We need it now, Chihuahuas in the street, and a wild ride

If you've been following my blog for a while, you have already come to the conclusion that I will get my elbow stuck in a tuba case once in a while. Okay that one really didn't happen to me. I just heard about it. But it could have happened to me.

You see Janet, it's this way (time to run and hide this signals long, impossible or headshake producing stories that actually happened-- to me.):

 Just before work a little over a week ago, I got notice of LSC receipt--early (And hooray too, the folks over in China rock! Very grateful to them. Very.). Only problem was, I was just going in the door to work, 15 miles away from my computer and the needed paperwork with no way to extricate it or get to it in anything resembling the near future. Paperwork needed now. Now. And by the by, can you get it notarized? Cleared my schedule to get the needed paperwork out the door and on its way. Almost. Meanwhile, there were Chihuahuas running in the street, bicyclists jumping out from between moving cars and one and all trying to get me to hit them. Didn't work. I made it through the gauntlet. Docs out the door and overnighted, hah!

Or so I thought. Phone call the next day: you forgot the I-864. Horrors! No, really.  The I-800 can't go in without the I-864. It just can't. It's a permission and the I-800 will just sit there, smiling on someone's desk just as if it had good sense. Or worse. It will sit in the lock box. No one really knows what the lock box is. Well, it's probably a box and has a lock on it...or maybe not. Your assigned officer cannot go get documents out of the lock box. Not even if you beg and promise to be good or say pretty please with sugar on top. I'm not sure if the supervisors can either. This is a Fort Knox kind of thing. Procedures have to be followed. I imagine a kind of Mission Impossible sort of scenario.

Phone call continues: The signed LSC copy sent back immediately--we need the original signed and dated, not just a photocopy as you'd been told.  Send both back together. A day's delay. Not good. Not good at all. There's so little time. That was Friday. Saturday, no document. Okay, it will still get there in time if sent next-day delivery on Monday. No document Monday morning. No document Monday noon, Monday afternoon, and no document Monday evening. I'm going bonkers at this point.  I call and email my case manager even though I know she won't get the messages until the next day.

I can't sleep. I'm eating chocolate nuked with peanut butter like there's no tomorrow. Try it!! It is way better than a chocolate confection made with those ingredients from the store. Make sure to use dark chocolate and don't burn it. The pieces will still have their shape, they don't have to be liquid. Add Adams peanut butter about two huge spoonfuls. After nuking, not before. About one minute in the microwave. And you'll have bliss. As long as the pyrex measuring cup doesn't explode. That didn't happen--this time.

(Note: Nothing worse than burned chocolate....well, maybe cat pee in the toaster or on a hot stove top. That is truly awful. Truly. Toaster cat exhibited either great talent or sneakiness and cunning beyond belief or maybe total insensitivity. No clues left behind to alert an unsuspecting human who can't smell.)

 Anyway, just after midnight: delivery attempted over the weekend but no one home. ARgh! They knew I wouldn't be home and it had to be sent so it could be left! Livid. And what's with sending it via USPS? Wasn't it supposed to come FedEx? Water over the dam. USPS dated the notice for February, not November. It almost got shredded. More chocolate. Try to sleep. Get up, race to post office for the document so it can get out and I can get to work. Only, there's no way they can return it same day. Not even at this early hour. No way. No way. No way. Kind of like a bad dream. FedEx can't perform the deed either. UPS? No. Suggestions? Hiring a private jet. Are you kidding me?!! You're not kidding. You leave me no option. Mama's gotta do what Mama's gotta do: Cancel work. Like I don't need the money. Immanuel's life is worth more than anything. And I'm not going down. He's coming home. That's IT!

Grab the kids. Grab the dog. At least he's happy. He gets a ride. Rides = good to him. Call and email the agency, I'm coming. Adrenaline combined with prayer and purpose carried me almost the entire way to Seattle, despite the lack of sleep. As I drove, I practiced controlled breathing, prayed, reminded myself how lucky I was to be able to take off to do something so vitally important. I counted my blessings and admired the beautiful scenery and tried to enjoy the sunshine. The original LSC got signed and submitted. The I864 had to be redone anyway to conform to new instructions which we wouldn't have been able to do without the delay and drive. Lots of times these things happen for a reason. Best of all, we got provisional I800 approval and can look forward to the official approval starting Monday (which actually, technically is today).  "Fast away the old year passes..." "Time is slippin' slippin' into the future..."

