway, we were totally shocked! I couldn't believe that I had spent the evening before with several of the girls, and no one slipped! We had friends come that we had not seen in several months. It really was a great evening, and a nice way to celebrate our birthdays, and as a bonus, it was a fun way to end month one of the adoption process.
Speaking of being one month into the adoption, here is a list of all we've accomplished so far...
~applied to our agency
~been accepted by our agency
~signed our contract
~filed our I-600A
~had our homestudy visit
~had our references completed
~been fingerprinted for the FBI
~had our police records notarized
~had our physicians letters notarized
~gotten certified copies of our marriage certificate
~filled out paperwork for our state clearances (FDLE & DCF)
~done 10 hours of parent education, and filled out 6 pages of essay questions each
~sent various checks to our agency
~assembled two dossiers
~received a Certificate of Completion for our parenting classes
~gotten confirmation that our FBI fingerprints were "fine"
~been given verbal confirmation that our FDLE clearance is "in the mail"
We're waiting on...
~FDLE & DCF clearances
Once we receive those...
~our homestudy can be completed
~we can finally move forward to get our I-171H
~complete our scrapbook (2-4 pages with pictures of us, our house, and a story about our lives)
~submit our dossier(s) for certification and authentication
Once we get our dossier(s) certified and authenticated...
~we can send our dossier(s) to Vietnam
~wait...
~wait...
~wait...
And on the home front, we have started some remodeling projects...
~Dan is installing new windows on the downstairs, "Low-E" ones, which will hopefully cut down on the heat in the kitchen during the afternoon hours!
~Dan is also building cabinets along the railing for the loft. He has completed the shell for each of them, and now they need doors, trim, and a top. The cabinets will hopefully enable us to make the loft more versitle...another bedroom, a play room, the guest room, or whatever we need it to become.
~I'm also trying to talk Dan into letting me rip out wallpaper and freshen up the kitchen. It hasn't worked yet, but I'm trying! :-)
That's all for now!
Here we are, one month into the adoption!
Saturday evening found us heading out to Laura and Chris Bravo's house for what we thought was going to be a quiet birthday dinner and a movie with the two of them. We had no idea when we were driving over that we would be walking into a surprise party! (My first words when we walked in was to tell everyone that it's generally a good idea to not park in front of the house where the surprise party is taking place...). Anyway, we were totally shocked! I couldn't believe that I had spent the evening before with several of the girls, and no one slipped! We had friends come that we had not seen in several months. It really was a great evening, and a nice way to celebrate our birthdays, and as a bonus, it was a fun way to end month one of the adoption process.Speaking of being one month into the adoption, here is a list of all we've accomplished so far...
~applied to our agency
~been accepted by our agency
~signed our contract
~filed our I-600A
~had our homestudy visit
~had our references completed
~been fingerprinted for the FBI
~had our police records notarized
~had our physicians letters notarized
~gotten certified copies of our marriage certificate
~filled out paperwork for our state clearances (FDLE & DCF)
~done 10 hours of parent education, and filled out 6 pages of essay questions each
~sent various checks to our agency
~assembled two dossiers
~received a Certificate of Completion for our parenting classes
~gotten confirmation that our FBI fingerprints were "fine"
~been given verbal confirmation that our FDLE clearance is "in the mail"
We're waiting on...
~FDLE & DCF clearances
Once we receive those...
~our homestudy can be completed
~we can finally move forward to get our I-171H
~complete our scrapbook (2-4 pages with pictures of us, our house, and a story about our lives)
~submit our dossier(s) for certification and authentication
Once we get our dossier(s) certified and authenticated...
~we can send our dossier(s) to Vietnam
~wait...
~wait...
~wait...
And on the home front, we have started some remodeling projects...
~Dan is installing new windows on the downstairs, "Low-E" ones, which will hopefully cut down on the heat in the kitchen during the afternoon hours!
~Dan is also building cabinets along the railing for the loft. He has completed the shell for each of them, and now they need doors, trim, and a top. The cabinets will hopefully enable us to make the loft more versitle...another bedroom, a play room, the guest room, or whatever we need it to become.
~I'm also trying to talk Dan into letting me rip out wallpaper and freshen up the kitchen. It hasn't worked yet, but I'm trying! :-)
That's all for now!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
What is an I-171H???
An I-171H is probably the most important document to the adoption process. It is the single piece of paper that will allow us to adopt a child from another country. Read below...
