Saturday, September 17, 2005

Processes

To allow everyone to better understand how this process works, I'll attempt an explanation of the paperwork to this point.

After signing, notarizing, paying and returning our contract to our agency, we received an acceptance letter and instructions to find a home study agency (a list was provided). We contacted a home study agency in Danville, Kentucky. Our social worker (home study) sent us an application, we returned it with a fee, requested a lot of paperwork and set up a meeting with her (Afternoon off work #1). She interviewed us in her office and set up a meeting with us at our house for a Monday evening. She came into our house interviewed us individually, and then together and then did a brief (1 minute) tour of the house. She wrote up here findings (a six page document that is our life's history; all but ready for A and E's Biography show).

Documents required for Home Study and Dossier:

Home study agency's license

Home Study Report

Copy of birth certificate-wife

Copy of birth certificate-husband

Copy of marriage license

Copy of Federal and State tax returns-past 3 years

Statement from bank stating how long you have been a customer, that you are in good standing and the current balance in savings and/or checking accounts

Letter from employers stating job title, length of employment, salary and probability of continued employment

Three letters of recommendation

Copy of city water bill

Medical forms for each adoptive parent

State Police criminal check

Child/Spouse abuse registry check

Residential History Form (citing all residences for past 10 years)

Local Police Clearance

FBI Clearance

All of the above as well as a few more forms and the final copy of the Home Study Report must all be individually notarized. We then take the notarized documents to the county clerk in the county in which the notary was registered for certification. Upon certification, I take the certified and notarized documents to the Kentucky Secretary of State's office to be Apostilled (stating that both the county certification and the notary are valid).

After this is done, AND we receive our approval (I-71H) from immigration, our dossier (the above documents) is sent to be translated into Russian (not the official language of Kazakhstan which is Kazakh, but the official business language of Kazakhstan; who knew?)

Once that happens, it's sent to the Kazakhstan Embassy in New York, New York (the city so nice, they named it twice) for approval by the Kazakh Embassy. Then it's off to Astana, KZ to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for approval. Then on to the Ministry of Education who will send us a letter of invitation to travel to Kazakhstan (we'll have a couple of weeks to pack, get the proper Kazakh Visa's for our passport) and we'll leave for a couple of months and go pick up our child.

We've heard it over and over again, but you never believe this stuff when its not you. This is all God's time and it all happens at his pace. It's different for everyone. Another oft told truth is the feeling that you aren't waiting to adopt a child, you are waiting to get the child that is already yours, but just waiting far away to come home. We aren't (contrary to some perceptions) going to rescue a child, we are traveling to pick up OUR child.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Crossing more off the list

Wednesday, we both took a day off of work (what a horrible time of year for that) to go to Louisville where the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office is. We'd heard that a 3-4 hour wait to get fingerprints taken for the FBI security check was the norm. So, we left the house at about 8:00, got there at about 9:15 walked in filled out a form, and got the prints taken. This 3-4 hour process took us about 15 minutes (the longest part being the actual fingerprinting, there was no wait for us, like VIPs). Back in the car by 9:30.

We took advantage (I guess) of the extra time by heading to the Mall; more specifically, Pottery Barn Kids. We bought a quilt for the crib that we don't yet have (yes, our cart is often before our horse) and registered for complimentary gear.

Came home after that and painted what will be the baby's room a lime green color. It turned out very nicely.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

24

We have had a big 24 hours. Last night's homestudy visit was painless. As we suspected, it was much less invasive that we feared. The only problem we had was our dog with some gastrointestinal issues.

Julie from Adoption Assistance is absolutely wonderful. She had a draft of the homestudy in our hands this afternoon. We spoke with Andrea this evening to discuss our dossier. She is going to get all of our paperwork ready for us to simply sign and notarize. We should be receiving that by the beginning of next week.

Tomorrow we go to Louisville to get fingerprinted. Once our fingerprints are done and the homestudy is sent to Louisville it takes approximately 70-80 days for our I-71H approval. The I-71H will be the last piece of the puzzle for our dossier. Once our dossier is completed and translated (we are thinking December), it is sent to the NY consulate. Around 6 weeks later, it is sent to the ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education. It hopefully makes it's way out of the Ministries in 2 months. Little Miracles begins to look for regions and placements once the dossier is sent to the Ministries.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Squeeky Clean

Lots has happened since the last blog. We have decided to let Andrea do our dossier to ensure accuracy. No need to let either of us slow this process down!! We met with Julie to answer a few questions. We are very happy with our choice to go with her. She has adopted from all over the world. We spoke with her on a Thursday, and by that Sunday she had written it up and was ready for our home study. We've gotten our physicals completed (no problems, of course) and our letters of recommendations from various friends, family members and employers. Tomorrow is our home study. Needless to say, we have been cleaning machines!!! Cleaning parts of the house we've never even seen before. Now, it is 9:00pm and we think its ready to go. We've heard it is really no big deal, but the thought of somebody coming into your home and interviewing you is a little nerve racking. We will both be much more relaxed at this time tomorrow. We will be speaking with Andrea for a check up on Tuesday and will be fingerprinted in Louisville on Wednesday. We couldn't be more pleased with the process and assistance we have been given so far. Not to mention the awesome support from family and friends.