Wrong turns can be good too--especially if you end up at Ikea and get items you needed anyway plus a yummy lunch.

Drum roll, please!

We have LID! China logged us in last Friday! Hooray! While they're working on their end, I will be filling out the I800 (not to be confused with the I800a) so it will be ready to go once the approval comes. Will also be looking toward getting our visas for travel soon. Can't wait!

Pick me! Pick Me! OOOh, ooh, oooh, pick me!

I see you standing on that chair waving your arms about as if you were a windmill, screaming at full volume. You want this so bad you can taste it, right? Right? Wrong.

I need to start sending Murphy birthday cards, presents, build an altar--something. Murphy who? You know...Murphy. The famous one. That Murphy. Of Murphy's Law fame. The man loves me.  Or maybe he hates me and has put a curse on me. I can't tell. All I know is that he and I do a lot together. Too much. Hasn't he ever heard of absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Jury duty. Grand jury duty. For a whole month. And no, they do not let you out of it if you write them a letter explaining what a hardship it will be for you, the plans you have that it will ruin, the impact on your boss' business. Not anymore. Yeah, if you're over 70, sole caregiver to small children for whom you cannot afford daycare or not a US citizen.

Did I need this a month before travel? Did I? When I need the income the most? And, I'm sorry, the puny $10 a day compensation really stinks (of which the municipal parking lot eats half and the burger joint the other half. So they may as well save a dime by not paying at all since they're getting it back anyway.)  I understand they don't want jurors to be in it for the money. But seriously, the guy at the freeway on ramp makes more in an hour!  It feels like my life will be held hostage. And the adoption. And the people I'm contracted to serve who won't get their services because I'm not there to help them.

A funny thing happened on the way to get the kids' passports renewed...

Or maybe not so funny. You decide. You know, adults can renew by mail, right? Lucky us! However,  If you have to go to an actual passport office or a post office, take notice. Children must go in whether it is a renewal or a brand new passport. Stands to reason--they change so much. This travail began over the summer. When the kids weren't in school. When my schedule was packed to the brim.  So far, I have made four trips to get my children's passports renewed. There will be at least a fifth trip. Trip one: office moved. I just assumed they would be in the same place they were a few years ago. The post office doesn't move so why should the passport office, right? Yeah, wrong.  Trip two: We arrive at 2:30 p.m. great, huh?! Not so great. On Friday's they aren't open till 3 p.m., they closed at 2 p.m. I pulled the kids out of school early for that fiasco. Trip three: one app accepted, one rejected. Trip four: they closed early (even though I got there before the posted closure time). You see, they "have paper work to do and there is no budge room on Friday's." That's what the clerk told me.  What happened with the rejected app you ask? Well, your photo cannot have the person smiling with their mouth open. This will be rejected. Costco didn't know that. Neither did I. Now we all know. Copy both front and back of supporting documents--on the same page. DO NOT copy back and front on separate pieces of paper and staple them together. You will either be told to go redo your copies or have to wait for the clerk to redo them for you.

Other things you should know: Your child's emergency contact must be a family member, not a family friend. I had put a family friend since I have no relatives nearby and all close relatives are dead. HIPPA, I was told. What do they do for people who don't have any relatives? And for that matter, how would they have known if I hadn't put family friend in the box--not all of my relatives have the same last name as I do! Remember to initial your corrections.

Allot way more time than you think to get the passport(s). The clerk who helped us worked excruciatingly slowly. I understand they have to be careful and look everything over but this was ridiculous! I about went around the bend. Good thing she works for the government. There was only one person ahead of me the day I actually succeeded in getting into the office and it took nearly an hour to get finished. Yes, I let her know I had to be back to work. No, it did not do any good. And that was with all the forms printed and filled out beforehand. Take your kids out of school to get this done. There is no other option.

Do not expect the clerks to be knowledgeable about which offices do offer Saturday service (at least the ones in the local officer weren't). The website says our passport office does Saturdays by appointment. Well, not according to the folks who actually work there. They suggested I try the post office. Well, that would be a great idea--except the post office has almost no one able to provide passport services and all of them in our area have been switched to weekdays. Nearly 20,000 postal employees retired or left the postal service this year or so I was told.

Call ahead to find out the forms of payment accepted. Our office does not take cash. No credit. No debit.  Only checks and money orders. The one time I had cash, too. I think the website may have even said something about bringing in cash.

