Busy and Productive

So, it's been a busy and productive week around here...We accomplished a TON of paperwork!

Monday, we took all three of our kids to the post office and renewed their passports. I could hardly believe it's already been 5 years since we ordered their very first passports to move overseas. They took some cute pictures! We stopped by the Texas DPS Headquarters office and had our fingerprinting done for our state criminal history checks. Then we stopped by to have loads of forms signed and notarized. I'm sure the poor guy doing our notaries had cramps in his hands after signing so many forms. Then we mailed off our first small batch of documents via DHL to our country of choice in Eastern Europe. That was a busy day and I was plain pooped when we finally returned home!

Wednesday I got an email that those documents arrived to their destination! Wow - DHL got it there within 48 hours!

Friday, I got the finalized copies of our social worker's home study report in the mail! This is the last piece of the paperwork that I am needing to send off our application for immigration approval to adopt two children. USCIS will process our application, request more fingerprints, and then send us a Form I-171 with our approval. In adoption circles, this is referred to as your GOLDEN TICKET!  This is the document that will permit our girls to be adopted by us and they will receive US Citizenship when we land back in the States and go through the Customs and Immigration checkpoints.

So I will be mailing a package next week to USCIS and praying for speedy processing and a prompt reply.

I'm hopeful that we will be able to complete our dossier (dos-ee-ay) and send it off by the end of August. That will give us a possible travel date in late September or October some time. That could possibly have our girls home by Thanksgiving! Wouldn't that be special?!

The country is still working on transitioning their adoption authority from one agency to another. Their legislative cabinet has voted and graciously allowed adoptions to continue during the changeover. Close to the time we submit and travel, they should be close to handing the baton off to the new agency. Please pray that they will be able to make this a smooth and seamless transition for those of us who will be well into the process at that point.

So hurry up and wait, yet again! :)

TTFN,
Carrie