This post is over a month overdue, but neither Tamara or I have had the heart to write it yet.
As of that time, our Armenian adoption was placed on an indefinite hold, and has subsequently been ended.
The program we were using is a very small program. There is only one person in the country who handles the logistics and representation of the agency, when dealing in person with the Armenian government. Unfortunately, that person has had to cease her work due to health-related issues. Because of her unfortunate circumstances, our agency made the decision to place the Armenian program on indefinite hold.
We hold no ill will towards the agency or our situation. We pray for the lady in Armenia, and hope that her health problems are resolved. Our hearts go out to the other families in the program, particularly the family that was farther ahead of us.
After much prayer, discussion, research, and more prayer, we have decided to pursue a domestic adoption through the local agency who performed our home study. The other agencies who adopt through Armenia either didn't feel right, or would have placed us into a much longer waiting period than we were willing to accept at this point. Our new plan, God willing, is to adopt domestically, and then re-initiate an Armenian adoption through one of these other programs. But for the time being, our Armenian Adoption adventure is at an unfortunate and unhappy end.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we pursue this new path. This will likely be my last post on this blog, for at least a while. Please don't take this as a condemnation of or argument against international adoption. In our case, it did not work this time, but it has resulted in a successful growth of a family in so many cases. And who knows, in three to five years, we may still be traveling to Armenia to complete our -temporarily paused- Armenian Adoption adventure.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
May 15 update
Got an update from our agent a few days ago...
The dossier has been translated, and is being certified in Armenia right now. That should be done shortly if it isn't already. After that, the package goes before a review committee, hopefully sometime within the next two weeks or so. If they approve it, the file moves on to the Prime Minister's office. No hard date on how long it will be there.
We did also find out some information that somewhat extends our expectations for the overall time line. It turns out that, after we receive and accept a referral, there are a few additional steps to be taken before we can make our first trip to Armenia to petition the court. We have to take care of some documentation between our agency, the US gov't, and the Armenian gov't, which will take a month or more, before the official adoption proceedings in Armenia can actually begin. Long story short, it is just another couple of steps in a long, confusing, but ultimately worthwhile process, which will hopefully end with the successful addition of a child or children into our family.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our documents work their way through the process, and we will try to continue to keep this updated with any major changes or milestones.
The dossier has been translated, and is being certified in Armenia right now. That should be done shortly if it isn't already. After that, the package goes before a review committee, hopefully sometime within the next two weeks or so. If they approve it, the file moves on to the Prime Minister's office. No hard date on how long it will be there.
We did also find out some information that somewhat extends our expectations for the overall time line. It turns out that, after we receive and accept a referral, there are a few additional steps to be taken before we can make our first trip to Armenia to petition the court. We have to take care of some documentation between our agency, the US gov't, and the Armenian gov't, which will take a month or more, before the official adoption proceedings in Armenia can actually begin. Long story short, it is just another couple of steps in a long, confusing, but ultimately worthwhile process, which will hopefully end with the successful addition of a child or children into our family.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our documents work their way through the process, and we will try to continue to keep this updated with any major changes or milestones.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
And the waiting commences...
It occurred to me tonight that this has not been updated in a few weeks.
We're happy to report that, true to the previous post, we did get the rest of the paperwork Apostilled, and got the package mailed off successfully. We're now officially into the 'waiting for everybody else to do their part' stage.
As I understand it, here is the approximate path of our package:
- To our adoption agency here in the states for review - done
- Mailed to Armenia to be translated and certified there - should take 2-3 weeks
- Submitted to the Armenian government for review and approval - time tbd
- Passed along to the agency that reviews and makes a recommendation on the package - time tbd
- Submitted to the Prime Minister for approval - time tbd
- Passed along to the appropriate agency for a child referral - time tbd
- Review and consider the referral package - a few days
- Travel to Armenia - don't yet know how long after the approval of the referral this would occur.
Steps 1 & 2 remaining are pretty straightforward and should be done soon. At that point, everything becomes clear as mud, and we will continue to seek refuge in prayer, fellowship, and one another's company.
Here's hoping for the best, and we'll try to continue to update as we receive further information.
We're happy to report that, true to the previous post, we did get the rest of the paperwork Apostilled, and got the package mailed off successfully. We're now officially into the 'waiting for everybody else to do their part' stage.
As I understand it, here is the approximate path of our package:
- To our adoption agency here in the states for review - done
- Mailed to Armenia to be translated and certified there - should take 2-3 weeks
- Submitted to the Armenian government for review and approval - time tbd
- Passed along to the agency that reviews and makes a recommendation on the package - time tbd
- Submitted to the Prime Minister for approval - time tbd
- Passed along to the appropriate agency for a child referral - time tbd
- Review and consider the referral package - a few days
- Travel to Armenia - don't yet know how long after the approval of the referral this would occur.
