Everyone keeps wanting an update! Unfortunately, everything has been moving pretty slow, so I haven't had much. Til last week!
We were waiting and waiting and waiting to get our home study back. Turns out the people LOST our fingerprints, so they were unable to give us the home study until they got the prints back with a clear criminal history. It was a problem, because they weren't cheap to do, and of course the finger print people wanted us to pay to redo them. And we were not wanting to do that, since it wasn't our error. After going in circles for about 3 weeks, we finally got it resolved. They decided to "waive" our finger prints and release the home study to us. Whew! I'm fairly certain with me being a teacher and Brandon working for the government, we have had very extensive background checks done on both of us. But I digress... Bottom line is.... IT'S DONE! And we got our notarized copies in the mail last week.
We also were waiting and waiting and waiting to get our psych eval back from the psychologist. You see, apparently he was moving, so he had to put us on hold. Must be nice to have a job where you can not work for 3 weeks while you work. I suppose he got everything moved, because we got our letter and we are done with that part, too!
Now, we have to find a day to drive down to Austin and get some documents authenticated by the Secretary of State. We also have to file our I-600A with the USCIS office. We were already to mail in the paperwork. Then we noticed the $890 filing fee!!! Ouch. When is payday again??
As soon as those get done, we will get our documents all translated and mail them off to Haiti. My goal is to have them in Haiti by the end of September.
So that's it. It is amazing the time and money that goes into this process. On paper it looks like it should be fairly easy. You don't realize how much of it you have to depend on other people for. And not all people (especially psychologists) are on your schedule.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
An update from Haiti
This week I received an update on Jovanika and James. I received this picture:
I don't think James was too thrilled about his photo op! Looks like sweet Jovanika was trying to comfort him. The whole time we were in Haiti together, whenever she saw another child crying, she would hold their hand or rub their arm to comfort them. I loved that about her.
The email we got was short and sweet updating us on their height and weight and letting us know that they were very healthy. I would prefer a daily update telling me what they had for lunch, who they played with that day, and if they brushed their teeth.... but I guess this will have to do.
That's probably been one of the highlight of my week. Brandon has been out of town working. So I've been in single mom mode. Haven't cooked one meal. Unless cereal counts as cooking, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't. While we haven't been busy cooking, we have been busy with playdates, swimming with friends, going out to lunch (and dinner), and making mental notes of the things I need to do to get ready for school.
Oh! And getting our home study completed!!!
OUR HOME STUDY IS DONE!!!!
Probably not near as exciting for you as it is for me. But that means we have collected all of our paperwork we need. We have been interviewed for 3 hours. We have gotten our vet records for the pets. We have gotten fingerprinted and background checked. We have gotten cleared by the police department. We've even passed a psych evaluation, although if it had been this week I may have failed.
So now I am waiting to get the notarized copies in the mail and then we are ready to send them in to USCIS to get approved. And take it to Austin to get authenticated by the Secretary of State. Then we will get them translated and ready to send to Haiti!!!!
I don't think James was too thrilled about his photo op! Looks like sweet Jovanika was trying to comfort him. The whole time we were in Haiti together, whenever she saw another child crying, she would hold their hand or rub their arm to comfort them. I loved that about her.
The email we got was short and sweet updating us on their height and weight and letting us know that they were very healthy. I would prefer a daily update telling me what they had for lunch, who they played with that day, and if they brushed their teeth.... but I guess this will have to do.
That's probably been one of the highlight of my week. Brandon has been out of town working. So I've been in single mom mode. Haven't cooked one meal. Unless cereal counts as cooking, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't. While we haven't been busy cooking, we have been busy with playdates, swimming with friends, going out to lunch (and dinner), and making mental notes of the things I need to do to get ready for school.
Oh! And getting our home study completed!!!
OUR HOME STUDY IS DONE!!!!
Probably not near as exciting for you as it is for me. But that means we have collected all of our paperwork we need. We have been interviewed for 3 hours. We have gotten our vet records for the pets. We have gotten fingerprinted and background checked. We have gotten cleared by the police department. We've even passed a psych evaluation, although if it had been this week I may have failed.
So now I am waiting to get the notarized copies in the mail and then we are ready to send them in to USCIS to get approved. And take it to Austin to get authenticated by the Secretary of State. Then we will get them translated and ready to send to Haiti!!!!
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