So I admit it I have been awful at blogging. Things on the adoption front are pretty much where they were 6 months ago. We are waiting for a response from Colombia as well as our appointment card to renew our fingerprints for the USCIS. Hit some roadblocks along the way but we have faith that everything will work out.
Exciting news is that we had a beautiful baby girl Ava Makinley on August 25th. She weighed 9lbs 2 oz. I was induced at 7am on August 24th and 26 hours later Ava entered this world. She is amazing and so much fun. She is now rolling over, eating cereal, and has developed a fake scream and grunting "push" noise. She thinks she is funny and loves to be tickled.
Since my last post not much new has happened. We are working on information for ICBF so not much going on in the adoption world. As far as pregnancy goes I am now 26 wks. Everything is going so well and I feel so blessed. She weighs almost 2 lbs now. This summer is going to be crazy getting ready for the baby plus lots of weddings and showers. I am so excited!
I have been receiving harassing messages regarding my lack of postings. Sorry! Good news is our baby is growing on track. Our due date is August 25. We had an ultrasound today and were hoping to find out gender but our child is stubborn already. No luck. Hopefully the baby will cooperate next month. We received an email today from our international agency stating that Colombia has requested some more info from our psychologist who did our evaluation. They said it is becoming more standard but still a pain. They want more info on motivation to adopt and our parenting patterns. I started my new job with Early Head Start and I love it. Leaving LSS was a huge blessing in disguise. My coworkers are amazing and the kids are awesome. I miss my other families but this job is going to be wonderful! That's all that is new! Hope everyone is doing well!
We found out yesterday our paperwork was sent to the representative in Colombia on December 17th. Based on the timeline our agency has our wait can be between 23-38 months. Let's pray around 23 months! Blessings to everyone this Christmas!
Well...the finale of DWTS was on tonight. I must admit I have a slight addiction to this show. I am going to be quite sad and unsure what to do with my time once it is over tomorrow night. Good thing for ebay. Thanks Kari for getting me hooked on this. Chris thinks I need to learn how to sell not just shop. Who would have thought I can still find my snowman dishes on there! I am very excited! Yes, I have dishes for every season another slight addiction.
As Thanksgiving approaches we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers on our adoption process. We are open to adopting a child 3 or under so it is crazy to think our child may already be born. Until the day we finally meet and know your name we continue to blow kisses into the wind; may they comfort and protect you.
Well, the past month I thought our paperwork was in Colombia. I guess I was wrong. Our agency does authentications for us so I thought that was done and our paperwork was mailed but it wasn't. I guess 2 of our documents something was wrong with the notary so we have to redo them, then send them to Pierre, and then hopefully everything is done. Not a huge deal but I was hoping our wait to begin waiting was almost done. The joys :)
Since no one could tell what the dog's costumes were I will tell you. Buster is the piggy and Baxter is a skunk. Baxter chases the tail around it is so cute.
Yeah we are adopting! As we start our journey we ask for prayers and support through the roller coaster ride of international adoption. We started the paperwork process in January 2008. Chris and I have always wanted to build our family through adoption and we figured now is as good as ever. We can not wait for the day him/her/or them come home. For now we wait...2 years, 3 years??
Adoption is somewhat like a relay race. The first leg is the paper chase, second is the LONG wait (for us), third leg is referral, and the finally comes the anchor, traveling to Colombia and bringing our child or children home.
Leg 1: Paper Chase
Time: 10 months
January 2008: registration, application, autobiographies, personal inventories, medicals, fingerprints, and so on. To date we have been fingerprinted 4 times.
February/March 2008: Homestudy...not really a study of our home but questions about our lives
April 2008: USCIS fingerprinting (different from FBI and DCI and costs WAY more) and homestudy approval. Chris buttered up the USCIS lady and was even handing out his business card by the end of it because her son needed a job :) He joked that he would make money off of the referral bonus that would cover the payment for the prints.
May 2008: Move to new home, update homestudy July 2008: Received USCIS immigration approval for an orphan visa. This is a must have in international adoption. You can't travel and bring home your child without it.
August 2008: Dossier completed and sent to La Vida for review.
The dossier is the most extensive part of the paperwork process. This is the collection of paperwork that goes directly to the adoption house in Colombia. They use this to “match” us with a child. This is like being in labor, time consuming and it is work :). For this, we assembled notarized, or certified (no photocopies allowed!), birth certificates, our marriage certificate, our FBI-stamped fingerprints, employment certificates, physical health certificates, a psychological health certificate and assessment including the MMPI (yes, we passed), a financial statement, verification of legal names (major pain to list every name you POSSIBLY could be called), copies of our passport, pictures of us and home, and so much more.
September 2008: Dossier authenticated and sent to Colombia Benefit of using La Vida, they do all of this for you. Huge help!
It takes roughly 2-4 weeks to translate the dossier and then 2-4 months to receive approval from the Colombian government (ICBF). So we wait and wait some more! Most people are able to do this part much quicker. Word of advice: don't wait on a builder to finish your house before you send in everything. Originally we were supposed to be in the house in March but didn't move til May and close until June so our adoption paperwork was delayed.
For now I leave you with a Halloween picture of our hairy children. Sorry, Kristine we had to!
