At My Wit's End!

Please pray for me because I am losing it.

We’re having some issues with our local USCIS (citizen and immigration) office, and I’m beyond frustrated. I know not everyone who reads this has adopted, so I’ll try to explain it as best I can.

We submitted our I-600A, which is an application to bring an orphan into the country, in early January. As part of this, you have to be fingerprinted. In our previous experience, they send the fingerprinting appointment soon after they receive your application. More than two months went by and we still hadn’t received our fingerprinting appointment. This was my first sign that something was wrong. So I e-mailed our CIS office to ask about it. They said they were waiting to receive our home study because they couldn’t tell from our application whether we wanted an extension for Myles’s application or if it was a new application. I clarified that this was a new application, and they sent our fingerprinting appointments. Then we were fingerprinted and our home study was sent.

I e-mailed our CIS office again to make sure they were clear that second I-600A application was a new one, since they were confused before. I waited two weeks for a response and didn’t get one. Frustrated, I contacted our senator’s office to see if they could intervene.

In the meantime, our CIS office sent a receipt for our second application (three months later), but it had the same case number as Myles’s application. Another big red flag!

The senator’s office received a response from our CIS office saying they were reviewing our case this week (YAY!), but they said we were asking for an extension for Myles (NO!). If they would read our home study, they would see that Myles has been home for seven months!

I’m at my wit’s end! I don’t know any other ways to communicate that Myles is home and we’re asking to bring another child home. Please pray for my sanity :) and for this to be resolved quickly.

Adoption Brain, Part 2

Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote this little ditty. Although we don't technically have to go on the wait list this time, I'm experiencing many of the same symptoms as we WAIT. AND WAIT. AND WAIT. for our USCIS approval. Seriously, we still technically have a current approval! Myles's hasn't expired yet. Please just give us our clearance so we can tell our sweet 11-year-old he's getting a family and bring him home!

Ugh. Rant over.

Thinking of This Smile Today

Myles's 1-Year Pics - The Outtakes!

Myles's 1-Year Pics

Coming tomorrow ... the outtakes!!!

The Latest on L

I haven't posted about L in a while, so here's the latest. First, we are not exempt from the new two-trip rule (travel for both the court date and to pick up L) even though we've met L before because we'll still have to testify in court. It's definitely a big expense we weren't planning for, but we'll find a way to make it happen. :)

Second, we were officially approved by our adoption agency over a week ago. It was an exciting day because I wasn't expecting it/wasn't thinking about it, plus we got to hear L's full story. We learned things like his last name and that he loves Chelsea and Drogba. (I had to Google this, haha! Chelsea is apparently a soccer team and Drogba is a player for the team from the Ivory Coast. We have so much to learn!) We also learned just how badly he wants a family. From what I understand, he was pretty devastated when he had to move to the older boys' orphanage because he thought there was little hope he would get a family then.

As far as our dossier goes, the only piece of paper we're still waiting for is our USCIS approval. Please pray that this will come quickly! Once we have this, we'll get all our paperwork authenticated and sent to Ethiopia to be translated. This should take about a month. Then our adoption agency will submit our file for a court date. Our caseworker is hopeful that we'll get a July court date.

Also once we receive our USCIS approval, our adoption agency will begin the process to tell L he's getting a family. We will write him a letter and an in-country worker will share it with him and begin to prepare him for what's about to happen. Please pray for L through this. The new two-travel rule will probably be confusing for him. From past experience, he's seen families come and take their children home the first time they visit. We will meet him and then have to leave him for several weeks (hopefully not longer). Because he previously had an adoptive family that fell through, he's already been through a lot. We pray he will know we mean it when we're saying we're coming back for him.

I'm really praying that we receive our USCIS approval this week. The rainy season court closure (August to early October) is a little close for my comfort.

I can't close this out without showing you Myles's Easter picture. He really does get cuter every day, if that's possible.

On the Move

I promise I will post a birthday recap soon, but I had to share this video. Myles decided to start crawling yesterday! He's progressed so much in the past two weeks.



And just for fun, here's an adorable pic from a friend's superhero birthday party. More soon!