Processing times have pushed out to between six and eight weeks. Expedited service, which costs $60 more, will get it back hopefully in four weeks. You may be able to get it back in three weeks with overnight shipping both ways....And, if you don't have to make five trips, or schedule around work, school, and life. Or get the clerk I had. Good luck.

First round of grant applications and more fundraiser stuff

Got one pre-app in tonight, another application finished and ready to go, a third one printed but not filled out (11 pages long). References alerted. Also looked at t-shirt slogans and graphics for that sale and fundraiser. Didn't really like any of the ones already created so I'm going to have to design one myself. That will be part of tomorrow's project.. I'll be at a holiday craft bazaar at the end of the month and an lining up some more for both the fundraiser and Tupperware. I'll post the t-shirt fundraiser as soon as I get it up and running. Hopefully by the end of the week? We'll have to sell 50 shirts or more before they'll print them. Should make really nice holiday gifts for people!

Expedite processing alert!

This is for families going through the San Francisco PRC consulate: The consulate may be halting rush processing so be aware that it may take the full 15 days to get your documents sent back. Praying that ours make it through.

San Francisco here I come!

Or rather, here it comes. Our I797 should be in SF tomorrow morning. I sent it expedited but I've learned the consulate may be halting that service. Prayers requested that they will do it and that we get it back this week. Every day, every minute counts in this adoption!

How many times must a woman go to get a document notarized....

before she actually can find
someone who will do the stamp?
Not the bank!
And not the other bank!
FedEx doesn't do anymore
The realtor? No!

Yes, how many trips must a woman make
before she can drive
to the secretary of state
to get a stamp, to get a seal, to send the thing
to the consulate?


It's not as easy as you think
It should have been, but it wasn't.
They'd never seen...
They didn't know...Shouldn't there be somewhere to sign?
Shouldn't there be a typed line?

How many trips must a woman make
So the courier can take the approval
from the feds to the consulate
How many trips must it take!

The answer my friend, you will hear
The answer my friend, you will hear

But give me your guess
give me your guess

I800a approval

Hey, all! Exciting news! We received our I800a approval on Friday. I'll have to race around this coming week to get it notarized, verified and off to the consulate to be authenticated! This is the last document for our dossier. If I can get courier service to handle it that should shave a week off the turn-around time for the trip to the consulate. Then it will head up to our agency to be translated and sent with the rest of the documents to China. I'm thinking we should be DTC in two to three weeks if all goes well and LID should follow thereafter. We simply have to travel by the end of the first week in December--say prayers for us, okay? Everything has got to go without any delays or bumps from here on out or HH will lose out on getting a family and it is just not acceptable for that to happen! Remember too, to click through and make a donation to his adoption fund--any amount greatly appreciated.

Hopefully, I will have more exciting news by the end of the week--stay tuned!

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

The totals came out today and I made more than I thought from consigning at Superkids! Oh, happy day! During Superkids, I came down with 'the bug' and have been out sick from work all week so far--not much of it left!!

At the beginning of the week, my adoption worker informed me we do not have until December 30th to finalize HH's adoption; We have until December 23rd. I know, you're thinking. "big deal." Well,  each part of the process takes x amount of time and without any expedition the whole thing should take 5-6 months, not three. Right now, we're waiting to be assigned a caseworker with the National Benefits Center who will hopefully approve our I800a on the first go round. Next week, it will be 60 days since the old I800a hit the lockbox at NBC. I was updated today by one of the officers there that we should expect to be assigned our worker during the coming week. That is slightly longer than the average has been over the last year and if all goes well. The paperwork has to get sent to me, then go to the Chinese Consulate, back to me, then to our agency who has to have it and all of our other documents translated. That part should take about a month to six weeks. Then everything gets sent over to China for an approval which takes a few weeks. That puts us at the end of November. We then have to file the I800, get article 5, arrange to travel, get to China, spend two whirl wind weeks there while stuff gets processed there and come home. Do you see why I'm so concerned?

In other good news, NBC, and other bodies affecting adoptions are not impacted by the government shut down. I was sooo relieved to learn that! I have a bunch of necklaces almost completed for Friday's fundraising tent at First Friday but no knitted hats finished. I also have the preliminary application for the first grant just about completed. I should be able to send that in tomorrow.

Countdown?!!

