Home stretch!

Two things happened today.

One was the usual running around for fingerprints, notarizations, etc. Same ole stuff, different day. But later in the evening, I realized that we are DONE running around! Once we get our signed Homestudy report next week, I can mail that off with our I-600a application to USCIS (formerly INS), then we just wait for an approval and biometrics appointment (more fingerprints, lol). Once we get that done, we wait for our I-171H a.k.a "golden ticket". Once we get our golden ticket, we can send our dossier to Micah's country, and wait for our SDA appointment to meet him! In reality, these last two steps can take 2-6 months, but we are really in the home stretch! I don't have to run around anymore, now I just get to sit back and wait, and FedEx will be my new best friend!

The second thing that happened was probably one of the most funny moments in my life. When we found Micah's profile at RR, we thought that was his real name. After we got attached to it, we found out that RR gives aliases to the kids to protect their identity in their home countries. We decided to keep Micah because it fits him, and it means "Who resembles God" or "Who is like God" depending on which website you check. So, it is fitting for him and the situation and we are settled on it. However, just for fun, I told the girls last night that we could name him anything we wanted; that he didn't know who Micah was. We were talking about middle names too. I offered Garrett because that is my grandma's maiden name, and it was a name I would have used if I ever had another boy. Chloe liked it, but Gracie did NOT! She retorted, "His name is Micah! Don't you understand? He's my brother, and I love him so much. I want him to come home with me. His name is just Micah and nothing else!" She was literally yelling at us and very upset by the whole thing. I was laughing so hard. She yelled, "Don't you understand" twice! So, we said, "Don't worry, his name is Micah. We aren't changing it." Then she calmed down. That little girl has some fire in her, but she knows what should be, and now Micah will know that we ALL chose his name :)

Bureaucracy

Contrary to the heading of this blog, I am not going to complain in this blog :) Out of all the documents we have had to have notarized, the most difficult have been the medical forms, the assessor's proof of home ownership, and the letter of VA benefits for Barry.

The medical forms took over a month because the doctor went on a two week vacation, then the first set of forms he signed had to be re-done according to the faciliation team in Micah's country. Those got done last week (Thursday), and we're good to go. Our doctor is very supportive of what we are doing and he and his nurses have been very helpful.

That same Thursday last week, two days after talking to a county assessor employee who said she could help me, I went in to have our "proof of home ownership" letter signed with a notary. The 3rd floor wasn't able or willing to help, the 4th floor supervisor stayed within his black and white lines sayin "no" while trying to be understanding, then the manager on the 5th floor was the nicest person in the world and was willing to help us. She even got a little creative with the document because the letter I brought in with specifics did not match their records. She screen-printed and cut and paste the information on their letterhead. Unfortunately, the document she provided was not accepted by the facilitation team so we had to start at square one. Yesterday, I called and emailed that same supervisor a blank copy of the letter and she filled in the blanks and made it work. I am so grateful for her! She even told me that the Assessor was happy she helped me even though it was a unique situation and so out of the ordinary. So even though there was no procedure in black and white, they were able to go out of the lines to help us. We were the first case in 27 years that came to them with this request!

Then for the last three weeks, Barry and I have tried to get a letter showing what his monthly benefit payments are from the VA (Veteran's Administration). Getting the letter was no problem, but getting someone to sign it in front of a notary was quite the ordeal. The call center was rude to Barry, saying "they don't do that." I called the local office two weeks ago and was told they couldn't help us, that we needed to go to the Regional office in Los Angeles. My notary charges 50 cents per mile and the office is 80 miles away... I did the math and thought no way! I would've had to find a local mobile notary in L.A., and they would probably charge just as much (my notary has given us half off everything and been more than accomodating for what we are doing). So I took a few days off from this and thought, I'm going to try with the local office again and talk directly to the supervisor just to see if I can convince her to help us. So two faxes and several phone calls later, she has agreed to sign in front of a notary. You would think the VA is all the same, but it's not. They have Federal, State, and County offices who handle different things. The State office cuts Barry's check, so they are the issuing authority. The county office (our local office) can verify benefits in writing, but do not want to be liable for anything legal having to do with Barry. It all makes sense, but it's bureaucracy as my title states. I am grateful for the Lord softening hearts in those around us to help us. The local supervisor has agreed to sign the letter in front of our notary tomorrow morning. Please pray that it goes well! I am nervous posting this before it's done. But now I have a contact in L.A. who can help us if anything does go wrong tomorrow. Oh the joys and perils of paperwork! :)

The best news is this VA letter was the last piece of paperwork we have any control over for our dossier. Now we are waiting for our signed homestudy to send to USCIS, and subsequently our "golden ticket" telling us we can go get Micah. Then, the FINAL piece is sending our dossier to the SDA in his country and waiting for an appointment to meet him. Once we are in his country, we have to wait for a court date, then the 10 day waiting period and he's ours! Realistically these last two steps can take 2-6 months, but our hope and prayer is that we can bring Micah home by Easter. Will you pray with us?

