I had a firm discussion with our agency today. I told them the Amos and I NEED to know the exact steps required to get us to embassy. We also want to know which of those steps have already been done and how close we are rather than holding our breath every Thursday just to hear "Your documents haven't arrived but he's on it". I want to know if this is something I can travel to Kepler's region to get to speed things along.
While this was all taking place I had also been emailing a friend of a friend who happens to live in Addis. She got back to me today stating that I don't need to worry about a time limit. I can stay with her until this whole thing is sorted out! Seriously?! I was so excited because this means I can go, take custody of Kepler and stay with a kind American who works a lot at a hospital and is welcoming me into her home with open arms. She even said, "I won't even know you're there. I work a lot but I have a cook, a guard and a housekeeper. It's much easier than life in Seattle." This is HUGE because now I have time to spend with Kepler and a place to stay for FREE while all this document stuff gets sorted!
We may be buying tickets this weekend depending on what our attorney says about our case in the next couple of days!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
More drama
We were not submitted yet again last Thursday. It has been 12 weeks since court and almost 4 weeks since our case was denied at embassy due to lacking details on the occupation and address of the witness to Kepler's birth mother's testimony in our case. We were so angry and heartbroken last Friday to hear AGAIN that we were not submitted. One thing that makes us so mad is that our agency is not giving us any information on what is taking 4 weeks to get done. We are told the same thing every time I call: "He's on it." , meaning our attorney is on it. I have very little confidence in this because if he was truly 'on it' we would be getting some information about the process or what is hanging it up.
Amos and I wrestled with all the facts and info that other adoptee parents have given us about their cases, the process and our agency. We have decided to put me on a plane this coming week. If we are not submitted again this Thursday I will be on my way to hire another attorney to work our case. A friend who was stuck in Ethiopia for 4 months had to use a third party attorney to get her and her baby home. She said that this other attorney was able to do in 2 weeks what our current attorney couldn't manage to do in 4 months. What we are hearing over and over again is that our agency is wonderful if you have no problems. If you are one of the cases on the conveyor belt that just moves along, you're good to go. However, case after case where people ran into issues with paperwork or extra stuff that needs to be done are shoved to the back burner. All of a sudden the lady at the agency is never available and you are told to wait and wait and wait. We're done with being put on the back burner and I'm going over there to get this done so we can bring Kepler home! Stay tuned.
Amos and I wrestled with all the facts and info that other adoptee parents have given us about their cases, the process and our agency. We have decided to put me on a plane this coming week. If we are not submitted again this Thursday I will be on my way to hire another attorney to work our case. A friend who was stuck in Ethiopia for 4 months had to use a third party attorney to get her and her baby home. She said that this other attorney was able to do in 2 weeks what our current attorney couldn't manage to do in 4 months. What we are hearing over and over again is that our agency is wonderful if you have no problems. If you are one of the cases on the conveyor belt that just moves along, you're good to go. However, case after case where people ran into issues with paperwork or extra stuff that needs to be done are shoved to the back burner. All of a sudden the lady at the agency is never available and you are told to wait and wait and wait. We're done with being put on the back burner and I'm going over there to get this done so we can bring Kepler home! Stay tuned.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Just to let you know...
Hello Friends and Family,
We are breathing much easier now that we are waiting for the call with current fingerprints:) I will be caught up in a crazy rush to hop a plane to get to our little guy in a couple weeks so I thought I would let you all in on our plans for Kepler when he first arrives home.
We love you all and are so thankful for your support in our adoption. Everyone is welcome to come to the airport to welcome us home when Kepler and I (and Alison!) get off the plane. This will be a tearful, happy celebration and I would love to see you all there as we embark on this new adventure of Kepler's arrival into our family. You all will get to see Daddy Amos meet his little guy for the first time!
