We have recieved approval for all of our documents. We are ready to go...just waiting for that bloomin' homestudy. Actually, we know that the homestudy itself is done, but now there are a few more documents that our domestic agency must prepare for our international agency. We don't know how long that will take, but we're hoping not long!
Nathan and I are hoping to make the trip to the Secretary of State on Wednesday of next week. Please pray specifically for our homestudy to be done so we can make that trip on that specific day. It's the only day of the week we have time to go. Otherwise it will have to wait until the following week. Pray for Wednesday!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Last Document
Good news! We received the last corrected document in the mail yesterday! Woo hoo! Today we will scan in those corrected documents and e-mail them off for approval from our agency. Once those are approved we are ready to take a drive the Secretary of State to have them apostilled.
Our homestudy is in its final stages and should be ready any time. Please pray that it would be done in perfect time to travel with us to the Secretary of State so that we don't have to take two trips. Also, pray for the wording of our homestudy. There is one phrase in it that we disagree with and have asked them to take it out, but their initial response was no. We have asked again and are waiting to hear back as to whether they will remove it or not.
Lastly, we are aware that even with a "favor" for our BCIS clearance, the Orphan Petition Officer is greatly behind on issuing appointments for fingerprinting. We've heard that he's up to 4 months behind. We do not need this for our first trip, however, we do need it to bring our daughter into our country. Once I have a completed homestudy, I will begin "rattling cages" about our daughter's need to get out of Russia in hopes that they will get us a fingerprinting appointment. Please pray that we would be able to get this taken care of before we leave on our first trip.
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Our homestudy is in its final stages and should be ready any time. Please pray that it would be done in perfect time to travel with us to the Secretary of State so that we don't have to take two trips. Also, pray for the wording of our homestudy. There is one phrase in it that we disagree with and have asked them to take it out, but their initial response was no. We have asked again and are waiting to hear back as to whether they will remove it or not.
Lastly, we are aware that even with a "favor" for our BCIS clearance, the Orphan Petition Officer is greatly behind on issuing appointments for fingerprinting. We've heard that he's up to 4 months behind. We do not need this for our first trip, however, we do need it to bring our daughter into our country. Once I have a completed homestudy, I will begin "rattling cages" about our daughter's need to get out of Russia in hopes that they will get us a fingerprinting appointment. Please pray that we would be able to get this taken care of before we leave on our first trip.
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Monday, January 28, 2008
Hopeful
As it is already Monday, but I have not gone to bed yet and my fingers are frozen from being downstairs, I will be brief with our prayer needs for the upcoming week.
We are waiting for our CPA to finish re-doing our documents, our doctor to re-sign one document with his notary and our State Level Criminal Clearance re-do letter to come back. We are hopeful that the local documents can be obtained on Monday (is that today already?). So far, the Department of Justice has been quick when we've needed them to do and re-do documents, but...well, there's always that chance of them being slow. Please pray for us to receive those re-done documents in the mail in the first part of this week.
We are still waiting for an appointment with BCIS, but we actually don't really need that to travel on the first trip, but it would be nice to have it done before we leave the first time.
Lastly, our homestudy is finally at its last stop, but this where it tends to get lost. Please pray that it would not get lost, but instead be done this week so that we can drive all of these documents to the Secretary of State ASAP!!!
The sooner these things are apostilled at the Secretary of State, the sooner we can tell you a real projection of travel dates!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
We are waiting for our CPA to finish re-doing our documents, our doctor to re-sign one document with his notary and our State Level Criminal Clearance re-do letter to come back. We are hopeful that the local documents can be obtained on Monday (is that today already?). So far, the Department of Justice has been quick when we've needed them to do and re-do documents, but...well, there's always that chance of them being slow. Please pray for us to receive those re-done documents in the mail in the first part of this week.
We are still waiting for an appointment with BCIS, but we actually don't really need that to travel on the first trip, but it would be nice to have it done before we leave the first time.
Lastly, our homestudy is finally at its last stop, but this where it tends to get lost. Please pray that it would not get lost, but instead be done this week so that we can drive all of these documents to the Secretary of State ASAP!!!
The sooner these things are apostilled at the Secretary of State, the sooner we can tell you a real projection of travel dates!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Almost there...
This is just a note to say, "Woo hoo!" Our homestudy is finally in the main office getting approval. Woo hoo! This is the last step before it becomes officially completed. Sometimes this part of the process can take up to 3 weeks (I don't know what in the world would take so long, but whatever) so please keep praying that it will be turned around quickly!
We are also almost done re-doing some of our documents. We've either already got them in our hands or we are waiting for them to come in the mail.
Again, Godspeed...
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
We are also almost done re-doing some of our documents. We've either already got them in our hands or we are waiting for them to come in the mail.
Again, Godspeed...
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Sunday, January 20, 2008
So Close...
Well, it's been a nice few days off from adoption stuff, but as soon as this holiday is over, we'll be back on the road again.
After submitting our documents to our agency to look over, we received some feedback on some things that need to be fixed first before we get them apostilled. Now I was a little bit bummed about this because I wanted it to all come back perfect and have everything be on its way to the Secretary of State. However, I had to look at the bright side. Most of the documents were fine and those that need to be fixed are relatively easy fixes. I also had to be thankful that these things were caught before we spent the money to apostille them. Oh and yes, I did finally get a chance to confirm the price for apostilling these documents. Good thing I had overly prepared myself because at $20 per document, it's going to be a pretty penny to get everything over the next hump, but as much as I can find a reason to worry every step of the way, I have to continually remind myself what an awesome opportunity I have to be in the front row of seeing what amazing things God has in store next. His fingerprints are all over this adoption and I know they will continue.