The I-171H – “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”
When the USCIS approves your I-600A, they will send you form I-171H, “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition.” You should also request that notice of this approval be sent to the U.S. embassy or consulate in the country from which you plan to adopt. In a nutshell, the I-171H states that you are approved to adopt a child from the foreign country you specified way back when you completed your I-600A.
Your I-600A petition approval remains valid for 18 months from the date of approval. You must re-file your I-600A petition if it expires (there is an “expedited” re-filing procedure available). (It’s important to note that your fingerprints will only be valid for 15 months – you will have to have your fingerprints retaken if they expire.)
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We will be waiting a while for this piece of paper. This document is the culmination of all of the paperchasing we've been doing the last month. The person who signs, seals & delivers this paper will have taken a look at our home study, our I-600A, and our FBI fingerprints, and has deemed us suitable to adopt internationally. Once we receive this piece of paper, we will have a completed dossier (or two, if we are approved to adopt two children. Once the dossier(s) are complete, they will travel from our house to the Secretary of State to be notarized, return home, and then travel to DC, or Cali. to be authenticated by the Vietnam Embassy.
The I-171H – “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”
When the USCIS approves your I-600A, they will send you form I-171H, “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition.” You should also request that notice of this approval be sent to the U.S. embassy or consulate in the country from which you plan to adopt. In a nutshell, the I-171H states that you are approved to adopt a child from the foreign country you specified way back when you completed your I-600A.
Your I-600A petition approval remains valid for 18 months from the date of approval. You must re-file your I-600A petition if it expires (there is an “expedited” re-filing procedure available). (It’s important to note that your fingerprints will only be valid for 15 months – you will have to have your fingerprints retaken if they expire.)
**************
We will be waiting a while for this piece of paper. This document is the culmination of all of the paperchasing we've been doing the last month. The person who signs, seals & delivers this paper will have taken a look at our home study, our I-600A, and our FBI fingerprints, and has deemed us suitable to adopt internationally. Once we receive this piece of paper, we will have a completed dossier (or two, if we are approved to adopt two children. Once the dossier(s) are complete, they will travel from our house to the Secretary of State to be notarized, return home, and then travel to DC, or Cali. to be authenticated by the Vietnam Embassy.
What is this I-600A we keep talking about???
Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition
The I-600A is the first form you will fill out with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This form is completed before an orphan is located or has been identified for an adoption by you. Do NOT confuse this form with the I-600 form which is the Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative.
Guidelines Per the I-600A Form Eligibility
You must be a U.S. Citizen. In the case of a married couple one of the spouses must
be a U.S. Citizen.The prospective parent is 25 years of age or older; or one of the partners within a marriage is 25 years of age or older.
Documents Needed to Show Proof
The following must be sent with the completed I-600A form:
A birth certificate to show proof of citizenship. If unable to obtain a birth certificate; a copy of the baptismal certificate under the seal of the church showing place of birth.
The baptism must have taken place within two months of the birth. If this is not possible, affidavits of two U.S. citizens who have knowledge of the applicants birth in the United States. Naturalization papers or a valid U.S. passport will also work.
Proof of marriage and the proof of ended previous marriages. Photocopies of divorce decrees, death certificates, and the marriage license will fill this requirement.
Completed home study with a recommendation by the state agency. Be sure to use a social worker or agency that understands the guidelines needed to be met with international adoptions. Different information is needed with an international adoption than with a domestic adoption.
Fingerprints of all adults over the age of 18 who reside in the home. After filing of the form; the INS will notify the petitioners with the time and place to be fingerprinted. Do not miss this appointment - it could mean a denial of your petition.
Payment of the petition and fingerprinting fee per person. One check can be used for the entire sum (filing fee and fingerprint fee) made payable to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Check with your adoption agency or the USCIS for updated fee amounts. File the I-600A with your local USCIS District or Sub-Office. See the USCIS page for locations. Scroll down to the I-600A where you can also find a printable I-600A form. You can NOT file electronically.
The I-600A is the first form you will fill out with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This form is completed before an orphan is located or has been identified for an adoption by you. Do NOT confuse this form with the I-600 form which is the Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative.
Guidelines Per the I-600A Form Eligibility
You must be a U.S. Citizen. In the case of a married couple one of the spouses must
be a U.S. Citizen.The prospective parent is 25 years of age or older; or one of the partners within a marriage is 25 years of age or older.
Documents Needed to Show Proof
The following must be sent with the completed I-600A form:
A birth certificate to show proof of citizenship. If unable to obtain a birth certificate; a copy of the baptismal certificate under the seal of the church showing place of birth.
