Delay...missing paper.

The following is from an email we sent to a group of special folks who specifically are praying for our adoption. I find it interesting that the email from our social worker came in one minute before the encouraging one from our sister-in-law. 

"When I forwarded the email about our fingerprints being sent electronically to our social worker I once again asked if there was any word on our delay. 

With.., this has proved to be quite frustrating but we have provided them with your I600A approval approx. 4 times within the last three months. They have told us that this is the only thing preventing you from exiting. We provide it and then they request it again several weeks or a month later saying they don’t have it. We provide proof (a photo of the doc with the person’s signature that accepted it) but they still say they don’t have it. Our man, J, as well as a... staffer has provided it to them. It’s really getting to where J just carries it with him every time he goes there, just in case they need it again.

We’re expecting any day though, unless they come up with another reason we’re still waiting.

This paperwork (I600A) was turned in as well in May and our original copy in August. Please pray that this issue is resolved today and no other problems. My sister-in-law wrote today an email how she changed up her prayers for F. An adoptive parent reminded her that Satan does not want children adopted into Christ filled homes and will fight the process. Here’s part of her e-mail

I don't know why I have dismissed this idea in the past, well I guess I do, Satan loves it when we blame things on life or the system, when it is him.  He is constantly wreaking havoc.

So I am praying that he gets out of the way, that he stops putting things in the way of the officials and hiding your paperwork.  I am praying that he stops interfering with your family, and soon to be new son.

I hope this help you and encourages you.  This week lesson has been all about strapping on the belt of truth, girding ourselves in truth.  Remember God's truths, and fight back!

Praying that the hidden paperwork is found TODAY. [Note my sister-in-law doesn’t know yet about the paper being submitted 6 times] Praying for protection on each paper and signature in our chart. Praying for protection-physical, mental, and emotional- for each person involved in the process. 

Thank you for fighting with us.  Living in Haiti where Satan’s followers will celebrate this Friday that Christ died and was defeated. We are often reminded of his power but we know that the LORD WILL Be Victorious! Our God Reigns. He’s NOT dead or defeated!

Happy Easter, 

Cory, Kris, Eli, Anna, and F"

Ups and downs.

No call today....sigh but some adoption paperwork news, both bad and good.

Bad news first.

We asked the agency who did our home study and update to send it for the notary authentication in California before sending it on to my folks. [Then needs translation and then will be sent to the Haitian consulate in Chicago before going to our agency and to Haiti.


Well that was plan A. Today we received the notice that the letter made it to Michigan but when mom sent us the scanned papers one was a letter stating that the home-study could not be authenticated because it was not stapled together.  SIGH.

So many e-mails back to the agency and my folks resulted in Plan B...folks will send all the papers they received today back to the agency who will staple together the home-study and resend it for authentication and then back to Michigan, again.

Good news. We already have the 11 page updated home-study and now the 1 page update scanned so we contacted the lady who translated everything for us back in 2013. She still translates and can get it done in the next few weeks...then when the authentication paper for the notary comes she will do that so we can send both language copies to Chicago.

Will be asking the translator to also translate our 1-page acceptance letter [leaving blanks to be filled in once we know who, when, where....].

Good news. Due to no mail plane coming on Tuesday we received this week's mail today and it included our I-600a renewal from the U.S.CIS, department of homeland security.

Already scanned and send to our agency. Now have until mid-Nov. to get a referral and file for a I-600 before it expires.

I blogged today about the building referral anticipation on our 'normal' blog... here.

Today we entered the 'get creative and change up plans' zone for our bonding trip. While we can still fit in the two week visit to the orphanage we will need to fit some ministry plans into the picture.

Have not heard of any referrals this week but still holding hope out for tomorrow. Thanks for the prayers.

Thankful for a reminder!

After I posted yesterday's update I considered that often filling in paperwork feels better than waiting.

Doing something feels like progress, even when mourning the fact that due to the length of the adoption process, the papers need to be done over.

