A Glimmer

Today another waiting mom posted on the chat group that she spoke with our caseworker today, and there are now seven to nine families ahead of them on the waiting list. They are requesting a boy 0-12 months, so that means they are not counting any of the families ahead of them wanting only a girl. They went on the waiting list September 2nd, so they are about three weeks behind us. I'm hoping that means there are no more than a half dozen families ahead of us specifying a boy. When she includes those on the list wanting only a girl, that's more discouraging since their wait is longer.

Top Twenty!

For the past month I've been stewing over the fact that we were told in August there were twenty to thirty families ahead of us and three months later we were then told there were twenty-five to thirty families ahead of us. I couldn't stand not knowing, so I emailed our caseworker last night.

I got an email back today that clarified things and made me feel much better about the situation. She said that back in August, there were twenty-seven families ahead of us. In November there were twenty-five. Now there are roughly sixteen to nineteen families ahead of us since there were so many referrals in November and early December.

That was good news in itself, but then she went on to say that they are expecting several more referrals in the coming weeks, so she's hopeful to see us move up again.

She did finish up the email with the standard warning that we were told back in August that we could possibly wait up to ten months. I hope that is not the case, but that's only six months from now, and June no longer sounds so awfully far away.

Three Months

We talked with our caseworker today. She said there had been twenty referrals in the past couple of weeks, and we had moved up about eleven spots since we first went on the waiting list August 17th. She said now there were only twenty-five to thirty families with similar requests ahead of us. We were told three months ago that there were twenty to thirty families ahead of us! The caseworker did say that she was counting families who really weren't requesting the same age and gender as us but might possibly change their minds. We asked if she still felt like we might get a referral by January or February, and she said it was possible -- although she didn't sound very confident. Again she told us that we should expect a one- to ten-month wait, planning on waiting the full ten months so we could be pleasantly surprised if we get a referral sooner. This time though she didn't say that we could expect it to be on the short end of the range. Three months ago she hinted that we could expect a referral in about four months. I think we can pretty much rule that out. That's just one month from now. She kept hinting at spring now.

Updates

We received a newsletter today from WACAP saying three families accepted referrals in September. All three children were girls, but since only one of the little girls is under a year old, the other two referrals didn't move us up the list. There are eight other families considering referrals, but no details were posted about those children. Eleven families total! After such a long, dry spell, that is great news! The newsletter hinted that there were more referrals to come, so hopefully things will begin hopping this fall and winter!

Two Months Waiting

We have now been on the waiting list two months. Up until this week, things have been a bit discouraging because the Ethiopian courts have been closed since August, and there have been no referrals. Just this week though there was word that the courts have re-opened, and today there was an email posted on the WACAP chat group that there were several referrals this past week!

One Month And Counting

We've now been on the waiting list one month.

Nothing New

We haven't heard any updates at all from WACAP since we've been on the waiting list. There have been no referrals that we know of. At least no one has reported any on the WACAP chat group, and there was no mention of any in the last WACAP newsletter.

We have mulled and mulled over names, and we've bugged our children to death for their opinions. As it stands now, unless we hear of something amazing, I think we'll name the baby Holden. That was the name we planned to use for Ephraim until we changed our minds at the last minute.

Waiting ...

We spoke with our case manager at WACAP on Friday. She told us the stock information that we could expect a wait of one to ten months for a referral, but then she went on to say we should expect to wait about four or five months since we are open to either gender. Later she said she thought it would be into winter. She was thinking early 2010, probably January or February, but before April. She said that right now there are twenty to thirty families wanting infants ahead of us, but 80% of them have specified girls, so we are figuring there's about six families actually ahead of us open to a boy.

I think they are expecting a bit of a delay right now while the Ethiopian office gets revamped, they move locations, and they muck through the rainy season. They are expecting a large number of referrals next time, but because of administrative red tape, they think those referrals won't happen until September or October. She believes our referral won't be in that group. We can expect it will be December to February before they are able to offer the next wave of referrals. Hopefully that batch will be us! She said it takes two to four months after referral to travel, so the group ahead of us could complete their adoptions and free the beds for more children as early as October to late February.

I'm still hoping and feeling our referral will happen during the Christmas season. I've always felt that it will come sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. That may be optimistic.

APPROVAL!!

We received our I-171H today! Woo Hoo!!! We fax a copy of our approval to WACAP this afternoon, and then we will officially be on the waiting list. Tomorrow we have an appointment to speak with our case manager, and at that time we will narrow down the age and gender of the child for whom we will be open. At that time she'll also discuss with us the approximate waiting times depending on our decision.

One Week And Counting ... Again

It's now been one week since our social worker mailed the addendum to our home study.

