Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Baby steps
Home study addendum to USCIS tomorrow (the 29th). Check!
Next step: approval from the US Gov't to accept a foreign orphan into the country: one-eight weeks. Obviously, hoping and praying for one week!
Reece's Rainbow in the news
You can follow this link to a video clip of an ABC News story on a couple who adopted a little girl with Down Syndrome through Reece's Rainbow. It gives you a good idea how and why people adopt children with special needs from Eastern Europe.
This story didn't tell us anything we didn't already know, but it does serve as a very good 4 minute primer on the state of orphans with DS in Eastern Europe, and how adoption makes a difference. And it's nice to see RR get good publicity!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Moving, moving ,moving....
OK, the USCIS officer got in touch today (and we got the promised letter an hour later), and we know what needs to be corrected. Truth be told, only one thing needs to be corrected in our facilitator's humble opinion, and the other piece was very minor, but hey, at least we know what to do now! So I hope our social worker will be working on this tomorrow! It would be fantastic is we could get this mostly done by January 1...but we're still a ways from that.
--Susan
--Susan
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thank you!
Wednesday night, we were surprised. The priests at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary on our campus invited us (the whole family) to daily mass and dinner afterward. I thought this was a little unusual, but my lfe motto is never question or turn down a free meal, so we accepted. Anyway, we attended their lovely chanted mass, and at dinner, they surprised us by saying they had taken up a donation for Alex's adoption fund and wanted us to have it to honor our commitment to life and following God's call. It was a significant donation! It was clear they were so happy to do that for us.
We sent a thank you note, but I don't think we can really say how touched we were by this.
We sent a thank you note, but I don't think we can really say how touched we were by this.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
In other news...
Good news: Sen. Klobuchar (MN) got a staff person on our case and urged USCIS to move our process along, given the special need circumstances. All this within three hours of contact. Way to go, Senator!
Bad news: USCIS called and apparently thinks we need an amended homestudy. The officer left a message on our voice mail and began to explain, and then said "oh look, I'll detail this in an official letter. Check your mail."
Nooooooooooooo! Just talk to us! Whatever is missing (and I'm clueless as to what that could be), just tell us and we'll get our agency on it right within the hour!
Jerry and I tried to call three times yesterday afternoon. She's not in.
Happy happy joy joy.
Trying again tomorrow....
--Susan
Bad news: USCIS called and apparently thinks we need an amended homestudy. The officer left a message on our voice mail and began to explain, and then said "oh look, I'll detail this in an official letter. Check your mail."
Nooooooooooooo! Just talk to us! Whatever is missing (and I'm clueless as to what that could be), just tell us and we'll get our agency on it right within the hour!
Jerry and I tried to call three times yesterday afternoon. She's not in.
Happy happy joy joy.
Trying again tomorrow....
--Susan
Pray, Hope, Don't Worry
I joked earlier this was the motto of the blog, memorably said by Padre Pio. Well, here's our test, I guess.
This blog is now private (temporarily we hope, but who knows) because a recent fear has arisen that adoptions in Alex's home country may be derailed by an individual who is claiming children set to be adopted by foreigners for his private foster care system in Alex's home country (they do have foster care; it is rare). The chances of Alex being "picked up" for foster care are slim, but we decided to go private and take down his pictures elsewhere, in case this person (or someone else) decides to sabotage the adoption before it even happens. I don't have a problem with Alex getting adopted by another family if they get there first--it does happen, although it is very unusual--but I do have a problem with someone putting Alex in a problematic fostering situation because we happen to be Americans hoping to adopt him.
I should be clear--most adoptions are moving ahead very smoothly and we have heard NOTHING about Alex being targeted for this in any way. There are a couple of reasons it is unlikely in any case. We are operating out of a super-abundance of caution.
This is a very delicate situation diplomatically and I appreciate you all keeping this quiet. Please do not pass this around. Many thanks. Remember: pray, hope, don't worry!