When Kepler first arrives, we are going to hide out at home a bit. The only life Kepler knows is the SOS EE orphanage. Adjusting to Amos and I and our home is going to be a big deal. As lovely as it is for him to have a mom and dad and home, it is completely new to him and will be very stressful. We want to give him calm time to adjust to his new life with us. When we feel he is getting comfortable, we would love to have company or visit you. You are welcome to play with him and talk to him but we are going to ask that you leave his feeding and emotional comfort to us. This may seem silly but Kepler needs to learn what parents do. He needs to learn to trust Amos and I to meet his physical and emotional needs:)
Thanks for understanding!
Hugs to you all!
Emelie
We are breathing much easier now that we are waiting for the call with current fingerprints:) I will be caught up in a crazy rush to hop a plane to get to our little guy in a couple weeks so I thought I would let you all in on our plans for Kepler when he first arrives home.
We love you all and are so thankful for your support in our adoption. Everyone is welcome to come to the airport to welcome us home when Kepler and I (and Alison!) get off the plane. This will be a tearful, happy celebration and I would love to see you all there as we embark on this new adventure of Kepler's arrival into our family. You all will get to see Daddy Amos meet his little guy for the first time!
When Kepler first arrives, we are going to hide out at home a bit. The only life Kepler knows is the SOS EE orphanage. Adjusting to Amos and I and our home is going to be a big deal. As lovely as it is for him to have a mom and dad and home, it is completely new to him and will be very stressful. We want to give him calm time to adjust to his new life with us. When we feel he is getting comfortable, we would love to have company or visit you. You are welcome to play with him and talk to him but we are going to ask that you leave his feeding and emotional comfort to us. This may seem silly but Kepler needs to learn what parents do. He needs to learn to trust Amos and I to meet his physical and emotional needs:)
Thanks for understanding!
Hugs to you all!
Emelie
Friday, May 6, 2011
A load off our minds
Wow. Yesterday I had this idea to camp out at the USCIS office and beg for mercy. Amos and I went in early this morning to try to get fingerprinted. Usually this process takes months. You fill out a request form and mail it in. They mail your appointment slip to you in a few weeks. Your appointment is usually 3 weeks- a month out. You go get fingerprinted and they mail you an approval notice. We did it in ONE DAY! We had to get past the front desk lady, the guy who handles "special cases with no appointment" and the guy who ultimately decides if our case is important enough. Amazingly, we were allowed in to wait for someone else to not show up for their appointment. And bless their hearts, someone didn't show up and we got to go back and get fingerprinted!!!
This means that we have until August (when our I-600a expires). This is a load off our minds because we were out of time. Now we can wait more patiently and do things by the book. I'll get to visit Kepler for a few days before taking him and there is still hope that I will get to meet his birth mother in their home village.
Thank you God! And thanks for the prayers everyone!
This means that we have until August (when our I-600a expires). This is a load off our minds because we were out of time. Now we can wait more patiently and do things by the book. I'll get to visit Kepler for a few days before taking him and there is still hope that I will get to meet his birth mother in their home village.
Thank you God! And thanks for the prayers everyone!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
One more week
I'm surprisingly calm as I right this latest entry in the world of adoption delays. I think God knew I was on the edge of insanity- maybe this is the coma I've been hoping for:)
Amos called the agency today to find out if we were submitted to embassy. We weren't. The paperwork from Kepler's village didn't come in. We found out that there is a chance that the embassy will allow our attorney to submit our case on Friday since we had to submit a day early due to a Muslim holiday on our usual submitting day. We'll see. There is a chance they won't let us and there is a chance that our stuff won't be in by Friday either. If that is the case, we should get submitted next Thursday. I know you are all saying, "But wait! I thought this was the last possible day to submit?!" It is if I want to go to Kepler's village and meet his birth mom (which is VERY important to us!). However, if we aren't able to, we will write to her. It just might HAVE to be that I fly out as soon as our paperwork is submitted and pick up Kepler from the orphanage without any visits and then go to the embassy the next day. Hopefully they'll work with us. We've heard that they are very accommodating once your stuff is submitted and you are in the country.
We also found out this week that 4 weeks ago all the kids at Kepler's orphanage got the chicken pox:( Poor baby- wish I was there to put socks on his hands and snuggle him:(
Prayers and more prayers please...
