More Fingerprints...

Since we had to start from the beginning with the USCIS, we had to redo our background checks and CPS checks. We went downtown on Friday before leaving for Iowa to get fingerprinted for another local criminal background check. We decided to get another set of fingerprint cards made while we were there since our FBI clearance will most likely expire before we complete our dossier. The results of the background checks should arrive sometime this week, so we should be able to submit our I-800 form to Immigrations within the next couple of weeks. We're not sure how long it will take to get approval, but we're hoping that it won't take too long this time. The path to our children has been rocky and we've had many obstacles along the way. This process definitely requires a lot of patience!! That's all for now...

Home Study Update

We met with our social worker last night to update our home study. We had to make some changes since it was originally written for Kazakhstan. The meeting was quick and we should be able to send our new home study and letter to request a country change to the USCIS before we leave for vacation. I don't know how long it will take to get a new I-171H, but we're hoping it will be fast. That will be the last document to complete our new dossier, so the sooner it arrives, the sooner we can send off the paperwork to Bulgaria.

The dossier for Bulgaria is much easier than the dossier for Kazakhstan. I posted a picture of our completed Kazakhstan dossier in a previous post. This dossier is much shorter and includes the following documents:

* Copy of passport of both parents
* Financial Statement
* Description of our Home
* Medical Forms for both parents
* FBI Clearances for both parents
* I-171H form from USCIS
* Home Study
* Social Worker License
* Home Study Agency License
* Home Study Agency Letter of Recommendation
* Marriage Certificate
* Authorization of Representation form
* Partner Agency Agreement
* Proof of Residency
* Employment Letters for both parents
* 10-12 Photos

Fortunately we already have a lot of these documents completed from our Kazakhstan dossier, and since they were done earlier this year, it's not a problem to use them. That makes things so much easier. Everything has to be notarized and apostilled, and it has to be absolutely perfect.

Things seem to be moving along just fine. We're still educating ourselves by reading books and by attending the monthly classes at Bethany. This Saturday we'll be attending a class where we are able to meet with the International Adoption doctors from Riley Children's Hospital to talk about health conditions that we may encounter with our new children. It should be interesting. Thats all for now!!

A Decision

If you remember in my last update I mentioned that we had three options for our adoption:

1. Wait for Kazakhstan to deal with the issues
2. Choose a new Bethany country
3. Switch to domestic adoption

Well, we chose option number 4. We have decided to go with a new placement agency. We've been researching new agencies for several weeks, and we have decided to go with Adoption Ark in Illinois. We are currently working on our contract with them, and should be able to get started very soon. We will be joining their Bulgaria program where we will be adopting a sibling group of two between the ages of 2 and 5. This program was closed for about four years, but it has reopened and is very promising. We're very excited and feel more confident about this choice than we have any of our other adoption choices up to this point. We will still be working with Bethany for our home study and post-placement reports. They will also be doing our adoption education. Adoption Ark will help us prepare our dossier and find our children. They'll also prepare us to travel and will be with us during our trips to Bulgaria. We have not received the dossier instructions yet, but we're hoping that it won't be as challenging as the last dossier.

A Change in Plans

I received a call from my social worker yesterday afternoon saying that Kazakhstan had decided to work with only a few agencies, and Bethany was not one of those agencies. We were told that we would most likely need to choose a new country or choose a new program, because it didn't look like Kazakhstan was going to happen. I was told that there was a small chance that we may be able to proceed with our adoption from Kazakhstan, but we won't know anything until July. By then most of our documents will expire, so we will have to redo them if we choose to continue. With Guatemala being closed and the wait for China being 2+ years, many people are switching to the Kazahkstan program, and this is causing delays. We have to make a choice, and we have three options:

1. We can choose to stay in the Kazakhstan program and hope for the best, knowing that there is a possibility that we won't be able to contine or that our dossier will be rejected.

2. We can remain in the international program and choose a new country to work with. The Central/South America programs are mostly closed right now. The Ukraine and South Korea programs only allow a certain number of adoptions per year, so we would have to wait until 2009 for those countries, Russia has a lot of issues, and China and the Philippines both have a really long wait. Our only real options would be Haiti and Ethiopia.

3. We can switch to the domestic program, create a profile, and wait to be chosen by a birthmother here in Indiana. This program can vary in the time it takes to be chosen and there is the risk that we may go through several failed placements before we have our son or daughter.

If we choose domestic, we wouldn't be spending seven weeks in a foreign country, and we would be able to spend more time at home with the baby before going back to work. We keep going back and forth with our decision, and we're just not sure what to do right now. We will continue to research out options and will hopefully make the best choice.

It's Done!!

Our dossier has been submitted. It's such a relief to have all of those forms out of my hands. I spent the day having the last few documents notarized by Lisa before making a stop by the Secretary of State's office to have them apostilled. I then made four copies of the entire dossier before meeting with LuAnn at the Bethany office to review everything. It all looks good and is on its way to the Grand Rapids office for a final review. If everything is fine, it will be on its way to the Kazakhstan Embassy shortly. We should be traveling to meet our son in early 2009.