Dossiers submitted to Court

Oh my goodness!!!!! My kids have been submitted to court on July 22. I hope some of my favorite people got submitted also. I will check later on their blog. I had to wait to write this post. I read my email about an hour ago and I was hysterically screaming and crying and I think I am calming down a little bit. I am glad I didn't get this email at work because I would have screamed right there and they would have had to take me out of my office.

That is really all I wanted to hear. Today was a big stepping stone in our journey. I know we won't make it before closure but that is fine. At least I know now that we are going to be hopefully heard in the month of October which will be my birthday month.

I am sick to my stomach right now and just making a pot of coffee didn't help much.

Dossier Mailed to Ethiopia

I found out that my dossier is actually shipped off to Ethiopia Today. It doesn't seem to get me excited at all especially when I think that I will not make court before they close.

As for my agency, they can submit dossiers up to July 14. That is 2 more weeks but my dossier is not even there yet and even if it gets there in one week that would only give me a week to have my dossier translated. Why did my timing had to be sooooo close to court. Courts will close August 5.

I absolutely love my agency but there has been so many hold-ups that the dossier could have been in ET by now. First the social worker is new, then the dossier lady goes to Thailand and then simply my file sitting there for an extra week.

Why I have this frustration is because even if my dossier had gotten there like a week ago, I could have had a huge chance to make court.

I said from the beginning I wouldn't make it to court before closing but there was always a slight hope.

God has really tested my patience during this long wait of my adoption journey but if he says wait I have to wait. I can't make anything happen so he must have his obvious reasons for me not going until November.

Sad day. I miss my children so much.

We are Official on Paper

Today I returned my placement agreements to the office along with the welcome bags. Awwwhhh. What a relief. It was very emotional for me to take the packet to the post office. The kids are ours. This piece of paper makes it really official. I got everything what they had on my kids from the office, like their file. Medical reports, test, and pics. They had a lot on my boy and not too much on my girl because he has been there a year now and my girl has been there since January 2008.

B.... has gained some good weight and he also grew. He had his exam just last month, May. He is 4 years and 9 mo old. I haven't gotten any updated exam on H. Her last exam was in January when she was turned in by her mother. Hopefully as families go to pick up children maybe they can give me an idea how tall she is.

I also got another video of waiting kids today that I didn't know existed and both of my kids are singing the ABC. I had heard from other parents that they have seen them on that video; so I had to order it. They looked so happy and adorable. The DVD I have they didn't talk. They just smile. So it is such a delight to watch them again.

Everything feels so real now.

Dossier Mailed to Washington DC

Today I found out from the office that my dossier papers were actually mailed last Friday, May 30. So even I don't have my placement papers or my new homestudy in my hands, that is a huge step.

More Confusion and Delays

First my welcome bags where delayed and still at home because of wrong information. Today I found out that my dossier cannot be moved or mailed anywhere because my homestudy has not come back from the final stage. I guess what happens is that once the homestudy is written, it gets the final stamp of approval from this one lady who doesn't work in the office. I was told my homestudy was given to her on the 19th but the dossier lady said it didn't get to her until the 27th.

I know this is in God's timing but boy some testing is going on here. At least I know nobody is messing with my kids. That is when I get mean and will turn on them but that I was assured again today that my kids are in my files and safe with my family. Okay and that was my main thing to get accomplished.

I often wonder if they even know each other or are playing with each other. I am going to find out sooner or later.

We Are Official/Dossier & Homestudy Done

"We are Official" to have our referrals. Nobody can have the children I have chosen because I have completed my dossier and homestudy. Unfortunately, the lady that does the dossiers is in Thailand and will not return until 5/27. So I will not sign my referral papers until probably the week of May 27. If I were ever to adopt again, I would never look at the DVD of the waiting children until I am paper ready. Toooo stressful not knowing if someone else wants your kids and not knowing if they are going to be paper ready before you.

I just looked at my timeline. Today, a month ago on the day I mailed out my application, and today my referral became official. I think the hardest part is done. Well I shouldn't say that thinking about my immigrations office. That might be the biggest hurtle yet to come.

