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.

Another step forward

Our marriage certificate and my birth certificate are both back all nicely certified and ready to be packed with the dossier. Maryland is so fast, I was astonished that they came back so quickly. Hopefully, everything else will go this smoothly from here on out.

Beginning of a long week

This week is probably going to be the longest of them all. Everything will be in limbo while all the paperwork is processed. I am praying that next week I can start to see some things coming in. It may be the week after, but, oh please, let it be next week. The good news is, once it starts to roll in, it should happen very quickly and our paperwork will finally be done. I can wait a bit longer for that.

Paperchasing

Myleigh asked me why I call it paperchasing when the paper can't move, it just sits there.

Today I mailed out all the background check forms for South Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, and California. Yesterday I sent off my birth certificate and our marriage certificate for certification in Maryland. Tomorrow I will be sending Tim's birth certificate, which finally came in the mail, back to Minnesota for certification.

When the background checks come back, I expect our USCIS approval will be quickly on its way. Once it arrives, I will take it and all the Utah documents up to the state capital for certification. Then, we will be done with our end of the paperchase.

Background checks

I should have actually predicted this, but, we just barely got the applications for background checks from WIAA. Apparently, they moved offices and in the change over, somehow, in this age of technology and portability, they did not have computer access to get the info to me until Friday. We have waited two weeks since finding out about their failure, and now, we have to continue to wait while these checks are processed.

I know I should be patient, and that all things happen for a reason, but, it's hard to accept that they could not access this info from another computer somewhere, especially since it was their error not ours.

I do work from home, everyone does work from home, everyone has access to a computer, even if it means going to the local library. How could it take two weeks? I guess it will all make sense eventually.

So, today is about getting our paperwork together and packed up for mailing or faxing tomorrow. Then, more waiting.

Dossier status

Now that we have nearly all the documents we need, this is the status of our dossier to date.

I need to get our marriage certificate and my birth certificate packaged and sent to the Maryland Secretary of State for authentication.

I am waiting for the I800a from the USCIS, and then will package all the Utah documents and walk them into the Utah Secretary of State office for authentication.

As soon as Tims birth certificate gets here, I will turn that right back around and send it to the Minnesota Secretary of State office for authentication.

I need to take a bunch of family life photos, make copies of both our passport pages, and we both need to have 3 or 4 passport sized photos taken.

Our financial statement is being notarized probably tonight.

Once all the authentications are done, we package all of it up and send it to AAI for them to get the final authentications from the United States Secretary of State, and, the Chinese consulate in Washington DC, and then it is sent to China.

Truly, the longest part of the process is almost over. Once the I800a gets here, the rest will go pretty fast. Then we just look for our little girl, and wait for PreApproval (PA) from China.

Oh boy, a big step forward.

Today we had our fingerprints done for USCIS (immigration) and both passed with no problems. We were in and out of the office in about 15 minutes. I am so relieved.

Also, our marriage certificate arrived in the mail today. Finally, I can send the Maryland and the Utah documents to be state certified.

All we are waiting on now is Tim birth certificate, and the background checks from Ca, SD, MN, and Id to come back and our I800a should be quickly approved.

and yet another step back

Did we even make any progress, it's hard to see if we did at this point.

The agency that did our homestudy, WIAA, failed to complete the background checks in all states we have lived since we were 18. Tim lived in Mn, SD, ID, CA, and Ut, and I lived in MN, CA, and UT. They only checked Utah, and since we have lived here for 26 years, except for the three months in California back in 1986, it really seems foolish to me that we have to jump through this hoop, but, it's a Hague convention requirement, and most of their requirements are fairly rediculous anyway.

I am not the least bit concerned about the checks, they will be routine, and hopefully quick. It's just that it adds more weeks, probably, to this process. Since we still don't have our marriage cert, and Tim's birth cert has been delayed by weeks, I guess that's not going to be a huge hairy deal, but, still, I just want this part to be over already.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and another step back

USCIS processing office sent me an email today asking for clarification on the other places we have lived since we were 18. I looked in our homestudy, and sure enough, it was not spelled out that those places were checked and cleared.

I mailed Tim's birth cert request again. I emailed a copy of the letter from USCIS to both Beesh at WIAA and to our SW Tom.

Please, don't let this be the other shoe I keep waiting for. I still have not seen our marriage certificate come in the mail, it seems to be taking a very long time. Sigh

Two steps forward one step back

Well, we got our fingerprint appointments scheduled for March 6th, which is this Friday. Then I got the application for Tim's birth certificate returned to me in the mail. I had somehow, adoption brain or something, post dated the check for March. So, they returned the whole thing to me. ARGH!!!

Tomorrow I will mail it out, again, and pray it doesn't take too long.

We're logged in

The paper came in the mail today from USCIS. Our documents were received on Feb 11th. That isn't our official log in date, but, pretty close to it. I have sent an email to USCIS for confirmation of the actual log in date, but, it should be within a few days of the 11th. Our fingerprint appointment should be some time in March, possibly the first week in March. Approvals are taking around 30 days, so, we may know if we have been approved for immigration of a Chinese orphan by, oh, about March 15th or so.

I am packaging the Utah documents, all 7 of them, to be certified by the Utah Secretary of State's office. That will take a few weeks, which is fine, since our I800a approval from USCIS will be about a month away anyway. I am still waiting on Tim birth cert and our marriage cert to get here, so I can get them state certified in their respective states.

Then, our paperchase is done, and everything gets authenticated in Washington DC. We are almost done.

Just waiting

It has been 18 days since we sent our USCIS paperwork in. Several other families that sent theirs on the same day have recieved word that their documents are being reviewed. We have not gotten any news yet, but, I am not going to fret about that til we get closer to the end of next week and have not heard anything by then.

Tim's birth cert and our marriage cert are not back yet either, but, again, not worrying about that yet.

In watching the stats for USCIS approvals, it is getting even shorter, with the average being about 30 days now, so, we may actually, barring any problems, be approved in the next two weeks. That would be incredible, since the approvals were taking until 90 days minimum when we started this process in September.