Medical Appointments and Finished Notarizing!

So our medical certificates from Taiwan are due to expire in May 2012.  We didn't think that would wind up being a problem, but because the homestudy took so long it really adjusted our timeline. So I made 6 doctor appointments for yesterday and today in order for the embassy doctor here to fill out new medical certificates for the 6 of us.  The doctor was nice enough to follow me down to the notary's office and have them notarized as well.  The same day!

That meant I could put all 27 of my notarized/authenticated documents in a Priority Mail box!  Tomorrow I will mail all these to a courier in DC so he can walk them into the State Department and the Kenyan embassy for the national level authentications.  It takes two business days at the US State Dept (because they only allow 15 documents per day) and five business days at the Kenyan embassy.  The total is $1944 for all the documents.  The Kenyan embassy charges $50 per document, hence the steep price!

These are the documents in my package:

1.       6 Notarized Medical Certificates (one for each member of the household)

2.       6 Birth Certificates (one for each member of the household)

3.       FBI Background Checks

4.       Guardian Birth Certificates (2) and Marriage License

5.       Guardian Letter of Consent

6.       Inquiry on Prospective Adopters Form

7.       Kenya Police Checks

8.     Marriage License

9.   Kevin and Jessica Passport Certified

10.   Pastoral Reference

11.   Personal Reference

12.   Report on Financial Means Form

13.   Report on Fixed Means Form

14.   Taiwan Background Checks

15.   Undertaking by Adopters Form

16.   The Homestudy/Homestudy Approval Letter from CAS

Again, just like with the i800a application, I pray all these documents are exactly correct and that nothing must be redone and resubmitted.  Lord bless this package as it quickly travels to DC and then travels back to me unharmed!

Faxing Dossier Docs for Review

Oh I'm so excited to be at this next step!!
I am photocopying all my dossier documents and faxing them to my Stateside agency for review.  I want to make sure everything is correct before I mail them to the courier.
Hopefully I can send off 28 of my 30 documents to the courier on Wednesday.  I think that if we do this NOW, then I'll have time to correct any mistakes in the paperwork since we are waiting on our i800a approval anyway.  But I am praying there are NO mistakes and NONE of the paperwork has to be redone.
We've had to redo our Guardian's Letter of Consent as well as our 6 medical forms. Hopefully that's all!

Mailed my i800a application!

We mailed our i800a application this morning!
So much has gone into this so far to get to this point.
Ah, maybe this will actually happen in the time we are here.
Thank you Jesus!!

Here's what was in the envelope:
1. Notarized Homestudy
2. Homestudy Approval Letter from CAS
3. Two sets of fingerprints (Kevin and me- only one is required, but submitted two in case there were problems with one of them)
4. Application fee, check written for $890
5. i800a Application
6. Consent to Disclose Info Form (in case USCIS has questions, they can contact our US agency instead of sending it all back to me here in Kenya)
7. E-Notification of Acceptance Form (which states USCIS will email me when they receive my application)

The ladies in the USCIS office yesterday said the i800a approvals are coming through much faster than expected lately.  She said adoptions are their top priority. That was nice to hear!  So prayer warriors, pray that all our information on the application is completely accurate and that approval will come quickly.

I have to commend our state-side agency, Carolina Adoption Services.  Marie received our homestudy via fax from me Thursday around noon and literally emailed me our Homestudy Approval Letter (which is required for the i800a application) that same afternoon.  That's the only reason I was able to file the i800a so fast.  So, wow, thanks to CAS for working so hard on my case!!

Received my Homestudy...Waiting to file i800a!

Well this is a busy week regarding the adoption process.
The funny thing with this process is, I can sit here for months with nothing to do. Then all of a sudden when the agency calls to tell me my Homestudy is ready (for example), then I have to drop everything else and the next step takes top priority in our family.  Luckily for us this is spring break!  No school!

So Monday morning I chatted with the folks at LAN about picking up the notarized copies of my Homestudy that afternoon.  I first took the agency homestudy payment to the bank (around US$1850). It took me a while to find the bank, as it wasn't where the bank's website indicated.  I had to drive a bit, and the bank was off the side of the road in a very crowded, dusty, trash-filled part of town. Yikes.  While in the bank the electricity kept turning off and on, everyone was staring at me, and I literally felt like I was about to have a nervous breakdown.  I was very much outside my comfort zone with that much money in hand!  Thankfully we made it out safely!  (Sometimes here in Nairobi I feel like I am in the middle of a movie. I keep looking around for video cameras.  Is this real?)

So then I hired a driver, secured the kids with our household helper, and took off down the road toward the agency to collect my papers.  I was supposed to be there between 3:30-4:00.  At 3:15, while driving toward their office, LAN called to tell me my homestudy wasn't ready for pickup after all.  Folks, I lost it.  I just completely lost all mental faculties. I was crying so hard.  (Apparently it was my mistake.  Apparently she had told me she would call me first to make sure it would be ready at 3:30pm.  Sorry, English is my first language.  Sometimes I miss things over the phone.  What I recall from the conversation was that they would call me at 2:30 if something came up.  Which they didn't.  Whatever.  Time means something completely different here.)

The lady on the line asked if I could just come the next day to pick it up. I realize she has no idea the effort it takes me to do anything in this foreign country.  Cause that's what I am here: a foreigner.  Nothing is familiar to me.  Nothing is easy for me. Not even driving two miles down the road.  Not even sending an email.

So I went back home completely broken and devastated and tired of obstacles.  Exhausted and sick of obstacles.  And exhausted from crying so much.  I asked my husband if we should just get pregnant and give up on the adoption.  Yes, that's how upset I felt. So I drove the kids to Planet Yogurt and stuffed my face with chocolate yogurt with M&Ms on top (even though I'm fasting sugar for Lent. Yikes!).  Then I got a phone call from a dear friend.  She reminded me of who is the author of obstacles.  She told me that I am a strong woman, and that maybe we were chosen for this particular child because someone else might have given up much sooner.  And that's exactly the word I needed.

So the homestudy folks canceled my appointment and rescheduled for the next day.  Big deal, right?  But this has now been a 13 month process for us.  This is the hardest thing I have ever done.  I'm still so scared that toward the end we won't be able to finish the process in time, and we'll have to leave the country without our baby.  So we will just keep pursuing and trying to get it done the fastest that we can.

I keep saying that this requires a Miracle in every step of the process from here on out.  So, Jesus, we are depending on You!

Homestudy is Ready for Pickup!

Caroline at Little Angels called today and said our Finalized, Notarized Homestudy would be ready for pickup on Monday afternoon. Woo-Hoo!!!

CAS is brilliant!

I am so impressed with my State-side agency, Carolina Adoption Services.

Dang, they are efficient!  Little Angels emailed them a copy of our final homestudy last week, and the Program Director at CAS only spent one day reviewing and making revisions/corrections.  That makes me happy.

So CAS sent the revision back to LAN, and now we wait for LAN to print it and notarize it.

Then LAN will need to return these documents to CAS (I wonder if it's by email or mail??):

-           the notarized homestudy with LAN's agency license attached,

-           verification of completion of 10 hours of Hague-compliant education,

-           a copy of the completed Homestudy Certification form, 

-           and the completed Community Resource Study.

After CAS recieves these documents from LAN, they will issue me a homestudy approval letter.  This approval letter must be included with my i800a application along with the notarized homestudy, our fingerprints, and a check for the fee.  So I can't mail the i800a yet!  But we are getting closer!