We are now REALLY home study approved! Yahoo! We received our addendum on Friday afternoon and had it at the post office before closing!
Of course, that was a Friday so, while it had reached the USCIS office Saturday, it could not be delivered until yesterday. We must have checked the USPS confirmation site 20 times yesterday...not an easy feat since we are having internet issues and only get connected about 1 out of 5 tries. By 3:00, they STILL had not updated their website and I was getting edgy!
Chris finally called and got confirmation that it had, indeed, been delivered! Now, we just wait some more. We have heard rumors that the process is going MUCH faster these days and we will probably have approval within a month. I refuse to get my hopes up too high, though, because our luck has not been great in this area so far.
As soon as we get immigration clearance, we can begin assembling our dossier and get our paperwork in country, hopefully in time to be considered when they do their next referrals in June.
Please continue to pray for the process, the fundraising, and for the orphans and people of Uganda.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Home study in Hand...Almost
We have reached another milestone! Sort of! Last week, we got an email telling us that we should be receiving our approved Home study at any time. We excitedly (perhaps obsessively) began checking our mail...back door...front door...garage door, etc. for the "golden" package. Finally, on Friday afternoon, it arrived. We began to make plans to get it in the mail along with our I600A form to send to USCIS. Friday evening, Chris finally got a chance to begin reading through it (It may or may not have been during the Science Fair awards ceremony). Unfortunately, he found a mistake. Five little words that were left out. Evidently, five very important words. Words assuring that he had been cleared in a background check.
Worried that that could cause a problem down the road, we sent an email to our agency. Of course, it was the weekend, so nothing could be done until Monday morning. We naively thought that they could just amend the words and email us a new copy that could be switched with the other. We were wrong. Because that would be simple. And if we have learned one thing in this adoption process, it is that NOTHING is simple! We were told that we would need to get an addendum to be added to the original document.
SO, we are now waiting on our addendum. We have again been told it should be here any day and Chris got a very sweet call from our social worker apologizing for the mistake. Our I600A is all filled out and is just waiting on a completed home study so it can be mailed off. We can ALMOST taste the victory!
As excited as we were to send off our paperwork to immigration, we were also excited to be able to begin applying for grants. Unfortunately, we have learned that, because we are doing an independent adoption, we will not be eligible for most grants. On the upside...we will also have a cheaper adoption than if we were going through an agency. All in all, what that means is another almost. We are ALMOST there financially...but not quite. It would be nice to have about $5000 more to make sure we had all expenses covered. We do have a couple of other fundraisers planned, but we will probably not be quite there, even then. We are looking at a couple of possibilities and hoping that, perhaps there is SOMEONE out there who will help support an independent adoption. I guess that is where prayer comes in. God has been completely faithful up until now and I know that He will provide in His way in His time.
Hopefully, next time we are on here, it will be to say that we have a mistake free home study in hand and that we are moving on to the next phase. Thanks for all the support and prayers!
Worried that that could cause a problem down the road, we sent an email to our agency. Of course, it was the weekend, so nothing could be done until Monday morning. We naively thought that they could just amend the words and email us a new copy that could be switched with the other. We were wrong. Because that would be simple. And if we have learned one thing in this adoption process, it is that NOTHING is simple! We were told that we would need to get an addendum to be added to the original document.
SO, we are now waiting on our addendum. We have again been told it should be here any day and Chris got a very sweet call from our social worker apologizing for the mistake. Our I600A is all filled out and is just waiting on a completed home study so it can be mailed off. We can ALMOST taste the victory!
As excited as we were to send off our paperwork to immigration, we were also excited to be able to begin applying for grants. Unfortunately, we have learned that, because we are doing an independent adoption, we will not be eligible for most grants. On the upside...we will also have a cheaper adoption than if we were going through an agency. All in all, what that means is another almost. We are ALMOST there financially...but not quite. It would be nice to have about $5000 more to make sure we had all expenses covered. We do have a couple of other fundraisers planned, but we will probably not be quite there, even then. We are looking at a couple of possibilities and hoping that, perhaps there is SOMEONE out there who will help support an independent adoption. I guess that is where prayer comes in. God has been completely faithful up until now and I know that He will provide in His way in His time.
Hopefully, next time we are on here, it will be to say that we have a mistake free home study in hand and that we are moving on to the next phase. Thanks for all the support and prayers!
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