Steps 1 & 2 remaining are pretty straightforward and should be done soon. At that point, everything becomes clear as mud, and we will continue to seek refuge in prayer, fellowship, and one another's company.
Here's hoping for the best, and we'll try to continue to update as we receive further information.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
False Start... Five yard penalty, replay the down
Oh, man. We're so close...
We finally got all of our paperwork gathered and took it to Austin to have it Apostilled last week. T took half a day off from work, and a friend car-pooled up with her to keep her company and share some fellowship.
She had all of the submittal paperwork filled out, wrote the check for the right amount, and delivered the package to the correct location. Unfortunately, a few of our documents were rejected for various reasons. She did, however, get the rest of our approximately 1 1/2" thick stack of papers finished.
I am happy to report that we have since gotten the issues resolved with all of the documents, and it's my turn to take a roadie to Austin. I'll go up Monday to resubmit the last few items, and I plan to mail our package to our agency the same day.
After all of the time, effort, and paperwork, I can hardly believe that we've finally reached this point. At times, it seemed like it would never come, because we still had so many items to complete. Yet here we are - once we get things approved and sent off tomorrow, the waiting begins. Thanks to all who helped us, either through prayer, support, assistance with documentation, or other means. You guys all mean a lot to us, and we sincerely appreciate you.
We finally got all of our paperwork gathered and took it to Austin to have it Apostilled last week. T took half a day off from work, and a friend car-pooled up with her to keep her company and share some fellowship.
She had all of the submittal paperwork filled out, wrote the check for the right amount, and delivered the package to the correct location. Unfortunately, a few of our documents were rejected for various reasons. She did, however, get the rest of our approximately 1 1/2" thick stack of papers finished.
I am happy to report that we have since gotten the issues resolved with all of the documents, and it's my turn to take a roadie to Austin. I'll go up Monday to resubmit the last few items, and I plan to mail our package to our agency the same day.
After all of the time, effort, and paperwork, I can hardly believe that we've finally reached this point. At times, it seemed like it would never come, because we still had so many items to complete. Yet here we are - once we get things approved and sent off tomorrow, the waiting begins. Thanks to all who helped us, either through prayer, support, assistance with documentation, or other means. You guys all mean a lot to us, and we sincerely appreciate you.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Bureaucratic Labor Pains
So yesterday, we both took half a day of vacation to run down a laundry list of documents and items needed for our dossier. The day started across town at the USCIS Application Support Center, where we both needed to be digitally fingerprinted as part of our I-800A application process. The workers there were nice for the most part, though we both found it curious that, at what is essentially an Immigration office in San Antonio, Texas, the guard who people had to speak to at the front desk spoke no Spanish. We discovered this when a lady who spoke only Spanish tried to get assistance, and he had her sit off to the side until somebody else could help her, and then didn't bother to get anybody to provide said assistance. Odd situation.
As far as our appointment, all went well, and we were out and on to location number two by 9:00. We next headed downtown to collect some additional paperwork from the Bexar County Courthouse. That was where the fun began.
First of all, approximately 1/4 of the city was parked within half a mile of the courthouse, possibly because there was a foreclosure auction being conducted on the front steps at about the time we were there. After driving around for about 10 minutes, we found some short term metered parking that accepted credit cards along a side street, paid, and headed in.
I had called ahead - 4 or 5 phone calls in all - to find out about the documentation that I needed. What I learned over the phone was that I needed to go up to the 5th floor Law Library, pick up and fill out an information package, and take it to an office in the basement. When we got inside, we checked the building directory, and saw only 4 floors listed, plus the basement. We decided to head downstairs to ask about the missing 5th floor.
After pressing the down button and getting on the elevator, we noticed a button for the 5th floor, but decided to continue downstairs to confirm.
T was a little nervous walking through the basement level, likely due to the various people walking around with shackles, orange jumpsuits, and police escorts. We found our room along a nondescript side hall. When we went in and talked to the gentlemen behind the counter, he informed us that he wouldn't be able to get us the documents we needed even if we had gotten the paperwork from the 5th floor. He also explained that the 5th floor was only accessible from some parts of the building.
He then redirected us to Civil Records, which was located down the hall, through a tunnel, across a breezeway, into the next building, and to the left (I think). So after double and triple checking the directions, we headed out to the second location. Along the way, we passed the courthouse cafeteria. They had a big display stating that they now sold sushi. (Mmm, tasty - courthouse basement sushi, my favorite) When we got to the next building, we had to ask somebody for help - it turned out that the room we needed was tucked away in a nondescript corner of the building. It was also called something different.
