Paper Work!

We are still re-doing paper work.

We had to send our SLED background check back to SLED to have it notarized. Note to anyone pursuing international adoption & living in SC - the SLED background check must be on SLED letterhead and notarized by SLED. You will need to include a note asking for it to be notarized because they do not automatically do that.

We are again working with the doctor's office to assure that the medical certificate is correct.

Hopefully, we will have both the SLED clearance and the medical certificates back this week so that Tim can take everything to Columbia next week to have it apostilled.

Ukraine is at the moment letting people request submission appointments with only a home study. We are too close to do that, but it may mean that we need to expedite our translation as others will be trying to push their paperwork through.

Please keep us in your prayers. We know that the Lord has this all mapped out for us and that everything will happen in His time.

Updates will come as we complete each step.

Submission to UA

Yesterday, Tim faxed most of our paperwork to Cathy Harris of Ukrainian Angels (UA.) I thought we had done so well, but we have to correct some of the paperwork. Cathy reviewed on the same day and sent us feedback.

Most paperwork is only good for 12 months, but must not expire until 6 months after your anticipated travel date. So, we have to have a lot of things updated:
Here's a list:

1. Home Study will need an addendum stating that everything remains the same since the original home study. Thanks to our wonderful Mrs. Smith - this will be in the mail to us tomorrow!
2. Need a more recently dated copy of Social Worker's license card - again - Thanks Teresa!
3. We had several papers that our notary signed, but did not date. No need to list all of those here.
4. Our SLED background check was done with our home study and SLED just stamped NO CRIMINAL RECORD on the release/request that we sent them. It must be on their letterhead. So, we get to pay for this again.....
5. We have to have our employment letters updated and they must be worded differently from the original ones. (SDA decided that they need to read differently.)
6. Physician's forms must be updated and they need to have the international diagnosis codes for all diagnosis. I held on for 10 minutes yesterday trying to get an appointment to do this.
7. Our statement from the Tax Assessor was not correct. I wrote down exactly how it needed to read, but they typed it the way they wanted to and Tim went back and got that corrected today.

Doesn't look too bad as much of this is an easy fix. AND - I surely would rather know and get it corrected NOW than have it submitted to the SDA and then be returned!

Looks like we may travel Oct. - Nov. now. I guess I'd better start looking for some good boots!

In other news - We celebrated our 24th Wedding Anniversary yesterday! Hopefully we will celebrate our 25th anniversary with our child(ren.)

Please keep us and our future child(ren) and their caregivers in your prayers.

I-171H

We received our I-171H today!

We only need the statement from our tax assessor and we will have to update our medical forms and our employment verification and we will be ready to submit to UA for review before having everything apostilled.

Thanks to Colleen for the info about FRUA and the yahoo boards.

I have not read anything official about a moratorium. Hopefully, if there is one, we will get there before it hits.

We are at peace and know that we are doing what God wants us to do and through Him, all things are possible.

Thanks for all of the prayers!
Rita

Waiting on Final INS Review

Well, we are waiting on the final INS review. I received a voice mail at work last week from an INS agent that said she needed our A #s. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about and she either gave me the incorrect number - or most likely, I transposed the number. I could not contact her and could not retrieve the number from my voicemail, so we went on a wild goose chase to get the phone number - which we never got by the way.

Tim and I both became frustrated because the 1-800 numbers that we called claimed that they did not have the phone number for the Greer office and did not even have an email for them. The info the representatives gave us was the info that we could find on line. Finally, I was given an email address to the Charleston office and emailed them while Tim mailed a letter to the Greer Office - where we had mailed our I-600A, etc. And...guess what they wanted...our alien number! OK - ummmm.... we don't have one because we are Naturalized USA Citizens! Then, on the 800 #, they asked Tim for the A# for our children....after he had explained that we are applying for adoption.

After all of this.....we find that all of our files have been transferred to the Charleston Office. I knew that DSS had sent their study/approval to Charleston, but everything on the USCIS site said to send everything for the I-600A to Greer!