The baptism must have taken place within two months of the birth. If this is not possible, affidavits of two U.S. citizens who have knowledge of the applicants birth in the United States. Naturalization papers or a valid U.S. passport will also work.
Proof of marriage and the proof of ended previous marriages. Photocopies of divorce decrees, death certificates, and the marriage license will fill this requirement.
Completed home study with a recommendation by the state agency. Be sure to use a social worker or agency that understands the guidelines needed to be met with international adoptions. Different information is needed with an international adoption than with a domestic adoption.
Fingerprints of all adults over the age of 18 who reside in the home. After filing of the form; the INS will notify the petitioners with the time and place to be fingerprinted. Do not miss this appointment - it could mean a denial of your petition.
Payment of the petition and fingerprinting fee per person. One check can be used for the entire sum (filing fee and fingerprint fee) made payable to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Check with your adoption agency or the USCIS for updated fee amounts. File the I-600A with your local USCIS District or Sub-Office. See the USCIS page for locations. Scroll down to the I-600A where you can also find a printable I-600A form. You can NOT file electronically.
The text above was taken from here.
If you want to see what this form looks like, you can click here.
Dan and I were able to file the I-600A on 12/29/06. Fingerprinting was done on 1/2/07. The USCIS is waiting for a copy of our homestudy, so they can proceed forward with the paperwork and issue us our I-171H.
Adoption Speak
Before we entered the world of adoption, we had never heard terms like "paperchasing", "I-600A", "dossier", and so many more. We quickly learned the definitions of each, and have become intimately involved in each of these activities and/or paperwork processes. I want you to understand what each step in the process is, so keep reading along. The next several posts will hopefully help you better understand the process, and help you become familiar with the amount of work we have done so far, and see how much we have left to do!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Education
We (meaning me, Shannon is already done) are in the process of going through some online educational materials recommended (required) by our adoption agency. No shocking surprises, but they do bring up some good points and remind us of a couple things. Generally, they have been worth the time and we will probably be referring back to them I would imagine.
If anyone is interested, the courses are freely available at www.adoptionlearningpartners.org. The courses we are taking are:
- Conspicuous Families
- Let's Talk Adoption
- The Journey of Attachment
- Finding the Missing Pieces
So far, "The Journey of Attachment" has been the most insightful to me, as we have a lot of personalities around us to deal with as we go through that particular phase. I haven't gotten into "Finding the Missing Pieces" yet tho.
After I complete the educational materials, that should be it for our part of the home study and dossier. After that, we wait for several government agencies (most notably FDLE - Fl. Dept. of Law Enforcement and DCF - Division of Children and Families) to catch up with us. All I know on those two is that the FDLE check cleared this week, so they must at least have the file open. :) DHS (USCIS) is also working on us too, so hopefully they will be waiting on us by the time we need them to finish instead of vice versa.
If anyone is interested, the courses are freely available at www.adoptionlearningpartners.org. The courses we are taking are:
- Conspicuous Families
- Let's Talk Adoption
- The Journey of Attachment
- Finding the Missing Pieces
So far, "The Journey of Attachment" has been the most insightful to me, as we have a lot of personalities around us to deal with as we go through that particular phase. I haven't gotten into "Finding the Missing Pieces" yet tho.
After I complete the educational materials, that should be it for our part of the home study and dossier. After that, we wait for several government agencies (most notably FDLE - Fl. Dept. of Law Enforcement and DCF - Division of Children and Families) to catch up with us. All I know on those two is that the FDLE check cleared this week, so they must at least have the file open. :) DHS (USCIS) is also working on us too, so hopefully they will be waiting on us by the time we need them to finish instead of vice versa.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
To-Do List
FBI Fingerprints, provided the "Application Support Center" of the FBI/Department of Homeland Security is open.Drop off FDLE (FL Dept of Law Enforcement) background check in mailbox at TradeportDrop off DCF (Dept. of Children and Families) child abuse check in mailbox at TradeportGo to Orange County Sheriff's Dept. to get arrest record (non-existant)Deliver last reference letter to Valerie. Make sure she understands the need for it to go in the mail before she leaves town on ThursdayDeliver Guardianship- Pick up Guardianship
Call doctor's office to schedule physicals, so we can get our "Physican's Letters" signed and notarized stating that we "Enjoy good health and are free from communicable diseases".Appointment 1/9/07Make sure Dan talks to Sean to get his employment letter signed and notarized and faxed to us ASAP.Already in the mail to us. Should arrive Thursday- Pick up new marriage certificate-make sure it is certified - Going tomorrow morning to get this. 2 copies!
