EVERYTHING is off for a court date

Today I got everything notarized and apostilled and mailed to our agency TOL. Hopefully by Monday it will be on its way to Bulgaria. Supposedly this is the time line: Our i800 approval is mailed to the US Embassy in Bulgaria (1 week), then our Bulgarian agency files the visa at the Embassy ( 1 week to get an appointment), they then get it a week after the appointment ( 1 week later), it is then translated and submitted to the MOJ (1 week for this), once the MOJ gets it they have to get 2 signatures (1 week for this) then it is submitted to the court for a judge (1week for this). We are then given a court date usually 2 weeks out. Yes this takes 6 -8 weeks.

Nice surprise yesterday! We got some photos and video of our son. He recently had his hair cut, so he looks older. So sad. I miss him so much. He was singing a song on the video, it made my day. So nice to have something new to watch of him, even though it is only 1 minute long. It might be quiet on here for awhile (as long as things go according to plan). Will update you when we hear something or I think of something worth sharing :) Keep the prayers coming for him to come home quickly and I pray that the caregivers are preparing him to leave.

Recommended Books

If you have any suggestions let me know:

Holding Time - Welch ( just ordered and will read soon)

Help for the Hopeless Child by Federici (have it and it is very informative)

Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control ( Forbes and Post)

Have this too, very good book.

Twenty Things Adopted Children Wished Their Parents Knew

Sherrie Eldridge (still need to order and read)

Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents [Hardcover]

read this book and it is exellent!

Deborah D. Gray

Attaching in...

by Deborah D. Gray

(55) $16.47

Great ideas for mom's adopting, wanted to share!

http://www.tapestrybooks.com/product.asp?pID=996&cID=353

Adoption Baby book

Ergo Baby Carrier - can carry upto 90 lbs (great for newly adopted toddlers)

The sidewalks over seas are terrible so a stroller really isn't recommended. Also for the airport this is great, and for bonding at home when you have to get dinner made and little one wants your attention. You can find many of these on ebay or craigslist. The sale retail for $105, but you can get them a bit cheaper on ebay.

My mom is getting this for me for my birthday :)

Now what do we wait for?

1. We have completed this first step - approval for our son. We are now waiting for

   a.the Embassy appointment (our lawyer will go for us)

   b.Article 5 letter which will go to the MOJ. They will have to give 2 signatures and then a court date. This is why it takes 6 weeks.

   Did this already:

   After you accept a match with a child, you will apply to the U.S Government, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for provisional approval to adopt that particular child (Form I-800). USCIS will determine whether the child is eligible under U.S. law to be adopted. Learn how.
   
   a. After this, your adoption service provider or you will submit a visa application to a Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy. The Consular Officer will review the child's information and evaluate the child for possible visa ineligibilities. If the Consular Office determines that the child appears eligible to immigrate to the United States, he/she will notify the Bulgaria's adoption authority (Article 5 letter).

   Remember: The Consular Officer will make a final decision about the immigrant visa later in the adoption process.
   
   

2. Adopt the Child (or Gain Legal Custody) in-country:

   
   Remember: Before you adopt (or gain legal custody of) a child in Bulgaria, you must have completed the above four steps. Only after completing these steps can you proceed to finalize the adoption or grant of custody for the purposes of adoption in Bulgaria.
   
   The process for finalizing the adoption (or gaining legal custody) in Bulgaria generally includes the following

   Bring Your Child Home-

After Court we it takes 4-5 weeks till we travel because:
Specifically, you need to apply for three documents for your child before he or she can travel to the United States:

Birth Certificate
You will first need to apply for a new birth certificate for your child, so that you can later apply for a passport. Your name will be added to the new birth certificate.

Note: The process of obtaining a birth certificate and passport takes 3-4 weeks. The parents are not required to do anything in order to apply for these two documents. Their accredited adoption agency authorizes an attorney to represent them at court and deposit documents at various Government entities.

Bulgarian Passport
Your child is not yet a U.S. citizen, so he/she will need a travel document or Passport from Bulgaria.

After the new birth certificate has been issued, the representative has to apply for a passport of the child. The process of obtaining a birth certificate and a passport takes 3-4 weeks.

U.S. Immigrant Visa
After you obtain the new birth certificate and passport for your child, you also need to apply for an U.S. visa from the United States Embassy for your child. After the adoption (or custody for purpose of adoption) is granted, visit the U.S Embassy for final review and approval of the child's I-800 petition and to obtain a visa for the child. This immigrant visa allows your child to travel home with you. As part of this process, the Consular Officer must be provided the "Panel Physician's" medical report on the child if it was not provided during the provisional approval stage. Learn more.

The visa interview may be scheduled by the adoptive parents or by their Bulgarian representative over the telephone as soon as the child obtains a Bulgarian passport. They must first make sure that their fingerprint clearances have not expired. The visa interview may be scheduled a few days before the intended interview date.

Immigrant visa interview appointments should be arranged a few days in advance. Interviews can be scheduled by calling (359-2) 937-5444 each working day from to 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. This is the direct line to the Immigrant Visa Unit. In case of emergency or if the line is busy, adoptive parents may reach the Immigrant Visa Unit through the Embassy's switchboard: (359-2) 937-5100. Embassy conducts immigrant visa interviews Monday through Thursday.

CHILD CITIZENSHIP ACT

For adoptions finalized abroad: The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 allows your child to acquire American citizenship when he or she enters the United States as lawful permanent residents.

We got it....