Checking off the home study meant back to praying for patience...but wait a minute. A small uncomfortable feeling started to surface. That brain itch that tells you that you missed something.

After shutting down the computers for the night and completing our family devotions it came to me.

While Lindsay would send her report to Nightlight, we also needed to send in some papers didn't we?

Back to the computer. Searching the old e-mails. Found it!

Yes, a list of paperwork we need to send in that came in an E-mail the end of January.

Arriving between my parents leaving and our trip to Babaco/LaGonave I neglected to add it to the to-do list. As soon as we returned home Anna became ill, and we prepared and hosted the Warsaw team. The day they left we cleaned for the home study visit the next day!

Thankfully, I remembered last night. This allows us to get the papers filled in, copied and signed for tomorrow's mail run. Tomorrow we will head to Cap Haitian joining a medical team until Sunday afternoon.

Saturday will make two months until our I-600A expires. So a couple of months remain before the deadline but we do not want to cut the deadline close at all.

Nightlight responded rapidly to our request for help. In addition to the papers they need, we will also send the papers that need to go to the USCIS, and they will attach the additional papers and mail it in for us.

We remain very grateful for all the people working on our and our child/children's behalf.  

Social Worker visit

Thankful for all the prayers concerning our social worker visit.

Issues that came up while trying to set up  the visit included: no social workers in northern Haiti, finding someone willing to come [one possibility is stateside for the month of March], travel strikes, local protests closing roads, vehicle issues, flight costs, passport/visa issues/finding the time to come, finding a rider...

Despite all these obstacles the home visit occurred this weekend!

March 14, 14 months to the day after our chart entered IBESR.

Someone this week who entered 15 months ago received a referral!

Thanks to Lindsay for packing up son, dog and friend to drive 4 hours to visit us.

She will now write up the one page update needed by Rhonda, our original social worker based in California so that we can proceed with the paperwork to renew our I-600a paperwork.

Request for the I-600a extension will need to be submitted before it expires on May 21.

Monday, Cathy plans to bring our updated information to the post-office to send off to our US adoption agency.

So now, once again....we wait. Pray and wait.

Finger print renewal and more paperwork

Received our updated I-600a provisional approval, I-171H in the mail this week with the new date for our fingerprint expiration now reading, April 27, 2016.

Confirmed that no Haitian social workers work in northern Haiti and contacted the closest ex-pat social worker than we know of living in Haiti.

Will try to work out a time for her to visit in the next couple months and if we cannot get a date that works we will start to contact other social workers in Port-au-Prince.

This week we started to fill out updated information for our agency. Thankfully not as much as the first time around but still we pray this will be the last time.


Have the medical part already completed during our visit to LaGonave, including the needed TB skin test.

With major transportation strikes the last few weeks closing down parts of the country and Carnival this week doubt that much business will get done.

The opposition party threatens to renew and strength the transportation strike after Carnival if the government does not make the changes that they want.

Please continue to pray for:

•  the Haitian government
• for political stability
• for referrals 
• for our referral to come soon
• we can find a social worker for our home study renewal
• completion of our update paperwork
• that our bonding trip would not conflict with other scheduled events
• that we wait well and learn the lessons we need to learn
• for the additional prayer request on the side bar
• and mostly that the Lord's plan for our lives and those of our child [children] will be done. 

Fingerprints refreshed!

One year ago we received the e-mail informing us that our dossier ended IBESR on January 14 with the file number 42.

Received e-mail notice today that our fingerprints are now 'refreshed' and the immigration officer was updating our approval and will be getting it in the mail to us!

Thank you Lord.

Sent that e-mail on to our agency and our social worker who did our home study.

Our home study needs to be renewed by May 21.

Still praying that we can receive our referral, accept the match and get our bonding trip in before that date.

Our social worker responded and let us know that we will need to get a social worker who can visit our house and confirm that nothing changed since her visit in June 2013.

Then she can write up an update and sent it to the USCIS office.

