Finally.....

we received our approval from U.S. Immigration/NBC of our I-800A Application. This approval means that we are "eligible and suitable prospective adoptive parents to adopt a Convention Child." This is something that we should be very excited about because with this approval our Dossier can finally be sent to China. Unfortunately though, as stated in our last post, because of the wait time increasing, we are not sure if we are going to pursue the adoption. We are looking into other options in hopes to add a child to our family sooner. I contacted our agency to let them know what we are doing and to find out how long we can hold off on sending our Dossier. They informed us that we have until March 9, 2009, as that is when documents in our Dossier begin to expire. So we do have several months until we have to make a decision as to whether or not we are going to follow through with the adoption.

To think that it has taken almost 8 months to get to this point is extremely frustrating and mind boggling to me. It is very sad for the children that need homes and very sad for the couples that want to give these children loving homes.

Feelings of discourgement....

For those of you who are following our blog for updates, I thought it would only be fair to let you know the latest. We are seven and half months into the "paper chasing" process and we continue to wait for Immigration (NBC) to give us our final approval so that our Dossier (China Application) can be sent to China. Our Dossier going to China is when our official "waiting" time would begin. Apparently, NBC has assigned our case to an Official and the review process started this past Thursday or Friday, but we have NO idea how long the review process will take.

Unfortunately, the wait time continues to increase, which means people are waiting longer and longer to get their child from China. Statements made by some waiting parents were told by their agencies that they could be waiting until the year 2010, or longer, and these waiting parents have been waiting since May 2006!

Dave and I are very discouraged by this and with the wait times increasing feel like we should look into other options that may give us the opportunity to add a child to our family sooner. We are afraid that if it is the only avenue we choose, we won't have the opportunity to become parents for years. We have a lot of money and emotions invested in this process so far, but at this point we do not know if we will pursue the China adoption.

So, when will they process our application.....

This was a comment made by a family that has a July receipt date like we do. So their 90 day wait has also passed. She has been calling USCIS to find out the status of their case and still has know idea. This is what she posted about her expience when calling them: "I've called the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security to get an update of where we stand, twice. The first time was 3 weeks ago. They told me they just started on July's files and we should be soon. I just called again this morning to get an update, they now told me our paper work was flagged with others to let them (Officers) know that our files are going over the 90 day mark and they should address it now. Not sure if that meant "Hey get on the ball", "Did you pass over our file", "Did you forget about us." All she could say to me is "It should be assigned an officer very soon to look at because it is past the time frame it should have been in there." Now I'm not sure how long it will take the officer to look over and send us an acceptance letter, etc. So now we just sit a wait again."
So, if they are just starting to process July cases now, who knows how much longer we will wait for our acceptance letter. Another 30 days? Another 60 days? Another 90 days? Who knows......

Status of our case....well, not really....

I emailed NBC (USCIS) on Sunday to find out the status or our case. This is what my email read:

Dear Hague Unit,

We are inquiring about the status of our case. It is our understanding that our case was received by your department on July 31, 2008 and that your expected turnaround is 90 days. At this time we would like to know if our case has been assigned to an officer and being reviewed.

We are anxiously awating your approval and would appreciate any information you can provide at this time.

Thank you in advance for your time

I received a response from them today which read:

Hello Robin & David,

The case in question will be processed for initial review/processing soon. All cases are targeted for completion within 90 days of receipt, as we are aware that this case is past the 90 day target goal. Once the processing of the case is complete you will be notified. We ask for your patience as we continue to process applications.

I hope this information is helpful.

The response is disappointing and extremely vague, as we still have no idea as to the status of our case.

Very frustrating.....

PS - Mom, keeping hunting for those ladybugs!

Not that i'm counting.....

but today is 90 days since the Hague Unit of National Benefits Center received our I-800A application. Do I want to rush to the mailbox today in hopes that something will be there? Of course. Do I think that something will actually be there? Of course not.....

But, with anticipation, I will rush to the mailbox……

"One Step At A Time"

While driving into work this morning I heard this song "One Step At A Time" by Jordan Sparks. While listening to the song, as cheesy as it sounds, I felt as though this song was written for me, so I thought I would share it with you:


Jordan Sparks-One Step At A Time with Lyrics - Watch the best video clips here

Why does everything have to take so long...

Well, our agency contacted NBC to find out the status of our case and was kind enough to provide us with their response, which is:

The Kanaskie family’s application was received in the Hague Unit on 7/31/08. We are currently processing cases in the order received and work to process cases in 90 days.

When our case worker provided us with NBC's response, she said:

Below is a response from NBC regarding your case. Unfortunately, since they are reporting that it is currently taking 90 days to process a case and since your application was not received by their unit until on 7/31/08, I can not re-inquire until 10/31/08. I have marked my calendar and if I do not have your decision by then I will inquire again.

