Our Family Story :Rwanda Adoption: Then a miracle occurs

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Then a miracle occurs

my wordier earlier blog got deleated so here's the low down:
10 simple, easy to follow steps left till our family grows and God blesses us with a second "greatest gift!"

1. finish getting 2 final letters of recommendation
2. get bill's dr letter notarized after 3 failed attempts to get dr to fill form in first place!
3. get fingerprint appt w/ USCIS and approval of fingerprints. shouldn't be hard, since 2 other vast computer networks already have "approved" my fingerprints...
4.submit remaining documents to social worker for homestudy
5. get USCIS approval
6. send dossier to Rwanda embassy for notarization
7. send dossier to Rwanda
8. get approval from ministiry of gender and referral from orphanage
9. then a miracle happens!
10. Baby!

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Time Line for Our Paper Pregnancy

Dec 30th 9pm philly time Arrive HOME -- 33 HOURS in transit, alone with baby, 2 suitcases, 1 bag and God.
Dec 29 Get visa after 14 days. GO HOME leave 1:30 pm Tuesady Philadelphia TIme.
Dec 15 Visa interview at Consular ofice.
Dec 14 Office international Migration- whole day at health clinic
Dec 13 Leave for Nairobi
Dec 3 Jen Leave for Nairobi, Bill leaves 2 days later. ARRIVE RWANDA MON DEC 7th
Nov 28. Attorney Fees $1000 wired to Rwanda
Nov 27th Find out we need PA clearance and our police and childabuse clearances expired on Nov 26 and Dec 1 Bill overnights paperwork to harrisburg (90$)
Nov 11, 2009 REFERRAL!! It's a BOY- Mugisha Eymard
October 12, 2009 We Hear our baby has been chosen! Awaiting paperwork before we know who he/she is!
August 31st APPROVAL!!!
JUly 7th Receive word that minister's office has forwarded our Dossier to Veronique
JUNE 29- DOSSIER DELIEVERD BY OUR POA PETER TO MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND GENDER IN KIGALI
JUNE 27- BILL'S PA BIRTH CERT ARRIVES, THANK GOODNESS WE DIDN'T NEED IT
JUNE 26 DOSSIER ARRIVES IN RWANDA
June 20- DOSSIER MAILED TO RWANDA!!!! (229$ to mail it fedex priority)!!
June 19- Final Documents arrive from DC
May 30- overnight 5 remaining forms to Assistant Stork couier in Wash DC. $75 courier, 40$ State Dept Authen, 29$ UPS fee
May 28- $15 Get Bill's original Birth cert authenticated in harrisburg, buy 150$ money order for rwanda embassy
May 22- Got 2 updated doctor's forms, guardianship letter, jen's birth cert authenticated in harrisburg. Bill's notarized birth cert copy rejected. $10 to request new original. Send current original to save time.
May 21- Get Guardianship letter, 2 Birth certs notarized $25
May 20- Notary goes to Dr Office to notarize form $60
May 15 Bill makes copy of current dossier (photocopy.) Wishing we'd made a complete notarized / state/ dc/ rwanda notaried copy too, "just in case"
May 14 Contact Physican and midwife to start to get medical form updated
May 09, 2009 One month to the day, dossier arrives back with no objection letter, 100% complete- or so we thought.
May 04, 2009 Find out we need medical form within 3 months (ours is now about 4) Birth certs, and guardianship forms. These are not a part of current dossier.
April 27- Call Rwanda Embassy. Informed dossier is complete but US postal service will not pick up box. Waiting for Rwanda employee to walk dossier to post office. Wishing we'd done UPS
April 9- Washington DC! Got Dossier Docuements stamped at State Dept then hand Delivered to the Rwanda Embassy
april 8-picked up our final docuements in harrisburg and drove to Washington, DC and arrived at 11pm
April 6 Forgot some documents and overnighted them to harrisburg
April 3- Got dossier papers stamped in harrisburg
March 27- 1-600a / USCIS approval comes in mail!
March 23- Hear from our homestudy agency that we have 1-600a approval, to come in the mail soon!
March 10- Final round of notarizing copies to get dossier ready for state PA apostille/ authentication. Still wait on 1-600 a
March 9 - ($37) Request another official copy of marriage cert from Nevada
feb 14 mail homestudy to USCIS, marking all paperwork done for USCIS approval. Just WAIT for now.
Feb 9 completed homestudy arrives, held up over a month waiting for letters of rec.
Feb 7 USCIS fingerprint Appt.
Feb 2 All letters in, mail to homestudy agency
jan 22 bill's dr letter arrives but unnotarized
jan 20 jen recruits another cooworker for letter of rec.
jan 17 mail most of remaining documents to social worker for homestudy
Jan 16 ($670 + 160 = 830$ ) reenergized and remail 1-600a with money order Somewhere around here my original request for a CA birtth cert arrives from state. About a Day late and a dollar short, Arnold!
dec 26- jan 16. Jen loses steam and nothing much happens
Dec 26th. 1-600a returned because check does not have address printed on it. Stamped that it was received Dec 16th
Dec 24- Jen's State Fingerprint Clearance Arrives
Dec 23 Notariezed rec. letter from Jen's boss and office manager, as well as notarized employment/income letter.
Dec 23 ($35 )Bill gets state PA fingerprints
Dec 19th- ($35) Jen gets state PA fingerprints.
Dec 15 ($40) CA Birth Cert arrives from VitalCheck.com. Very fast!
Dec 12 Mailed 1-600a Form and Signed up for PA fingerprints , more Dr Visits for Jen
Dec 10 Signed up at VitalCheck for another CA B.C., this time through an internet site after hearing the wait could be 4 months from the state
Dec 6- ($250 + $1250) Home Study App recieved and Scheduled for Dec 28th
Dec 5 ($10 each= $40 total for both of us/ both clearances ) Got Child abuse and police report clearance
Dec 4- mailed home study app
Nov 21 Mailed PA Police and Child Abuse clearance
Nov 20- (14$ ) Mailed CA birth request to the state of CA directly
10-17-08 Met Tina over the internet, who encouraged us to pursue independant adoption from Rwadna, where she and her husband had adopted a son.
Summer 08-While we had always wanted to adopt someday, we start to feel drawn to do God's work in some way, gradually the spark of adoption turns in to a roaring flame in our hearts and minds. Oct O8- Made decision to adopt a child, felt God was ultimatly calling us to do so "Faith without works is dead"