Very Good News

I received an early Christmas present.  Immigration sent me a favorable determination to adopt.  It only took them 6 weeks when it normally can take up to 3 months.  I find myself way behind now in preparing my dosier.  I have several things I have to complete before sending it off to the State of Texas to get approved.  I didn't really expect to hear from Immigration until the end of January.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season, and here is to the New Year.

Pictures, pictures, pictures, and then there are Photographs

You should all check out my friend Karina's photographs.  I need to figure out how to add a link to her website.  You may be able to look under Karina Boese Photography, but I am not sure.  She takes pictures everyday of whatever looks interesting.  She can make the ordinary look extraordinary.  Funny thing I haven't seen any pics of her good friend Rachelle on her site.  Hmmm!  Seriously, check her pics out.  They are amazing.

Pictures

I forgot to answer the question about if I have seen any pictures of children yet.  I will not see any pictures before I travel to Kazakhstan.  In fact, I don't think I will see any pictures at all.  I will see the child that the Kazak government picks out for me when I get there.  I have to right to refuse or accept the child once I get  to know them and go through the bonding period.

First Set of Fingerprints Done!

So my mother and I went to Immigration today and got fingerprinted.  We are officially in the FBI database.  My mother wondered out loud, "I wonder if I am already in their database."  I thought they were going to double check to see if she needed to be arrested.

We have to go to the local police station and get fingerprinted there and sent it in the the FBI.  It seems redundant and a waste of time and money.  I have a ton of other things to do.  I have to wait for the approval from Immigration to adopt, get more statements from my doctor, mortgage company, and bank.  I have a ton of other forms I have already filled out.  Once I get the approval from Immigration I will have all of my multiple forms notarized and then send everything to the Secretary of the State of Texas to be approved.  Then it goes from translation before being sent to Kazakhstan.  I then wait for the approval from the Kazak government and their invitation to go to their country.

So I still have a long way to go.

Have a great Holiday Season.  Peace out!

Fingerprints

I received the instructions today from Immigration for my mother and I to go and get fingerprinted.  We have to go on a Tuesday or Thursday between 8 AM and 11AM.  This week is out because I will be traveling, next week is out because I am having my Wisdom Teeth taken out on Tuesday and Thursday is Thanksgiving, so we will have to go the following week.  We have 84 days to get them done, so we are ok.

This weekend has been exhausting.  I went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday and let me just say, I will not be going back for a really long time.  My advise to anyone planning to go the last 2 weekends is get there early and leave early.  We waited over 2 hours in the parking lot trying to get out.  We would have waited at least another hour if our wonderful driver (go Dave) decided to find another route.  When I woke up Sunday I was super tired.  I guess all of the waiting wore me out.

Now I am watching the Amazing Race watching the teams travel the world and wondering when I will be going to Kazakhstan.

I hope you all are doing well out there.  Let me hear from you.

R

I finally have something to say...

After what seemed like an eternal delay, I finally received the official Home Study today.  I will be overnighting it to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Office tomorrow.  I then wait a few weeks and the work really begins.  I will have to gather a ton of information for the dossier, have it notarized, then send to the Secretary of State for Texas to be apostille.  This means that the Secretary of State will verify that everything I am reporting is accurate.

So things are moving along.  Keep posted!

Back Home

I just got back from Vegas tonight.  I went for a quick weekend trip.  It went by so quick and I am tired.  I am still waiting for the official Home Study report so I can send it off. I was told I would get it this week.  I feel like this process is very slowly grinding along.  Maybe I will hear something tomorrow.  I am going to bed.

Thanks Jennifer

It was great to hear from you Jennifer.  I appreciate the support.

I don't have anything new to talk about.  I thought I would hear from my agency today about the Home Study.  I am anxious to send the Home Study off the Immigration.

Questions

I have received a couple of questions.  The first one was how did I pick an adoption agency and the second was what is a Home Study?

It was really a challenge picking an agency.  It isn't everyday that someone adopts internationally.  So I investigated via the internet.  There are many agencies with flashy sites and others with boring/bland sites.  What I found is that many of the agencies that I attempted to contact never responded to my requests.  The ones that did responded a week or two later, and then there were those that were associated with one religion or another. Some agencies do not even work with Single Women, like we have the plague or something.  So it was easy to narrow it down.  At that point I looked for non-profit agencies and looked to see who was on their board.  Educators and service oriented folks (nurses, social workers) seemed to be on the boards of the better agencies.  Then I researched which countries I would consider adopting from.  There are not many countries that currently have an agreement with the US for adoption.  I had really thought I would go with a South American country, but there aren't any currently with an agreement with us.  Kazakhstan was an easy choice because their children tend to be much healthier than the other countries we work with.

So I called and emailed a bunch of agencies and then one night I found (with the help of my mom) European Adoption Consultants or EAC.  It was about 9PM and their website said that they have someone in their call center until 10 PM Eastern.  So I called and the phone was answered immediately.  The consultant then spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone with me answering my 25 plus questions that I had prepared.  I felt very good about this agency and I took it from there.

Ok, a Home Study is where a Social Worker interviews me at my home and collects all kinds of information on me and then fills out an extensive report explaining why or why not they recommend me for adoption.  I had to get a criminal background, provide a proof of insurance, give them info. on my financial situation, and a bunch of other things.

I hope I answered your questions.  Keep them coming.

Rachelle

Received the first draft of the Home Study Today

It was really weird to read my life on paper. And no you can't read it!

ARGH!

I typed a long message yesterday and for some reason it didn't get posted. What's even worse is I don't remember what I wrote. My mother would say, "then it wasn't very important." I am sure she would be right.

So today I spent an hour on the phone with Sara from the adoption agency going over the next 50 forms that I get to fill out. I sware I am buried in paperwork and it isn't work. So in about three to four weeks I will be getting finger printed. Things are moving along, but it isn't very interesting stuff right now.

Oh yeah, it costs $200 per person who travels with me to Kazakhstan. This is obviously the travel charges. It is what has to be paid to the Kazak government just to be allowed to travel to their country. I have to pay them to go there? It doesn't make sense to me, but what can you do.

Test

This is a test

WOW - I now have a blog!

I started the adoption process on 8/11/09 when I decided to work with the European Adoption Agency (EAC) which is based out of Ohio. I have kept a journal of the steps I have taken so far, but I think most everyone will find them boring. So I will save the previous journals for my future child. WOW, that is weird to say that.

The posts will be very slow for a while until it gets closer to my visits to Kazakhstan. There is so much that has to happen before I travel to the other side of the world. So I will post as interesting things happen.

I appreciate everyone's support during this process. It is going to be a long one.

Rachelle