That's all we have left for our home study to be completed. Of course, the first two things listed will take 3-4 weeks to get back to us, so we're looking at (hopefully) February 1, 2007 for our home study to be completed, and then another 3 weeks to get our I-171H in the mail.
Apparently, as soon as we get our local background checks, our physician's letters, employment letter for Dan, and our marriage license, we will be all set with our dossier (except for the homestudy). It looks like we will have a dossier ready to send for notarization/certification/authentication by February 1!!!! Amazing!
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, for sure! Of course, some of the things we need to do tomorrow morning will hinge on whether places are open, or closed to mourn President Ford.
We're on our way!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Homestudy Visit
Lisa, our social worker, came this evening about 6:45pm. She started by going over a lot of paperwork. We filled out forms, we wrote checks, we signed documents. We gave her our SS# about 4 times each. We showed her our passports. We signed up for a Federal Express account. We gave her copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate.
We went over which documents will be part of our dossier, and which are documents just for her purposes. She gave us an initial timeline to help us with the paperwork. She gave us homework assignements (take our online parenting course, fill out guardianship papers, get employment letters done, see the doctor and have medical letters written, get in touch with our references, etc. etc. etc.)
Then the interview...who are our parents, when did they get married, what was life like growing up, how did we meet, how long have we been married, what did we do growing up, what was our childhood like, where did we go to school, what do we enjoy doing as a couple, what do we enjoy doing separately, and so on....for about an hour and a half.
She got the grand tour of the house. She checked out the pool. She shared a little bit of her own story with us (she and her husband have adopted two children from China). She left, and I breathed a sigh of relief! I am now hungry, even though it's almost 11:00pm. I couldn't eat before she arrived...I was too nervous. Jack was well behaved, and after an initial sniff or two, he curled up on his bed and snored until it was time for the house tour.
Tuesday starts another day of paperchasing. Fingerprints in the morning (we hope!), then a quick trip to the Sheriff's department for a background check. Then off to make doctor appointments for our medical letters. We are very motivated to get all of this paperwork done quickly!!! The timelines seem to be lengthening a bit for Vietnam, and with the possibility of adopting two at one time, we may wait longer because of that. Dan is home for the next few weeks, which makes a lot of this much easier to do. We'd love to have all of this out of our hands before he starts his travel gigs for the year.
That's it for now. Maybe I'll post more details (or Dan will) later, but for now, it's bedtime. I have a long day ahead of me, including a drive to Ocala for a Chrysalis meeting, and Dan promised to help Chris lay his flooring down.
We went over which documents will be part of our dossier, and which are documents just for her purposes. She gave us an initial timeline to help us with the paperwork. She gave us homework assignements (take our online parenting course, fill out guardianship papers, get employment letters done, see the doctor and have medical letters written, get in touch with our references, etc. etc. etc.)
Then the interview...who are our parents, when did they get married, what was life like growing up, how did we meet, how long have we been married, what did we do growing up, what was our childhood like, where did we go to school, what do we enjoy doing as a couple, what do we enjoy doing separately, and so on....for about an hour and a half.
She got the grand tour of the house. She checked out the pool. She shared a little bit of her own story with us (she and her husband have adopted two children from China). She left, and I breathed a sigh of relief! I am now hungry, even though it's almost 11:00pm. I couldn't eat before she arrived...I was too nervous. Jack was well behaved, and after an initial sniff or two, he curled up on his bed and snored until it was time for the house tour.
Tuesday starts another day of paperchasing. Fingerprints in the morning (we hope!), then a quick trip to the Sheriff's department for a background check. Then off to make doctor appointments for our medical letters. We are very motivated to get all of this paperwork done quickly!!! The timelines seem to be lengthening a bit for Vietnam, and with the possibility of adopting two at one time, we may wait longer because of that. Dan is home for the next few weeks, which makes a lot of this much easier to do. We'd love to have all of this out of our hands before he starts his travel gigs for the year.
That's it for now. Maybe I'll post more details (or Dan will) later, but for now, it's bedtime. I have a long day ahead of me, including a drive to Ocala for a Chrysalis meeting, and Dan promised to help Chris lay his flooring down.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Minor Snag...
Federal agencies will be closed Tuesday, Jan. 2, for a national day of mourning honoring President Gerald R. Ford, the Office of Personnel Management announced Thursday.