So happy! This morning in the mail we finally received our I800 approval from the US government to adopt our son. It was really cool to see his name on there this time. What does this mean for us...We will notarize and appostille all the paperwork we have accumulated since trip 1 and mail to our agency on Monday, who will then mail it to Vesta in Bulgaria. Vesta will then translate all these documents, get an article 5 letter and then get a court date for us. We have been told this can take up to 6 weeks to do. We are soooo close. This is so exciting. Will let you know when we have a court date! After court we can then post pictures of our beautiful little boy.

Adoptive Mom meets with Vice Minister of Bulgaria...

http://www.gatheringthemfromtheeast.com/2011/03/meeting-vice-minister.html

Check out Shelley's blog. She is a mom to home grown children and then heart born children from Bulgaria, Ukraine and Serbia.

Can't help myself

Yesterday I had to make a run to targ*t to buy a birthday present for a friend of Caroline's who is having her birthday party this Friday night. While I was there I was looking for some rain-boots for myself (which I didn't end up buying). Instead I came across some sandals for Calvin. In his room at the orphanage he has a Disney themed CAR table and chair, so I bought him the Disney theme CAR sandals. I also bought him a sesame street coloring book, crayons and cardboard book. I will send these in April to him, with a framed picture of him with his daddy. I really have to restrain myself from buying him stuff. I am going to a MOPS sale this Friday to see what treasures I can find (boy toys, 2t clothes and shoes). We are good in the department of 3 yr old clothing (last 3 years I have been buying him some stuff from garage sales). But I would say he is wearing 2T clothes (he is long, but skinny). This past week I also bought 2 crib sheets for his crib (blue) and a mattress pad for the crib. Oh, and I had to buy him some more Gerb*r banana puffs that he loves, to take with us when we go back to pick him up. I hate that I am wishing the days away, because that means my daughters are getting older, but I want my son home yesterday already. Still waiting on the I800 approval letter to get a court date!

Got more paperwork stuff back....

Nice surprise in the mail today. We got our FBI background checks apostilled and back from the US Department of State today. I expressed mailed it to the US Dep of State and included a self addressed envelope with postage. I got an email from them about 4 days after I mailed it saying they had received it. On their site they say it takes 15 days from receiving it to mailing it back to you. I got it back in about 6 days of receiving their email. NICE! Now the only thing we are waiting for is the most important document of all, our approval for the I800 (requesting our son by name to adopt). This is the document needed to get a court date, everything else we have done is for court. We should have Chris' employer's letter by the end of the week for our embassy appointment and then we are all done with this paperwork. As soon as I get the I800 approval letter I will take everything down to get apostilled and mailed to our agency to mail to Bulgaria. Then they have to translate everything for court. Praying we have court in May and be able to pick our son up in June. We are told second trip can be 3-5 months after trip 1. We visited February 12-19, so that means the earliest we could travel is end of May and the latest we could travel is July.

Cathryn's 6th Birthday party

American Girl doll from Grammy, poppie and Build A Bear from us
Fairy sleeping bag from Granny, Dackie and Uncle Ryan. Pillow pet from sissie
6years old.
Bee cake I made Cathyrn
Girls in their pettiskirts

I800 and other paperwork stuff...

We got our letters in the mail today from USCIS saying they received our I800 March 8. Praying we get our approval by the end of the month. Funny thing is, I emailed our caseworker this morning asking her if it had been received yet because we hadn't received our notice, and then it comes this afternoon. Still waiting on our FBI background to be apostilled by the US Dep of State. They sent us an email last week saying they received it, it takes 15 days from them receiving it and then they mail it out (maybe 3 days from Washington DC).

We had our medicals done yesterday and had it notarized. So that is done finally. FYI for trip 2 you have to have a letter from your employer stating what you make and your tax forms and recent paystub, I believe this is for the Embassy interview. Good to know ahead of time. Anyone know what other paperwork you should take with you for your second trip? Any ideas on what the judge could ask for that I should maybe do ahead of time just in case?

Why it takes so long after trip 1...

http://adoption.state.gov/country/bulgaria.html

Thanks CeAnne for the above information. This explains what takes place after we make the first visit and why it takes so long until trip 2.

3 years ago

We started our adoption journey 3 years ago this month. We investigated agencies, countries and signed up with Adoption Associates in March 2008. We first started looking into domestic adoption at Bethany Christian Services. We also looked into their international adoption program and were very interested in their Albania program. Once we talked to the Albania program coordinator she said it would take 3 years, so we then called Adoption Associates and asked them about their Ukraine program. Needless to say we signed up with the Ukraine program, only to change our minds 2 months later and turned to Bulgaria. We finally have a referral, have visited our son and he is turning 3 this year.

We are still waiting on our approval letter for our I800, and our apostilled FBI background check. Until we get our I800 approval we can't set a court date!!!

Caroline's 8th Birthday - January 29th

Took her to Build a Bear and she got Pandy.
pillowpet from her sister, and shoes and knitted dress for her American Girl doll (granny and dackie)

I didn't blog about Caroline's birthday with getting our referral and then trying to prepare for our trip. We didn't do a friends birthday party this year, just too much work. So we celebrated with Chris' side of the family. She chose a Barbie cake this year from the store, even though I was more than willing to make her one. We ordered pizza, and had salad and fruit. On her birthday, Saturday, my inlaws drove 2 hours to take her to her favorite restuarant L*gans. We also went to the children's museum, her choice. Sunday after Church we celebrated with cake and her cousins came up and so did my inlaws. We were going to go iceskating, but her one cousin was still recovering from the 24hr flu so we played wii instead (her gift from grammy and poppy). She had a wonderful time celebrating with her favorite people.