An email I received tonight...

Back in Feb 2008 I was desperately trying to get a response to what happened to my I-600A. It had been sent in completed 6 months prior and I couldn't get anyone at Homeland Security to respond to me. In desperation, I sent off many emails to my local homeland security office in charge of adoptions inquiring desperately about why I hadn't received my 171-H yet. We were told we would most likely travel on trip one in March 2008 to meet our daughter and court would be shortly after on trip 2. If we didn't have that paper in the next month it could interefere with our court date. I was pretty anxious and a little desperate in Feb 2008 because after 6 months of not being able to get a response how could I in one month?

14 months later today, imagine my surprise when I opened my email to see this very short response I received with all my previous emails attached...

"Hopefully this has been resolved. If it has not, please provide me your number and the best time to reach you.
Thank you."

So sad...as if I just sat around for the past 14 months waiting for some unimportant response as if forgetting that this was in regards to a child and family's life that was stuck in limbo. And the worse part, my number was all over that email even under my name at the bottom and top. Clearly, my desperate pleas were not even read. Just a formal procedure to move around paperwork. So, here I would be again responding and then waiting to hear back from who? No name was even signed. So very, very sad! I shudder to think what if...what if I didn't get that paper?...what if noone had helped us? What would our lives have been like today without our sweet and precious Emily? It gives me chills to even consider...

The saga has ended and The 171-H is finally mine!

After an adventurous morning at USCIS and meeting the man who had been holding onto my file for the past 6 months I will have to sum up what I have learned from this experience...
Be persistent. Do not feel bad if you send a second letter before you have gotten a first response. Just keeping sending the letters. Everyweek if you have to. If you really need somthing get an appt and go down in person. Go down everyday to the office if you have to until they are sick of seeing you being polite and persistent. If you have to call your congressman or senator, do it. You are paying taxes, do not feel bad about it. Call on the phone 10x a day if need be. And above all..Do not take it personally, they sure are not. And learn from my biggest mistake.. out of sight really is out of mind. So make it a point to stay right in front.

I wish I had done this months ago because the truth of the matter is my file was just sitting on his desk with thousands of others, totally forgotten. And would still be sitting there untouched had I not gone down there today. It was easy to tell that they are swimming in files. Everywhere you look..there are files piled up. Each one contains some familes personal info and pages of documents. And behind each of those files is some poor family all waiting and waiting for a reply. Like me, probably checking their mailbox everyday for months on end.

It's just so ironic that I thought there was something wrong, My husband wasn't able to come today so my dad very graciously accompanied me as I really wanted a witness and protector. And Even after getting my appt today to come back and meet with him and worrying all night about that appt. The first thing the INS officer said when he called me in was ..."So, what is this about? What do you want?" What do you mean, what do I want? I want my 171-H. He still had no clue who I was. Didn't even bother to review my file before the appt between yesterday when he granted the other officer the go ahead to give me the appt. till that moment. I brought my copies and explained to him my file was completed with all the extra documents he requested from me back in December. He said give me 10 mins and I will go check. He returned 20 mins later with my file. "Yes, I was waiting on some requested documents and it looks like you did send them in. Your file is complete and I will send you the 171-H in the mail in a few weeks." Right...like I was just going to go away satisfied with that answer. No, no...I will wait here for them in person. I'm traveling to Russia in 7 days and I really need this paper. Let me see what I can do...another 30 mins passes before he returns. Come back at 1pm and you can pick it up. Unfortunately I could not come back myself because Tuesdays is my day to drive the carpool at my oldest son's school and stay at school with them all. I was already cutting it close to making it home in time, change clothes and head back out in my grubbies, pick up all the boys and head to the mtns for school. So my dad volunteered to come back and sit and wait to get called and check over the documents to make sure everything was correct. And he was successful because when I came home tonight..there it was waiting for me!! Thanks Dad!! You're the best! And thanks mom, you're the greatest too. For dropping everything today to come over and sit all day with the boys so I could sit over at USCIS all morning and then go on to school with BW. All of this worry...over one piece of paper!! The ups and downs of the rollercoaster ride to international adoption. Yet what a relief and what a weight that has been lifted from my chest!! I feel so much lighter and so ready now to really focus on the positive and happy stuff of adoption and get on that plane!

And thanks ladies for all your positive comments in my last post. I was really feeling in a bad place last night, very beat and tired too, and your comments gave me the energy to go for it today and get it done!! So thank you! This blog and meeting all of you has really been the greatest gift in helping me survive and stay sane on this adoption journey. Thank you! Thank you!

