Dossier on it's way to Colombia

Excellent news!! Our dossier (all our adoption paperwork) is on it's way to Colombia as of today!

What this included:

·     Birth certificates for the entire family (one from another state that was a little tricky to get)

·     Marriage certificate

·     Psychological testing for Jerrod & Melissa

·     A home study (3 visits with a social worker and a very long document created)

·     Doctor's physicals (we had to get this re-done 3 times due to errors in notarizing)

·     Fingerprinting for the state of Iowa

·     Fingerprinting for the FBI (twice, three times for Melissa, since they lost the first ones, then both of ours expired)

·     Fingerprinting for immigration approval

·     A Shutterfly photo book for our daughter (the fun part)

·     Application to ICBF (Colombian social services)

·     A letter about our family and why we want to adopt

·     Employment letters (about 3 or 4 re-dos here for various reasons)

·     Copies of tax returns (originally 2010, then updated to be 2011)

·     Letters of reference from our amazingly supportive friends!!

I think that's all.... and a mere 13-14 months to gather and complete said list.

What's Next:

1.   Translation of the Dossier into Spanish

2.  Approval from ICBF (we hope to have this by the end of 2012, but we are resigned to the fact that it is out of our control)

3.  Once approved we are officially on the waiting list

4.  Current waiting list time is estimated to 6 - 9 months.

So, right now we are waiting to be waiting.  At least now we are waiting on someone else and not feeling like we are the bottleneck (ha!).

Are we really done with paper work?

Woo-hoo!!!!

We received word from our agency yesterday that ALL of our paperwork is complete and ready to send to Colombia.  We thought we were done at the begining of September, and just to redo a few (6) minor things.  We never thought when we started over a year ago that it take more than 6 months...  Oh well we believe the timing will working out perfectly for the daughter we are meant to have.  Not that it makes waiting fun.

What happens next...

• Our paperwork is translated into Spanish
• Then it is submitted for approval (hoping for 1 month, could be longer though)

We hope we will be approved by the end of 2012....  Which means we will officially be on the waiting list.  Currently the waiting list is considered 6-9 months.  I've read rumors that the waiting list timelines should be updated anyday now.  Let's hope they are shorter and not longer.

On a side note, I tried practicing my Spanish a little on a trip to Cozumel.  I can tell that I need to get a lot farther than level 1 on Rosetta stone to communicate much more than very basic things.  It's fun to practice though.

And, we really aren't done with our paperwork.  In 2013 we'll have to update our homestudy and immigration approval...  So only done for now.

Adios for now!

Still, almost done...

Filling out adoption paperwork must be similar to work, you can be 80% done for a really long time before you are actually done!  Well this is sort of a depressing realization.  My last post in January was that we only had 10% of the paperwork left.  Right now (a mere 8 months later) about 90% of our paperwork is our agency and we are working on re-doing the rest.

Well we waited forever on our FBI fingerprints (had to re-do them becuase they lost Melissa's even though they were in the same envelope with Jerrod's).  We probably had everything received and completed together sometime in July and then it took us a few weeks to get everything apostilled and mailed to our agency.  After they received it there, we found out we had to re-do about 5 things due to some expiring and job change stuff... 

We hope to have all that (except getting new FBI approval, which should take 5 - 8 weeks from today) sent to our agency with a week or two.  So I guess that means onto Colombia in hopefully September.  Next step is translation into spanish in Colombia, which takes about a month.  So fingers crossed, we should be on the official waiting list by November....  Then we are thinking 6 - 9 months from then until we get a referral. 
Seaking of spanish, I have been doing Rosetta stone.  So far, so good.  Yesterday I learned how to say Japan, Russia, Italy and Egypt in spanish.  Not sure why that is considered useful for level 1 spanish, but you never know when you might need to say those countries I guess.  Another fun fact, the number of times I have been fingerprinted so far, is 5 and we probably have at least one more for the USCIS (aka Dept. of Immigration & Citizenship) that will expire before we get a referral.

Stationery card

Stars And Peace Christmas Card

Make a statement with personalized Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

I made this card to include in the photos required for the Colombian ICBF (the agency that governs adoptions) since I didn't have a digital photo of the whole family together.  Turned out pretty nice :-)

The Last 10% of Paperwork left

We are happy that we are in the last 10% of things left to complete our dossier.  Hopefully we won't experience the phenomenon where it takes as long to do the last 10% as it did the firt 90%!  I think that is just experienced by computer programmers though :-)

We hope to have a completed home study next week so we can submit our I-800a form to be approved by the US government (at least that is my understanding of what it is) to adopt an international child.

So, in addition to taking down our Christmas tree this weekend, we need to make a lot of photo copies!  Also we still need to get some passport photos (even though Jerrod and I have current passports, we need a few more photos) and the boys need photos and passports.  Interesting, BOTH parent have to go along to get passports for minors.  I suppose it so one spouse can't take the children out of the country without the other one knowing.  A good safety measure I guess, but a pain in the behind in practice.

On a funny note, I believe we will have to go to the Colombian Consulate in Chicago to get a special visa to have custody of a Colombian child while we are in Colombia.  Major bummer (not), considering we LOVE Chicago.  Anyway, you know what's in Chicago?  An American G*rl Doll store.  I told one of the boys I'd like to get a doll for our daughter and he said, please don't get that type because they creep me out (I think he mentioned they look like Chuckie and he's never even seen that movie!).  What???  They seem awesome to me and all our nieces have loved them!