... well, it's near for SOME of us! Alex is finishing up school this week. Keith and I are about to wear our gold medals for successfully parenting a 15 year old for an entire year without killing each other, killing said child or going completely gray. If we can get through the next three finals, we can all take a DEEP BREATH!
I don't have much of an update to post, which can be a good thing sometime. Our home study was put in the mail to USCIS on Monday! Woooohooooo!!! We have a minimum of 4 weeks before we'll receive some kind of response from them. As for our dossier paperwork, we only have our medical left to be completed. We have a few small snafus to get through with the medical, but I'm hoping we'll get that done by about the same time we receive our USCIS approval. If not, oh well - everything happens for a reason!
One thing that has been frustrating me lately are all of these talks on the message boards about "wait times". The wait time most people talk about refers to the amount of time between submitting your dossier to Russia and receiving your referral. CHI's "official wait time" (their wait time is from dossier submission to trip 2) for a boy under 18 mths is 10 months. So, in theory, if our dossier gets submitted in August, we should be in court by June of next year. Now, to confuse matters more, if Russia re-accredits agencies, that wait time could be MUCH quicker.
I guess what I'm getting at is, when you're pregnant, you know you have 9 mths give or take a week or two. You know how long you have to get things together and mentally prepare. With adoption, you have to be prepared to fly 10 hours in less than a week and then be prepared to wait 1, 2, 3, 4 maybe even 5 months before you can go back again and you don't know when that is until about a week before again. I'm watching some families go through the dreaded wait between trip 1 and trip 2 and I am absolutely amazed by their strength. Once you meet your child it has got to be pure torture to know he/she is growing up while you're half way around the world waiting and waiting and waiting. I hope I have 1/4 of the amount of patience that they have when it becomes my turn.
Hope everyone has a great long weekend! We're hoping to go out on the lake and RELAX. Ohhhh... Alex has a party to go to on Saturday.... at a GIRLS birthday pool party!!! :-) My how they grow. I think the sophomore year might be more difficult than the freshman year!
Hugs to everyone! Have a great weekend - be safe!
Love,
Becky
3 comments:
You're getting so close to submitting your dossier!! Congrats! Yes, the wait between trips is killing us, but all we can do is wait and pray it goes by quickly and we get our court date soon! Just so you know, I was told the "wait time" is for the referral, not the full adoption to be completed. I may be wrong... our region gave us a referral quickly, but the wait time between trips has been longer. So far, it's been 7 months since we submitted our dossier, 5 since our referral, 3 1/2 since we got our first set of travel dates and 13 weeks since we left our Owen. We are so anxious to get back to him and bring him home. I can't wait to hear the day you get your referral and meet that cute little one!!
Glad to hear you're doing well!
Adrienne
I bet you get your response back on the I600A back before you think. Ours came about a week after our fingerprint appt. We submitted everything together so we didn't have to wait on the Home Study.
I do recommend that you start getting things apostilled as you accumulate them. I had a few things kicked back because the signatures didn't match the ones on file (both had to do with not signing the middle name). Its nice being in Atlanta that you can just drive over on your lunch hour and have them apostilled. I usually left the office about 10:45 for lunch and there was never a crowd. I ended up making 3 or 4 trips over there to get everything done.
You guys are well on your way! The wait is hard but once you meet your little one you realize it is all worth it in the end. I am sure the 171-H will be sent to you shortly. Just remember that CHI always gives out the "worst-case scenerio"
Sira and Cliff
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