Dossier Papers Arrived

Today is Saturday and I had planned on doing my spring cleaning all day. Wishful thinking. At about 3:00 pm, my dossier papers arrived and I dropped everything I was doing and started on that. I worked on them for about 3 hours and now all I have left is the bank letter, Dr. letters, and police check. These I will place into Kevin's hands and hope with all my heart that it will be done very fast. He has that sweet personality that people will just do it when he asks. I don't get my way the way he does. Then of course I have to get most of my 20 docs notarized. My agency only wants me to authenticate 2 docs by the State. So all this work I did ahead was for nothing, that fine, only 2 docs anyway. I don't know if they mail it to the State or what. Hoping to have it all done by the time the social worker gets here on Thursday and I will just hand it to her to take back to the office.

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever

Today I got a call from my agency and the social worker from the office will come herself to do my homestudy. She will be here on 5/15. It will take 3 hours for her to get here. She also told me that she will instruct the office to mail out dossier instructions right away.

I have been so happy all day I can't hardly contain myself. Hopefully I will get my dossier instructions tomorrow. Once I get them, I will not do anything else until my dossier is done. I have only been able to gather so much information because I didn't want to do anything double.

Well, I know what I will be doing all day tomorrow. Spring cleaning non stop. I am sooooo happy. I don't want anything else for Mother's Day. Not even a card.

I am kind of chuckling right now as I am writing this because it amazes me what gets us excited when in the process of adopting.

Homestudy Update

First off, I had a brand new homestudy (H/S) as of January 2008 but my agency didn't accept it because I am from WA. I am starting to think that the H/S part will become the most annoying part of my journey to ET. My social worker has still not called me to set up an appointment. I found out that she got the packet 12 days ago. I understand that she is new but experienced. I just don't have much patience and don't get why people have to wait this long to set something up. I do know that she has up to 6 weeks (from day she receive packet from agency) to get the written H/S to agency. So that means she only has 4 more weeks which includes my appointment and writing up the H/S.

Today I begged them to give me a new social worker so I can get moving on this. We will see what happens tomorrow. I feel like I have already started off with frustrations on her so I don't want to continue with her.

The longer I wait the bigger chance there will be that other people get the children I have chosen because they might be paper ready before me.

God will ultimately be the decision maker, that I know.

ET Education Packet

Just yesterday I paid my processing fee and today I already received the education packet. To be honest, I got myself too excited because I thought I would get my dossier instructions. This agency is way too organized. They do not side track. One thing/instruction at a time.

The Education packet looks really interesting although I wished I would have gotten it after my dossier was in and I have time to rest. But the reason they mail this out prior to dossier is so parents are prepared for the worse and can change their mind last minute to adopt before they get too far in. This probably would be more applicable to children older, like 2 and up. It is 53 pages of reading from sexual abuse to religion, older boys, hurt, anger, bonding issues and much more. I also like that I have a free social worker (in house) that I can call anytime when I experience problems once my kid/s get here.

Docs mailed back to agency

Last night Kevin and I were up til 12:00am filling out volumes of papers to get our homestudy going. Wow, we should do this in our sleep. What a sweetheart my husband is. I truly adore him. The one thing he hates is when I suffer. That just eats at him. The minute a tear comes out of my eye he gets upset. Probably I don't cry a whole lot but seem to have more so since I have been adopting. Really it like being pregnant. Always hormonal. So as I was sitting over all these papers, Kevin knowing I don't like to sit on my papers, we did it together.

I needed him to fill out pages of personal data about himself. I had to do it too. The only thing I didn't mail back to them today is the I600A and the I600. This is really cool the way they do it. I just fill them out and they do the rest from forwarding it to immigrations to get it all back and even when the child is identified they do it all.

Received DVD and initial papers

Wow. I was told it would take about 2 weeks to hear back but I received my DVD of the waiting children today and several papers to complete for the beginning stage. The DVD was great. Lots of children on there I liked. It's just too hard to get attached to any because I couldn't claim them until all my homestudy and dossier is ready.