I800A

I can't believe it's been almost 6 weeks since I last posted! Time flies!! I was thinking not much had happened since I last blogged, but after re-reading the Dec. 24 post - a LOT has happened.

First back to the psychological evaluation. We finally found a guy who knew what it was and would do it in one visit - rather than the first person we went to who didn't seem to know what we needed and wanted to charge us for 3 tests and 3 visits (EXPENSIVE). So we did our psych eval on January 21. It was a piece of cake - except for the 534 question personality test. But even that wasn't bad - it was a bit comical afterwards - some of the questions are just ridiculous. We haven't received the copy of the eval yet, but they called today and we should have it in a day or so.

We received approval from the FBI for Tom's fingerprints - but mine were rejected! (UGH) So I had to go back and have them re-done. Turns out the stamp pad we were using was about out - so the officer replaced it and that seemed to do the trick. Thankfully it didn't cost anything. I haven't received FBI clearance yet but hope to have that soon.

So that leaves us at the I800A. This is the approval for adoption by the USCIS (US Customs & Immigration Services). This has to be done before the dossier can be submitted. We were told that it would take at least 90 days. We submitted it the first week of December. I followed up late December and asked for a status - they said it was waiting to be assigned to a clerk. I called again at 30 days - around January 12 and was told the same thing. So I contacted our Senator's office and asked him to intervene on our behalf. He did and said he got the same answer. So I was resigned to waiting the full 90 days or until early March. Well last week I was in Lake Geneva, WI and Tom sent me an email with a scanned copy of our approved I800A!!! Not one question asked - nothing. So we received approval in less than 60 days! This of course sent off all kinds of alarms for me - I felt so unprepared!!! Due to the typical lengthy time for the I800A our agency told us not to request official documents for dossier until end of January. These documents (marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc.) cannot be more than 2 months old - so you can't request them too soon. Of course now we need them 'yesterday' to get the dossier submitted.

I sent the requests to the various States the last week in January as told so we are just waiting to get those back. Once we get those back we send them to the Secretary of State where they were created and have them apostilled. Once we get those back, we put them together with fingerprints, psych eval, employer verification, medical statements, right arm, doctors statements, 4 copies of our passports, pictures of us and our family and a partridge in a pear tree and send it all to our agency. They then send to Colombia where all this material is translated into Spanish then given to the Colombian government. Who then reviews and lets us know when we can travel.

So now you know why I was freaked out and panicked to get all this stuff going! It's our next step in getting our son home!!!

Our friends in Dayton who are adopting the siblings from Colombia are shortly behind us in the process. They had to go get their biometrics done in Cincinnati on the worst possible weather day a few weeks ago! I can't believe they made it!

So that's where we are. Still no idea when we'll get to go - but it certainly seems a lot more closer/real now! We're even trying to decide what color to paint his bedroom!!

Carrie