I-171 h - part duex

Our new and improved I-171 h is in the building. Plan of attack:

Monday:

• drop off I-171 and our revised doctor letters at Sec'y of State
• make copies of all the other dossier docs

Tuesday:

• pick up these (hopefully) sealed docs
• make copies of them as well
• drop off, along with obscene amounts of money, to our agency
• do a little happy dance

I believe THIS is what we've been waiting for!!

Or is it? LMBO! Is this what it's supposed to say? "Your advanced processing application is being retained at this office. You must notify this office IN WRITING when and where to forward this..." That's right, right? Because they don't know where or when to send it until we know where and when we're getting our kids. Right? RIGHT?


Marc was on a ladder painting the laundry room here. Hee hee...


So.................... these doctor's letters are the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE! I picked up all of our documents at the Secretary of State's office and everything was sealed except for our doctor's letters. The notary for Marc's letter evidently forgot to actually sign it. DUH! And the notary for mine had her commission expire over a year ago (according to the state records). So we need to get those fixed / redone this week and get them sealed along with the I-171h. Then it all goes to the Bethany office in Michigan for review then eventually, sometime in this lifetime, it gets sent to Ethiopia.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh...one step closer!

Still waiting for our I-171h

Waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting
waiting

This is starting to remind me of trying to have a baby. We tried and tried and tried. And waited and waited and waited. And hit some road blocks. And had some misfortunes. And it seemed like everyone else around us was having an easy time of it. Not that the adoption process is "easy" for ANYone. But some people's process is a helluva lot quicker than ours. Like when we were trying to get pregnant. And you're happy for other people who are bringing home babies. Of course you are. But still a little sad for yourself. It's a weird feeling to be happy and sad at the same time.

Nothing exciting going on...

I wish I had something exciting to share, but we're still just waiting on our I 171h. I've heard that a number of people in the Denver / Boulder area got theirs back in about 5 weeks, so I've started checking the mail with greater anticipation over the past week. But nothing yet.

Other than that, I have to pick up a copy of our marriage certificate and we should have all of our dossier documents together. Then we get them sealed and we're all set.

So that's about it - exciting, huh?

Check!

We went to the Immigration office this morning to get our fingerprints done. Fletcher was so cute. He was excited that we were going to be making hand prints like he does with paint at school. I think this is the first thing that went off without a hitch. We walked in, filled out a piece of paper, sat down to wait, got right back up and got fingerprinted. It took about 15 minutes. Now it's all in the hands of the US Government. Hopefully the paperwork gods will look upon us favorably...

We've been notified

Yay~ ....by the USCIS that we can go get our finger prints done! Another step down-ish.


Boo~ ....by our social worker that we have to get my doctor's letter done yet again. I have a blood clotting disorder that is caused by a gene mutation. This only affects one during pregnancy, as stated in the letter, and does not affect one's ability to parent, as stated in the letter. However, the term "gene mutation" sounds "worse than it really is" (!?) and may cause us to be rejected.


Off to go pull out my hair...

Moving on to the next 'hurry up and wait'!

I just logged on to check email real quick and found a note from our social worker from this afternoon. She said she received AAI's approval of our home study, and she's sending our paperwork into USCIS today. We're officially waiting on our I-171h!!! I've always felt as if this part was soooooooooo far away and now it's here. How exciting!

So....this part can take 10 weeks. But I happened to hear from fellow blogger and ET adoptive parent, Shawn, that she and her hubby got theirs back in only 5 weeks. So I'm going to expect 10 but hope for 5...or somewhere in between.