to our moms, to simon's birthmom... to all moms... a very happy and beautiful day!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
happy mother's day!
to our moms, to simon's birthmom... to all moms... a very happy and beautiful day!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
another step closer
Slowly but surely we continue to finish the paperwork required for adoption round 2.
We finally got our CIS fingerprints taken and our Gladney application has generally been completed for over a month now... if only Gladney would actually finalize our homestudy, so that it could be submitted to CIS for their review and approval (Dear Gladney: hint! hint!). Our homestudy visit took place on March 12 and all related papers were to Gladney by the end of March, so not exactly sure what is taking so long, but so it goes. We had the same issue last time around... not much we can do (except harass and annoy our caseworker, and I'm trying hard not to do that).
Other than that, we've just been trying to enjoy the Spring and the warm, sunny weather (notwithstanding the gray and rainy day we're having today). Celebrating friends' birthdays... going to the park... having an Ethiopian play date with all our local friends from Gladney.... And since I'm still generally suffering from writer's block when it comes to keeping up this blog, here are some recent pics to express the words that I have not been able to write. (I know - the pics are all anyone really wants to see anyway!)
We finally got our CIS fingerprints taken and our Gladney application has generally been completed for over a month now... if only Gladney would actually finalize our homestudy, so that it could be submitted to CIS for their review and approval (Dear Gladney: hint! hint!). Our homestudy visit took place on March 12 and all related papers were to Gladney by the end of March, so not exactly sure what is taking so long, but so it goes. We had the same issue last time around... not much we can do (except harass and annoy our caseworker, and I'm trying hard not to do that).
Other than that, we've just been trying to enjoy the Spring and the warm, sunny weather (notwithstanding the gray and rainy day we're having today). Celebrating friends' birthdays... going to the park... having an Ethiopian play date with all our local friends from Gladney.... And since I'm still generally suffering from writer's block when it comes to keeping up this blog, here are some recent pics to express the words that I have not been able to write. (I know - the pics are all anyone really wants to see anyway!)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
moving right along
CIS Fingerprints are rescheduled!!
I still can't believe we never received the notice telling us that we had an appointment a few weeks ago. Things have changed too - when we were adopting Simon, we actually missed our CIS appointment as well. The notice came while we were on vacation and the date of the appointment was either the day we got back or the day before or something like that. Anyhow, that letter told us if we couldn't make our appointment, we could just show up any subsequent Weds. (Thurs.?? - I can't remember now) between certain hours. Easy. No rescheduling or explanation required.
Seems things are a little different now.
CIS (at least our local CIS) now views your appointment as binding and if you need to reschedule, you need to promptly mail back the notice letter with an explanation and reschedule request for their consideration. And if you don't do that and you don't show up on your appointment date, they will view your case as abandoned.
So we are very grateful that our local CIS office thought it was worth calling us to find out why we had not shown up or contacted them before throwing our I600-A in the trash as an abandoned request! And I am even more grateful that they gave us a new fingerprint date of May 4!! Yup, we are to be printed this week!! And finally, I am feeling like adoption round 2 is actually happening.
For sure the second time around has been a completely different experience than Simon's adoption. Not just because we have been more laid back (although I do admit, news of a CIS fingerprinting appointment did get my heart racing just a bit)... but the paperwork process has generally been easier, less eventful - i.e. got the right form of my birth certificate on the first try (last time: 5 tries)... same for my employment letter. And while I am not in any way complaining about that, it can sometimes kind of make this adoption feel more like something that's happening in the background, rather than one of the most significant things affecting our family - which it is. So hitting a milestone like our CIS fingerprinting appointment, which is totally outside of our control, is all the more exciting.
And so after Tuesday we will be one giant step closer to the waitlist.
Coming soon: Gladney approval (should be this week), more adventures in banking, and FBI clearances (I really, really hope).
So to the 4-5 of you still reading this - stay tuned. Good times are ahead!
I still can't believe we never received the notice telling us that we had an appointment a few weeks ago. Things have changed too - when we were adopting Simon, we actually missed our CIS appointment as well. The notice came while we were on vacation and the date of the appointment was either the day we got back or the day before or something like that. Anyhow, that letter told us if we couldn't make our appointment, we could just show up any subsequent Weds. (Thurs.?? - I can't remember now) between certain hours. Easy. No rescheduling or explanation required.
Seems things are a little different now.
CIS (at least our local CIS) now views your appointment as binding and if you need to reschedule, you need to promptly mail back the notice letter with an explanation and reschedule request for their consideration. And if you don't do that and you don't show up on your appointment date, they will view your case as abandoned.