I spoke with a very nice supervisor at the National Benefits Center today. While HH's case doesn't qualify for expediting at this time, she assured me that our file would be reviewed in the next couple weeks. Meaning, if all goes well, we could be looking at travel authorization in as little as six weeks. OMG! Now, before anyone gets too excited, from the look of things, there are a couple of Chinese holidays that might make a couple weeks impact on the other side of the ocean. On this side, we have to pray we don't get an RFE. What's an RFE? Returned for errors. The homestudy that has to be turned in with the I800a application has to have very specific questions asked and very specific wording. Some adoptive families have had their I800a's RFE'd 3, 4, and even 6 times. Which means the homestudy has to be rewritten, re-reviewed, re-submitted, returned to the queue, re-reviewed...you get the idea. If we get an RFE, that would probably put us into late November or early December. More than one....I don't want to think about that. That would be a very bad place. Especially with our holidays and holiday closures starting then. Time is running out. Lord, bring my HH home. Remove all obstacles for him. Don't let this one go to places unknown.

So much to share today!

I'm not sure where to start!

As far as the journey to bring HH home, I've gotten my fingerprinting done by USCIS and sent all of the docs from the Chinese consulate to our agency. We're now awaiting approval from USCIS which is the last bit of paperwork before our dossier goes to China (DTC). Yay!

I am anxiously awaiting an update on HH. My adoption coordinator says it is very extensive and even includes some of his school work!  Last week, I got new pictures. He has grown so much since the first ones!

Miracle Man had surgery last week to reconstruct his nose and lip. He looks so good! Dr. Kuang is awesome! Very thankful for our team up at Doernbecher!

Anyone like Scentsy? Look for a new fundraiser soon!

Silver Lininings

It's been quite a week so far. I started the week with a couple cancellations at work and will be ending with one more. As a result, I thought I would take the kids to a movie on Tuesday morning. No such luck. I was expecting a call from our China program coordinator and she called while we were en route to the theater. I pulled over for what I thought would be a quick conversation. Turned out to be over an hour. Needless to say, the kids were bummed out about not seeing the show. We learned our I800a had been sent to the USCIS for their process and approval, we only needed to get one more referral in and the guardianship letter.

Oh, by the way....we have two more brand new documents we need you to submit along with the other stuff. Local police clearance. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Weren't the state and FBI clearances we already submitted sufficient? Nope. Thanks to being off work, I was able to get the document, get it down to the secretary of state's office for their stamp, over to FedEx and off to San Francisco. The second document won't get done until week after next, sigh.

On the other hand, USCIS has received the I800a, woo hoo!

Mom always said to look for silver linings in dark clouds. Sometimes, it has been really hard to see them. Lots of silver linings this week!

First we scurried, then we hurried, melted a little, and, now, we wait.

By afternoon, the San Francisco Chinese consulate will have our dossier documents to authenticate. It feels so good to be at this point! Most of the paper-chasing finished! Getting that last document on Friday after so many challenges, delays, stops and starts. Thus is the adoption journey.

We traveled to Salem to get the documents verified on Monday with the plan of sending them off for authentication on the same day. We didn't count on being pointed in the wrong direction in 90 degree heat to get a money order to pay the consulate to look at and approve the docs. (Anyone hear, "I'm melting, oh what a world!"? After trudging several looonggg blocks flanked by a pair of 12-year-olds who were trying very hard to be patient, I learned we had to back track and go the other way. More trudging.

Upon reaching the cool oasis of Safeway and basking in its refreshing air while waiting for the clerk to alight from her backroom haven, she informs me: cash only for money orders. Trudge to car dragging said 12-year-olds behind with promises of McDonald's on the race home. To drop them off. To head to work. Too late to get to the store with cash. Cash. Who knew? Mffff...well, I knew--about ten years ago! But that was then, this is now. Sorry. I forgot. Like, I've only bought money orders maybe three times in my life!

Off too late from work Tuesday to get docs off.

Wednesday. Off early. Traffic. Too late to get money from bank. Think. Think. Think. Solution found. Off to get money. Off to copy and FedEx docs priority or express or whatever they call it. Docs checked twice. Return envelope inside. Money inside. Whew!

The docs should come back next week so I can turn around and send them to our agency. If all goes well. It must. Clock is ticking. I hear it reverberating in my sleep. Waking. He must come home. He must. Must.

Good news from the agency: They've almost finished the written part of the homestudy. That gets to go to the consulate as well. But they will have the adventure of sending it.

