Huh?

I'm back with just a short update, then I'll go back to the dark side.  :)

We got something in the mail today that's quite confusing... an I-797C Notice of Action from USCIS that did NOT include a fingerprint appointment.  Rather, they returned our application, our home study, and our finger print payment stating the check was written for the incorrect amount.

I followed our agency's list down to the last dime, so I'll let them handle this confusion.  Our agency had said that our Nepal finger prints would be allowed for the China program and we would only have to pay the $85 for finger printing the college student renting our basement.  I have an email into La Vida now and will wait for their answer and will post the update later.

UPDATE:  Our agency emailed us this afternoon and said that this is not an uncommon experience.  The people at USCIS did NOT read their cover letter and prior approval for Nepal, so they rejected our application.  We are to send everything back to our agency and they will iron out the wrinkles with USCIS and we should not owe one more penny. 

Snow Day

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

We've all heard that statement before. It does not apply here to our adoption. The blizzard that hit us last week not only closed schools for 3 consecutive days, but it also closed down the Omaha USCIS office on Wednesday the 9th and we were not finger printed for our 1 and final form for our dossier. Supposedly, we will be rescheduled for this appointment. How and when we will hear of that news is unknown. We'd appreciate your prayers for a quick rescheduled appointment!

Nepal is still not moving forward on adoption processing, as far as we know. Yet, we are hopeful and pray for our little Nepali girl.

In the meantime, we are ready for Christmas. The holiday parties are behind us. The shopping is done. Gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I just have to mail my Christmas cards and I hope to get those out in the next couple of days. Now to enjoy the remaining days of December doing a little holiday baking and relaxing.

Good News! Bad News.

After last week’s rather melancholy tone, we were absolutely shocked to receive 2 envelopes in Saturday’s mail from Homeland Security. We have our fingerprint appointment on December 9! What could have taken 12 weeks “seems” to be moving right along. Of course, once we are fingerprinted, no one knows how long it will take the government to process them and issue this 1 final form we are waiting for. For some, this has only taken 2 weeks. For others, this has been the hold-up. But we are once again hopeful that perhaps we can actually be done with all of our paperwork before the close of 2009 as originally planned. WOW!

Things in Nepal right now have halted, unfortunately. We received an email from our agency this week stating “internal conflicts” within the Ministry of Women and Children. I forwarded our email to friends adopting through a different agency. Their agency says that there has been further corruption in Nepal within the adoption program on behalf of some European and some American adoption agencies. When these issues can be solved is not ours to say. But things have come to a halt. No children are being matched and no travel dates are being issued for those who have already been matched to their children! Please pray, on behalf of the waiting Nepali children and their waiting forever families, that the Ministry in Nepal would be able to weed out the corruption and resume issuing referrals and travel dates in a respectable, honorable, above-reproach manner.

12 Weeks Left?

This morning I received a very nice wall post on Facebook from a friend looking for an adoption update. Yes, it's been a while. Sorry for that! As I was typing my reply, I received an update directly from our agency.

Our final homestudy was just sent to USCIS yesterday. It was in my head that it had been sent 2 weeks ago when we received our official copy of the home study. But alas, it is still in the mail to DC. And much to my disappointment, we have been informed that it may take up to 12 weeks to be processed, approved and for us to receive that final document we need for our dossier. For those of you looking at your calendars, that would put us back to early February! Oh my! We had hoped to send our complete dossier to Nepal after the first of the year. And now it looks like we could be 2+ months later than hoped.

On the positive side, it does give us more time to fundraise. Gifts have been slow going lately but we're confident that our God will provide.

Please pray that we could receive our approval and final document, as well as the last $2800 we need for our dossier to be finished. And I'm praying to have it before the end of the year, but I know that it's all in His timing, not mine. But "He is able, more than able, to do much more than I could ever dream!"

Updates on the unrest in Nepal? I'm not sure. It's been a busy couple of weeks in our household and I haven't been to the Nepali news websites in a while. Any other adoptive families out there following the news?

Blessings to you all! More updates as they become available, but I guess it might be quite a while before we hear anything (sigh).

Answered Prayer

We've all heard it before. God does answer prayer, but sometimes the answer isn't what we'd hope for. To that, I ask you readers, just what were you praying for this last week anyway?

Last week we had asked for prayers for our home study to be finished and that our social worker would receive Jay's clearance forms from Florida and both of our FBI clearances to be completed. Well, our social worker emailed me this week and asked if she had made the request from FL or if we did. Florida is one state from which she knew she had to request the clearance. The other states we have lived in allowed us to make the request personally. But after waiting for probably a month plus, our social worker found no evidence that she had sent the request to Florida in the first place. Bummer! She apologized profusely and it's all fine and good. No harm done. But she sent us a form to fill out and send down there while she was out on vacation over the weekend. Our request should arrive there early this week and hopefully Jay's clearance will arrive within a week or two. Adoption is long process with bumps and hurdles. This is just the first of many I'm preparing for.