It's Spring Around Here

Hi,

I just wanted to publish a few spring pics that I've taken in the past few weeks.

Enjoy!!

~ Mama

7 outta 10.

Things went pretty smoothly with my prints yesterday (despite being sick for 4 days). I rented a car and headed to Jax with mom by my side for support. The folks at the office were very nice and things moved quickly. I envisioned a room so crowded that it would take hours, but in reality I was in and out in 20 minutes or less. Naturally, as a person who has worn ridges things didn't go perrrrrfectly with the printing. I just don't have em'...not much I can do about that. I don't know how many "good" prints one must have to be acceptable (do you have to have all 10...how about 7?)...so now I just wait and see what happens. I might be waiting for a couple of months. Meanwhile, the Mister still has to get his done once he has his invite. There's plenty to do to keep busy. The in-laws are kindly building a playhouse for the little burunduk, however our bleak week of weather has put a stop to it for awhile. I will send some progress photos soon! I ordered some fabric from Etsy for the curtains and I am excited about the fabric coming in :)

~mama

Seriously Karma?

We got the fingerprint invitations and it's the ONE day that we can't make it. Arghh...will reschedule soon. Dang it.

~mama

The World is Our Fortune Cookie

I’m not sure where to begin. It has been too long. Here we go. So…the Mister and I went in for new fingerprints in November and had been patiently waiting to hear back from our beloved government in regards to the fingerprint status for what seemed an eternity (doesn’t everything seem like an eternity when you are waiting for something big?)

On February 7^th after deciding to email them myself, this was the reply:

Good Afternoon Mama (funny that they called me mama),

I am sorry to inform that your fourth request (excuse me but there were THREE cards in there so this is my 6^th request) was also rejected. You will have to send in a new application form, $18 fee and fingerprint cards. You may send in up to 5 sets of prints and we will take the best one. Gary is aware of the situation, and asks that you send in your new request with a tracking number, such as through Fed Ex or UPS. When you mail in your new request and get your tracking number, please let us know and we will try to expedite your process. It can still take up to 12 weeks to process, but we will try. Thank you!

Kim

This meant that set SIX had been rejected. There was no way I was going to do this again. If my prints were going to work, they would have worked using one of the three methods I had tried.

I sent a message to my agency and my home study agency telling them that the prints were rejected AGAIN. Come to find out, my contact at the home study office was no longer there, and we had to work with someone else. Ugh. Well, luckily this person called around and managed to find a way to get UCIS to take the home study without prints. There are regions in Russia that do not require prints, and we will now be working with those regions.

Next steps…we had to update the home study. As of February 22^nd our home study is officially complete!! We had to get more documents for the dossier as much of what we had completed has changed since March. Many of these documents require passport numbers and there must be a year and a half left before expiring. We have to update our passports as they expire in February 2012. Once we get the passport numbers we can update the documents. We should have the passports in 2 weeks or so as we put a rush on them. We had to mail in our I-600A. This is called the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. We just received notification that it was received and we should expect our invitation for fingerprinting from UCIS soon, but it might take 6 weeks or so (or so I have heard). It’s the government so it could take forever. Before you ask, yes, I cringe at the thought of being fingerprinted again. BUT…the good news is that this process is biometric so it should be faster AND if it doesn’t work I will try again, and if that doesn’t work…well…I have been told they only try TWICE and then accept letters from local agencies. I’m not sure how that works and frankly I hope that some good karma is on my side and that it works like a charm the first time!! Once the fingerprints work we will receive the I-171H. This is called Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition. All I can say about that is whoopee! At that point our dossier should be complete and we’ll have it notarized by the best sister in the world and then apostilled. We will cut some enormous checks and do a few other things and then wait for some referrals (otherwise known as sweet little babies that need loving homes). Until then, we wait for some good written news :)

So that’s my update! Looks like spring has sprung! I hope everything continues to run as smoothly as it has for the last month or so. Please think good thoughts for us.

~Mama

P.S.- Thank you for your kind thoughts and words! Please check in and leave a comment. It makes me feel like I'm not talking to myself.