--Susan
This blog is now private (temporarily we hope, but who knows) because a recent fear has arisen that adoptions in Alex's home country may be derailed by an individual who is claiming children set to be adopted by foreigners for his private foster care system in Alex's home country (they do have foster care; it is rare). The chances of Alex being "picked up" for foster care are slim, but we decided to go private and take down his pictures elsewhere, in case this person (or someone else) decides to sabotage the adoption before it even happens. I don't have a problem with Alex getting adopted by another family if they get there first--it does happen, although it is very unusual--but I do have a problem with someone putting Alex in a problematic fostering situation because we happen to be Americans hoping to adopt him.
I should be clear--most adoptions are moving ahead very smoothly and we have heard NOTHING about Alex being targeted for this in any way. There are a couple of reasons it is unlikely in any case. We are operating out of a super-abundance of caution.
This is a very delicate situation diplomatically and I appreciate you all keeping this quiet. Please do not pass this around. Many thanks. Remember: pray, hope, don't worry!
--Susan
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Saga of the $800 fingerprints
One of the major milestones on the path to an international adoption is getting your fancy, expensive fingerprints from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Today was the day for that -- and it was not quite what we had expected.
We got up at 4:30 this morning, leaving the older kids to sleep while we got ourselves and our toddler ready for the two-and-a-half-hour trip to St. Paul. We had a friend come over at 5 a.m. (thank you, Mary!) to get the kids off to school. Off we went, into the sleepy darkness.
The trip was uneventful, with only minor difficulty finding the place. (Anyone else who has to go to the Saint Paul USCIS field station should know that it's on west University Avenue, something they don't tell you. The place is located in a mall.) We arrived a few minutes before they opened, along with about a dozen other people, many of them speaking foreign languages. The first thing you encounter when you enter is a guard station with lots of warning signs: NO CELL PHONES - NO RECORDING DEVICES - NO CAMERAS, etc., etc. Fairly intimidating even for a citizen.
When Susan got to the desk she explained that we had an appointment for December 22 but had driven up a week and a half early to avoid the possibility of weather on that day. We knew we were in trouble when the guard frowned and said, "How do you know it's going to be bad weather on December 22? You're expecting a blizzard? It could be bad weather today, too!" She grimaced and said she would talk to the immigration officer.
At this point I'm thinking: We went to all that trouble arranging childcare for the kids and getting up early to travel all this way, and they're going to send us back.
But she comes back and says, "He'll talk to you. Have a seat."
So, we have a seat in the rather spartan waiting room and nervously wait, not saying anything. Baby boy is playing with the car keys, the happiest person in the room.
Before too long this harried-looking guy comes out and says to us rather sternly, "You have an appointment for December 22. It says right on the form that you could reschedule. So why are you here now?" And he goes on to explain that they follow a careful schedule and they can't work people in just because they show up, etc., etc. He is clearly more than peeved.
Susan begins explaining about not wanting to miss the appointment due to bad weather. He explains again that we could have rescheduled. We're giving him dumbfounded looks, so he elaborates on this a bit. Finally I put in, "But it says right on that form, in big, block letters, that if we miss the appointment, our application will be considered abandoned."
He checks. It does. "Well, that's not for adoptions," he says. "We can't print out separate forms for all the different types of cases. This is meant for people who miss their appointments, then show up a year later and want to reschedule." Hmm, thanks for the belated clarification.
At this point I'm thinking, "Okay, God, this is where you may need to come in." And I pray for the man, and for us. And I sit down, rather shakily, because it occurs to me that I am 6'7" and 225 pounds (I forget this sometimes), and it might be good to be looking up at him with my best big, brown, waif-like eyes (as best as a big guy in his 40s can muster waif-ish-ness). "Well," I say, looking at the toddler boy, "I guess we saw that warning and it seemed like it would be prudent not to have to choose between abandoning our application because of bad weather or dying in a car crash on the highway."
"Dying in a car crash on the highway is a sad thought," the man admits, smiling a bit for the first time. I'm thinking maybe we have a chance here.
"So...probably a better way for us to have handled this would have been to call ahead to check whether we could come early. But would we even have been able to reach this office?"
He smiles wanly and shakes his head. "Well, you'd get the call center in Missouri."