The Count Begins Again

Today the addendum to our home study was mailed to USCIS. The countdown begins again. Hopefully they'll be as quick this time, and we'll have our I-171H by the end of August.

Trying Again

On Thursday we quickly filled out and mailed the Request for Evidence form to our social worker. We had to wait until we heard from WACAP to be sure we filled out everything correctly. I finally heard back about 3:45 pm, and the post office closed at 4:00 pm. Ben RUSHED over to the post office and just beat the deadline.

Today I heard from our social worker. She had finished our addendum and had it certified, but she did not receive the form on Saturday that we'd mailed her. She emailed us back later today and said she'd received it late this afternoon, but it was now too late to go in today's mail. She was going out of town tomorrow, but she assured us it would be on its way to USCIS on Wednesday.

If USCIS sends us an approval this time in the same time period it took them to send us the Request for Evidence, we should have our I-171H and be on the waiting list by the end of August. I hope that happens! I've had the feeling from the very start that we would have our approval right at the end of August, and we would receive a referral sometime near the end of December.

Progress?

Well, my heart skipped a beat when I checked the mail today, and there was a letter from USCIS. Several people on the Tennessee International Adopt chat group said that if USCIS was requesting additional information, the address was handwritten on the envelope, but if it was the I-171H, the address was typed. Our envelope was typed!

Nope ... it was a Request for Evidence form. USCIS wanted three things clarified:

The first questioned our I-600A application. We were told by WACAP to write, "no" to the question, "Will you travel for the adoption?" because we will not travel until after the adoption is completed by proxy. It turns out that most states want the question answered that way, but Tennessee is an exception.

Second, USCIS stated that Griffin's permanent address could not be listed as a dorm room. That correction requires an addendum by our social worker. Since Griffin now lives in his fraternity's house, and it is privately owned, we asked her to use that address.

Finally, our home study didn't specifically state that Ben and I had never received a denial for an adoption application. That statement will also be added to the addendum.

It's disappointing that our home study wasn't accepted the first time, but I guess it is good news that we know USCIS is already reviewing our case just 2 1/2 weeks after our home study was mailed in. Hopefully they'll get the corrections next week and will process our case quickly. This time with an approval.

Waiting ...

Two weeks and counting ...

We Have A Case Worker

We have been assigned a case worker! Here is her email to us:

It is my pleasure to officially welcome you into the Ethiopia program here at WACAP! I sent off a packet full of information about the program and the next steps to get started. Please take some time to review the packet when you receive it. I would love to schedule a time when I can speak with both of you to discuss the program and next steps. Please let me know of a good time to call you, possibly next week.

I look forward to working with and for you!

Counting

One week since our home study was mailed to USCIS ...

Officially Approved

We got an email today from the Home Study Processing Coordinator at WACAP. It said:

I wanted to let you know that I have just officially approved your file into the Ethiopia program—congratulations! The Ethiopia team will be contacting you soon with your next steps. It’s been a pleasure working with you and I wish your family the best. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything else I can do.

Paperwork Complete

We are through with the paperwork. Today we picked up the county certified home study from the social worker's house, went to Nashville to have it state certified, and mailed it off to WACAP. That was the last document needed for the dossier. Well ... except for the I-171H.

I asked our social worker today what her experience has been with USCIS lately. She said she is hearing from her clients that it is taking about two months to get approvals back. She told us to count on eight to ten weeks. That's not as good as the four to eight weeks I was hoping for, but it's certainly better than eighteen weeks.

Discouragement

I received some discouraging news today. I posted a question on the InternationalTNAdopt chat list to see how long the Memphis USCIS office is currently taking to process the I-171H. I received two answers. The first woman said she got her approval this past February, and it took ten weeks, two days. Another woman said they completed two adoptions, and both times it took eighteen weeks to receive approval. We had been told to expect four to six weeks, so I sure hope those waits aren't the norm.

The Wait Begins

Our social worker mailed our home study to USCIS today! Now we wait for the I-171H. Once we receive it, we go on our agency's waiting list, and we wait for a referral.

Tomorrow we plan to pick up the county certified home study, get it state certified, and mail it to WACAP. That completes our dossier! There is no more paperwork, so there is nothing left for us to do but wait ... and wait ... and wait.

Approval!

Our home study has been approved by WACAP! Just as soon as our social worker sends a notarized copy to them, we'll be officially accepted into the Ethiopia program! We can also finish up that final bit of paperwork now for our dossier. Finally and most importantly, our social worker can mail the home study to CIS so we can get that precious document, the I-171H, and be added to WACAP's waiting list!

Whew!

We got a call from WACAP today. They have our dossier safe and sound, and it all looks good. Whew!!