Next week we plan to nicely ask one of the doctors at the meetings on LaGonave to fill out our 1 page medical updates needed for both our agency and the home study update.  We will also try to have our TB skin tests done while on LaGonave.

Then all that remains other than paperwork will be to find a social worker who would be willing to come to the house for a visit and write a one page report.

Surprises

Saturday while instant messaging with my folks I just happened to look up and catch the short notices of in-coming e-mails in the upper right corner of my computer.

Shocked, I went immediately to the in-box where I confirmed the arrival of an e-mail from the USCIS office! Would never have guessed that they would send out an e-mail on the weekend.

Good news!! The officer who I planned on reminding this week that our I-600 a fingerprints were now expired wrote to let us know he'd requested the prints to be 'refreshed' !

Yeah!! This should not take very long as the gal at the Embassy said it should only be a couple of weeks during the holidays for this to occur....[she also said she would send in the request but didn't!]

Also heard of a non-prematched referral last week from a family who waited 15 months in IBESR.

My brain reminds me that with the uniqueness of each case comparisons cannot be made, should not be made.

But my heart does the math and whispers that if IBESR were working oldest cases to newer cases and we've waited almost 13 months then......

Trying to keep my hopes and prayers centered on His will and not skipping rapidly ahead of what ifs can be hard.

Today I asked our agency for some needed financial information for Eli's college financial aid applications.

Now trying not to read too much into the information we received...but my hopes have soared away like a kite in a strong wind and I'm having a hard time pulling them back down to ground level.

Then on the heels of the first e-mail [within 10 minutes] we get a general one from our agency sadly letting us know they will no longer be working in Haiti due to many factors. They will continue to work with us on our adoption if we want to stay with them.

Up and down; round and round the thoughts and feelings fly. But He remains faithful. He is the rock on which to build our faith. Confidence placed in God is never misplaced or a mistake.

God's timing. God's plan. God's will. God's power. God's way.

Expiration Date

Cory says that I worry too much, but I'm asking the Lord to increase my faith!

I'm not extremely stressed or obsessing over this, which shows my level of progress. I will admit to some butterflies in my stomach knowing that today our fingerprints expire for our I-600A, USA visa paperwork.

I know we did everything we could short of flying to the USA. I know that we possess the e-mail from the immigration officer saying that if they expire 'it's no big deal', 'no penalty' and 'can't run them to be refreshed until the others expire' but still.......

Plan to e-mail him back next week to see if they can refresh the prints.

No word about a referral. Next week will mark one year since we learned we entered IBESR and the last sign of any progress in our case.

Someone suggested this week in the Haiti adoption group that the charts should contain GPS markers so one could tell if the chart moved at all... while I understand the desire to see progress, I think it would end up being a big waste of time for me and depressing. Hope would soar every time someone moved the chart to clean or just to reshuffle their desk.

This week a neighbor shared a short devotional about doubting Thomas. Thomas heard about the miracle of the Lord's Resurrection but wanted physical proof. He prayed we would all have faith that God was working in our lives even when we don't see any evidence or when we cannot feel it.

I know that God called us to pursue adoption. I know I've changed in the last couple years through this process. I know God's plan; His timing remains the best plan for our lives. I'm thankful for those praying with us on this journey. I know He can open closed doors, move mountains and part the deep waters.

Lord, teach me to wait well. Lord, help me to increase my faith and confidence in You.

[Picture is a dead palm with a new tree growing on the top. Hoping the dead tree symbolizes our expired prints while the new young one represents our 'refreshed' prints.]

Prayer for prints.

No word on our adoption fingerprints being refreshed [will expire 2 weeks from tomorrow*].

First e-mails Nov. 10th, then Nov. 21, the visit to the Embassy Dec. 10th, another e-mail Dec. 29.

Time between e-mails because they generally sent an automated response that lets you know that it could take 7 or 10 business days to respond...so you wait.