Finally, reluctantly, and with much sighing, he says he will work us into his busy schedule. The guard gives us a couple of forms to fill out. While we're doing this, the immigration officer is telling another couple -- loudly enough for the entire room to hear -- that..."I'm letting that couple with the baby go because they're all the way from Winona and they're worried about dying in a blizzard. You're only from Plymouth [30 miles across town]. You'll have to come back on your appointment day." A little more back and forth with them and they turn sadly away. Yikes.
After we hand in the short form, we get taken back to the technicians for fingerprinting, one by one. Susan goes first, then it's my turn. The fancy fingerprinting machine is basically a little digital scanner. The technician wets your fingers with a fine mist and then presses your fingers on the glass, one by one. As she does this, your fingerprints appear on a large computer display. So it's an extra-sensitive scanner that basically digitizes your fingerprints.
I asked the very bored and distracted technician (hey, it's only 8:20, lady!) what makes these special -- any different from the ink ones we had done at the local jail. She either doesn't get the question or doesn't want to respond because she gives me a series of non-answers. Oh well. Must be classified government immigration stuff.
On our way out, I stop by the guard station to make nice with the guard, who smilingly offers an extended, detailed explanation of how they really are quite flexible -- they routinely reschedule people who have to cancel an appointment due to weather, etc. These people are human beings working inside a bureaucracy -- it's their job to enforce a system they have no control over, which makes them the "bad" guys, but of course no one wants to be thought of as the bad guys. So I am glad she feels better as I leave.
And I'm very glad it's over. Good thing they don't have any issues with government bureaucracies in Eastern Europe! (ha ha)
We got up at 4:30 this morning, leaving the older kids to sleep while we got ourselves and our toddler ready for the two-and-a-half-hour trip to St. Paul. We had a friend come over at 5 a.m. (thank you, Mary!) to get the kids off to school. Off we went, into the sleepy darkness.
The trip was uneventful, with only minor difficulty finding the place. (Anyone else who has to go to the Saint Paul USCIS field station should know that it's on west University Avenue, something they don't tell you. The place is located in a mall.) We arrived a few minutes before they opened, along with about a dozen other people, many of them speaking foreign languages. The first thing you encounter when you enter is a guard station with lots of warning signs: NO CELL PHONES - NO RECORDING DEVICES - NO CAMERAS, etc., etc. Fairly intimidating even for a citizen.
When Susan got to the desk she explained that we had an appointment for December 22 but had driven up a week and a half early to avoid the possibility of weather on that day. We knew we were in trouble when the guard frowned and said, "How do you know it's going to be bad weather on December 22? You're expecting a blizzard? It could be bad weather today, too!" She grimaced and said she would talk to the immigration officer.
At this point I'm thinking: We went to all that trouble arranging childcare for the kids and getting up early to travel all this way, and they're going to send us back.
But she comes back and says, "He'll talk to you. Have a seat."
So, we have a seat in the rather spartan waiting room and nervously wait, not saying anything. Baby boy is playing with the car keys, the happiest person in the room.
Before too long this harried-looking guy comes out and says to us rather sternly, "You have an appointment for December 22. It says right on the form that you could reschedule. So why are you here now?" And he goes on to explain that they follow a careful schedule and they can't work people in just because they show up, etc., etc. He is clearly more than peeved.
Susan begins explaining about not wanting to miss the appointment due to bad weather. He explains again that we could have rescheduled. We're giving him dumbfounded looks, so he elaborates on this a bit. Finally I put in, "But it says right on that form, in big, block letters, that if we miss the appointment, our application will be considered abandoned."
He checks. It does. "Well, that's not for adoptions," he says. "We can't print out separate forms for all the different types of cases. This is meant for people who miss their appointments, then show up a year later and want to reschedule." Hmm, thanks for the belated clarification.
At this point I'm thinking, "Okay, God, this is where you may need to come in." And I pray for the man, and for us. And I sit down, rather shakily, because it occurs to me that I am 6'7" and 225 pounds (I forget this sometimes), and it might be good to be looking up at him with my best big, brown, waif-like eyes (as best as a big guy in his 40s can muster waif-ish-ness). "Well," I say, looking at the toddler boy, "I guess we saw that warning and it seemed like it would be prudent not to have to choose between abandoning our application because of bad weather or dying in a car crash on the highway."
