We Got Mail

We have actually gotten a couple of good pieces of mail the last couple of weeks.  We have gotten our fingerprint appointments from the USCIS, and we don’t have to go to Yakima.  I guess because of all the new changes, all I-800a applications are now reviewed in a central location in Missouri.  I think this is why it no longer matters which office you get the fingerprints done, since the local offices aren’t the ones reviewing them anymore.  Now we get to go to Seattle instead.  A much shorter drive, but I’ve heard the amount of time you spend in the Seattle office could make you wish you made the drive to Yakima instead.  Our appointments aren’t until October 1st, and our application will not even start to be reviewed until those are done.  I guess that means we still have a long wait for approval.  That doesn’t really matter too much now, since we do not need it for ICAB approval.  

The other good piece of mail we have received is Jason’s NBI clearance.  We still don’t know if we even need it, but at least now we have it now.  It’s better to have something and not need it then to need something and not have it. It took about 2 months to get, so I am glad we got that out of the way.  I guess that is all for now.  I will probably post again on the 1st to let everyone know how our appointments went. 

A Big Thumbs Up Goes To. . .

No not our social worker, definitely not our placement agency, but to the philippines adoption yahoo group.  I am so glad I joined that group, they have been way more help to us than our social worker or agency has ever been.  I kept seeing posts come up about people saying they had sent their dossier in already even though they had not gotten their I-800a approval.  I kept thinking that was really strange, since our social worker and our agency told us that we could not do this.  Someone else in the group asked the same question I was thinking about how this was possible.  It turns out that it is not necessary to have I-800a approval in order to turn in your dossier.  You just need a completed home study, which we have had now for a month.  Other agencies were allowing their families to turn in their dossier and then if the USCIS required a change to their home studies, they would just forward a copy of the new home study on to the Philippines later on.  Pretty simple, ya think.  Why we were never told this was an option I really cannot understand and am pretty upset about.  I think that our agency just didn’t want the hassle of having to resend our home study if changes were needed later on, I mean it’s not like we are paying them thousands of dollars for their services or anything.  

I emailed our agency again and told them that I knew of several people that had sent their dossiers in without USCIS approval and was wondering why we couldn’t do the same thing.  They emailed back within just a couple of days saying that we could do that.  I guess they go by the “if they don’t ask, then we won’t tell” way of working things.  If it wasn’t for my yahoo group then I would never have known that this was even an option. There are a lot of people who love our agency and would never use a different one.  I myself don’t think I would ever use them again.  They have done several things that have really frustrated me.  I don’t think I would use the same social worker again either.  She is really nice, but there are many times that I have ended up doing things that really should  have been her job to do. 

Well, enough venting for now and on to the exciting news.  What all of this means is that instead of having to wait another 3 months or so to get our I-800a approved with the USCIS, we are sending in our dossier now.  For those new to adoption, the dossier is a group of documents along with our home study that goes to ICAB, which is the adoption board working in the Philippines that all Philippine adoptions must go through.  Once ICAB receives our dossier they will examine it and make sure everything looks ok and then if so they will give us their approval.  This part of the process usually takes about 6 weeks.  Once we have their approval that means that we are officially on the waiting list to adopt.  How exciting is that!  Not as exciting as a referral, but it is still a pretty big deal for us considering everything we have been through so far.  It will be such a relief to know that all the paperwork is finally over with and all we need to do is sit back and wait.  I wish I could say for sure how long that wait will be.  Since it is the orphanages who choose the families, the wait can range anywhere from 6 months to 3 years.  That wide range doesn’t help much for preparation purposes.  Once we get a referral it will still take another 3-6 months before we can travel to pick up our child, so at least then we will have some time to prepare ourselves better.  I have quite a few ideas on how to keep myself busy during the wait.  One of those is actually a pretty big project that I will be letting everyone know about soon.  I still need to get a few more things together before I let everyone know about it.  Here’s to hoping the next time I post will either be about my project or more good news.