The staff at the Embassy never did respond to our first two e-mails and when we asked why during our visit to the Embassy the reply 'because we could not do the prints here' did not make us happy...after the 6+ hour ride and an overnight so that we could be in line shortly after 6 a.m.

* Sent off another e-mail this afternoon.

The US Immigration officer wrote back:

"Why was the Embassy unable to take your prints?" We don't know.

"Did you try to have them done at the military base there too?" Not aware that the US has a military base in Haiti.

"I am inquiring into what we can do from here." Thank you! Praying they decide to refresh the prints!

"Does the Embassy need us to send you a request for the prints before they’ll take them?" They did not mention any requests. They said they would ask the USA office to refresh-but the US office did not receive any requests.


So looks like although we started the process 2 months before the prints were to expire that we're really not much further along the process than we were.

We'd rather not have to travel the 6+ hours to Port again, an overnight to visit the Embassy but will do what we need to. 

Not only does 6 hours on bumpy roads make one tired Port has been experiencing many days of political protests that we'd just as soon avoid. 

Waiting on one more piece of paper for our truck plates which means that if we would need to travel to Port in the next two weeks it would likely be without the new plates on the truck.

Keep praying. 

HOT Update. As I went to share this on Facebook this e-mail came in....

"Ok. I have inquired into refreshing them and I’m still awaiting word on that. I do know that we can’t run them to be refreshed until the others are expired. If they expire, it is not a big deal—there is no penalty for a break in their validity. I will update you once I’ve gotten more information on your case." 

Thanks for the prayers as we continue on this emotional journey!

Embassy Visit

Trip: a 4 hour and 20 minute ride to the Ortlip Center the first day, followed by an early 1 1/2 hour ride to the US Embassy the second day put us in line about 15 minutes after 6 a.m.

A nice gentle man directed us to the second place in a short line to the side. Three other longer lines formed on the other side. We watched the sun rise over the mountains and admired the two health moringa trees growing in front of the Embassy.

A couple of times security folks asked us our reason to be at the embassy and we explained noting we did not have an appointment. They just nodded but around 7:30 a.m. when everyone else in our short line had appointments I asked Cory to confirm again we were in the correct line....nope.

So we moved to the end of the longish visa line. Waited less than 5 minutes and the staff person came to apologise noting he'd checked and the first line was correct. So we moved back.

In less than 15 minutes we were cleared through security and in the large, cold waiting room sitting before window 27. Same location we waited on Oct. 1st, 2013 when we did our fingerprints the first time.

We talked to a staff person at one point and then waited some more. Found it interesting she asked how we got our fingerprints done the first time... with paper and ink?!? A bit disconcerting.  Lots of time to pray for our littles, the staff, the process and for our fingerprint renewal.

Called up to the window we were told that the prints could not be done but they would contact the office in the USA to have them 'refreshed'.

Could we have something in writing? No they will E-mail us in 2-3 weeks when it's done.
Could we have proof that we'd visited the Embassy and tried. Nope.
How about a business card or her e-mail. Nope. Against policy.
She noted we already had the e-mail for the office.
       Yes, but that was the same e-mail we'd tried twice to get an appointment for the fingerprints for. Well, they didn't respond because they don't do them.
    She didn't respond when I asked her why they couldn't have e-mailed us that, saving us a 6 hour  
    [one way] trip.
She did end up giving us her name by signing one of our e-mails, assuring us that they would be contacting the USA office within the week.

So we'll wait to hear. With the holidays do not know if we'll hear soon or not. The prints expire on January 23 so would like to know before then!

I-171H

Today we returned home from a week long visit to LaGonave to find  our I-171H letter in the mail.

The I-171H, the official name for our I-600a approval, will allow our children to enter the USA once the adoptions are completed in Haiti.

This indicates that the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration after an investigation of Cory and I [home study review, fingerprint check by FBI and the application] approve us to adopt internationally.

They then contact the Embassy who will eventually process our children's exit visas.