The good news is that the INS has everything that they need and our request is awaiting final review. Whew........

Now we just have to do a couple more things and will be ready to submit to Cathy Harris, our advisor. The SDA in Ukraine has recently made some changes and Cathy has found out what they want. We have to get a certified Tax Assessment of our house and a certified Deed. Plus, the employment statements that we got are not good enough. They now want a copy of the 2008 W-2 forms that are signed by our employer and notarized. We should have all of this done and ready to submit to Cathy by the time we get our INS approval.

Keep the prayers coming that nothing else drastically changes. I heard a rumor that Ukraine may put a moratorium on adoptions, but it is unfounded. I think someone misread the info from an interview with a Ukrainian official concerning Ukraine joining the Hague Convention.

Fingerprints Done!

We left home at 7:00 am on Saturday and arrived at the processing center at 9:15 am for our 10:00 am appointment. There weren't many cars there, so we went on in at 9:20. We had to complete a form and then were taken straight back for our fingerprints. They got Tim's right off, but had a problem with one of my "pinky" fingers because it is bent. I noticed about a month ago that I cannot straighten it completely. I know...I am getting old.

Anyway, we were finished and out of there by 9:45. We headed back to Gaffney to hit the Prime Outlets and hit the storm about the time we got there. We shopped a little and then headed home. We got home around 2:00 pm, just when the hard rain hit here and the thunder and lightening followed about 30 minutes later.

We are still waiting on my passport which I applied for on 02/25/09. Tim applied about a week earlier and receives his about a week ago, so it should be here any day now.

After that, we just have to mail those copies to INS and then wait for their response from that and the fingerprinting, etc.

We have been tossing some names around, but nothing settled yet. We will most likely follow what most people do and give the child(ren) and American first name and keep their Ukrainian name as the middle name.

Will update when something new comes along.

In my last post I asked for prayer for Cornethia and Jim Bob as they were going to their 3rd referral. They are applying to adopt the 7 year old boy & 8 year old girl that they met at that referral. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.


God bless

Fingerprint Appointment

We received confirmation of our INS fingerprinting appointment last Thursday. We are scheduled to go on 03/28/09 at 10:00 am. The office is near the Charlotte Airport. We were surprised to get a Saturday appointment because we had expected to have to take a day off work to go.

Our pastor recently returned from a mission trip to Ukraine. They visited the Zhitomir region and said that at one of the orphanages, there were several children ages 3-6 who were available. He also said that last year, that area only had 10 adoptions, but had already had that number adopted out so far this year. It was explained to him that last year, Ukraine had an "International Year of Adoption" in which they focused on adoptions withing the country, but that this year, there should be more children adopted to parents who reside outside Ukraine.

Thanks to everyone for your support and prayers. Thanks to all of those who are currently in Ukraine or have adopted in the past and who are sharing their experiences via blogs. A special thanks to Staci and Damon for their account of their adoption of precious Wesley. Please keep them in your prayers as Wesley faces surgery in April. Thanks for the email, Staci. Also, please keep Cornethia and Jim Bob in your prayers as they are in Ukraine now and about to go for their 3rd referral. Your faith is an inspiration to me.

Until we have something else to update......

And the waiting begins

Our information was submitted to INS approximately three weeks ago. We now wait until they notify us of an appointment for finger prints which will be in Charlotte, Atlanta or Charleston. We requested Charlotte since it is closest and we can do that in a day, no problem. I, personally would love to go to Charleston, but I do not want to use any un-neccessary ETO time. I need to save it for the trip and for bonding time when we get back to good ol' USA.

Speaking of fingerprints.... we had a SCLED background check and a DSS background check, plus a medical form completed by our physicians which included testing for HIV and Syphilis, but no drug screen. I just find that extremely odd. I would like to think that they US and Ukraine would like to rule out drug use in adoptive parents.

I will update when we get the finger print appointment. Until then, we wait..........