This week will be super busy for me, completing paperwork and getting things ready for our homestudy visit on Sunday! I am so happy to have this visit and get so much closer to having our update complete. I am thrilled with how we are getting things accomplished and making some positive steps towards our baby. We both have our medical visits this week and hopefully Dave will get his GBI fingerprints complete. I did mine last week. We still have to be fingerprinted for the FBI and USCIS as well, so hopefully that will all go smoothly and in in a timely manner. Thankfully Kaori does not have to see a doctor, as I took care of that before we left TN. Go me!
Anyway, I am feeling good as we approach this new week!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
New Pictures for our Album
This post is intended for the future when we convert this blog into Baby 2's Adoption Story book. Because we moved, we had to send in new photos of our house for the birthmother to look at. We did not have to make an entire new book, just update our house photos. I want baby 2 to be able to look back and see what his/her birthmother saw when she selected us to be the adoptive family. So, these photos are for you baby 2.
Front of house
Back of house
Living/Dining Room
Formal Living Room
Sunroom
Master Bedroom
Master Bath
Kaori's Room
New Baby Room (not decorated)
Guest Bath
Family Room
Front of house
Back of house
Living/Dining Room
Formal Living Room
Sunroom
Master Bedroom
Master Bath
Kaori's Room
New Baby Room (not decorated)
Guest Bath
Family Room
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Georgia is Just Peachy
I had a nice long conversation with our new social worker and man does Georgia require A LOT. Here is a breakdown of what is in our future:
Copies of recent tax returns
Copy of our water bill
Copy of most recent PAP Smear
Physicals including bloodwork for drugs, TB and communicable diseases for all three of us.
Letter from local law enforcement stating our emergency call history.
GBI criminal check
FBI criminal check
Child Abuse check
If we had a pool or lived on water we would have to be certified as a lifeguard
And then the regular stuff for proof of identification and marriage and employment and financial records.
Wow!!!
All for YOU Baby TWO!!!
Copies of recent tax returns
Copy of our water bill
Copy of most recent PAP Smear
Physicals including bloodwork for drugs, TB and communicable diseases for all three of us.
Letter from local law enforcement stating our emergency call history.
GBI criminal check
FBI criminal check
Child Abuse check
If we had a pool or lived on water we would have to be certified as a lifeguard
And then the regular stuff for proof of identification and marriage and employment and financial records.
Wow!!!
All for YOU Baby TWO!!!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
And it begins....
Yesterday I began our updating process. I mailed off our form of request to be re-fingerprinted by the FBI. Our current prints expire in December and this process should take about 2 months, so we will hopefully get them done before our current ones expire. Hard to believe that we have made it to this point, having to do most things over again. But, we are excited to get started and of course be finished. Next thing will be to send in new pictures of our new home. We have finally unpacked all but 4 boxes, so we are ready to take some pictures and show off our new place. After that we will begin our home study. We have a few things to do around the house to get the house ready to be inspected, but nothing to big.
We are thankful to be past the moving stage and onto the settling stage of things. We of course cannot wait to get that phone call! We asked Kaori over the weekend if she wanted to be a big sister and she said yes. She said she wanted a little boy! Hummmmm? I have had one dream and in my dream it was a baby girl. So, we shall see!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Lots To Do
We are in Georgia now. We have been here for 2 weeks and are getting ready to start updating all of our paperwork. We received this email from our agency listing all that we need to do in the near future. Wow! Time to get busy. Back on the paperchase!
"Attached is the form you will use to fill out for the request for re-fingerprinting (check the 2nd box) (one time no charge). As stated, fill out your names at the top, petitioner first- probably David?, then you, your I-600A approval date which is 10/2/2009. If you can find your SIM # on your approval notice, then enter it on that line. You would not fill out the line to the right as you have not yet had an extension approval date. Then they ask you to attach a letter with David’s name and your name and your dates of birth. I assumed you don’t have any other adults in the home? And include a copy of your current valid approval notice (I-171H or I-797). Don’t forget to sign and fill out the bottom too. Since this is a “No Fee” request, US mail to the PO Box in Lee’s Summit or Express mail to the street address in Lee’s Summit if you want proof of receipt. Don’t forget that you are supposed to wait until 90 days before expiration, so you should request on 9/11/10 or after. I would EXPECT the process to take about 2 months – 1 month to get your request and assign you a fingerprinting date and then another month to get the results, issue a new approval with the updated print results and then go from the immigration office to the National Visa Center (NVC) and from there to US embassy Tokyo.