As we also picked up our renewed Haitian visas from Irvine's home during this trip we scanned them along with our approval letter and sent the information off to our agency social worker and the gal working with the creche in Haiti.

So now we pray and wait. Wait and pray.

Today IBESR held a meeting with some of the creche leaders in Haiti to talk about the new procedures.

No word yet on how the meeting went but we continue to pray for the process, changes, and workers involved.

I-600a Approval

Cory called the number give and spoke to a nice man who let us know that we needed to wait 45 days to check on our I-600a.

Counting the days we noted that would be only 2 days from the deadline given on the letter about needing to pay the fee that we did not think we needed to pay. So we sent a second E-mail to the agent who helped us the first time.

He wrote from 'training' giving us an E-mail to write our question to and in less than 1 business day we learned:
 1.we were correct that we do not need to pay the fee,
 2. that our fingerprints arrived and we should hear 'in the next couple days' the final decision on our I-600a.
 3. a new phone number / e-mail and agent if we need help.

Today we received an E-mail requesting additional information if we were OK with sending it by E-mail. Cory came in and in about 1 hour sent the information off to Ashely. Just over 1 hour later we received the E-mail letting us know that the "I have processed the approval and we will send that to your mailing address listed on your home study " [This would be our Florida MFI mailing address]

Monday after receiving the E-mail about our I-600a we wrote our agency to make sure they received the E-mail letting them know that we do have residency visas in Haiti. The processing of our dossier continues and 'we'll see what happens'.

A blog from an agency in Port who talked with the IBESR last week indicated that the newly changed adoption law was sent to be printed on Friday, November 15th. Therefore, theoretically, it should be printed in the paper this week.

New confusion and a non-update on the I-600a

No word yet on our I-600a but I did find out from a Facebook group about adopting in Haiti that you cannot get status updates on line for this specific form.

This caused the message we received about no such file existing. Either we missed this on the web site or it is not stated.

The nice officer who e-mailed us before did not yet respond to our E-mail questions.

So we continue to wait and if we do not hear an update Cory will try to call the number listed after the team leaves for the USA.

Today we received an E-mail from our agency questioning our paperwork as we listed our Haiti address as our residence [know this was true on the I-600a and maybe one other location].

No other family that they have worked with in the past listed a foreign address for residency.

But after 15 years we do not have a true residency in the USA.

As we plan to live here with our family, we do have Haiti residency [since 2000] and completed our home study in Haiti it made sense to us to list our Haiti address.

The question that arose was did we have our residential visa? Yes, we do!

So responded to the E-mail and offered to send a copy of our visas or the Michigan address where we stay during our two months.

Keep praying!!

Prayer in church for the lawyers in Port-au-Prince going on strike this week. This will likely slow down all government including adoptions.

I-600a Update / Prayer

November 1st we attempted to check the status of our I-600a application on line only to discover that no such case number exists in the system.

We tried again by creating an account with the USCIS so that they can contact us by E-mail with updates on our status but again...no such case exists.

So we send off an E-mail to the nice officer who first contacted us by E-mail asking about how often we received mail from Florida to ask about our case. Waiting to hear back.....

A few weeks ago we received our first piece of mail ever through the Haitian postal system which was a notice from the USCIS about our application because we did not pay the biometrics fee. 

We did not send in that fee because we understood we did not need to as we live overseas and would need to visit the Embassy for our fingerprints.

We mailed in our prints on Oct. 9th but did not directly respond to the letter about the additional payment so maybe that is the holdup?

Praying that we find out next week about our application. 

I-600a fingerprints in the mail

Yesterday our fingerprint forms headed to the USA along with the requested copies of photo ID's.

Yesterday the hardcopy, sent in the mail request for fingerprints made it to our house.

Today the envelope should start the journey through the USA postal system heading to the Department of Homeland Security in Missouri.

We pray it does not get lost or delayed on its trip north.