We went in and asked the woman at the desk about the paperwork I needed. She brusquely informed us that she didn't have that info, and that we would have to go to a third location, back in the 3rd floor of the original building. Her attitude led us to believe that our unwelcome interruption deeply disturbed her from the gossip in which she was actively engaged. So back across the breezeway, through the tunnel, across the hall, and up the elevator we went.
Fortunately, the third location was the charm. The lady here was very friendly and helpful, and provided the documentation we needed without further searching. And as an added bonus, there was no wait.
From there, we headed a couple of blocks to the west to the SA Police Dept. We needed to get fingerprinted - again - for a DPS State criminal background check. (Side note - hopefully both of those will come back clean. ;-) ) We got into another line. There were two windows open. One was for a young woman who was seeking a police report about an aggravated robbery for which she could provide no concrete information, such as date, location, or any details that might help them actually look up the case. The other line was for the rest of us, of which there were about 15. After about a 20 minute wait, once we were finally next in line, the lady behind the desk asked the queue if anybody was just in line to get fingerprinted. We eventually got through and got our second set of digital prints.
Its funny, so far we've been able to get through the adoption process with a relative minimum of bureaucracy and line waiting. Hopefully yesterday got us mostly caught up on both of those fronts. On the bright side, we're now three steps closer to completing our dossier. Only a few items left, and we should be able to submit the dossier and get started on the waiting. I even got our taxes done tonight, a copy of which I need to include as well. That may be the earliest I've ever done our taxes.
As far as our appointment, all went well, and we were out and on to location number two by 9:00. We next headed downtown to collect some additional paperwork from the Bexar County Courthouse. That was where the fun began.
First of all, approximately 1/4 of the city was parked within half a mile of the courthouse, possibly because there was a foreclosure auction being conducted on the front steps at about the time we were there. After driving around for about 10 minutes, we found some short term metered parking that accepted credit cards along a side street, paid, and headed in.
I had called ahead - 4 or 5 phone calls in all - to find out about the documentation that I needed. What I learned over the phone was that I needed to go up to the 5th floor Law Library, pick up and fill out an information package, and take it to an office in the basement. When we got inside, we checked the building directory, and saw only 4 floors listed, plus the basement. We decided to head downstairs to ask about the missing 5th floor.
After pressing the down button and getting on the elevator, we noticed a button for the 5th floor, but decided to continue downstairs to confirm.
T was a little nervous walking through the basement level, likely due to the various people walking around with shackles, orange jumpsuits, and police escorts. We found our room along a nondescript side hall. When we went in and talked to the gentlemen behind the counter, he informed us that he wouldn't be able to get us the documents we needed even if we had gotten the paperwork from the 5th floor. He also explained that the 5th floor was only accessible from some parts of the building.
He then redirected us to Civil Records, which was located down the hall, through a tunnel, across a breezeway, into the next building, and to the left (I think). So after double and triple checking the directions, we headed out to the second location. Along the way, we passed the courthouse cafeteria. They had a big display stating that they now sold sushi. (Mmm, tasty - courthouse basement sushi, my favorite) When we got to the next building, we had to ask somebody for help - it turned out that the room we needed was tucked away in a nondescript corner of the building. It was also called something different.
We went in and asked the woman at the desk about the paperwork I needed. She brusquely informed us that she didn't have that info, and that we would have to go to a third location, back in the 3rd floor of the original building. Her attitude led us to believe that our unwelcome interruption deeply disturbed her from the gossip in which she was actively engaged. So back across the breezeway, through the tunnel, across the hall, and up the elevator we went.
Fortunately, the third location was the charm. The lady here was very friendly and helpful, and provided the documentation we needed without further searching. And as an added bonus, there was no wait.
From there, we headed a couple of blocks to the west to the SA Police Dept. We needed to get fingerprinted - again - for a DPS State criminal background check. (Side note - hopefully both of those will come back clean. ;-) ) We got into another line. There were two windows open. One was for a young woman who was seeking a police report about an aggravated robbery for which she could provide no concrete information, such as date, location, or any details that might help them actually look up the case. The other line was for the rest of us, of which there were about 15. After about a 20 minute wait, once we were finally next in line, the lady behind the desk asked the queue if anybody was just in line to get fingerprinted. We eventually got through and got our second set of digital prints.
Its funny, so far we've been able to get through the adoption process with a relative minimum of bureaucracy and line waiting. Hopefully yesterday got us mostly caught up on both of those fronts. On the bright side, we're now three steps closer to completing our dossier. Only a few items left, and we should be able to submit the dossier and get started on the waiting. I even got our taxes done tonight, a copy of which I need to include as well. That may be the earliest I've ever done our taxes.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Okay God, We Get It!!
