Wow. Has it really been a month since we posted? I can honestly say it doesn't surprise me. Every time I thought about sitting down and then tried to kick up my feet and write, well- something else was just more important and had to be accomplished; therefore, another day and no posting. Several days quickly turned into several months of very few posts. So because a month has passed since we last posted, I think we are well overdue. Easter has now come and gone and we were reminded that a year ago this week, we mailed all of our adoption paperwork to China. Hard to believe.
So I think it's about time we let everyone in on a little adoption secret....
ARE YOU READY?
WHAT?
Did you think we were going to say we have been matched with our referral and are traveling to China? Sorry to disappoint, we're not quite there yet-- one step at a time. (We'll provide more updates soon on what you can expect to hear from us as we get closer to being matched...we'll save that for another blog post though)
Today we WILL share that we are back at it again in the world of adoption paperwork and items as we move forward in 2013. We are working again on what in the "adoption world" we call a paper-pregnancy, and so we begin "Round II: Updates". It comes with its own set of frustrations, long days, tiring hours, and bumpy moments, etc...it just lasts way longer than 9 months! I've always counseled my clients through this process, so now I'm having to remind myself to follow my own advice-- take it one day at a time. Otherwise, one can easily get overwhelmed with the process and paperwork. (even if you know what you're doing and are familiar with this process)
Over the last few months we've had a number of things come up in our lives on both sides of our family and we've learned everything works for the better when we've given things to God, knowing that He promises He won't give us more than we can handle and we must trust Him in that. Some things we don't always understand, but remind ourselves that He knew it before it would happen; therefore, we trust Him. We've had some incredible moments in the last few months (i.e. mission trip to Guatemala in January [for which I STILL owe you stories by way of our blog] and some neat answers to prayer) and yet we've certainly had some difficult days in 2013.
However, no matter what is going on in your life, in the world of international adoption, some things won't wait and you have to move along with certain pieces of the adoption process when certain timeframes come along. One of these items is updating your home study (the document that basically shares your life story and that you have been approved to adopt) and the other is renewing your U.S. Immigration form which grants your child entrance into the U.S. when adopting from overseas. We knew these items were coming up in 2013 and had to be updated and so knowing we couldn't delay these any longer, we began our process of paperwork renewals in March.
Paper
Paper
and you guessed it-- MORE Paper.....
Along with filling out numerous documents, we also began the task of being fingerprinted again (because we all know both Nate and I look sneakingly suspicious and criminal-like), and will have had several sets of prints completed by the time we complete our adoption. During the fingerprinting process this time, I had to laugh as I actually took a moment to read some of the "fine print details" of the FBI fingerprint cards and various codes used on them- let me take a moment to amuse you as you can certainly tell the FBI has expanded their options over the years in several of the following categories:
Hair Color
This has been expanded beyond the typical black, brown, red, blonde, grey, white and bald and now includes the following options: orange, pink, blue, green, purple, or unknown. (I am still trying to figure out the last one- do people really not know what their hair color is, or perhaps this last category is for the person who has changed their hair color so many times even they are unsure of its original color) This was the first one that made us laugh quite hard, but it gets better. Read on.
Eye Color
Pink, multicolored, and maroon got added to the list of standard eye colors. Now I can completely understand pink in the case of someone with albinism, as that is normal. However, I am a little stumped by maroon. (Are we the only ones?)
Abbreviations for Fingerprints
This section provides abbreviations one should use if they have any fingers which do not print correctly, which certainly can be common. It is in our case and we have to use one of these abbreviations for a print where a skin graft was taken years ago. However, the options for this category aren't an exact science and certainly don't cover everything (as is our case), but I thought you might find it a little amusing.
The ones that made us laugh the most were two categories that basically fall under the same purpose. These were abbreviations for a finger that was either "Missing" OR "Shot off" (keep in mind there were several other options for standard things such as an amputated finger, a fingertip that was amputated, a finger that was missing at birth, or a finger that was deformed-- these all make sense and are certainly common occurrences) However, last we checked if your finger was shot off, that would mean it's missing, or at least I would assume so anyway. I won't begin to ask why "shot off" occurs as a category- maybe it's best we don't know.
Aside from fingerprints, we get to go through medical exams, TB tests, blood work, HIV and other communicable disease screenings, just to make sure we don't have any communicable diseases. (In case you're wondering... we're good to go in this area. I know you were curious)
Which then brings us to the actual home visit again with the social worker where our home is inspected...
questions are asked, and notes are taken to make sure we aren't crazy are able to adequately provide a loving home to a child. A long report is then written and provided to our agency and then to us so that we can re-file this report and a renewal application to USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) to make sure the U.S. still approves us for bringing a child into the United States. USCIS will then ask us to come and do one more set of fingerprints at another fingerprint center once we file our immigration application.
Whew....that made me tired just reading it. So this has been our last several weeks- working on paperwork, visiting doctors, meeting with our social worker and basically going through our version of "labor pains". We're almost done, at least for the moment. There are still a few more things to finish up and send off, but at least we can check a few more items off the list (because we both know we love our lists and love to see items checked off- yes, we are organized like that...) We're going to share more updates in the next few weeks so be looking for that as things are starting to move forward a little more, now that we are in 2013.
Now to finish our taxes...