As we are weary from last week and we embark upon a particularly full upcoming week, please pray for us this week as we get these last documents fixed & we wait for our homestudy to be done. We are praying specifically for our homestudy to be sent off for approval at their main office this week.
We are so close...but yet still not quite there yet. Godspeed...
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
After submitting our documents to our agency to look over, we received some feedback on some things that need to be fixed first before we get them apostilled. Now I was a little bit bummed about this because I wanted it to all come back perfect and have everything be on its way to the Secretary of State. However, I had to look at the bright side. Most of the documents were fine and those that need to be fixed are relatively easy fixes. I also had to be thankful that these things were caught before we spent the money to apostille them. Oh and yes, I did finally get a chance to confirm the price for apostilling these documents. Good thing I had overly prepared myself because at $20 per document, it's going to be a pretty penny to get everything over the next hump, but as much as I can find a reason to worry every step of the way, I have to continually remind myself what an awesome opportunity I have to be in the front row of seeing what amazing things God has in store next. His fingerprints are all over this adoption and I know they will continue.
As we are weary from last week and we embark upon a particularly full upcoming week, please pray for us this week as we get these last documents fixed & we wait for our homestudy to be done. We are praying specifically for our homestudy to be sent off for approval at their main office this week.
We are so close...but yet still not quite there yet. Godspeed...
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Pullin' Up My Bootstraps
Today I had to pull up my bootstraps and do what had to be done. I didn't like it, but I had to do it. After staying up into the wee hours of the morning preparing 46 documents to be notarized tonight, I learned this morning (after I took a little nap to get through this day) from our agency that all 46 documents would have to be re-done.
The reason? As of January 1st, California tightened up their notary rules and has now required that the wording on each notary be exact, we must be ID'd by our notary (even if they know us) and we must give our thumbprint each time. I "just happened" to be with one of our notary friends yesterday getting the psychiatrist letter notarized. She was aware of the changes and was prepared with an attachment for our document with the correct wording. No problem or so we thought. We would just attach that new wording to all 46 documents and be good to go. Right? Wrong...
As I talked through it with our agency this morning, they felt that 46 documents being done "differently" in such a manner that we crossed out the original notary wording and attached another paper would wave a big red flag at Russia. So they had to make the very tough decision that they would e-mail me all of the documents in Word, instead of PDF and I would need to go through every document and replace the original notary wording with the new California standard wording. Lucky me!
I have a friend that I can never say enough thank you to because she gladly watched my kids for the day so that I could push through and get everything ready for that notary appointment tonight. All I can say is that she rocks because four hours later I finally printed out the last document. Oh...and I can't forget to brag on my husband because he stepped up and made sure the kids got to their activities at church tonight. He rocks too!
It is now 2 1/2 hours later since I had to re-fill out every blank in BLUE INK! I have literally crossed my "T"s and dotted my "I"s and now I have a hand cramp. Off to rest before the notary gets here so my hand doesn't totally freeze up on me while I sign my life away!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
The reason? As of January 1st, California tightened up their notary rules and has now required that the wording on each notary be exact, we must be ID'd by our notary (even if they know us) and we must give our thumbprint each time. I "just happened" to be with one of our notary friends yesterday getting the psychiatrist letter notarized. She was aware of the changes and was prepared with an attachment for our document with the correct wording. No problem or so we thought. We would just attach that new wording to all 46 documents and be good to go. Right? Wrong...
As I talked through it with our agency this morning, they felt that 46 documents being done "differently" in such a manner that we crossed out the original notary wording and attached another paper would wave a big red flag at Russia. So they had to make the very tough decision that they would e-mail me all of the documents in Word, instead of PDF and I would need to go through every document and replace the original notary wording with the new California standard wording. Lucky me!
I have a friend that I can never say enough thank you to because she gladly watched my kids for the day so that I could push through and get everything ready for that notary appointment tonight. All I can say is that she rocks because four hours later I finally printed out the last document. Oh...and I can't forget to brag on my husband because he stepped up and made sure the kids got to their activities at church tonight. He rocks too!
It is now 2 1/2 hours later since I had to re-fill out every blank in BLUE INK! I have literally crossed my "T"s and dotted my "I"s and now I have a hand cramp. Off to rest before the notary gets here so my hand doesn't totally freeze up on me while I sign my life away!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
A Harvest of Documents
Praises! Yesterday, after a little pushing with the psychiatrist, I was able to get the letter from him. I also was able to pick up the letter from the CPA. Woo hoo!
I was up until 12:30 am getting everything ready for the notaries that Nathan and I need to do tonight. There are 46 of them. Wow! I knew there were alot, but I didn't realize how many!
After we complete these documents, they will be on their merry way to be approved by our agency before they get sent to the Secretary of State for another level of authentication called apostille. That will be done while we wait for our homestudy to be completed.
Once the homestudy is completed, we are on our way! So pray for that homestudy to be finished up soon!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
I was up until 12:30 am getting everything ready for the notaries that Nathan and I need to do tonight. There are 46 of them. Wow! I knew there were alot, but I didn't realize how many!
After we complete these documents, they will be on their merry way to be approved by our agency before they get sent to the Secretary of State for another level of authentication called apostille. That will be done while we wait for our homestudy to be completed.
Once the homestudy is completed, we are on our way! So pray for that homestudy to be finished up soon!
II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
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