Only One More Document!

Only one more document!

We only have one more document  and then our dossier will be complete. It is our I171H from USCIS which is our immigration approval. 

We're making another road trip to USCIS in Atlanta tomorrow evening, after Jode gets off work, to get our fingerprints done since our appointment is Thursday morning at 8am.  We don't want to drive in Atlanta rush hour traffic. Once those are complete, we will get our approval. 

Please help us pray for safety, success, good fingerprints and an expedited process.

Thank you!

MORE GREAT NEWS!

GREAT NEWS!

 

Our home study and all the pertinent documents that go with it, like social worker and adoption agency license, are now on their way to the state capital to be authenticated. Next step will be to send the authenticated documents over to Eastern Europe for inclusion with our dossier. 

 

The only document yet to be received is the I171-H which is our approval from immigrations. That will happen after we have the fingerprint appointment.

 

And that folks, will be the LAST piece of our dossier!

 

Almost There!

 

Time for an UPDATE!

 

USCIS, which is Immigrations, now has a copy of our home study so we are only waiting on an appointment for biometrics which is a fancy word for more fingerprints!
 
Our final home study and all the licenses that go with them will be sent to the state capitals (FL and GA) to be authenticated/apostilled hopefully by week's end.

Once returned, all of those documents will be then sent to Eastern Europe and included with our dossier.

 

We have requested that everything be expedited due to the children's special needs, so hopefully our dossier will be submitted no later than mid July. After that, we will receive travel dates to come meet the kids!

 

We are almost there!

This amazing journey

We have final, signed and notarized, home studies in hand. That's very exciting. It's taken us 3 months, and tons of paperwork and patience, to get to this day!

Three originals will be mailed to the state office in Atlanta to be apostilled. That's the verification of the notaries signature which is required when sending documents internationally. Once we get them back, they will be mailed to Ukraine for translation as part of our dossier.

One final original was mailed this morning to USCIS/Immigrations in Kansas to be married up with our application. Once they receive it, which should be Monday, they will arrange for Jode and I to have another set of fingerprints. These prints will be somewhere in the State but we will not know until we get our appointment letter. Once that's complete, they will send us an approval letter and it too will be notarized, apostilled and then mailed to Ukraine as the final piece of our dossier. 
 

We're almost there!

 

Thanks for supporting us through this amazing journey!

 

 

 

GREAT NEWS!

 

What a wonderful day!

 

We were blessed with this precious picture of our soon to be future son

 

AND

 

We were given the news that our social worker has completed our home study approving us to adopt two children from Eastern Europe!

 

That's FABULOUS NEWS!

 

Our home study is now with our facilitation team and our primary provider agency for final review, editing if needs be, and then final approval! 

 

Once approved we will receive 4 signed and notarized originals of the home study. One originally will go to USCIS to be matched up with our immigrations application.  One will be retained for our records and then two, once apostilled, will be sent to Eastern Europe for translation along with everything we have already submitted.  Once we have USCIS approval, the approval document will also be sent over to be compiled with the rest of our dossier and then . . .

 

It will be submitted to the ministry which oversees international adoptions! 

 

WOW

 

We are almost there!

 

Thank you for following along on this amazing journey!

In the waiting, we can find peace and rest

In the waiting, we can find peace and rest

Although we have done all we can do to expedite this home study, we are now in a waiting period. Every person living in the home over the age of 18 must have background checks in every state which they've lived from the age of 18. Although Jode and I had all of these from previous home studies, my mother, who lives with us, has not. We are still waiting on two states. Once those are received, a final draft can be written.

Thank you again for helping us pray this through!

Update

UPDATE

For those of you that don't already know, Dalton's family is finally able to go get him!  We've been praying for, donating to, and advocating for him for 3 years now.  We always knew God laid him on our hearts for some reason.  Now we can share that story with him someday.  Inasmuch, and because this is not our first rodeo, we've made short work of the paperwork. 

All our home study (HS) paperwork and social worker visits are complete and our home study only waits to be written in a final draft and approved by our facilitation team and primary provider. 

All of our dossier docs, sans the HS ad I171h (USCIS approval which is contingent on receipt of our final HS) are completed, apostilled and headed to the next traveling family to be handed to the team in U.  So, now we get down to some serious fund raising.
 
Right now we have a t-shirt fund raiser created especially for those of us who sometimes feel like we're herding cats.  You can find it here.
 
We also have a shoe drive.  If you're so inclined, you can always mail your good used, or new shoes to us. 
 
And of course, we have our family sponsorship page!

Once we have the final HS in hand, we can apply for grants from other foundations.

To date, in less than 2 months, we have spent approx. $10k and are allotting close to $800 a month from our family budget, but we still need help.  If you're able, can you please help by contributing, sharing and praying.  We really appreciate it.