Will respond to the nice man who sent the E-mail asking how often we receive mail and let him know to watch the mail. [And maybe nicely ask him to let us know when it arrives.]

Now we wait. Could take 2-3 months to hear back [not sure if the count started when we first sent in the form or when they receive the fingerprints].

Once we receive notice of our I-600a approval we will be able to scan it and send it to our agency.

Then we will wait again. Our first real hard wait - for a referral.

I-600a Praise

As we noted in the last blog we needed to wait to hear about our I-600a application or after 1 month start trying to contact someone.

While on LaGonave we were able to check E-mails only a couple times. Sunday evening, after most of the visitors left we checked our e-mails and found one from an Immigration services officer of the orphans adoption unit of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service of the Department of Homeland Security.

He was checking on how often we received our mail as our fingerprints needed to be received in 45 days or our application would be denied. His E-mail included an attachment of what we needed and stated that we could have this done at the embassy.

Monday morning Cory headed to Port-au-Prince with his first stop being the USA Embassy. One needs to have your USA passport to enter and we also needed it to renew our Haitian residential visas at the Haitian Immigration office.

The security woman at the entrance told him we needed to be in line on Tuesday morning before 7 a.m. We were in line by 6: 40 a.m. having left the Ortlip Center shortly after 5 a.m. By 7:30 we moved passed the first check point with our letter.

Then you hand in any cell phones outside the Embassy and receive a small plasic card with the number of the cubby your phone will wait in. Then you pass though security much like an airport-placing your personal items and belts in a tub while you walk through a metal detector.

After a short walk though a yard you enter a building with a brightly painted orange and light purple waiting room with many windows like at some banks on one side.

At first we went to the US citizen room but as we did not have an appointment [Cory tried several times to call on Monday but could not get the right person] we went back to the main room. After a bit of a wait our names were called and a nice lady took the letter and asked us to wait.

Then we were called to one of two homeland security windows to answer when we would be returning to the USA. Well we do not have any travel plans at this time so she went to talk to her supervisor while we waited again.

Good news-someone will come to take our prints. Just have a seat and wait. While this wait took a bit longer we did not mind knowing that had we traveled all the way home a return trip to the Embassy would mean 12 + hours of road travel and an overnight or two.

A young lady came and took our prints twice. A bit of panic when she noted she would not take our prints if we did not know the complete address of our employer but thankfully in Cory's wallet he had a card with the address.

One last wait after washing the ink off our fingers and we walked out of the Embassy with our forms 4 1/2 hours later.

Tuesday we will send off this last piece of documentation.

Prayers:

• I-600a approval
• Approval of new law
• Continued progress for families waiting or stuck
• New system of matching in Haiti

Problem with I-600 a

You may remember that we filed our I-600a the end of August. The check was cashed the first week of  September.

Well considering next week we plan to drive down to go to the LaGonave Wesleyan hospital dedication we thought we would contact the US Embassy to ask about an appointment for our biometrics, fingerprints.

Our address on the forms is our residential address here in Haiti. We did add a note with our Florida mail service address as there was no place on the form for a second address.

We understand that generally then you get a receipt notice and appointment to the nearest USCIS location for biometrics and assumed then that our location would be the US Embassy here.

The return E-mail from the Embassy tells us that because we filed in the USA our appointment will be in the USA.

So we have an E-mail in to our agency and social worker to see how we can get this straightened out.

Our paperwork clearly states we live in Haiti so we are praying that the paperwork can be sent to Haiti from Texas and we can work with the Embassy here.

Please pray that someone can find the answers.

============
Looks like at this point we wait until 1 month passes to see if we receive any notification from the USCIS about our application. Will try to call to see if we can have them notify us electronically or if someone can talk to us about this issue.

I-600a Appointment Needed

September 10th Cory mailed our official dossier and 4 copies to the agency.

So blessed to complete this part of the process before returning to Haiti so that we did not need to impose on family to finish up for us!