So we are very grateful that our local CIS office thought it was worth calling us to find out why we had not shown up or contacted them before throwing our I600-A in the trash as an abandoned request! And I am even more grateful that they gave us a new fingerprint date of May 4!! Yup, we are to be printed this week!! And finally, I am feeling like adoption round 2 is actually happening.
For sure the second time around has been a completely different experience than Simon's adoption. Not just because we have been more laid back (although I do admit, news of a CIS fingerprinting appointment did get my heart racing just a bit)... but the paperwork process has generally been easier, less eventful - i.e. got the right form of my birth certificate on the first try (last time: 5 tries)... same for my employment letter. And while I am not in any way complaining about that, it can sometimes kind of make this adoption feel more like something that's happening in the background, rather than one of the most significant things affecting our family - which it is. So hitting a milestone like our CIS fingerprinting appointment, which is totally outside of our control, is all the more exciting.
And so after Tuesday we will be one giant step closer to the waitlist.
Coming soon: Gladney approval (should be this week), more adventures in banking, and FBI clearances (I really, really hope).
So to the 4-5 of you still reading this - stay tuned. Good times are ahead!
Friday, April 23, 2010
a minor bump in the road
Hello. Remember me? I'm the one who always vows to blog more, to keep guzo updated, to chronicle all the milestones in Simon's life and our second adoption... but doesn't quite follow through. Sounding familiar?
Somewhere inside my head is an ongoing blog, capturing all the highlights and funny moments (like yesterday when Simon decided to throw a wooden toy - seemingly out of nowhere, and so I asked him why he did it, and he said "EJ" ... and when I responded by asking him if he meant that EJ made him throw the toy, he said, "yeah, EJ" - and I thought he was too young to start blaming the dog for his mistakes!)... Anyhow, the stories are there, but getting my thoughts on paper (or computer) just isn't as easy as it used to be.
Of course, when I started writing this post yesterday, I was also going to lament the fact that with respect to adoption round 2, there wasn't very much to report. I still haven't gotten my bank letter. (It's going to happen. Really. Work has been crazy, including a work trip last week that has taken more out of me than any work-related trip ever should, but that's a rant not really appropriate for guzo....)
Otherwise, we are pretty much done with the paperwork and are waiting (or as we so fondly referred to this period last time around - "waiting to be waiting") - i.e. waiting for FBI fingerprints to be processed (which, by the way, seems to be taking much longer for us than for others whose blogs we read - grrr) and for CIS approval, so that we can be "officially waiting" for a referral.
Anyhow, I was going to lament those facts, except that this afternoon we received a voicemail from our local CIS office wanting to know why we didn't bother to show up for our fingerprint appointment last week.
Huh????
Are you asking what fingerprint appointment? Because that was my first thought.
It seems CIS thinks we were scheduled for fingerprints last week. I'm sure they are right. Only problem: we did not receive a notice of this appointment, and I assure you we have been diligently checking our mail every single day for such a letter! And since things can never be simple, our CIS office only takes phone calls between 1-4pm on Wednesdays, so not much we can do now. Oh well. We're actually experienced at this as we missed our CIS fingerprint appointment last time around too (we were in Bhutan). But at least that time we knew we had an appointment and what to do if we missed it. This time, not so much.
And so it goes.
So we hope CIS responds to our email on Monday, and if not, we will call CIS on Weds., and hopefully be able to schedule another appointment soon. A minor glitch in the adoption process, but we would be far more surprised if things went too smoothly - because what would we blog about then??
Somewhere inside my head is an ongoing blog, capturing all the highlights and funny moments (like yesterday when Simon decided to throw a wooden toy - seemingly out of nowhere, and so I asked him why he did it, and he said "EJ" ... and when I responded by asking him if he meant that EJ made him throw the toy, he said, "yeah, EJ" - and I thought he was too young to start blaming the dog for his mistakes!)... Anyhow, the stories are there, but getting my thoughts on paper (or computer) just isn't as easy as it used to be.
Of course, when I started writing this post yesterday, I was also going to lament the fact that with respect to adoption round 2, there wasn't very much to report. I still haven't gotten my bank letter. (It's going to happen. Really. Work has been crazy, including a work trip last week that has taken more out of me than any work-related trip ever should, but that's a rant not really appropriate for guzo....)
Otherwise, we are pretty much done with the paperwork and are waiting (or as we so fondly referred to this period last time around - "waiting to be waiting") - i.e. waiting for FBI fingerprints to be processed (which, by the way, seems to be taking much longer for us than for others whose blogs we read - grrr) and for CIS approval, so that we can be "officially waiting" for a referral.
Anyhow, I was going to lament those facts, except that this afternoon we received a voicemail from our local CIS office wanting to know why we didn't bother to show up for our fingerprint appointment last week.
