Crushed, confused.............

I am not even sure where to begin or what to think.

I just arrived home from work to find that USCIS rejected our I600 application. Their reason is that they say that part of the supporting documents were not filed. Specifically, they will not approve the I600 because our daughter's birth mother did not provide a *written* statement relinquishing her parental rights, and because there is not a death certificate for her birth father.

I called and e-mailed our agency but of course, they are closed already.

We are so worried about this. They do not keep accurate legal birth and death records in Ethiopia (and sometimes no records at all)-what if these documents cannot be produced? We passed court in Ethiopia, the judge accepted that her birth mother appeared at the hearing and stated she could not care for her, the Ministry of Women's Affairs approved the adoption and wrote the letter supporting it.....we thought the tough part was behind us. We followed ALL of the rules, it is all legal, and now our own country will not allow this adoption?

We don't even know what to think.

So, What *IS* Taking So Long????

Tape. Red that is. Government, bureaucracy.

While I admit I *think* I have a better handle on the unexpectedness of adoption this time around, I am still impatient. I also still find myself "concerned" about the details.

We have noticed (and it has been pointed out to us), that families who passed court 3 weeks after us are already home with their children. On top of that, families who just passed early in April have May 19th embassy dates. Hmmmm. We passed on February 1st (although I noticed that the adoption paperwork from Ethiopia says February 2nd). But still no embassy date. We know the I600 (the document that is filed to classify your child as a relative) was filed by our agency on March 22nd, and we received written confirmation that USCIS did in fact receive it on March 24th. So where is our embassy date?

I finally stopped wondering and broke down and asked our agency. We were told that the notice we received from USCIS verifying that they had received the I600 application, simply means that it was received in their central lock box (I think this was in Missouri). From there it was sent to our local USCIS office (Detroit), and they are NOTORIOUSLY SLOW in terms of processing anything. While I knew this, I guess it did not occur to us that the notice we received did not mean Detroit had our file yet-which is where all of the action will take place. I pulled out a copy of our immigration approval, and the cover letter listed some of the common applications and the respective processing times for the Detroit office. I almost fell out of my chair! They listed 3 months as the processing time for the I600! T-H-R-E-E MONTHS! This does not include the time it will take to then get an embassy date, OR the additional time it will take to get the escorting arranged! YIKES! Math is not my strong suit, but it seems to me 3 mos will be sometime after June 24th, then another month (or so) to get an embassy appointment, THEN about another month to have the escorting arranged. According to my math, it looks like.......August?

I keep re-reading some encouraging e-mails and Facebook messages from some of my Christian friends, reminding me it is not in *my* time, and that worrying will not do me any favors. Most recently, my friend Anne reminded me "God already knows our future, and even if we're craning our necks to try and figure it out we aren't going to accomplish a thing except wasted energy and frustration. Trust Him. His best is a whole lot better than ours."

I am reminding myself of that constantly.

On a more positive note. AlinaJayne had a good, healthy week. No headaches, no fevers, no infections-just one nosebleed that stopped with a nose clamp and Afrin nasal spray. She still needs to see the specialist in May, but we welcome the good week. Plus, she gained back the 3 pounds she lost in the hospital. My Dad had to undergo some unexpected cardiac testing Friday (stress test Monday which was abnormal/different than the last, and then a cardiac cath on Friday) and he does not need another bypass or more stents at this time. PRAISE THE LORD!!!


So there you have it. See, I promised to keep this blog updated now :O)

Adoption Update!

There has certainly been no lack of activity in this house-just a Mama who has been remiss in reporting the recent events. In order to bring you up to speed, here is the latest news.

On March 4th we received Chaltu's (I will likely refer to her as ChallieJayne or Challie from now on) Ethiopian birth certificate. We were told by our agency that they were just waiting for the rest of the adoption and court documents to arrive so that they could file the paperwork to classify her as our relative (this is the I-600 in adoption/immigration speak). On March 11th, we found out that the local immigration office officially updated our approval to reflect an older child, YAY!
Then on March 22nd, our agency informed us that they had in fact submitted the I-600(and immigration verified that they received it on March 24th)!

So now what?

We wait for an embassy date in Ethiopia. This is when the visa interview occurs, and when she is issued a United States entry visa to come to the US! We don't know when or where, but we were told by our agency that it has typically been taking 6-12 weeks from the time the I-600 was filed to the embassy appointment. She will be escorted to the US, and although we do not know the exact port of entry, it looks like there is a good chance that it will be Washington, DC. We will drive there a day or so before and rest up before we have our "Forever Family Day." We were hoping it would be before her birthday, but since that is May 7th, it does not look like that will happen.

Reminding myself that it is all in His perfect timing.

I have posted some pics. Thank God for the families who have already traveled to pick up their children and volunteered to take pics of our sweet girl (THANK YOU AMANDA)! From the pics we have, we have determined a few things:

(1) There are a LOT of pics of her eating-she will fit in well with this family :O)
(2) She has a LOT of personality (will be very interesting with AlinaJayne)
(3) From the bruise on her forehead, she is as graceful as the rest of this family
(4) I may finally have a daughter who is short like me

The other thing we found to be amusing-there is a pic of her on the potty, and she has the exact same undies that AlinaJayne had when she was 3!

Check back soon. I promise to be better about keeping this blog updated! In the meantime, enjoy the pics.


(you can click on the collage to make it bigger)

 

Absence explained.........

Hello all,

It has been a LONG time since I have posted. I want to bring you up to date on what has been going on and why I have been absent from the business of blogging.

As some of you may know, AlinaJayne has been sick a lot this cold and flu season. It seems like this normally healthy child has caught every bug imaginable this season. The last time was March 31st to April 5th. She had a high fever , 2 severe nosebleeds a day and headache. We took her to the ER on April 4th for a nosebleed that would not stop, and they completely dismissed us. Sent us home with a nose clamp. No labs, no testing. Being a Nurse Practitioner, I struggled to maintain my professionalism. After this last round of sickeness, she saw the doc, and I asked for labs to be checked. Her white blood cell study came back last Friday, and was markedly abnormal. There are a handful of possible causes for this, and unfortunately, of the possible reasons, leukemia is one of them. I made an appointment for her to see a pediatric oncologist this week.

Fast forward to he evening of Monday 4/12. She woke up in bed, grabbed her head screaming "it hurts so bad, make it stop" and simultaneously projectile vomited. While we were trying to get her ready to go to the ER, she continued to hold her head and scream and vomit. She had a CT scan in the ER and blood work (at this time her white cells were normal again, so the ER doc did not think she needed to see the oncologist), and was admitted for further testing. She had a brain MRI, EEG, and a LOT of blood work. Saw and ENT and neurologist. The tests were normal, the ENT said she has large, fragile veins in her nose that are easily ruptured and not to worry about that (thank God), and she was diagnosed with migraines. On top of this, while she was in for all of the above, she developed some sort of stomach issue, and had 15 watery stools in 2 days-for which they could find no cause-thank God she had an IV. To our disappointment, her white cell count is markedly abnormal again, and she will need to see the hematologist/oncologist.


She came home Thursday PM, and is acting fine now. I really feel bad that a 5 year old has migraines (I have had them for 25 years), but our biggest concern is obviously ruling out leukemia. We are praying that it is only a congenital disorder. The tough part is not having any birth history to tell the physicians about.

Needless to say, we appreciate all prayers and positive thoughts.

I will post an adoption update soon. I feel ChallieJayne deserves her own posting.

More later.