The dossier arrived and only a couple minor issues were identified on review. We confused the instructions about the pictures and therefore did not send as many as we should but the agency can make copies for us.

Also we included the same financial copies we sent in the spring and did not update. But this can be rectified by e-mail so no big deal.

Today if we do not hear from the US government in the mail about our I-600a appointment we will contact the Embassy in Haiti to see if it is at all possible to set the appointment before or after our trip to LaGonave as it would save us over 12 hours of travel not to have to make a separate trip.

We still feel that the Lord would have us adopt two Haitian children.

Taking into account the time that adoptions take in Haiti along with our ages it would be difficult to complete two separate adoptions so we continue to pray for siblings.

As of last week the creche did not have any sibling sets waiting for adoption and it could be a long time before they do. We know the Lord can open doors in His timing. We want to do His will. We do not want to rush before Him or drag our feet.

Prayers

• I-600a fingerprint approval at Embassy
• I-600a approval
• Siblings get to the creche to match with us or 
• that the Lord change our hearts by clearly showing us His will.
• Creche staff-need a new nurse
• Haitian adoption law to be published-if it will improve things, His will.
• Haitian adoption process improvements 
• Families and children stuck in the process to move forward. 

Yes, Dossier Done

Thank you to everyone who prayed we could complete our dossier during our time in the USA.

Just after 4 p.m. today our dossier returned from the Chicago Haitian Consulate with all the documents stamped with the legalization stamp.

Cory then copied those pages to add to the 4 sets of copied dossier papers.

Tuesday one original set and 4 complete sets of copied pages head off to our agency.

Wednesday we head back to Haiti.

So we started with the first full day in the USA and finished everything up on the last full day in the USA.

Thank you Lord for Your timing. Sorry for stressing a bit and not trusting.

Heard from our agency this week as we start to dialog about a referral matching with our child / children. At this time the creche does not have siblings waiting for a family. We continue to pray for the Lord's leading and timing. Choices

Next step will be getting an appointment at the embassy for our fingerprints for the I-600a.

Then we pray and wait.

Prayers:

• Thankful the dossier is done!
• Local police letters do not need additional processing.
• I-600a appointment and approval. 
• For our referral children.
• For Haiti's new law / improving the adoption process. 

Last 2 Documents sent for Authentication.

Adoption paperwork feels like riding a teeter-totter some days.

Lunch yesterday found us rejoicing because we received the re-notarized letter in the mail and learned by E-mail that our home study was finalized last week and sent on to the Secretary of State.

We'd received the corrected background-check letter earlier.

We worked to collect the needed documents and make copies needed to send in our I-600a form to the  US government.

This form, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, " is used by a U.S. citizen who plans to adopt a foreign-born child and enables USCIS to adjudicate the application that relates to the qualifications of the applicant(s) as prospective adoptive parent(s)."

Even though we do not know who our children will be this is the first step in the process of getting them US citizenship and immigration paperwork. For this part of the process we will need appointments for fingerprint checks again-likely once we return to Haiti at the Embassy.

The depressing/panic minutes came when preparing the redone letter to send off again for authentication at the Secretary of State office. Noticed for the first time [did not notice before we sent it the first time or when we asked the letter to be re-done] that it listed my name in it's short form, Kris Thede.

Every other document lists my legal name so we seriously thought that we may need to have the letter printed and notarized for a third time but thankfully a call to our agency reassured us that should not be a problem.

After the trip to the post office Cory spent hours scanning documents so that they could be sent electronically to a college professor who will be translating them into French.  We only lack the one that just went for authorization so she should be able to work on most this weekend.

Next week we will start the process of making copies of the 'dossier'. Not sure that the whole dossier will be translated and then legalized before our return to Haiti but doing our best. Thank you for the prayers.

Prayer Requests:

• Authentication of last letter in IN.
• Authentication of home study in CA.
• Correct and timely translation of all needed documents.
• Processing of I-600a. Good dates for fingerprint appointment.
• Keeping the copies [4 each] and documents organized.