Still chasing those papers!

We had our home visit with our social worker on 2/22; I'm glad that's overwith! Thank goodness she didn't do any white-glove tests. She's writing up our homestudy now.

Things seem to be moving along pretty well now. We sent our I-600A application (applic. to bring an orphan into the US) to the USCIS (immigration) on 1/31; received our fingerprint referral notices on 2/17 (invitation from USCIS to go get our fingerprints taken), and we went to their Naperville office to have our fingerprints taken on 2/24. Unfortunately, my fingerprints are worn, and might be rejected. If that happens, I'll have to go back and have them retaken. They will send me a notice if this is the case, but I'm not sure when. Evidently that office just takes the prints (electronic scan), and they're sent to a different office to be read or whatever. This fingerprint issue did not surprise me, because I've had this problem before. Would you believe that in Illinois, you have to have your fingerprints taken 3 different times for international adoption? First is for DCFS--electronic scan--to be checked for history of child abuse. The woman who took my prints for that told me that they would probably be rejected because they were worn. Luckily though, those did pass.

Then the 2nd time was for FBI criminal clearance. That time we had to go to the sherriff's dept. and have the old-fashioned ink-and-roll prints taken on paper cards, and then we had to send them to the FBI in West Virginia. Don's passed, no problem, but my 1st set were rejected as poor quality prints, so I had to have them taken again and sent in a 2nd time. I'm still waiting to hear if they passed. So it came as no surprise when the woman at the USCIS office said they weren't very good prints. What can I say? I guess I just wore them away with my life of endless toil, lol!

SO, once we get my FBI clearance (if my 2nd prints pass muster), our social worker can finish our home study and send it to USCIS. Then (assuming my prints THERE are sufficient), we will be issued the all-important I-171-H form, which is our official government permission to adopt a foreign orphan and bring her/him into the US to become a US citizen.

(When I worked at Finley Hospital, we had a drug cart that required putting our index finger print on a little screen to be read, and this would open the cart for us to remove the med we needed. I could NEVER get that stupid cart to open for me--now I know why!! I suppose I could embark on a new career as a criminal of some sort--they'd never be able to catch me by using fingerprints!!)

I really hope we can get everything finished up and sent to Vietnam by late April or early May; then we might travel this summer. Lauren can only go with us if we travel in the summer.

Here we go!

Ok, so I'm totally new at this. No clue what I'm doing, but I want to document our adoption journey, so I guess I'll give it a try.

A brief introduction: I'm Sue. My husband is Don, and we have 5 kids: Lauren (18), twins William & Anna (10), Richard (almost 7), and Thomas (4). Shortly after Christmas, we decided to expand our family thru international adoption. We initially planned to adopt from China, but China recently changed their rules and apparently Don's too old for them now, at his advanced age of 50! Also the wait time for a referral of a healthy child in China is rumored to be up to 2 years or more. We would still be eligible to adopt a special needs child from China, and we did consider this for a while, but we learned more about the Vietnamese program, and have decided this is what will work best for our family. The wait time is much shorter (Don's not getting any younger, ya know!), and we meet the requirements for that country.

We're now in the midst of what's known as "the paperchase". Just like it sounds, lots and lots and lots of paperwork and gathering forms and documents. We're also having the required home study done; we've met with the social worker twice at her office, and she'll be coming to do our home visit in late February. We hope to have all of our paperwork finished and sent to Vietnam by May, and then we wait to be matched with a baby. We're requesting a baby girl. Our agency is saying that right now, there is a very short wait for this match, also known as the "referral". Once we receive and accept our referral, (which I think amounts to a couple pictures of the child, basic info like name and birth date, and medical exam info) , then we wait about 2 months or so until we are given the go-ahead to be able to travel to Vietnam to adopt her.

The trip requires spending about 3 weeks in Vietnam to complete all of the appointments and paperwork there. At this time, we are planning to take the whole family on the trip, but Lauren will only be able to go if we travel during summer break. Taking 4 kids & a teenager on a 3 week trip to Vietnam may sound crazy, true enough; but no one at home is crazy enough to want to keep them that long either, I'm sure!

Time to make supper for the hungry hoard.