It seems like everywhere we turn, every single day, we're seeing or hearing something about adoption. Whether it's on the radio, on the internet, or on the t.v. It may be a advertisement, or a full article. It may even be someone mentioning that their sister's best friend's cousin's daughter was adopted. But it never fails - every day we get reconfirmation from God that we're following His will. And with as long as this process has been (and so much more waiting still to come), that reassurance has made all the difference in the world.
The I-800A paperwork has been submitted to Immigration and now we're waiting for our biometrics appointment (fingerprinting) to be scheduled. We continue to compile our dossier and only have a few more items left to gather. Since everything we sign has to be notarized, I am so grateful that my good friend and co-worker, Julie, is a notary. She has been very helpful and patient with the (seemingly) tons of forms she has had to notarize. Also, since my company's headquarters is in Pennsylvania, and my employment verification letter had to come from the HQ HR, we had to have that letter notarized in PA. And since the next step in the dossier process is appostilling, we have to get the letter appostilled in PA. Fortunately, our adoption agency is located in PA and they have agreed to get the letter appostilled there at the same time as some other documents they prepare as part of our dossier. One additional part of our dossier is a copy of our taxes, which we can't prepare until we receive all of our tax documents in the mail. We also are waiting for the USCIS approval letter which is also included as part of the dossier. We're hoping to have the rest of our dossier compiled within the next several weeks at which point we can submit the package for appostilling. Once that process is complete, we can submit our dossier to the agency, and they will review it, translate it, and submit it to Armenia. Then the waiting really begins.
The I-800A paperwork has been submitted to Immigration and now we're waiting for our biometrics appointment (fingerprinting) to be scheduled. We continue to compile our dossier and only have a few more items left to gather. Since everything we sign has to be notarized, I am so grateful that my good friend and co-worker, Julie, is a notary. She has been very helpful and patient with the (seemingly) tons of forms she has had to notarize. Also, since my company's headquarters is in Pennsylvania, and my employment verification letter had to come from the HQ HR, we had to have that letter notarized in PA. And since the next step in the dossier process is appostilling, we have to get the letter appostilled in PA. Fortunately, our adoption agency is located in PA and they have agreed to get the letter appostilled there at the same time as some other documents they prepare as part of our dossier. One additional part of our dossier is a copy of our taxes, which we can't prepare until we receive all of our tax documents in the mail. We also are waiting for the USCIS approval letter which is also included as part of the dossier. We're hoping to have the rest of our dossier compiled within the next several weeks at which point we can submit the package for appostilling. Once that process is complete, we can submit our dossier to the agency, and they will review it, translate it, and submit it to Armenia. Then the waiting really begins.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Post Home Study Update
It's been a hectic few weeks since we sat through the home study interview. We spent a weekend in Dallas for Thanksgiving, went to Big Bend National Park in SW Texas, and spent the past week playing catchup at home and work from back to back four day weekends. Now we need to buckle down and get moving again.
The interview itself was fairly probing, but actually was less difficult than we had imagined. The social worker was friendly, and we made it through generally unscathed. Due to delays caused by the holiday weekend, the study is not quite approved yet, but is going back and forth for final corrections / additions. It should be complete within the next week.
After the interview, we had a phone conference with our adoption agency to discuss our next steps. This may come as a huge surprise to you, but the next two parts of our preparation are paperwork and paperwork. We need to put together the I-800A form (Petition to Adopt), and prepare our dossier for the Armenian government. There is a lot of gathering of existing documents still to be done - we need certified copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses, and the like - and everything needs to be certified. As an added bonus, everything for the dossier also needs to be "appostilled", which essentially means that we have to certify the certification.
We've already begun ordering some of the necessary documents, and hope to have everything done around the first of the year. Hopefully we'll have more to report soon. We thank you all for your support and continued prayers. God Bless.
The interview itself was fairly probing, but actually was less difficult than we had imagined. The social worker was friendly, and we made it through generally unscathed. Due to delays caused by the holiday weekend, the study is not quite approved yet, but is going back and forth for final corrections / additions. It should be complete within the next week.
After the interview, we had a phone conference with our adoption agency to discuss our next steps. This may come as a huge surprise to you, but the next two parts of our preparation are paperwork and paperwork. We need to put together the I-800A form (Petition to Adopt), and prepare our dossier for the Armenian government. There is a lot of gathering of existing documents still to be done - we need certified copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses, and the like - and everything needs to be certified. As an added bonus, everything for the dossier also needs to be "appostilled", which essentially means that we have to certify the certification.
We've already begun ordering some of the necessary documents, and hope to have everything done around the first of the year. Hopefully we'll have more to report soon. We thank you all for your support and continued prayers. God Bless.
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