Under an executive order issued by President Bush, all Cabinet departments, independent organizations and other agencies will be closed in honor of the 38th president, who died Dec. 26 at the age of 93 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The order excludes "those offices and installations, or parts thereof, in the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, or other departments, independent organizations, and governmental agencies whose agency head determines should remain open for reasons of national security or defense, or other essential public business." http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35751&dcn=todaysnews
We don't really know what this means for our Tuesday morning appointment. We're planning to go ahead and drive down to the office at our scheduled time. Unfortunately for us, the local offices are closed tomorrow and Monday to celebrate New Years. Most likely, we won't know until Tuesday morning what the status is. I'm crossing my fingers though, that Dan is right, and that the office we need to go to will be open despite the other closures! Here's to hoping, because it'll be a few more days before we can get another appointment.
Eventful Day
After Dan posted last night, we talked a bit about how we wanted to deal with today. I said that should we not hear from anyone at the agency by 2:00pm, then I would call them for a status report.
This morning we got up and Dan headed upstairs to do some year end paperwork for his office and our home. I was putting dishes away when the phone rang around 10:30am. Lisa (our local social worker) was on the phone asking how quickly she could come out and start our home study! I took the dates she had available (Friday or Saturday evening, or Monday), her phone number and asked Dan what worked for him. We agreed to have Lisa come out tomorrow (Friday) evening to start our home study! For the rest of the morning/afternoon Dan and I have been working furiously around the house to straighten up, put things away, and generally get the house in order. Dan has spent much of the day in his office, and I've worked steadily on getting the dining room, living room, kitchen, and our bed/bathroom tidy. My mom is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help with a final spruce (hopefully including a vacuum and mop since those two tasks are two things that still bother my back).
The other exciting event for today is that we turned in our I-600A paperwork, which is our petition to adopt an orphan. I chose to drive the documentation and the money order down to the Department of Homeland Security myself, and in doing so, we were able to get about three weeks ahead of anyone who chose to mail their paperwork into the office! From what I have been reading, many people send their I-600A in, and sometimes it's a month or more until they get an invitation for FBI fingerprinting. But not for us! We go for our FBI fingerprinting (and background check) on Tuesday, January 2, at 9:00am. Once that is done, the government will begin processing us in the system, but they will have to wait for final approval from our social worker in order to issue us the I-171H (which is our document that we give to Vietnam, and the document that will tell us how many children we are allowed to adopt). The woman I worked with at the DHS office was wonderful. She said she is running about three weeks out on paperwork, but depending on our circumstances (for instance if the agency had a referral for us very quickly) she might be able to expedite our paperwork if necessary. I don't think this will be necessary, but one can hope, can't she?
So, in 24 hours we'll be meeting with Lisa in our home. She said she will be here about three hours, and once we've met with her we might actually know a little bit more about the process, timelines, etc. One of us will update after our meeting.
This morning we got up and Dan headed upstairs to do some year end paperwork for his office and our home. I was putting dishes away when the phone rang around 10:30am. Lisa (our local social worker) was on the phone asking how quickly she could come out and start our home study! I took the dates she had available (Friday or Saturday evening, or Monday), her phone number and asked Dan what worked for him. We agreed to have Lisa come out tomorrow (Friday) evening to start our home study! For the rest of the morning/afternoon Dan and I have been working furiously around the house to straighten up, put things away, and generally get the house in order. Dan has spent much of the day in his office, and I've worked steadily on getting the dining room, living room, kitchen, and our bed/bathroom tidy. My mom is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help with a final spruce (hopefully including a vacuum and mop since those two tasks are two things that still bother my back).
The other exciting event for today is that we turned in our I-600A paperwork, which is our petition to adopt an orphan. I chose to drive the documentation and the money order down to the Department of Homeland Security myself, and in doing so, we were able to get about three weeks ahead of anyone who chose to mail their paperwork into the office! From what I have been reading, many people send their I-600A in, and sometimes it's a month or more until they get an invitation for FBI fingerprinting. But not for us! We go for our FBI fingerprinting (and background check) on Tuesday, January 2, at 9:00am. Once that is done, the government will begin processing us in the system, but they will have to wait for final approval from our social worker in order to issue us the I-171H (which is our document that we give to Vietnam, and the document that will tell us how many children we are allowed to adopt). The woman I worked with at the DHS office was wonderful. She said she is running about three weeks out on paperwork, but depending on our circumstances (for instance if the agency had a referral for us very quickly) she might be able to expedite our paperwork if necessary. I don't think this will be necessary, but one can hope, can't she?
So, in 24 hours we'll be meeting with Lisa in our home. She said she will be here about three hours, and once we've met with her we might actually know a little bit more about the process, timelines, etc. One of us will update after our meeting.
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