Hurry up and wait............

I contacted our case worker at the adoption agency to find out what's next, and this is what she said:

“At this point we are waiting for your I-800A application to be approved. NBC is currently estimating that it will take about 12 weeks to process each I-800A application. Since your application was sent to USCIS on 7/22/08, and if everything continues to go smoothly you are about halfway through the immigration process. After you receive your approval we will send it out for authentication which takes about 2 to 4 weeks to complete. As soon as your approval is received back from authentication your dossier will be sent to China.”

(patience)

We had our.....

fingerprints taken this morning!!! We had to go to Immigration's Philadelphia fingerprint location, which we found to be a very organized operation. They got us in and out in less than 45 minutes and the people were very friendly. You anticipate the worst when having to do something like this (I thought it would be a worse expereince that going to the DMV) so having an expereince like we did makes the process that much better.

We wait now, with fingers crossed, for our approval from NBC who will determine whether or not we are eligible and suitable prospective adoptive parents.

While away on vacation.....

we received our fingerprint "Invitation" (I-797C, Notice of Action) from the National Benefits Center (NBC). Our appointment is for 9:00am on Friday, September 12th, at their Philadelphia location.

Our check made out to "U.S. Department of Homeland Security" has cleared!

This week has been a rough one for me. I am feeling as if this is never going to happen and could cry at any given moment. I realize that we are only 4 months in, but I am feeling a bit emotional wondering and hoping that things are progressing with Immigration (USCIS). As posted in my prior post, our entire packet that went to USCIS on July 2nd was returned to us on July 18th. On July 22nd the packet was sent back to USCIS with a new check made out to U.S. Department of Homeland Security and we have been crossing our fingers ever since! We were not 100% sure that the check was the issue, as they were not very clear as to the reasoning why. So, since July 22nd, I have been going to the mail box not wanting to open it for fear that there would be another BIG yellow envelope. Also since July 22nd I have been accessing my checking account online every morning hoping to see that our check has cleared and each morning there is disappointment. But not today, first thing this morning I logged in, hoping and praying......and there it was, a copy of the cleared check! I immediately called my case worker at our agency to see if she could tell me what this means and what the next steps are. She first said that this is good news since we now know for sure that things are moving along. The cleared check means that USCIS has reviewed our application and found that everything necessary was included. She informed me that the next step is for everything to go to NBC (National Benefits Center).

What does this mean? Well, NBC is a special unit of USCIS that processes all Hague Convention intercountry adoption applications. Once they receive our I-800A application (with the home study) they will be sending us an "invitation" to get fingerprinted. Once they receive our fingerprints everything will be reviewed by NBC who will determine whether or not we are eligible and suitable prospective adoptive parents to adopt a Convention child. Once approved (we are expecting to be approved), an adoption placement is proposed.

Then what? After NBC approves Form I-800A, and after an adoption placement has been proposed, we file yet another form, the I-800. Along with the "Notice of Approval" for the I-800A we will be provided with filing instructions for the I-800. In adjudicating the 1-800 Form, USCIS assesses the eligibility of a child who habitually resides in a *Hague Convention country as a Convention adoptee prior to adoption by a U.S. citizen prospective adoptive parents. When completing this Form we will have to specify "The child will seek an immigrant visa, if the From 1-800 is approved, because the child will reside in the US with the petitioners after the child's admission to the US on the basis of the proposed adoption."

So, now we wait again, this time for our fingerprint "Invitation." I have to keep telling myself what my sister said to me just the other day..."each day is another day closer to having your child..." At this point in time it is hard to believe that we will experience the joy of little feet (not paws) running around our house, but I just have to be patient, which if you know me, is nearly impossible!


*Hague Convention: provides a framework for member countries to work together to ensure that children are provided with permanent, loving homes, that adoptions take place in the best interest of a child, and that the abduction, sale or traffic in children is prevented.

Update on our I-800A Application

I thought I would give you a quick update on the status of our application to Immigration and Homeland Security. Unfortunately, on July 18th, it was returned to us and it included our checks that were written out to the U.S. Department of State. So, we lost 3 weeks, which doesn't sound like a lot of time to most of you, but when you have been in the paperchasing process for almost 4 months it is! The reason why it was returned was not very clear but we knew that it had to do whith the checks (one for $670 fee and 1 for $160 for fingerprints). After reviewing the application instructions again with our case worker, we decided that the checks were written out to the wrong department and that they possibly might only want one check for the total. So, everything was sent back on July 22nd along with a new check made out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. So now.....we cross our fingers and hope that the next thing we get in the mail is our approval to adopt.

Yard Sale that turned in to a HUGE Garage Sale!!!!

