Saturday, March 26, 2011

Radio Silence Ended

As I started to write this post I realized that the activity that's gone on this past two weeks was in reality squished into just one. That should give you an idea of how draining the past week has been. We've kept much of this information pretty quiet as we found ourselves in a position of having to make some tough decisions. I didn't want to post anything until we knew for sure what we were going to do so to those of you who've been hoping to hear everything right way, my apologies but I know you'll understand.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Significant Milestone!

A really short update...

Got home from work today and discovered our USCIS approval had arrived! Now all we're waiting for is the referral from the Central Adoption Authority (CAA) in the RMI. I was able to find out today that our Dossier has been accepted by the CAA and that we've been matched with a birth family. There's no additional information yet but our adoption worker expects to hear something in the next few days.

This is a huge milestone - everything is nearly in place. Will update more when we have it!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

No Action - Just a Quick Hello

I have a few minutes before I jump online to try and buy additional Home Opener tickets for the Twins so just a quick hello! While I've had some nice conversations with other waiting families this past week, no additional information is coming in from the USCIS or the RMI.

Our adoption worker at LSS upgraded her "soon" comment to "very, very soon" regarding the referral. Friend Lori has made a second prediction. As you may remember, her first (last Friday at 10:30) didn't come to pass. Now it's Thursday at 11:15... this is your last chance Lori - better get your psychic vibe on!  The countdown clock for the USCIS says 34 days - that's a full 12 weeks - but I'm still hoping for 8.

A number of you have asked me if we plan to keep our child's given name or if we're allowed to change it. Seems like a good time to answer that one: We can do either! Jeff and I haven't been talking names yet because, he says, you have to see the baby first. I'm inclined to believe him on that but would feel better if we had a short list to start from! We could choose to keep all or part of our child's given name. People often decide to keep a first name and move it to the middle. We'll wait until we get the referral and then decide.

If you have any other questions, post them in the Comments. It'd be great to hear from you just to see if anyone is reading this... hellooooo... oooo.... ooo...oo (that's my notation for an echo... )

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Bad Blogger!

I realized it's been over a week since my last post so I figured I should get something out here! Nothing has really happened to move us along in the formal process since the travel meeting.

First - an update on our two outstanding official items:
Our Dossier is still in the RMI being considered and we haven't seen a referral yet. I wish we had a better idea of where they are in that process... it's the last major unknown before we travel as everything else seems more of a formality. The comment made to me at the travel meeting about referrals coming "soon" has not come true... I have to keep remembering that things run on island time. Island time is great when you're sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas, however, not so fun when you're waiting for the call. My friend Lori has predicted we'll hear at 10:30 Friday morning... If we don't, blame her ;-)

The I-600A (immigration paperwork to the USCIS) is still being processed. It seems that going in early to get our fingerprints done didn't help speed things along afterall. I guess it's all we can do, right? I emailed with the agent assigned to our case last week and she told me that applications are taking around 90 days. This isn't outside the timeframe of what we were told to expect - just on the long end of it. But I am still hopeful for a less-than-90-days turnaround since our new friends from Duluth just received theirs last weekend! Congrats guys!!! They had a slight delay due to poor fingerprint quality and they still received their final approval in 8 weeks. Our paperwork was submitted about 3 weeks after theirs so maybe we'll see something from the USCIS in the next two weeks.

While we wait, I've been trying to keep busy by gathering things we'll need for the trip. My "shopping" spree at Jen's last weekend produced a Jeep full of baby things and we had to leave two items behind - no more room! We scored big on a high chair, exersaucer, and a bouncy seat that can be taken apart to fit in our suitcase. Everyone's said if you can bring a bouncy seat, you're golden! But wait, there's more! My amazing friend also graced us with a set of new bottles of the Playtex "drop-in" variety - apparently they're great for traveling too so you don't have to sterilize the entire bottle. See all the things I'm learning?! We also have a couple baby swings, a glider, extra diapers of various sizes, pacifiers, some cool toys, play mats, a baby bjorn, a bumbo chair, a mobile... Whew... Thank you, thank you, thank you to Jen and a special thanks to her oldest for letting me borrow these items as long as I bring them back when I'm finished :)

Plans for this weekend include lunch and shopping with the girls on Sunday. Without a referral I'll be limited to getting things instead of clothes. Not knowing the age, size or gender makes it difficult to buy stuff that needs to fit.

I promise to try and write more often and be less verbose... if I keep one of those promises, I'll consider it a success. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or just get in touch with me. And lastly, hello to everyone just recently added to the list!

Take care!