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. 

Authentications and translation.

We now have the missing documents and they already sport their pretty gold seals of authentication. 

We received the re-done letter back from Michigan State's Office of the Great Seal, correcting my mistake on August 8th.

We received our background check results in the mail last week. However my letter listed Cory's birthday as mine. A follow up e-mail assured us that the the correction will be rapidly made and mailed to us.

One of the authentications returned to us with a list of items that the notary neglected to put on the letter. We are working to get this letter re-notarized and then will need to send it back to the Secretary of State for the needed authentication.

Waiting on one more reference letter to return from authentication. 

Additional copies of our home study need to be authenticated in CA before translation/legalization.

E-mail inquiries and correspondence last week helped us to locate a translator for our documents that will make up our dossier that will go to Haiti. We sent the documents that we already have so that the translation can start in hopes that we will have everything translated by the first part of September. 

Prayer Requests: 

• Re-Notarization and authentication of one letter.
• That we receive Kris's background-check letter and the last reference letter.
• Finalization and authentication of our home study in CA.
• Timely translation of all needed documents.

Fingerprints and the OFFICE OF THE GREAT SEAL

First full day in Michigan,  Cory and I traveled to Lansing today to complete our background checks and authenticate most of our Michigan notarized documents.

Found out that my ring finger contains a double whorl, rather hard to get a clear print but after 6 try's we had 2 that would work.

Two copies each of two new documents notarized...but noticed at the Office of the Great Seal that while we corrected one mistake we missed the second one...in my tired state I grabbed the older letters not the new corrected one.

So tomorrow we will sign the newer letter in front of the notary and sent it off by mail to be authenticated. Also plan to send off one letter to Pennsylvania for similar treatment.

 Now 14 pretty gold seals proudly shine on our pile of documents that were signed in Michigan.

We also called our agency today asking about one missing document. We need to work on getting the needed document rewritten, notarized and authenticated as soon as we can.

The fingerprints should be here in 7-10 working days [off the record maybe in 5]

Home study corrections being worked on while we wait for the background check results.

Next week we start to investigate people to translate the documents that will comprise the dossier that travels to Haiti into French.

Prayers:

• No problems with running our background checks. That the fingerprints were done good enough. 
• That the remaining needed documents can be processed in a rapid fashion and sent back to us.
• Home study
• The missing paperwork
• The out of State authentication of the notaries and the last one for Michigan.
• That we find someone to translate and maybe also get the documents legalized.
• That nothing would get lost or delayed in the mail. 

Paperwork Progress

The home-study agency E-mails us with updates as the information and documents arrive to their office.

This week all our child abuse clearances arrived from the states we each lived in during our lives.

Our final medical papers, reports, and letters completed, notarized and in the mail today! 

All reference letters received by the agencies.

Information for fingerprinting, [who, when, where, how] researched and located for our first day in Michigan, hopefully Aug. 8th.

If all goes according to plan 'A' then in three weeks we will have completed everything we need to do in the application process and will be waiting for the finalization of our home study.

Finalized home study in hand will allow translation of Haiti dossier documents into French while at the same time completing the application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition, with the US Citizen and Immigration Services, I-600a.

July 27 will mark the 1 year anniversary of the door to adoption opening wide for our family.

Aloe barbadensis bloom

End of June.

At 6.5 weeks the last lab result came back from Port-au-Prince. So a bit early from the laboratory's estimation of 2-3 months! We rapidly sent off the results to the USA by scanning the results for E-mail.

Received word yesterday from the doctor that he will be working on the documents in the next few days.

The original headed to the USA on Tuesday along with the other paperwork for our file.

Think [hope] that the last referral letter was notarized and on it's way to the agency this week but not yet confirmed. So looks like we moved from mailing our first application letter to completing Applications 1 and 2 and [most] the home study requirements in 3.5 months!!

Also in the mail our Haitian bank letter and our certificates of good conduct from the Port Margot, justice of the peace.

 We scanned a cope of a needed guardianship from via computer to the social worker. A letter stating that Cory and I know first aid and CPR also headed to the agency this week.

The write up of our home study will start next week.

Our first full day in Michigan in August we plan to have the last two documents notarized and certified as well as get our fingerprints done.

Once our home study is finalized we will file our I-600A application with the American government as well as adding it to our dossier so it can be sent off for translation.

Will start to research and contact French translators in July so that when our dossier is complete we can move to the translation without delay.

It's our prayer that we can finish the dossier, translation and legalization during our trip to the USA, Lord willing.

Home Study Happiness

After months of wondering and praying about how and where we would be able to complete the needed home study it feels great to cross it off the list!

We applied for the home study a mere 3 weeks before the study occurred.

