Baby steps

After two weeks, finally, Tom Baxter has sent the addendum to USCIS.

I called Beesh yesterday to see if there was any news from Tom since he has never answered my emails, and I couldn't find his phone number. She said she had just spoken with him and that he had finally received the paperwork from her last week, which is a contradiction to what she had told be before, but, oh well, and he had finished writing the addendum and was preparing to send it out. I'm hoping that means this week. All I can really say at this point is, I would not adopt through WIAA. Thankfully, this should be the last dealing we have with them until we do our post placement visits and 6 months post adoption and 18 months post adoption.

Changes in the wind

We may be changing agencies after all. In calculating the costs we will end up paying for Mr Li's, AAI's in country attorney, travel expenses , and what we get for our money just doesnt seem worth it. AAI ends up being over $3000 more expensive than the other agency we are looking at, Families Through International Adoption(FTIA).

AAI wants $5075 up front to send our dossier to China. FTIA only wants $3000.
AAI charges $3350 for the referral and associated expenses, FTIA charges $1000.
AAI will then want us to pay $6180 in China for the remaining adoption fees, plus, we have to pay for Mr. Li's airfare, room, board and expenses if our daughter is in a province other than Guangdong, where he lives, plus, we have to pay his taxi fares and a daily fee regardless of which province she is in for Mr Li to complete the paperwork portion of the adoption, and then, he won't even spend any time helping us get to or from the airports, or help us navigate China when we aren't on official appointments.

FTIA charges $7560 in China, and provides a full time guide who stays in the same hotel we are in, and accompanies us at all official appointments, assists with the paperwork, and will be our escort wherever we go, including to and from the airports. Baseline difference is $3045 which would end up closer to $4000 to $5000 with Mr Li's expenses, depending on where in China our daughter is.

So, we are seriously going through the process of switching agencies, just waiting for the new list to come out just in case she is on AAI's private list. If she isn't, we are switching.

This week will likely have our paperwork moving forward again, with the i797c USCIS approval, finally.

Then, onto the Utah Secretary of State, and then the whole dossier goes off to Washington for the paperwork courier service to have US certified and Chinese Embassy authenticated. Then, we are done.

It's all coming together, I think.

Hooray for California

It finally came. Beesh from WIAA just called me to tell me that Jared from California called her this morning to ask for her email address. He immediately sent over our clearance, and she faxed it, along with the others, over to Tom Baxter for him to write the addendum.

Now we just wait for him to get that done and sent to USCIS, and we should hear from them shortly after they recieve it.

Phew, we are so close, it is almost scary.

Sigh

Another week has come and gone, and still we are waiting to complete our immigration paperwork.

It would appear that Jared in California did not locate a manager to sign the form, and it will have to wait until the office managers get back in town next week. I guess we will just have to be patient through this last weekend, and hopefully, next week will be full of progress.

It is highly likely that, once WIAA receives the email from Jared, they will send the addendum to USCIS showing all our backgrounds completed. USCIS may well be ready to just email us the approval letter in advance of it being mailed to us. We could be approved by the week's end.

Well, maybe I should be happy with the week after that.

Once I get that email, I will be off to the state capital to finalize our dossier.

Almost, but, not quite

Well, I spoke to Sharon in California yesterday and she said her part of the background clearance was done and that she forwarded our paperwork over to someone named Jared. So, I called him today and after searching through about 500 (according to him) other documents, he found ours, and that he just needed to have a manager sign it and he would then email it to Wasatch.

So, it's done, but, the problem is that all the managers are out of the office til next week, at least all the managers who usually sign those clearances. He said he was going to try to find a manager to sign it, and hopefully he will get it to Beesh by tomorrow.

Ky said our medical clearances will be good for a year, so, I am stressing a lot less now about that, but, still, can we get this over with please.

Patiently waiting

Our Minnesota, Idaho and South Dakota clearances are all in. Still waiting for California.

Mindy's pageant stuff is getting busier and busier. She had dinner with Miss Utah and Miss Salem last night, with the other contestants. Now we have a hair appointment on Saturday, pictures next week, and a host of other activities over the next 6 or so weeks until the pageant.

If California doesnt come in by tomorrow, I will be calling Sonya at the Ca office on Monday morning.

Still waiting

Tim's South Dakota background clearance came in on Monday. Still waiting for California and Idaho.

I've been so busy with Mindy's pageant prep stuff that I haven't been able to dwell on it, so, that's good. Next week, though, things won't be so busy. Gotta get this stuff done.

Hope for the week to come

Here I am on Saturday, sitting at work, wondering if this week will bring forward movement with our USCIS approval. We need to have our California background check come in, and I believe it will. The lady at the office in Ca. seemed to be on the ball when I spoke to her last week. She was very helpful, and it all sounded done except for the paper she needed from WIAA. I know they got that on Thursday, so, hopefully that will come in early next week.

We are waiting on Tim's background clearances from Idaho and South Dakota. We haven't heard anything from them, so, if nothing comes in next week, I will have to start making phone calls.

This whole mess is due to the Hague treaty requiring background checks done for every state, and/or, country you have lived since you were 18 years old. We have lived in Utah for 26 years, but, that isn't good enough for the Hague. Luckily, Tim was stationed at only one air base the entire four years he was in the Air Force, so, that cut down the number of places to check.

Oh please, let it all come in this week so we can finally get our paperwork finished. Now that Mindy is done with Nationals and the play, we only have Miss Salem to prepare for, so, my mind is starting to have more time to think about the adoption. Not a good thing.

still crawling forward

Our Minnesota background checks came in today, both clear, of course. We had two paperwork delays, one for Tim's SD background check, Beesh sent us the wrong form, so we corrected that and sent it again.
The second was a request from CA for the agency, WIAA, to send them an official request to have the background done, which was faxed yesterday. No word on Idaho, so far.

Tim's birth certificate came back in all certified and ready to go.

Just waiting on the backgrounds, one down, three to go.