"Dying in a car crash on the highway is a sad thought," the man admits, smiling a bit for the first time. I'm thinking maybe we have a chance here.
"So...probably a better way for us to have handled this would have been to call ahead to check whether we could come early. But would we even have been able to reach this office?"
He smiles wanly and shakes his head. "Well, you'd get the call center in Missouri."
Finally, reluctantly, and with much sighing, he says he will work us into his busy schedule. The guard gives us a couple of forms to fill out. While we're doing this, the immigration officer is telling another couple -- loudly enough for the entire room to hear -- that..."I'm letting that couple with the baby go because they're all the way from Winona and they're worried about dying in a blizzard. You're only from Plymouth [30 miles across town]. You'll have to come back on your appointment day." A little more back and forth with them and they turn sadly away. Yikes.
After we hand in the short form, we get taken back to the technicians for fingerprinting, one by one. Susan goes first, then it's my turn. The fancy fingerprinting machine is basically a little digital scanner. The technician wets your fingers with a fine mist and then presses your fingers on the glass, one by one. As she does this, your fingerprints appear on a large computer display. So it's an extra-sensitive scanner that basically digitizes your fingerprints.
I asked the very bored and distracted technician (hey, it's only 8:20, lady!) what makes these special -- any different from the ink ones we had done at the local jail. She either doesn't get the question or doesn't want to respond because she gives me a series of non-answers. Oh well. Must be classified government immigration stuff.
On our way out, I stop by the guard station to make nice with the guard, who smilingly offers an extended, detailed explanation of how they really are quite flexible -- they routinely reschedule people who have to cancel an appointment due to weather, etc. These people are human beings working inside a bureaucracy -- it's their job to enforce a system they have no control over, which makes them the "bad" guys, but of course no one wants to be thought of as the bad guys. So I am glad she feels better as I leave.
And I'm very glad it's over. Good thing they don't have any issues with government bureaucracies in Eastern Europe! (ha ha)
Monday, December 12, 2011
Fingerprinting on Tuesday...?
Hello friends! We received our appointment for USCIS fingerprinting (Yay!), and will try to go early...that is, Tuesday, starting out at 5am. It would have been today, but we have freezing drizzle throughout Minnesota...and I'm not driving in that stuff ever! Our friend Mary is going to get the older kids to school in the morning and the youngest is coming for the ride.
Prayers for a quick and smooth trip and appointment appreciated!
Prayers for a quick and smooth trip and appointment appreciated!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Waiting....
Very "advent," you have to admit.
Just a quick update on the bureaucratic details. We're waiting on the fingerprint appointment, and heard that we may get the appointment date in the mail this coming week. We're pulling a few more details together on the dossier, which seems like a go (but we need those fingerprints and permission from USCIS before the dossier can be sent in). So there were a few more paper shuffles and calls this week, but it was a low key week (since we can't do too much without the fingerprints).
Some of you who have been following this a while, a child we were advocating for, Anthony, is going to meet his new mom and dad very soon! Leann and Chris are scheduled to receive their formal referral in Anthony's home country December 22, and meet him soon afterward. Yay!!! They live in the same country, but not the same region, so no hope of meeting Alex on this trip....
Have a good week, all. Thanks for your support and prayers.
Peace, Susan
Just a quick update on the bureaucratic details. We're waiting on the fingerprint appointment, and heard that we may get the appointment date in the mail this coming week. We're pulling a few more details together on the dossier, which seems like a go (but we need those fingerprints and permission from USCIS before the dossier can be sent in). So there were a few more paper shuffles and calls this week, but it was a low key week (since we can't do too much without the fingerprints).
Some of you who have been following this a while, a child we were advocating for, Anthony, is going to meet his new mom and dad very soon! Leann and Chris are scheduled to receive their formal referral in Anthony's home country December 22, and meet him soon afterward. Yay!!! They live in the same country, but not the same region, so no hope of meeting Alex on this trip....
Have a good week, all. Thanks for your support and prayers.
Peace, Susan
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