The elusive 171-H

Who would have thought that the hardest part so far of our adoption journey would be to obtain a one page form from our local USCIS deeming us fit to be a parent to a foreign born child. It seems that no matter where I turn I see others getting this paper so easily. How is it that 2 people born and raised here in the U.S, both attending 4 year universities, with no medical problems or criminal records. 2 people who own their own home, make a nice income, both employed, one as a teacher and one still earning an income but for all purposes a SAHM and have 2 children already have such a hard time getting this paper from the government saying we can raise a foreign born child. We have a favorable homestudy submitted on our behalf. The state of Ca agrees we are fit to be a parent to a foreign born child. We think we are pretty darn good parents already to two US born children. What is the problem? What is the hold up? It is such a joke. I just don't understand why I don't have this paper yet. According to their website everyone who submitted their application upto Sept 7th 2007 has their case completed. We are included in that date...our file should have been completed too! So frustrated!!

Today I spent the morning at my local congresswoman's office filling out paperwork so that they can make an inquiry in the next week as to why we haven't received this paper. I'm trying to have faith but the fact that they can only make an inquiry and not demand this paper for us, makes me a little nervous. Both of my adoption agencies told me to go to the local office and get the answers however I could. So this afternoon I got the last INFO PASS of the day and went back down to my local USCIS. The officer helping me was able to talk with the orphan adoption officer upstairs. He truly is the only man handling a larger portion of the bay area's adoption paperwork which makes no sense whatsoever. He was too busy to come downstairs and talk with me so I was able to make yet another appt for tomorrow morning and go back with hubby to meet with him and hopefully get that elusive piece of paper. I'm very nervous as to why we have to meet and that he couldn't just print out the paper and hand it to the officer I was speaking with. What on earth could be the deal? I already know our fingerprints came back clean, they checked in December and again today..so what on earth is the holdup? If he doesn't give us that paper tomorrow I do not know what will happen. I only hope I came remain calm.

I have so much to do...only 7 days and counting and I want to be happy and so excited but at the sametime this is really stressing me out. And going away for another week without anyone working on this problem or having any conclusion is going to be difficult. Court seems to come so quickly after the first trip and we just can't have this one piece of paper screwing everything up!!

Thanks for letting me vent...I really needed that!

Receipt Received

I collected the extra documents needed for my I-600A and mailed them on Thursday. I just received my certified receipt that the documents were received by USCIS on Friday, Dec 21st. We are hoping to have our approval back by the end of January.

Hope everyone is enjoying this Holiday season. Christmas is almost here! We have actually finished our christmas shopping and our grocery shopping. We may actually be all ready for X-mas Eve and X-mas day one full day early this year. This is rare for us and it is nice. The boys are very excited and ask everday, "Is today Christmas?" It sure is hard to wait when you are little.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I-600A update

On Friday I got a call from the USCIS officer handling our I-600A application. Wow!! If that isn't a miracle, I don't know what is. Getting a call...not waiting for news through the mail. Wow! He confirmed that he has received our entire file and that our fingerprints came back clear. There are no words for that simple gift. He is requesting 3 additional documents and then they can finalize our application. Maybe I did have a little luck from someone watching over me. Just three more documents...okay this I can handle. I have one of them, one is being mailed to me and one more we have to figure out where to go to get it. I'm hoping with a little more luck to be able to certify the rest of these documents and send them off to him by Friday. Hopefully, we will hear back sometime in January. I feel so much better already!

My adventure to my local USCIS office

I was expecting to receive good news in the mail regarding our I-600A any day now. Our local office was reporting 3 month turn around times and my application was sent in late August and my homestudy completing the application followed in Sept so that put me at the end of December at the latest. Well, imagine my surprise and disappointment when I got a letter from USCIS asking for additional evidence to support my application. Here is the request:

1) Evidence of Health Coverage Insurance for your adopted child
2) Evidence of financial ability- Submit I-134 Affidavit of Support
3) Evidence of employment-letters from your employers regarding annual earnings, years of employment and future employment prospective
4) Copy of your income tax return form 1040 for year 2006

The letter then goes on with some very unclear wording that leads me to believe they haven't received our fingerprints or our homestudy. Which unfortunately really worried me as the instructions for the fingerprint receipt was to fax immediately and the homestudy was sent from my homestudy agency so I don't know if it was sent certified mail as that seems to be the only way you have some confidence that the USCIS office guarantees receipt.