Please send us your new address and phone number in GA for our records. Please check with your home study agency and let us know:
1. Does GA have pre-adoption requirements for adoptions that will be completed in GA? (as opposed to those completed abroad). If so, what are they?
2. Does GA allow direct relinquishment adoptions? Remember, the birthmother will relinquish directly to you and David and there is no intermediary agency, not in Japan and not ATWA since we do not take legal custody of the child.
3. Would GA consider this an adoption that requires ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) involving 2 states – CA and GA? California would not consider it to be an ICPC case as there is no connection with CA since the child will not be in CA before going to GA and a CA agency does not have legal custody. But, best to get GA’s opinion on this too. We will address as needed.
We also need you to update your file with CIS for the address change. As we discussed, at this stage, I am hoping that a GA agency can do a sort of quick update to just reflect the move probably by seeing your new house, getting new employment and income info and new GA criminal record clearances. GA may have other requirements to update due to a move into another state. Please let me know what agency you choose in GA (and it must be a licensed agency, although not necessarily a Hague accredited agency). However, it cannot be an independent social worker, even if that is permitted under GA law.
If the update required for the move is almost as much money or as much work as an update for your whole CIS approval, you may as well ask for whatever is needed for the CIS approval as well. As we discussed, that approval expires on 4/1/11. Around Jan 2011, if you don’t have a referral, you should send in the same request form for the one free I-600A extension (the first box). You may include a new home study update (as long as it is dated within 6 months (which it would be). That is why I am thinking you might want to ask the GA home study agency for an update, both for the address and for CIS approval unless there is vast fee difference."
"Attached is the form you will use to fill out for the request for re-fingerprinting (check the 2nd box) (one time no charge). As stated, fill out your names at the top, petitioner first- probably David?, then you, your I-600A approval date which is 10/2/2009. If you can find your SIM # on your approval notice, then enter it on that line. You would not fill out the line to the right as you have not yet had an extension approval date. Then they ask you to attach a letter with David’s name and your name and your dates of birth. I assumed you don’t have any other adults in the home? And include a copy of your current valid approval notice (I-171H or I-797). Don’t forget to sign and fill out the bottom too. Since this is a “No Fee” request, US mail to the PO Box in Lee’s Summit or Express mail to the street address in Lee’s Summit if you want proof of receipt. Don’t forget that you are supposed to wait until 90 days before expiration, so you should request on 9/11/10 or after. I would EXPECT the process to take about 2 months – 1 month to get your request and assign you a fingerprinting date and then another month to get the results, issue a new approval with the updated print results and then go from the immigration office to the National Visa Center (NVC) and from there to US embassy Tokyo.
Please send us your new address and phone number in GA for our records. Please check with your home study agency and let us know:
1. Does GA have pre-adoption requirements for adoptions that will be completed in GA? (as opposed to those completed abroad). If so, what are they?
2. Does GA allow direct relinquishment adoptions? Remember, the birthmother will relinquish directly to you and David and there is no intermediary agency, not in Japan and not ATWA since we do not take legal custody of the child.
3. Would GA consider this an adoption that requires ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) involving 2 states – CA and GA? California would not consider it to be an ICPC case as there is no connection with CA since the child will not be in CA before going to GA and a CA agency does not have legal custody. But, best to get GA’s opinion on this too. We will address as needed.
We also need you to update your file with CIS for the address change. As we discussed, at this stage, I am hoping that a GA agency can do a sort of quick update to just reflect the move probably by seeing your new house, getting new employment and income info and new GA criminal record clearances. GA may have other requirements to update due to a move into another state. Please let me know what agency you choose in GA (and it must be a licensed agency, although not necessarily a Hague accredited agency). However, it cannot be an independent social worker, even if that is permitted under GA law.
If the update required for the move is almost as much money or as much work as an update for your whole CIS approval, you may as well ask for whatever is needed for the CIS approval as well. As we discussed, that approval expires on 4/1/11. Around Jan 2011, if you don’t have a referral, you should send in the same request form for the one free I-600A extension (the first box). You may include a new home study update (as long as it is dated within 6 months (which it would be). That is why I am thinking you might want to ask the GA home study agency for an update, both for the address and for CIS approval unless there is vast fee difference."
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