Homestudy update process

After almost a month and a half of our homestudy agency telling us that they are busy, they finally scheduled our homestudy update meeting. We had the meeting today, everything is the same except for the name of our nanny, so hopefully it will be sent to Lina for review quickly. The update was $900 and the nanny's medical exam and fingerprints were $100. We had to file a request to renew our FBI & state fingerprints, this was $75 each. The USCIS immigration update (I-800a) apparently does not have a fee, but I assume the fingerprints do.

I am so frustrated by the seemingly endless waiting process as everyone else is who is waiting. I wish there was a list and some order to it all. I am very tempting to switch countries, but as much as the wait and the process seems unfair, I am a practical person and the $13,000 we have invested seems like a lot of money to just let it all go and start over. We are just about two years into the whole process now, waiting for 11 months now.

Time to renew our Homestudy

I have been hesitating to post lately, just out of frustration with this whole process. Now I see why so many people stop in the middle of the process. We have been very upset that there seems to be no sense to the "waiting list". Families with the similar requests to ours have a short wait, when we having been waiting more than 10 months now. I wish there was some order to the whole thing, I feel bad having these "it's not fair" feelings. I AM just happy that things are happening for some people, it does give me hope that maybe our turn is coming.

IN the meantime, we have been asked by our adoption agency to start the renewal process on our homestudy 4 months in advance of the immigration paperwork expiring. So that is June, so I am told. I contacted the homestudy agency and of course there is a large fee for the renewal process. The biggest hurdle is telling our new au pair that she has to get a blood test and be finger printed. Good thing David speaks Spanish.

Passports

My last post was September 23rd, so I guess we have been waiting about 5 month. Today we finally applied for passports for our 3 boys. It was very difficult to get me, my husband, and all three children to the post office during regular business hours all at the same time! Today is Casmir Pulaski Day and here in Chicago it is a holiday for school (we are teachers), so it was the perfect day to apply for the passports. How ironic that it was thanks to a Polish war hero that we all had the day off!!

We still haven't decided if we will bring the kids with us to Poland, but in 6 weeks, we will at least have the option. My passport will expire in October, so I am mailing mine in later today for renewal. Glad I noticed the expiration date today!

A recent pic of our current family.... for now...

Polish adoption group?

I came across this website and I wondered if anyone has ever been to any of their events. There was a picnic here in IL last weekend. I saw that they have meetings in other states as well.
http://www.adoptionspolish.com/index.html

Not really officially waiting yet...

I e-mailed Lina to confirm that everything was received and to confirm that we were officially waiting. I was surprised to find out that it takes about 2 months for "translation & authentication", then we are placed on the waiting list.

Also, while Lina did send our paperwork to Poland, she requested we do 2 things. Our au pairs' medical form was missing a few boxes that were not filled in and she sent it back to us. And my children's medical forms were the DCFS forms that the doctor's office always uses, but Lina wanted them on the St. Mary's form. I was kind of kicking myself for that one, but the form asked so many adult questions, it just seemed odd to use it for small children. So Both sets of doctors are filling out new forms and then I will have to get them apostilled again and then they will join our other paperwork in Poland.

Apstilling & Sending Dossier to Agency

WOW...that was a crazy 2 days!

We got home on Friday night, so I had to wait until Monday to get everything signed at the bank, but our I-800a approval notice was indeed waiting for us when we got home. So I went to the bank and got everything notarized (my hand hurts). Then I headed downtown Chicago to find the Apstilling place. Parking was $29. It took about 1 hour and she handed me back all but about 10 pages and said she couldn't apstill (spelling) an original document. So I gave a call to Lina (our adoption agency contact). She said to make a copy and get it notarized again. Well these documents were signed my my husband and au pair, so I thought I had to go home to get them, but Lina said that I could sign them (medical forms and FBI approvals). So, then I found a Fed EX/Kinko's and made copies, but of course I didn't have a blank notary affidavit, so I had to buy a flash drive and get it off my laptop (good thing I had my laptop). Then I found a bank and had them notarized, the back to the apstilling office. It was a total of $122 ($2 for each signature). Then I went home to organize everything.......There was 1 page missing!!!

So, today I went back to the bank, then the apstilling office, paid $2 more dollars and then back to Fed Ex. It was $52 to mail everything to Lina. Then there was the next set of payments along with it. So, I have added a lot to my running total at the bottom of this blog.

So now it will be translated.

I-800a mail

We came home from MI last night, but there was still no approval letter. So today I called and since our original appointment wasn't until August 18th, that is why the paperwork wasn't processed (something like that). So a very nice man named Elliot, set the process moving while I was on the phone and it will be on his desk by tomorrow, then in the mail to us.

My problem now is that we usually come home every Tuesday from MI for appointments, etc., but next week, we are planning a camping trip to Mackinaw Island. So, do I come home (2.5 hour drive each way) on Monday just for this letter and then back to MI, then another 6 hour drive to Mackinaw? Or do I just wait until the 23rd, when we have to be back in IL anyway for the start of school? I'm tempted to do the drive.... 2 weeks seems like nothing compared to the year we have been working on this.