We're on the waiting list!

I know this is still going to be a long wait, but it feels oh so good to have our dossier in Honduras, translated, and officially on the wait list.  There are something like 200 families ahead of us.

One more thing

Just heard from Irina at Buckner that Honduras is now requiring the actual lab results for our blood work.  Hopefully that is an easy thing to get.

Dossier Complete!

And on its way to Dillon!  Wow -- that was an accomplishment!!

We got our I-171H!

The I-171H is the approval letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).  It finally came in the mail, over 3 1/2 months after we submitted it (who's counting).  Everything else for our dossier has been completed and is just sitting there on my file cabinet, so tomorrow morning I will head downtown to the Secretary of State's office for one last apostille, then ship this puppy to Dillon!

The ladies at the Secretary of State's office are so nice.  I usually took Erik downtown with me, and they always recogize us and say hi to him.  Tomorrow, I'll have to take both boys.  Erik will enjoy showing Mario the ropes!

Still working on the dossier

No word from USCIS yet, but putting the dossier together is keeping me busy.

I'm sure you're curious.  Here's the list of what it entails:

-- Power of attorney (Marta)
-- Power of attorney (Ileana)
-- Husband's birth certificate
-- Wife's birth certificate
-- Marriage license
-- Criminal clearance, husband
-- Criminal clearance, wife
-- Medical form, husband
-- Medical form, wife
-- Financial statement
-- Letter of employment, husband
-- Letter of employment, wife
-- Letter from bank
-- Copy of title deed or mortgage
-- Three reference letters, one from government, one from church, one from community
-- Passport photos, husband
-- Passport photos, wife
-- Copy of husband's passport
-- Copy of wife's passport
-- I-171H approval from USCIS
-- Picture book
-- IHNFA application
-- Psychological evaluation, husband
-- Psychological evaluation, wife
-- Home study and agency licenses, letters, and written assurance
-- Letter from Honduran consulate

Every document has to be notarized, and the notary's commission should be good for at least a year.  Every document is then apostilled at the Secretary of State's office for the state in which the notary has his/her commission.  Use black ink.  Don't abbreviate.   Use full names.  Don't mess up.

We're fingerprinted

It's funny going through this process a third time around.  You'd think I would make no mistakes at all.  That I would get everything right.  Not this time.

We show up at the USCIS office downtown, park the car, and proceed into the building and through security.  It's like airport security, only you get to keep your shoes on, but they do scan whatever you are bringing in with you.  And here am I, walking in like I am totally with it, and the security guard calls me over.  "Ma'am, you've got something in your purse that we cannot allow in the building.  It looks like a pair of scissors.  Do not open your purse in front of me.  Just take the purse out of the building and dispose of the scissors."

I felt like a total idiot, like I had just fallen off the turnip truck.  Poor Jerry!  He ran my purse outside, took the scissors out, tossed them in our car, and ran back in.  We made it through ok after that!

The fingerprinting was a piece of cake after that.

Guess what we got in the mail?

Bet you thought it was going to be our appointment for fingerprinting!  Not quite.  Actually, it was the instructions for the dossier.  The dossier is all the official paperwork that is submitted to Honduras.  So, what we got was the instructions.  An eighth of an inch of instructions.  Oh boy.  For some reason, I was thinking that the Application Part 2 was the big thing, and the dossier would be just a few more things added in.  Nope.  This is going to take a while.

Here's another thing I love about Dillon and Buckner.  In the letter with the instructions, it says right up front, "Take a moment to pray over this next important step and continue praying throughout the process of gathering all your paperwork."  Awesome!

I-600A is in the mail

This step wasn't too bad (filling out the form, enclosing a copy of the home study, filling out some other form about releasing information), but the odd part was figuring out where to send it.  USCIS has been undergoing some changes to hopefully make the process so quicker, but the location where forms needed to be submitted was changing, and we had to wait a bit.  Anyway, it's over, it's done, it's in the mail.

Next step is that we get a letter from them saying they received the I-600A, then another letter with our appointment for fingerprinting.

Home Study Approved!

Alright!

Next step:  submitting the I-600A to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

Second meeting with the social worker

All went well this evening.  She gave us lots of good information as well.  That's one of the things we really appreciate this time around.  Dillon is all about educating parents in advance so they go into the process with their eyes open to what might happen down the road.  We have had to take, both of us, a six-hour pre-adoption online workshop that discussed adoption in general, and Honduras adoptions in particular.  Very informative.  Plus we have other courses that we are required to take and books to read too. Not that we had complaints with Mario's and Erik's adoptions with our other agency.  But we prefer the approach that Dillon has, and wish that we had some of this information a few years ago.

Next step:  our social worker writes up her report, we review it, and it is finalized.

Home Study underway

We met with our social worker this evening for the first of two meetings.  Really cool lady -- Mario and Erik started playing with her right away and putting on shows for her!  She's the mother of three boys, so she got them.  She talked to Jerry and I both for a while, then I put the boys to bed, and she continued the discussion with Jerry.

She'll meet with us again in a couple weeks for a longer talk with me.  Probably the boys will want to dominate the discussion. Again!

Dillon approved Application Part 2!

A great feeling!  We know it is a long road, but we are one step closer!

Next stage:  home study.