We were looking for ways to raise money to help with the adoption expenses and my mom came up with the idea of having a yard sale.

Initially this yard sale was going to be at our house and was going to be fairly small. But slowly, this "small" yard sale was growing into something very big. My sister, who lives in New Jersey, not only donated a lot of stuff but she mentioned the yard sale to friends and neighbors who also donated a lot of stuff. When she explained to them the reason for having the yard sale they all wanted to help. There was so much stuff that my mom and I made two trips to my sister's to bring back two truck loads full. We spent multiple weekends pricing and splitting everything up by category. We were going to have the sale on Memorial day weekend, but that date came and went. We just didn't have enough time to get everything done. So we decided to have it on July 5th.

A couple of weeks before the day of the sale, it was decided that were going to have the yard sale at Dave's new auto repair shop for various reasons, one of them being weather. I posted ads in the local papers and they ran 3 days prior to the sale and the day of.

Well, by Thursday night, July 3rd, I was ready to cancel the sale because of the weather forecast. They were calling for scattered thunderstorms and showers, all weekend. My thought was "who was going to go 'yard saling' in the rain?" Well, by Friday morning, after talking with Dave and my mom I decided to go through with the sale and cross my fingers that people would come regardless of the weather. The other thing that was decided was that we were going to set up inside the shop because of the weather.

So, ALL day Friday my mom and I set up and Dave helped with loading and unloading all the boxes and furniture. The sale was starting at 8am the next morning so Dave and I were back at the shop by 7:10am. Minutes after we got there, a caravan of cars pulled in. Before 8am, I already had $75 in my pocket! The flow of people remained steady until about 11:30am and by that point, had sold A LOT..........and it NEVER rained. People were still coming throughout the afternoon. The later it got the more discounts there were and we even began giving things away. We put smiles on several faces of children and adults. One little girl left with about 40 beanie babies who came back a little while later with a homemade 'thank you' card. Another little girl left with a bin full of Little Pet Shop figures and toys and a new bike. The parents of that same little girl bought our dining room table and chairs of which we gave them a good price on. They had just moved here from out of state and needed things for their new place. They left very happy too.

My mother and father-in-law came around 3pm to help us pack everything up, which was a huge help. Everything that didn't sell is be donated to local facilities.

We ended having a great day with great memories to go with it! We raised a good amount of money, which is being put right into the bank. We have had so much support from our family, it has made our journey so far a wonderful one.

Finally.....

Our 1-800A Application is being sent out today to U.S. Immigration and to the Department of State!!! According to our case worker, 4 agencies have to approve the application, of which 2 have approved it already. So, the only 2 agencies left to approve it are Immigration and the Department of State. This could take up to 8 weeks, but most likely will not take that long. Apparently, a new department has been formed and because of this they do not have an overwhelming amount of applications to review. I asked our case worker if she thought we had anything to worry about, and she feels very confident that we will not have any problems. More to come.....

I-800A Application....and I thought this was going to be the easy part.....

Well, our agency is still reviewing our 'draft' I-800A Application to be sure that it is 100% accurate before sending it to USCIS. The e-mail that I got from my agency last night indicated that things are moving along and that we are getting closer to having it finalized and should be by this Friday. They are thoroughly reviewing everything to be certain that everything is sufficient and accurate.

For those of you that are not aware, the I-800A Application is the new USCIS Application. A new requirement is that you must disclose all non-traffic Citations and Summaries regardless of how old they are (even where no fingerprints were taken and no arrests occurred). Well, I had received a couple very minor Summaries in the early 90's (when I was young and dumb) and I am required to submit a Disposition from the Court/Police Station along with the Application. One of the Summaries was actually dismissed by the court, but I still have to provide a Disposition stating that.

Since I had no documentation of the Summaries I had to do a lot of investigating and running around in order to track down the OLD records. After finally tracking these OLD records down I obtained the required Dispositions. I dropped them off last Wednesday along with my written Statement of the circumstances surrounding the Summaries and a 'draft' of the I-800A Application.

I am so disappointed that my stupidity in my younger days is delaying this process. We were moving along very quickly as far as obtaining the required documents and we flew through the Home Study and for this to slow us down kills me.....I just want our dreams to come true as soon as physically possible!

Homstudy is Complete

Our 2nd and final visit was this past Sunday, June 8th. We have been assinged a wonderful Social Worker who will work with us from now until the final Post-Placement visit. It went extremely well and our agency should have the final write up by this Wednesday! We received the I800-A application and are hoping to have it completed before the end of the week. More to come.....

We are excited to say....

the paperwork is almost done! We started the process of paper chasing, offically, on April 2, 2008. We are in the middle of the homestudy now and we will be provided with the I800A Application this week. So we are moving right along!