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.
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