Uh Oh

We got an email over the weekend from WACAP's Ethiopia program director telling us to feel free to mail our dossier to her attention. We mailed it by registered mail on July 2nd! Uh, oh! Since WACAP is on the left coast, I have to wait until late morning to call them. I sure hope our dossier didn't get lost in the mail. That sucker took me over a month to assemble.

Email Info

Today we got an email from Meg, the Home Study Coordinator at WACAP. She said she was submitting our home study for review today. The review process will take a couple of days, and then she will get in touch with us and our social worker if any changes are needed. Once she receives the final, notarized version, she will get our file officially approved into the Ethiopia program. She will let us know when everything is approved and ready to send for verification and immigration.

Next Step

Today our social worker emailed the corrected home study to us for final approval. After that, she emailed it to WACAP for their approval. WACAP was closed today, but hopefully they'll get it tomorrow, will review it, and approve it quickly. Next step ... CIS approval!

Lots of Progress!

Today was a very fruitful day! We received the final document for our home study, a notarized copy of our third reference, so we took all the documents that had been notarized in Davidson County to the county clerk's office for county certification. After that we had all the documents state certified at the Secretary of State's office and mailed our dossier off to WACAP for review.

Late this evening we received a rough draft of our home study for review. I stayed up until after midnight making corrections and emailed it back to our social worker. Since this is Independence Day weekend, both the social worker and WACAP are taking tomorrow off as a holiday, but hopefully our home study will be submitted to WACAP by the first of next week, and they will approve it quickly.

Well, we've done all the paperwork and now we wait. First we wait for WACAP to approve our home study, then we wait for our social worker to make corrections and submit our home study to USCIS, then we wait for USCIS to send us our I-171H, then we go on the waiting list and wait for a referral, then we wait for a court date, then we wait for a travel date. Patience is not my strong suit!

Our social worker said tonight that USCIS is currently taking four to eight weeks after receiving home studies to send out the I-171H, which is much quicker than it used to be. I'm hoping that means we'll be able to be added to the waiting list by the end of August.

Moving Along

Things are still progressing! Yesterday I took the disc of our dossier photos down to Wal*Mart and had them printed. I received an email from one of our references yesterday, and she plans to have her letter notarized and in the mail to us today. Today I received an email from another reference, and she plans to have her letter notarized tomorrow. She lives near us, so we are going to just pick it up tomorrow afternoon. That will finish up all the documents for the dossier we need with the exception of the home study. Thursday morning I hope to go into Nashville and have all the Davidson County documents county certified. That should take care of all the county certification too.

I also received an email from our social worker today. She is finishing up the rough draft of our home study and plans to email it to us either Thursday or Friday for review. Hopefully after that, the adoption agency will approve it quickly so that it can be on its way to CIS, and we can get that I-171H quickly!

Our social worker said after she receives approval from WACAP, she will have the final copy notarized and county certified, but she will send it to us for state certification. I'm undecided whether or not I'm going to get all the rest of the documents state certified right away so that WACAP can review them more quickly, or if I should wait on the final copy of the home study and have everything state certified at the same time. I don't really want to have to go into downtown Nashville twice, but I don't want to wait if it slows down the process just a little bit.

More Progress

We're still making progress. Over the weekend we had our passport photos taken for the dossier. Apparently Ethiopia needs these so they can staple them to the corner of our file. We also picked out the rest of the pictures for our dossier. We needed one picture of Ben and me, one of the children who still live at home, one of the front of the house, one of the back of the house and pictures of five different rooms in the house. We couldn't decide on which rooms to use, so we are sending extras and letting the agency decide for us. All that is left now is to get the home study from our social worker and for two of our references to get their letters notarized. Then we can get the rest of the documents county notarized, everything state notarized and everything off to the agency!

Whirlwind

The past six weeks have been a whirlwind. During that time we have sent in our I-600A, been fingerprinted, applied to the adoption agency, completed all the paperwork and been accepted by them, applied to the home study agency, completed all that paperwork, had both home study meetings and have nearly completed our entire dossier. We are now waiting for Ben's birth certificate, two letters of reference and an employment letter from our CPA before we get everything state certified and off to WACAP.

Now we wait on the social worker to complete our home study, and then we wait some more to get CIS approval. Hopefully our social worker will complete our home study quickly, it will get approved by WACAP quickly, and CIS will get us our I-171H without a long wait.

After that we go on the waiting list. We are requesting an infant of either gender 0-12 months, either healthy or with minor special needs. We spoke with a representative from WACAP this week, and she said that since we were open to a boy, we could get a referral within just a month or two of going on the waiting list, and we could travel just two or three months after referral. Whew!