Travel can be tricky to figure out and due to heavy rains in central Haiti we did need to change her travel plans to get to the second family but as far as we know everything worked out.

We enjoyed getting to know Rhonda and learning more about how to met the needs of our little ones when they join our family. Anna and Eli joined us for some of the classes.

Thankfully, Rhonda as an experienced overseas traveler and home study provider, recognized how different our lives here really are compared to most Americans and with flexibility adjusted the questions and training to better fit our situation and needs.

Tuesday Cory and I showed her a bit of Port Margot including the bakery and market. Several ladies commented on how I do not often go to market and once I was called Anna.

Wednesday we brought Rhonda back to the airport for the second home study in Haiti. We have a few pieces of paperwork to complete this week before Cory travels to LaGonave.

Praises:

• Successful home study training and visit
• Notarized bank letter obtained
• On-line training completed

Prayers:

• One last lab result to come
• Trying to find the timing of the fingerprints- here vs. in the USA in Aug. 
• Final paperwork to agencies for our dossier

Paperwork Praises

Tired after this week but a good kind of tired.

Praising the Lord for:

• Home study scheduled for June 17-19
• Thanking the Lord that a second family in Haiti can also get their needed home study done on the social worker's trip. 
• 5 envelopes in the mail for home study paperwork on Tuesday's flight:
• 2 to doctors for medical paperwork
• 1 to potential guardians-need to be prepared
• 1 to Michigan DMV to request driving records
• 1 to agency full of forms and documents
• Obtained our letters of good conduct from the justice of the peace.
• Eli and Anna's TB tests came back negative.
• Know of at least 2 reference letters sent to the agency
• Signed up for our 10 hours of on-line education
• Both Cory and I started our classes
• Both continue with our book / web site reading list and required write-ups
• Cory spoke with the Embassy and resent an e-mail, trying to learn how to get our background checks completed. 

Praying for:

• One last lab result to come.
• Trying to find the timing of the fingerprints-soon here vs. in the USA in Aug. 
• All paperwork to be done correctly and nothing lost in the mail.
• Good heath, travel, weather for the home study visit. 
• Cory to be able to get a notarized bank letter, here in Haiti.

Home Study Paperwork

This week we continued to talk to an agency in California about our home study and as of now a social worker is planning to come the week of June 17th to do the study and provide education classes.

Still smiling. 

She will be in Florida for a conference before coming down and we found a second couple roughly 60 miles south-east of us who will share in the travel costs and also have a home study done that same week.

Travel plans, finding the right flights and a seat on the plane continue to be researched but looks like she will fly in and out of Port-au-Prince. Pray she can get the needed tickets, as well as for good travel.

People flying into Cap Haitian this week experienced weather delays and early in the week the Port-au-Prince runway was closed due to a Brazilian plane running off the runway and needing to be investigated.

Homework Breakdown [home study and dossier]:

• 3 new books and written paragraphs
• 4 web sites to read and 2 sentence overview
• Forms/lists/documents [over 20 total]
• similar to first agency-5 reference letters, financial, medical, family picture, marriage and birth certificates
• new-driving records, house floor plan, guardianship form, new questions for autobiography, safe home study questionnaire, personal profiles, credit check
• Eli and Anna will need TB skin tests to complete their medical forms.
• Cory found out how to do our local police letters so we plan to head to Port Margot next week to do this.
• Cory will also need to head to the bank to ask about the bank letter soon
• Need to continue to research the how and where for our background checks.
• 10 hours each on-line classes about adoptions to be done before the home study 
• Fingerprints for back ground checks. 

Dossier and Home Study Search Progress

Progress this week but not really many items checked off the to-do list.

We learned that copies of Eli and Anna's birth certificates needed to be ordered and sent to our agency. Done.

Serious searching on-line for experienced agencies who provide over-seas adoption home studies and we identified a couple of agencies we did not know about. 

Phone calls and E-mails later we are now working with a social worker from California to arrange travel and complete applications for a potential visit in mid-June. 

A couple other missionaries in the central Plateau are also communicating with her so if it works out we could split travel costs.

Although the plans are not confirmed we will start working on the 'homework' that needs to be completed before the study. Three additional books and 4 web sites round out the reading requirements and we will need to write short paragraphs. One of the three we are working through as a family.

Both of the others I've already read, one we borrowed from friends and the last one we own on Kindle so Cory has also started his reading. 

A call from Cap let us know that our laboratory work returned from Port-au-Prince. Hoping that all the tests returned so we can send them on to the doctors for our medical letters.

Then the last document we need to complete our paperwork is a local police letter. While we've not explored the how-to a lot we did get a example copy which we will translate into French before asking for advice from a Christian police officer we know in Port Margot.