Leaving for the airport shortly, but had to log on since we've actually had some real movement in the adoption process.
The FBI has confirmed that we are not criminals, and...
Gladney has finalized our homestudy and sent it off to CIS!!! Only took two months and a day, but hey, who's counting? ;)
Let the waiting (to be waiting) begin!
Friday, May 14, 2010
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??
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