September update from NLL

We received our monthly update on the kiddos. They are healthy and doing well :))))))




Yesterday we got our appointment card in the mail from USCIS to go get our fingerprints. We will go a week from Tuesday. This means not only are we one step closer, I also get an unexpected day off.... they assign you an appointment and you make it. I guess they figure if you can afford to adopt, you can afford to take a day off to make your appointment.

Unfortunately we have not heard anything back from the Haitian Consulate. These are the people who we are waiting on to mail us back some forms we need. We have to have the forms to send with our paperwork. We are hoping to have it in time to send it with our friend, who is leaving for Haiti on Thursday. Please pray, keep your fingers crossed, think good thoughts.... whatever it is you do. We REALLY need to get this form by Wednesday so that we can send all of our paperwork to Haiti on Thursday morning. It will be very costly for us if we can't send it with our friend and we have to end up Fed-Exing it.

Happy 2nd Birthday James!

Our little guy is turning 2 today! While he is in an orphanage in Haiti, not knowing that today is any different from any other, we are wishing he was here with us. We celebrated by having a bunch of friends over to watch the Cowboys game. We hope and pray that by this time next year, we can have a REAL birthday party with the birthday boy home to celebrate with us!! Happy birthday James!! And may you get through the terrible two's super fast.........

Waiting on the Haitian Consulate

We are SO so so close to be done with all of this paperwork! Yesterday we received our translated dossier back from the lady in France. Today, Brandon mailed off the four documents that need authentication from the Haitian Consulate in Miami. Once we receive those back, we will be ready to send everything off to Haiti!!!! A friend from church is leaving October 6th to go to the orphanage and is on standby to deliver our dossier to Dr. Bernard. Please please please pray we have our documents back in time. Otherwise we will have to mail everything there. That will not only be very costly, but also not as reliable. I would feel much better knowing it is being hand delivered, rather than sitting in a mailbox.

I will be so relieved once this part is done. It has been very stressful going through the home study process and gathering all the documents, going from appointment to appointment and writing letter after letter. Making sure documents get to the right place and that you send the right amount of money. Getting things notarized and having friends write letters on your behalf. UGH! I, for one, never knew there were so many governmental agencies with so many different purposes. Or that one agency could have several different addresses in the same city... really?!

Secretary of State

On Friday, Brandon drove down to Austin and got some of the documents authenticated by the Secretary of State. 3 hours there, 20 minutes getting the documents stamped, and 3 hours back.

Yesterday, we mailed off our I-600 A application, along with a hefty check to the USCIS office in Dallas. We will wait to hear if we are approved by them to adopt.

In the next couple of days, we will be scanning all of our documents and emailing them to Isabelle in France to translate everything into French. She will email them back, we will print them off, and then we have to mail some of them to the Haitian consulate in Miami to approve them. Then once we get that back, we will send the documents (known as the dossier in adoption lingo) to Haiti!!

After the dossier gets to Haiti, we will wait patiently and pray that the powers to be will do their job quickly so we can get the kiddos home :)

Something to look forward to... in 4 months, I will be on a plane to see my babies in Haiti!! SO. VERY. EXCITED!!!!

August update from NLL

I had anxiously been awaiting our August update on the kids. It finally came in my email. I got the following email:

Good morning Lori and Family,

We are happy to send you update of your children for the month of August. First, they doing well, Jovanika have one's hair cut because she was sick, but now everything is ok.

Jovanika's weight is 30 pound and height is 36 cm
James's weight is 26 pound and height is 32 cm

James was some capricious this month but they are well by grace of the Lord.

Best Regards

Nore /NLL

What?! First of all, I had to look up what "capricious" meant. As Brandon said, it sounds like we may have a house full of attitudes! But more importantly, I am worried about Jovanika. As any moms know, it is a bit alarming to get an email that says your child is sick and we had to cut off all her hair!! Immediately I want to know what was she sick with? Did she get lice? This is the hardest part of all of this.... you have no idea what is going on. I am very thankful however that whatever it is, they took care of it and she is ok now.

Here is the picture we got. Looks like James is still being "some capricious" and Jovanika is still beautiful even without her hair.

Phych Evals & Fingerprints

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.

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!!!!