Adoption Thoughts

We have reached a midpoint in the adoption process.  I have gathered the last remaining forms together, notarized the immigration letter received, and sorted the forms ready for the apostilling process.  Once this is done, it is now a matter of Fed-Ex'ing everything to Ukraine. 

The last few days have been a bit of a challenge to my faith.  I have stressed out quite a bit with the adoption process and worrying about how to raise the money to pay for everything. I have wondered how to find the time and ability to coordinate the various ideas I have and finding the extra hands to accomplish it.  It is hard sometimes to let go and let God, esp. when you are so used to depending on yourself to do the necessary tasks.  Maybe God needs to stretch my faith a little (maybe a lot!).

I pray that God will use my meager talents and multiply them for his glory.  That is all I can ask!

Final Forms for Dossier Received

Yesterday, I contacted the mortgage broker who did my refinance and they gladly handle the Proof of Residence form.  When I got home, the copies of the marriage licenses and the SBI letters were waiting for me in the mailbox.  Now, I have to gather everything together and have them apostilled with the Sec of State's office.

I171-H Form received from USCIS!

In the mail today (Friday), we finally received the much-anticipated immigration form approving our adoption!  Now, we have to wait on receiving the SBI report on our fingerprints we submitted and getting the two certified copies of our marriage license from Orange County.

I have one last form to redo, the Proof of Home Residence form.  I had initially taken it to the State Employees Credit Union for a bank officer to sign and then have notarized.  I was able to get the information copied to credit union letterhead, but the individual was being a bit hard-nosed about it and wouldn't sign it. The form only acknowledged what our mortgage payment was each month and how big the house is. I had a copy of the mortgage statement, but that didn't make a difference to him.

Pulling together the Ukraine Dossier forms

We recently got the forms for the dossier for Ukraine to fill out from David.  There were about 30 pages of forms to fill out and have notarized including the following:

1. Proof of Residence statement
2. Federal 1040 form Authentification statement (including first page of form 1040)
3. Application to Adopt
4. Known Child Application to Adopt
5. Limited Power of Attorney (4 copies)
6. Passport excerpts (page with the photo + page with the barscan), 3 copies each of Diana and I.
7. Parental Responsibility  for Registration Form
8.  Interpol European Background check
9.  Power of Attorney for Wife travelling 2nd trip
10. Power of Attorney for Husband, travelling 2nd trip
11. Letter consenting for inclusion in the SDA's database.

Still needed to be done:

1.   Send in the Home Study (2 copies) and 2 copies of their license
2.  Two certified copies of marriage license
3.  State Police clearance for Diana and I.
4. USCIS Approval Letter Authentication Statement (the one waiting on).
 
We will have to wait for the SBI background checks to come back.  We had to get fingerprinted and send out a request to do the background checks.  We had to do the county background checks for the homestudy, but we have to do the state checks for Ukraine.