I was advised from an adoption forum I'm on to "info pass" the office and meet in person to get this cleared up. I first called a 1-800 number for the USCIS and was given an email for my local office. I sent an email off asking for confirmation of what is in my file and my application number because I didn't even have that. I was told 2 days turn around on the phone to hear back...it's been 5 days no return email. So I made my info pass appt and went down there this morning thinking I was going to be able to get this all straightened out and hand the INS officer a copy of absolutely everything all stapled together, cover letter, etc. and be confident that it was all taken care of. Not exactly.

So here was my fun morning at USCIS. You stand in line outside but can not be more than 15 mins early. You have to bring your paperwork as well as the printed appt. time confirmation and your id. Leave all cell phones, camera, or other electronic devices in your car or you will be sent back to the car...that was me. Just like going through airport security put shoes, bags, files in bin and proceed through metal detector. Proceed to yellow line. Stand in another line to get a number only after the man at the window issuing you a number is satisified that you are worthy of an appt. Once given a number sit down and wait for your number to be called. It's a huge room with 15 teller like windows across the front of the room, of which only 3 are operating. It's best to get an early appt so you are not there all day even though you are given an appt time on-line.

Finally, my turn. The INS officer misunderstands the purpose of my visit and tries to dismiss me right off the bat. She thought I was there regarding my I-600. When I explain that I tried to email first for an explanation. She quickly gets upset and informs me that all adoption paperwork is submitted through the mail only not via person, phone or email. There is no phone or email for this dept and she does not know where that email went to. I'm outta luck there...strike 2. I explain to her my situation, that I did correspond through mail too and that I need to confirm with someone what is in my file. That I don't have another 4 months to wait for correspondance and I don't understand the wording about my fingerprints and homestudy. Do they have them or not?

She recognizes my INS officer and it turns out to be a male not a female as I thought I had been corresponding with. She assures me it is a man and that he is at a meeting or she could ask him right now for me. What are the chances? I think at this point she takes pity on me. It is a screwy system afterall and she likes my youthful face. She offers to take my completed stapled set of documents and place them on his desk because I came all this way. But this is not how it works she reminds me. She writes a note to him explaining that all the papers are there and that I would like written confimation back that my file is complete. Then she tells me there is no guarantee she can offer me that he has received this file even though she will put it on his desk. The only way to guarantee that is received by USCIS is to send a second set certified mail as that is my receipt/record that they have received the documents. She refuses to give me her name and tells me not to come back and be upset if I don't send in a second certified set through the mail if he says he did not receive the first set that is sitting on his desk. I agree, what else can I do? I watch her take a few seconds to walk next door and return back to me. "It's on his desk," she says, and "Good Luck" is her last words to me. "Thanks," I reply..."I'm going to need it." Now, being a superstitious person that I am, I can't help but notice my appt was made for the 13th and window 13 helped me. My grandpa's favorite number was 13 so I want to believe maybe he was helping me a little today. I know it's a stretch but I need all the luck I can on this one..as without permission from the US govt to bring home a foreign child there is nothing more anyone else can do for us.

So this afternoon I will make yet another set of copies and send off certified mail a second set addressed to this man not woman and see where that gets me. I'm so glad I had the forethought to have 2 sets of the I-134 Affidavit of Support notarized. That sure saved me a trip! In the meantime, I'm still hoping to travel on my first trip in the spring and hope I have some conclusion before then as I won't be able to get a court date without this important document.

On a happier not...I hope everyone's holidays are bringing them joy. I'm excited for Carrie and Michael about the referral of their little boy! What a special time of the year to receive such wonderful news! Happy Holidays!

I-600A application complete!

I called to check in with my homestudy agency. I hadn't received my "official" copy of our homestudy yet in the mail and wanted to check to make sure they had sent in our homestudy to the USCIS office and also to our placing agency. Yeah!! She did not forget and it was mailed on Sept 27th, 2007. I was so excited. It's funny how something so simple can make your heart flutter with absolute joy. Yeah! yeah! I'm hoping our application will be processed quickly so we can send in our dossier.

We are just a little over a week out before our big trip to the east coast. I'm so excited to meet with our placing agency. We have started our big list of questions. I can't wait to hear all that they have to say. I'm also a little nervous about what they will tell us, esp concerning the wait time. Hubby is finally picking up speed in becoming interested in the adoption issues. He has bought a few audio books to listen to in the car while he is commuting to and from work. We have had many interesting conversations this week about what he has been learning. I'm so glad he is taking this initiative. And what good timing too, before our visit with our placing agency!