Thank you all for your love and support!

Scentsy Candle Fundraiser

Today was a productive day! Three more (important) forms were notarized, and we have 21 pages ready to be apostilled at the Secretary of State. We've had $70 in donations this week from two friends of mine from elementary and high school! AND, my friend, Gina Snow, just became a Scentsy consultant and is hosting a fundraiser for us! Go to http://www.ginasnow.scentsy.us/
, and look for the "Bring Micah Home" party. 20% of the sales will help bring Micah home :) For those who don't know, Scentsy has wickless candles and other fun stuff. The party starts today and starts over each month until he comes home :)

Bumps in the Road

I've tried to put my feelings into words but they are just not coming out right, so please forgive this jumbled mess. I'm also trying hard not to complain, because I know compared to other situations, ours is good. I'm especially praying hard for Davids from Latvia, read about him at http://iwillbeacarrier.blogspot.com/2011/01/davids-story-urgent-need.html. I hope he finds a family fast!

Okay, so for the most part our adoption process has gone fairly quickly. Our homestudy is done and we are just waiting on the final signed copy so we can send it along with our I600a to USCIS. Then once we get our golden ticket from USCIS, we can send our dossier paperwork to Micah's country. The biggest headache we've endured so far is the dossier paperwork. Everything has to be exact, no exceptions. This has caused us to have to return to our doctor to have our medical forms re-done. We are also fighting with the VA to get a proper letter of income for Barry's VA benefits and our local office does not want to help us. So either we try again with the local office or we have to drive to Los Angeles to hope that the regional office will help us. We should not have to drive 80 miles to get an income letter notarized. We have been blessed to find a sweet notary to help us and give us a 50% discount on all our forms, but the mileage charge is 50 cents per mile, so that adds up quick. We've already paid her $40 just for our doctor visit, which as I mentioned has to be redone. In addition to money, these things take time. Time that our little boy is spending in an orphanage waiting for us. Time Barry can't afford to take off work because he's saving every hour and day for when we travel to get our little guy.

So in addition to all of this, yesterday, we got our State Clearances in the mail (after only waiting one day!) I was so excited. I opened the letters and see we are clear (SURPRISE!) j/k :), go to my file to pull out the "official checklist" and see that the letter is supposed to be notarized at the State level. I start sobbing. The State office is 8+ hours away from us in Sacramento. What does this mean? What do we have to do to get this done? Why was this not an option on the fingerprint form? Who do I call? Sob, sob, sob. So I went to the State website and did some more research and see that we checked the wrong box on the form. After paying $25 per print plus $20 per "rolling fee" (a total of $90), we find out we did them wrong. The problem is that I had the right box checked, but the fingerprint technician told me with my original option that we would not get a copy sent to our home, that it would only go to the US Embassy in Micah's country, so I changed the box. After research, I found out the tech was wrong, that it in fact would've been sent to us AND the US Embassy, so we have to re-do them. It's okay now; it's all a learning process, but I'm just so frustrated at the hurdles and bumps in the road that we are facing at the end of our journey. We are almost done. We are literally waiting on 6 pieces of information, one of which is USCIS and can't be sent yet. I feel like we are so close to Micah, but we keep hitting brick walls.

Then there's the fundraising aspect. We have raised about $8,000 total (including our personal funds). This is GREAT! We have about $15,000 left to go... not bad for 2 1/2 months of work. But we are running out of time to raise the rest. Our girls are asking every day, "When is Micah coming home?" They are so excited to have another brother. I tell them, "Soon." But I really don't know, because after all our paperwork is done, we have to have the money to finish the process. Without the remaining funds, we can't travel to get him. There are airline tickets, apartment costs, in country travel, and the $9000 facilitation team fees when we get there. There is Micah's medical appointment, visa and passport costs, and his airline ticket home. We are almost done with everything we can do here in the States. The remaining paperwork we have to have notarized, apostilled, and FedEx'd will only cost about $600-700. And our USCIS fees are $850. Everything else is in country costs.

So when our little girls ask me "When is Micah coming home?" I want to answer them "We've done all we can, and we're just waiting for our invitation to meet him." But I can't do that until we have the remaining money. We are still working hard on the puzzle fundraiser. Many people have donated to have their names written on the back of a piece for Micah to know who helped bring him home. This is what it looks like so far, but we still have a long way to go. Each piece is only $5. Will YOU help bring Micah home?

Thank you to the Hotchkiss Family for your $50 donation last night! Any amount will help us, literally ANY amount. Please help our girls get their little brother as soon as possible. Please help bring Micah home to his forever family.