February 2, 2007
Today I finally have all my documents for my dossier apostilled!! The last one came today so I put everything together and I will FexEx it in the morning for translation! One giant step.......to have me travel by May at the latest, I hope.
Time Line:
April 2006 I am seriously thinking about adoption. I have always wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. I always had a feeling it would be through adoption, I don't know why, I just knew. I had done some reading on it, went to a seminar, and thought about it alot. I was in my chiropractors office one day and noticed a blonde woman with a blonde boy, 7, and a blonde girl, 4, who looked like her mom. I had a very strong feeling they were adopted from Russia. It was nothing they said, no accent, but I just had a very strong feeling. I went in to see my doctor and out of the blue she told me the woman in the waiting room with the children was a single mom and she adopted her children from Russia. She was praising her for adopting. I couldn't believe she told me that. How did I know? I told her I was thinking about it myself. She gave me the womans name and phone number, with the womans permission of course, and I called her. She told me her story and gave me some info but the best info she gave me was the www.frua.org website. I learned soooo much from that website. I was immediately drawn to Kazakhstan, a country I never heard of but I liked the idea of traveling blind to meet my child. I get to spend 2 weeks bonding before court and then 2 more weeks bonding after court before you arrive home. That just sounded so good to me for both my baby and I. I read about different agencies and LMI stood out to me too. Soooo.......
May 4, 2006 LMI application.
May 10, 2006 Sign contract for homestudy.
May 31, 2006 USCIS I600A, fingerprints.
June gathered some personal info, birth certs, etc.
June 26, 2006 Homestudy is pretty relaxed and goes well. I am told I will have it in about 2 weeks. I'm so excited!!
July no home study, she is away.
August no homestudy, she is away. I am asking if I can have it for August because most of my dossier is completed and I wanted to send it out for apostilles and into translation by the begining of September. I am told ok. If I get everything in for translation in September, I can travel by February 2007!!! SOOOOO Excited!!!
August 25 I get my homestudy and send it to my adoption agency to check it. There is lots of missing information. It must be redone and added to. Booo. The whole month of September is shot with revisions. Finally someone gets a final copy and my agency wants to know why there is a temporary liscence in with the homestudy. It turns out after some unreturned phone calls that I get a letter.
October 2006 Re: Agency Closing ".......a decision has been recently made to close the agency on December 1, 2006." NOW WHAT? I'm 3 months behind in getting my dossier to translation. Anyway, they transfer me to another agency, it cost me $75 (peanuts) to have the other agency rewrite the homestudy.
The new agency was good and wanted to get to it fast but there were some little things that were overlooked that took more time.
December 9, 2006 I get my completed homestudy! YEAAHHH!
December is the busiest time of the year for everyone but I have a picture framing store and you would not believe how many people are framing pictures for gifts. Every piece of art that comes in the store for Christmas MUST be done for the holidays, Christmas shopping, wrapping, cooking, dossier preparation, somethings got to give.
January 3, 2007 I grab my homestudy to make copies and then pile everything together to have it all apostilled and I just happen to see my medical date is listed wrong on the homestudy and does not match my medical form. UUUGGGGG! I'm frustrated but still able to be calm. Things happen. I call her and she sends me a correct copy.
January 14, 2007 I sent 24 documents to be apostilled.
January 21, 2007 I get them back. All but one have apostilles. I forgot to notarize my birth certificate.
January 23, 2007 I send it back for apostille.
February 1, 2007 I get it back apostilled!
February 2, 2007 I will be putting everything in a FedEx envelope with a couple checks and off it goes to translation.
Timeline to translation:
LMI to translation for 2 weeks.
Consulate for 6 weeks.
Kazakhstan.......I don't know what next. I think the biggest mound of paperwork is done. I'm just sorry someone left my homestudy hanging for so long. They never should have told me they would do my homestudy if there was a chance they wouldn't be able to follow through. But they say all these little things is what brings us to our children. I feel closer to finding her.
Today I finally have all my documents for my dossier apostilled!! The last one came today so I put everything together and I will FexEx it in the morning for translation! One giant step.......to have me travel by May at the latest, I hope.