Amos called the agency today to find out if we were submitted to embassy. We weren't. The paperwork from Kepler's village didn't come in. We found out that there is a chance that the embassy will allow our attorney to submit our case on Friday since we had to submit a day early due to a Muslim holiday on our usual submitting day. We'll see. There is a chance they won't let us and there is a chance that our stuff won't be in by Friday either. If that is the case, we should get submitted next Thursday. I know you are all saying, "But wait! I thought this was the last possible day to submit?!" It is if I want to go to Kepler's village and meet his birth mom (which is VERY important to us!). However, if we aren't able to, we will write to her. It just might HAVE to be that I fly out as soon as our paperwork is submitted and pick up Kepler from the orphanage without any visits and then go to the embassy the next day. Hopefully they'll work with us. We've heard that they are very accommodating once your stuff is submitted and you are in the country.
We also found out this week that 4 weeks ago all the kids at Kepler's orphanage got the chicken pox:( Poor baby- wish I was there to put socks on his hands and snuggle him:(
Prayers and more prayers please...
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It got worse
Even thought it's been a few days since our saga got worse, I am just now getting to blogging about it. I think I have officially cried ALL my tears out. I can now see clearly enough to type this:) The paperwork we overnighted got to our agency in time but it was the WRONG paperwork. They were supposed to send us an I-600 and they accidentally sent us the I-600a form. I felt so bad for the poor girl that rushed it to us quickly and made the mistake. She felt horrible. That is something I would have done! Anyway, when we found this out we looked at the overnight times for mailing and the days we have left to get it to Ethiopia before we run out of time. There weren't enough days unless we got them the paperwork that afternoon. Amos and I jumped in the car and drove from Seattle to Banks, Oregon. The staff stayed until we arrived there at 3:30. We handed it over and took a picture together:) It was really nice to see the lovely faces of the folks that we have talked to on the phone for 2 years! 10 minutes after arriving in Banks, we left Banks and headed home.
This last week has been unbelievably difficult. I had to squeeze in business quarterly taxes during all of this as well as track down our missing business checks that were supposedly mailed to us weeks ago. I was thankful that someone blundered and forgot to mail them rather than someone was out there writing checks from my business! I was feeling a lot like Job this week. It feels like we are running to try to catch a boat and someone keeps throwing things in our path that we have to jump over and go around.
Even though we know that the paperwork we needed to get in should get there on time, we have NO IDEA what is happening in Ethiopia with the missing paperwork that needs to be in our file before we can submit to the embassy. This is the hardest part.
I feel like I don't have anything left. I'm numb and empty.
This last week has been unbelievably difficult. I had to squeeze in business quarterly taxes during all of this as well as track down our missing business checks that were supposedly mailed to us weeks ago. I was thankful that someone blundered and forgot to mail them rather than someone was out there writing checks from my business! I was feeling a lot like Job this week. It feels like we are running to try to catch a boat and someone keeps throwing things in our path that we have to jump over and go around.
Even though we know that the paperwork we needed to get in should get there on time, we have NO IDEA what is happening in Ethiopia with the missing paperwork that needs to be in our file before we can submit to the embassy. This is the hardest part.
I feel like I don't have anything left. I'm numb and empty.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Update
Our newly required paperwork arrived in Oregon at our agency's office yesterday afternoon after spending $25 to overnight it to them! I always wondered who would spend $25 on mailing a letter that could just get there the following day for $1.45. Now I know, they make their money off of emergencies:) Our agency will DHL it over to Ethiopia. Our attorney is still working on gathering our missing items. I feel like I'm going to start sweating blood with the prayers I'm praying begging God to put people where they need to be so we can get our stuff submitted to embassy next week. This is going to kill me. This week has been the WORST week of my life. I'm hanging by a thread from day to day hoping to hear that our stuff has arrived at our attorney's office. We have one more Thursday to submit on before it's too late and our fingerprints expire and we have to go backwards for months.
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