We'd been in panic mode about getting our immigration paperwork extended before it expires on 2.28.09. We got our new home study done and sent away the most beautiful and perfect packet of every goodie possibly imaginable on the 17th of Feb.
Well, we got the government's response letter back on Wednesday, and lo and behold, they did not approve our petition. They said that our homestudy "failed to address that the petitioner's home continues to conform to state regulations" and that our old home study said we wanted a 0-12 month old healthy boy and that this one made reference to a 0-15 month old boy. The second one is legit and is an error on our social worker's part. The first one is just beyond ridiculous. I was fuming. But what's new with this process.
We now have had our social worker write up another addendum and now we wait for it to get notarized and approved by the agency and then sent to us and then we send to CIS and then we wait again. Hopefully they'll say we're good to go. If not, we're really screwed because we obviously can't bring him home if we don't have gov't clearance to bring an immigrant into the country. We wouldn't even be allowed to travel there until our gov't has cabled the approval to their gov't.
Jeez Louise! Make this paperwork and approval nonsense end already. There's a kid waiting for us in a third world orphanage. Hello!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
We Got Our Dates! Woo Hoo!
We got an email from our agency today that our court date for little boy blue is finally set. May 8th is the big day. A representative from CHI that we've signed over power of attorney to will be going to the court for us. We don't have to go there on this day. But after this day, he will legally be ours in the Ethiopian courts eyes. :)
We then have to wait 3 weeks or so for him to get his travel visa, which allows us to bring him home. We do have to be there for his visa appt, b/c we're his parents, and we have to be there to legally request his travel docs. The visa appointments are only on Thursdays, so our date is tentatively, according to our agency, Thursday the 4th of June! That means we'll travel to Ethiopia at the very end of May/first couple of days of June. We have to be there for the 5th, and ideally settled, bonded, etc. and ready to travel back on the 6th or 7th.
Everyone cross your fingers that these days stick. The way the courts work is that they can just change the dates/postpone at any time, for no reason whatsoever. It'll really suck if these aren't the real dates, because it's already almost 5 months past our match date that we get to pick him up.
We then have to wait 3 weeks or so for him to get his travel visa, which allows us to bring him home. We do have to be there for his visa appt, b/c we're his parents, and we have to be there to legally request his travel docs. The visa appointments are only on Thursdays, so our date is tentatively, according to our agency, Thursday the 4th of June! That means we'll travel to Ethiopia at the very end of May/first couple of days of June. We have to be there for the 5th, and ideally settled, bonded, etc. and ready to travel back on the 6th or 7th.
Everyone cross your fingers that these days stick. The way the courts work is that they can just change the dates/postpone at any time, for no reason whatsoever. It'll really suck if these aren't the real dates, because it's already almost 5 months past our match date that we get to pick him up.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Another Frustrating Week of Waiting
This has been another crazy week of waiting and disappointments for us. We are still waiting for our new homestudy report to get written and finalized, but our social worker is telling us that she found out that she has to check the national registry of child abusers before finalizing it. The goofballs in the Nashville state registry office - only one guy, mind you - just don't seem to have time to pull our records, so we are still just waiting and waiting as our previous approval gets closer to expiration and our new approval can't happen without the updated homestudy...which can't happen without the new registry clearance. Every day has been this powerless frustration of wanting to move things along, but we can't. The good news is that none of this is effecting our wait time, from what we understand. Ethiopia has no clue we are doing all this, so they are still moving full steam ahead on their end. If everything works out perfectly, we'll get the home study report next week, mail it off to CIS and then they'll say "congrats, your approval has been extended" and we'll just keep on keeping on.
When will this ever end!? Is it all just an evil, beaurocratic plot to distract us from sitting around and counting the days until we can go to Ethiopia?
When will this ever end!? Is it all just an evil, beaurocratic plot to distract us from sitting around and counting the days until we can go to Ethiopia?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
NO! Say it Can't Be So!
So, this should be the week that we are celebrating the fact that we've accepted our referral and everything is moving along nicely.
We knew there was an outstanding detail to be taken care of, which was to have our immigration clearance extended. In short, CIS has already approved us to bring our son into the country. But the approval is only good for 18 months. And because it's now been almost 18 months, we have to apply for a free extension, which should just be a formality.
Well, we sent off our extension request a week or so again, and this week got a letter back that said...well, the details are boring...but in essence we finally got in touch with someone via email (because they won't pick up the phone!) that said we can't get an extension unless we have an updated homestudy! Okay, so that is the worst news ever!