Time Line:
April 2006 I am seriously thinking about adoption. I have always wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. I always had a feeling it would be through adoption, I don't know why, I just knew. I had done some reading on it, went to a seminar, and thought about it alot. I was in my chiropractors office one day and noticed a blonde woman with a blonde boy, 7, and a blonde girl, 4, who looked like her mom. I had a very strong feeling they were adopted from Russia. It was nothing they said, no accent, but I just had a very strong feeling. I went in to see my doctor and out of the blue she told me the woman in the waiting room with the children was a single mom and she adopted her children from Russia. She was praising her for adopting. I couldn't believe she told me that. How did I know? I told her I was thinking about it myself. She gave me the womans name and phone number, with the womans permission of course, and I called her. She told me her story and gave me some info but the best info she gave me was the www.frua.org website. I learned soooo much from that website. I was immediately drawn to Kazakhstan, a country I never heard of but I liked the idea of traveling blind to meet my child. I get to spend 2 weeks bonding before court and then 2 more weeks bonding after court before you arrive home. That just sounded so good to me for both my baby and I. I read about different agencies and LMI stood out to me too. Soooo.......
May 4, 2006 LMI application.
May 10, 2006 Sign contract for homestudy.
May 31, 2006 USCIS I600A, fingerprints.
June gathered some personal info, birth certs, etc.
June 26, 2006 Homestudy is pretty relaxed and goes well. I am told I will have it in about 2 weeks. I'm so excited!!
July no home study, she is away.
August no homestudy, she is away. I am asking if I can have it for August because most of my dossier is completed and I wanted to send it out for apostilles and into translation by the begining of September. I am told ok. If I get everything in for translation in September, I can travel by February 2007!!! SOOOOO Excited!!!
August 25 I get my homestudy and send it to my adoption agency to check it. There is lots of missing information. It must be redone and added to. Booo. The whole month of September is shot with revisions. Finally someone gets a final copy and my agency wants to know why there is a temporary liscence in with the homestudy. It turns out after some unreturned phone calls that I get a letter.
October 2006 Re: Agency Closing ".......a decision has been recently made to close the agency on December 1, 2006." NOW WHAT? I'm 3 months behind in getting my dossier to translation. Anyway, they transfer me to another agency, it cost me $75 (peanuts) to have the other agency rewrite the homestudy.
The new agency was good and wanted to get to it fast but there were some little things that were overlooked that took more time.
December 9, 2006 I get my completed homestudy! YEAAHHH!
December is the busiest time of the year for everyone but I have a picture framing store and you would not believe how many people are framing pictures for gifts. Every piece of art that comes in the store for Christmas MUST be done for the holidays, Christmas shopping, wrapping, cooking, dossier preparation, somethings got to give.
January 3, 2007 I grab my homestudy to make copies and then pile everything together to have it all apostilled and I just happen to see my medical date is listed wrong on the homestudy and does not match my medical form. UUUGGGGG! I'm frustrated but still able to be calm. Things happen. I call her and she sends me a correct copy.
January 14, 2007 I sent 24 documents to be apostilled.
January 21, 2007 I get them back. All but one have apostilles. I forgot to notarize my birth certificate.
January 23, 2007 I send it back for apostille.
February 1, 2007 I get it back apostilled!
February 2, 2007 I will be putting everything in a FedEx envelope with a couple checks and off it goes to translation.
Timeline to translation:
LMI to translation for 2 weeks.
Consulate for 6 weeks.
Kazakhstan.......I don't know what next. I think the biggest mound of paperwork is done. I'm just sorry someone left my homestudy hanging for so long. They never should have told me they would do my homestudy if there was a chance they wouldn't be able to follow through. But they say all these little things is what brings us to our children. I feel closer to finding her.
1 comment:
Yippeeee!!!! You're on your way.
Congratulations! You've gotten through all that paperwork. That was a huge obstacle. Of course, now we know it's still a few months away. But this was the turning point and it all started to feel real for the first time. You're going to be a Mommy!
Love, Patty
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