Huh????
Are you asking what fingerprint appointment? Because that was my first thought.
It seems CIS thinks we were scheduled for fingerprints last week. I'm sure they are right. Only problem: we did not receive a notice of this appointment, and I assure you we have been diligently checking our mail every single day for such a letter! And since things can never be simple, our CIS office only takes phone calls between 1-4pm on Wednesdays, so not much we can do now. Oh well. We're actually experienced at this as we missed our CIS fingerprint appointment last time around too (we were in Bhutan). But at least that time we knew we had an appointment and what to do if we missed it. This time, not so much.
And so it goes.
So we hope CIS responds to our email on Monday, and if not, we will call CIS on Weds., and hopefully be able to schedule another appointment soon. A minor glitch in the adoption process, but we would be far more surprised if things went too smoothly - because what would we blog about then??
Sunday, April 4, 2010
untitled update #2
So the Spring continues to fly by even though it has only just begun. And I keep wanting to write a more interesting or meaningful or funny post, but it seems I keep finding myself either too exhausted to write or, in the mood to write, but unable to think of witty, interesting things to say! So forgive me if guzo is not all it can be these days... I'm working on it.
As for adoption round 2, the last of our application documents are at Gladney and we have only a couple of documents left to complete our dossier (yes, including the bank letter... ugh, ugh, ugh!). We now wait for our homestudy to be finalized so that it can be sent to CIS, but other than that, we are moving right along.
Otherwise, things have been a bit hectic in our house as of late and they won't be calming down any time soon. (Hectic and crazy and I still don't have anything interesting to write about. Hmm... Writer's block, anyone??)
We've got a bit of travel ahead of us, as I've got three work trips between April and July and Ryan may have one as well. Then we'll be taking a family trip in early August to visit Ryan's family. (Dare I admit that once upon a time I thought it would be really, really cool to have a job that required lots of travel. What was I thinking???). Fortunately I convinced the boys to join me on one of my work trips to Germany, as I really don't like spending so much time apart, so we'll see how that goes. This will be our longest flight with Simon since bringing him home and a very different kind of trip than we've taken before with him, which should make it... well... interesting. (Hoping and wishing for exciting and fun and fabulous and the first of many, many international family trips, but don't worry, I'm not totally fooling myself about how hard traveling with a toddler can be - we're just as prepared for a few meltdowns and a lot of time spent in our hotel room). Anyhow, I am still looking forward to it, but I'm not entirely sure Ryan is.
And so it goes.
Simon is growing and changing and learning and entertaining us at every turn. These days it's all about counting and letters. Everywhere we go, he points out the letters and numbers on signs. Can't read a book without stopping to identify the letters. Can't eat without counting the number of pieces on his plate... We even hear him counting and reciting letters while he plays in his crib before and after naps/bedtime! So amongst all the crazy, there are some really sweet, calm moments, and we are definitely taking the time to embrace them.
As for adoption round 2, the last of our application documents are at Gladney and we have only a couple of documents left to complete our dossier (yes, including the bank letter... ugh, ugh, ugh!). We now wait for our homestudy to be finalized so that it can be sent to CIS, but other than that, we are moving right along.
Otherwise, things have been a bit hectic in our house as of late and they won't be calming down any time soon. (Hectic and crazy and I still don't have anything interesting to write about. Hmm... Writer's block, anyone??)
We've got a bit of travel ahead of us, as I've got three work trips between April and July and Ryan may have one as well. Then we'll be taking a family trip in early August to visit Ryan's family. (Dare I admit that once upon a time I thought it would be really, really cool to have a job that required lots of travel. What was I thinking???). Fortunately I convinced the boys to join me on one of my work trips to Germany, as I really don't like spending so much time apart, so we'll see how that goes. This will be our longest flight with Simon since bringing him home and a very different kind of trip than we've taken before with him, which should make it... well... interesting. (Hoping and wishing for exciting and fun and fabulous and the first of many, many international family trips, but don't worry, I'm not totally fooling myself about how hard traveling with a toddler can be - we're just as prepared for a few meltdowns and a lot of time spent in our hotel room). Anyhow, I am still looking forward to it, but I'm not entirely sure Ryan is.
And so it goes.
Simon is growing and changing and learning and entertaining us at every turn. These days it's all about counting and letters. Everywhere we go, he points out the letters and numbers on signs. Can't read a book without stopping to identify the letters. Can't eat without counting the number of pieces on his plate... We even hear him counting and reciting letters while he plays in his crib before and after naps/bedtime! So amongst all the crazy, there are some really sweet, calm moments, and we are definitely taking the time to embrace them.
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