USCIS, part 1

So, here goes adoption information. Some people, whose blogs I have stalked, have heavily documented their adoption process which I have found extremely helpful. Thanks, all you people that I don't know and the few of you that I do:) I find that for me, personally, the more information I have, the better. Some people do better when they know less about potential happenings, but I tend to want to find out as much as I can. So, I am going to document things as we go through this paperwork chase of the adoption process. If it ends up being helpful to someone great. If anything it may prove to be educational as to the process of international adoption. Or it may just be a lot of words that people don't want to read:)

First things first. A home study needs to be done. Our agency that we are using has a social worker that is licensed through them to do international home studies. Not just any licensed social worker can do a home study if you are applying for foreign adoption, they have a special designation for international work. Their social worker has already met with us and we had already completed some of the paperwork that was needed from when we hosted the boys back in October. I have to say that this particular lady is pretty awesome. If she lived closer, I think we'd be hanging out. We're eerily similar. Our husbands share the same name, and one of our kids do too. We almost had two kids with the same name but they ended up naming their daughter after a grandmother. Our favorite colors are the same, hobbies, quirks, we even have some of the same furniture in our houses arranged in the same way in the same bedroom. Wild, I know.

So, the home study needs to be done and sent in either with or right behind a lovely form called the I-600a. It's a petition to adopt a child. Basically, if I understand this right, we are submitting an application to our government to be allowed to adopt. The have to see our birth certificates to make sure we are really alive, our marriage certificate to be sure we are really married, and our home study to be sure we have been investigated and found able/capable of adopting. The cost is almost $1000. The nice thing about this process is that while it is costly, the amounts to be paid are spread out over a few months.

This little form took all of ten minutes to fill out and sign. The forms that went with it were easy too, with the exception of the home study which was more time consuming. But, remember we had already done most of it before we hosted. Over all, this was not bad.

HOWEVER...

...there is always a catch, right? Because I am a blog stalker I have seen many many cases where this form has been a major hold up. They will send it back for really little things like leaving a line blank instead of putting "unknown" or "n/a." A few lucky people have had it back in a couple weeks time, others have waited 6 weeks. Besides being an inconvenience as far as the waiting game goes, it can cause problems when you're up against a time frame. For example, trying to complete an adoption before the Ukrainian government meets again to vote for a moratorium. We will be assigned a case worker as soon as our documents are received by the USCIS and then we just wait for that approval. There have been a few families who, because of case workers lack of empathy and emotion and incentive, missed a deadline by literally HOURS. These case workers have even been fully aware of said deadlines and showed serious lack of compassion, which is irritating. So, we are hoping to have a nice case worker, who doesn't mind doing their job. If all else fails, I've heard that placing a call to Senator Hatch can be quite effective:) We're lucky here in Utah to have elected officials that care enough to become involved in matters such as these. There are many other states where the elected officials will not do anything for anyone that does not involve them benefiting monetarily. So, I'm just planning on there being a part two to the USCIS part of the process (or even a part 2, 3, and hopefully not 4). This way, I won't be disappointed if/when it happens and then if it is smooth sailing, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

While we wait for our government approval, we will be preparing a document to be submitted to the Ukrainian government (SDA) called a dossier. It's like an international home study. All of the documents have to be apostilled which is a fancy word for paying a lot of money to have a piece of paper notarized at the state capitol. A lot of these docs have to be notarized and then apostilled. Hopefully we can get that all put together pretty quickly. We'll see.

In the meantime, life goes on and some of our friends are in Ukraine right this very second trying to adopt the kids they hosted this fall. It's exciting to read about their experiences. I think it will be great fun to go to this country. I'm trying to find out some information about it that will make it a meaningful trip. There is so much history there and so many things left over from their communist era. We will have to go for three weeks. At the end of that three weeks is a ten day waiting period. Lots of people stay during that ten day wait and hang out at the orphanage with the children. I would LOVE to do that. But, I'm just guessing that we'll end up coming home in between. It'll be hard to leave our kids for that long and hard to find someone who is able to take care of them for that long. At the end of the ten day wait, at least one parent has to travel back to Ukraine to get the kids. This trip can take anywhere from a few days to another week. That's all for now!

p.s. I bought BoyTwo some pjs the other day. Huz made fun of me when I showed him them. They were Christmas pajamas and I hadn't even noticed. Oh well:)