USCIS so far has been silent on the I-800a but then they may have just gotten it. It had to go through the agency first. Praying for a miracle there. Usually, it takes them 55 or more days to send back the approval. God moved the mountains for Miracle Man. God, please move them for HH!

Can you believe? I still have not heard back from anyone at my agency about the I800a! I just filled it out the best I could and should be sending it and the $830 payment out tomorrow. Guess that's all I can do for now.

On the flip side, the financial statement has been taken care of and I should have it either tomorrow or Monday. So very thankful for that! Once that is in hand and everything had been verified with the secretary of state's office, they will go to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco for authentication. After that, I get to send the whole kit and caboodle to my agency so they can send that bundle along with a bunch of other stuff over to China's CCCWA so that body can work on things.

Then there was the required class that I was supposed to take via webinar this evening. Only they were having problems with it not working right. Which means I either have to race home from work early again next week or try to do it later in the month on the day Miracle Man has his next surgery.

I never thought I would run up against anything as challenging at the Indian domicile certificate. If you're not familiar with this document, any person in India can go down to their local police station and obtain one. It verifies who they are and where they live. Should be easy, right? Back when I was adopting Miss Sunshine, I spent two weeks on the phone with various state, regional, county, and city employees trying to get an equivalent of the domicile certificate here in the states. I can tell you that the police here will not do it. The county property assessor's office will not either. City hall won't. Strings had to be pulled to get someone in the state government to do it. I can hear you thinking, "Couldn't you have had your lawyer draft a letter to that effect for you?" Which is what several people asked in those two weeks of calling. No, it had to be on government letterhead.

Well, now I have the China process equivalent of that challenge. . And it doesn't seem like it should be that big a deal. Because I am self-employed, my agency needs a statement from an accountant verifying that I make what I make. My businesses so far are fairly simple so  I don't use an accountant. Twelve phone calls today with several of the accountants telling me that since they didn't do my taxes and didn't know me from Eve, they couldn't possibly verify my income. One may call me back tomorrow with what they need to do the job at $140 per hour with an estimated 2-4 hour time frame or about $540 at the projected high end. I need to get this done asap since my son has only until January 1 before he ages out.

No Time to Lose!

All our paperwork has to be sent to China by September 1! I'm expediting everything that I can. In our state we can walk in to get copies of vital records so that is really lucky. It is a lot quicker than ordering off the web which can take a couple weeks to arrive. Another area which can be expedited is after all the docs have been notarized; We can take them to our secretary of state's office to be apostiled. Of course, if I lived on the other side of the state that might be a pain! That should shave another week or so off the process. The really big bugaboo is the I-800 process. That usually takes a couple months. Anybody know if that can be expedited? What about the authentication process for going to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco? I sure hope there is a way! Say, can that be hand carried? Might be worth the consideration. HH's future is on the line. What is a couple hundred dollars compared to that?!

1/23/2013 Convergences

This week I am dealing with convergences. What kind of convergences you ask? Everything happening at once. In November/December several areas of life conspired to have major amounts of paperwork due all at the same time. Now, household repairs. Not the ones I had been planning to do or knew I needed to do. No siree! In the past week two sinks, one toilet, the front gate, and refrigerator (just over a year old mind you!) have broken, needed repairs or required more repairs. So I've repaired the toilet, taken apart sink one and am poised to install the new hardware for it, began installation of a grab bar so HH can get in and out of the tub without problems, new hardware for the hand towel ring, TP roller, and will be ordering a double towel bar so all the kids will have their own place to hang their towels. The old towel bars, et al never stayed up. There must be some secret to tightening those teeny screws that are supposed to hold them on the brackets. Not sure what it is but I missed that lesson. In all of this, I realized I probably will need to install railings for the front and back steps for HH...there are only two steps up each but it likely will be something we'll need to do.

1/19/2013 Success!!

Third time was a charm! The documents will get translated and sent off to China next week. Then we have maybe six to eight weeks until they respond with an approval or denial.

1/18/2013 Oh, No!

Here we go again! Perhaps the third time will be the charm. Monday, I thought I had emailed all of the documents to our agency for our PA. Today, I got an inquiry about when I would be sending everything and stating that it all had to be in by tomorrow. Well, I sent two parts of what they needed, document one and the scanned signature page of document two without the rest of the document, oops! So tonight I sent the missing document. ADHD, knock it off and let me do what I need to do!