The homestudy is the final write up from the social workers and adoption agencies that includes any and every detail of your life - financial, physical, mental, historical, educational, etc. - plus the details of home visits they do. When you go through the process to compile everything it takes about 3-4 months! It involves everything from getting notarized letters from your local sherriff's office that state you have no criminal record to having your doctors offices write and notarize letters that state they've cleared you mentally and physically and that they recommend you as adoptive parents to having your accountant write and notarize statements that detail out all of your finances...and they have to match your financial declarations and tax statements to the penny or they aren't valid. Hearing that we'd have to do all of this all over again...and by the time the end of Feb rolls around, was the biggest blow ever! How could they expect this? Why did no one tell us we'd have to do this? How are we ever going to get all of this done all over again in a matter of weeks!? It involves dozens of people doing things they don't want to do for no pay...and a level of detail that warrants a PhD at the end for everyone involved.
We got in touch with our social worker (who does the home visits) and our program leader at CHI, and they both said they'd do whatever they could to help move the process along. We're just still so pissed that we didn't see this coming. And this should be the relaxing homestretch and here we are again at square one, but doing it under amazingly ridiculous time constraints that have us up all night, with papers all over the house, and quite frankly...at each other's throats out of frustration and resentment about the process. The good news is that our social worker has agreed to come on Thursday to redo our home visit. She has to write up the the home study, so getting her on board asap is critical. Jeez, are we really back to cleaning up the house, mapping out our family fire evacuation plan, checking all the batteries in the smoke detectors and...most importantly, acting like we live in a calm, relaxing house that would be welcoming to an infant!? Is this for real?
We knew there was an outstanding detail to be taken care of, which was to have our immigration clearance extended. In short, CIS has already approved us to bring our son into the country. But the approval is only good for 18 months. And because it's now been almost 18 months, we have to apply for a free extension, which should just be a formality.
Well, we sent off our extension request a week or so again, and this week got a letter back that said...well, the details are boring...but in essence we finally got in touch with someone via email (because they won't pick up the phone!) that said we can't get an extension unless we have an updated homestudy! Okay, so that is the worst news ever!
The homestudy is the final write up from the social workers and adoption agencies that includes any and every detail of your life - financial, physical, mental, historical, educational, etc. - plus the details of home visits they do. When you go through the process to compile everything it takes about 3-4 months! It involves everything from getting notarized letters from your local sherriff's office that state you have no criminal record to having your doctors offices write and notarize letters that state they've cleared you mentally and physically and that they recommend you as adoptive parents to having your accountant write and notarize statements that detail out all of your finances...and they have to match your financial declarations and tax statements to the penny or they aren't valid. Hearing that we'd have to do all of this all over again...and by the time the end of Feb rolls around, was the biggest blow ever! How could they expect this? Why did no one tell us we'd have to do this? How are we ever going to get all of this done all over again in a matter of weeks!? It involves dozens of people doing things they don't want to do for no pay...and a level of detail that warrants a PhD at the end for everyone involved.
We got in touch with our social worker (who does the home visits) and our program leader at CHI, and they both said they'd do whatever they could to help move the process along. We're just still so pissed that we didn't see this coming. And this should be the relaxing homestretch and here we are again at square one, but doing it under amazingly ridiculous time constraints that have us up all night, with papers all over the house, and quite frankly...at each other's throats out of frustration and resentment about the process. The good news is that our social worker has agreed to come on Thursday to redo our home visit. She has to write up the the home study, so getting her on board asap is critical. Jeez, are we really back to cleaning up the house, mapping out our family fire evacuation plan, checking all the batteries in the smoke detectors and...most importantly, acting like we live in a calm, relaxing house that would be welcoming to an infant!? Is this for real?
The Joys of Naming our Son
This morning began with us brainstorming for a middle name. We've already decided on the first name, but we had thought we'd keep his birth name as his middle name, just out of respect. Now that we know that we'll never know his real birth name, we've gotta come up with a middle name. And if you've ever bounced ideas around with Radames, you know that it was a most hilarious adventure. He migrated from Castro to Smokey as I laughed hysterically. He also seriously threw out Coletrain (as in Miles) and Hendrix (yes, as in Jimmy). I'm sure he thought my ideas were just as ridiculous, but nothing topped Ella's contributions once she joined in the morning brainstorming party. She recommended (First Name) Left Foot Tyree-Rodriguez and then opted instead for (First Name) Bacon Tyree-Rodriguez. Now do we live in the South or what!? Good times. :)
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