USCIS Fingerprinting: Check!

On Tuesday, January 21 we spent all of 25 minutes getting fingerprinted at the USCIS Office in the Federal Building in St. Louis, MO.  The staff there was super-friendly and it was really fascinating to be sitting in a waiting room full of people of different nationalities who were waiting for their appointment.  We loved it!

My fingerprints weren't cooperating (like when I had to get fingerprinted THREE TIMES for our foster care license in 2010), so she massaged my fingers with cornhuskers lotion and tried, tried again until she got prints she thought would be acceptable.  In addition, she also did an old-fashioned ink print card as a back-up so that I (hopefully) won't get recalled.

God showed up in this fingerprinting appointment detail, too.  We were invited to come down to St. Louis on Monday night by a family who is adopting a sibling pair from the same hosting trip our guy was on.  We stayed at their home, they fed us a WONDERFUL Filipino meal (they have been learning from some Filipino co-workers), and the boys stayed with them while we went into St. Louis for our appointment on Tuesday morning.

If we had tried to drive down Tuesday morning, it would have been a different story.  The weather was bad and would have made our 2-hour trip to St. Louis very difficult, maybe impossible.  Many schools in our area and even in the St. Louis area were closed for the day.

AND SO, because school was cancelled, I didn't have to use my personal day after all.  :)

We were grateful to spend time with new friends, to make it to our appointment despite the weather, and to save a personal day off at work!

WE STILL WAIT:  On the long side, it may be the end of March before we get approval from both ICAB (Inter-Country Adoption Board in the Philippines) and from USCIS (Immigration).  If it happens sooner, we will be ready to go for the next steps to make this happen as soon as possible!

****karen

Adoption Progress . . .

Today, December 30, we received email confirmation that USCIS ("Immigration" as I call it) has received our application!  Soon, they will send us notice of when we can go to the USCIS office in St. Louis for fingerprinting.

Last week, December 23, our Dossier was sent to the Philippines by our adoption agency!

So, Step 2 and Step 3 are both in progress.  We should hear from both of these around the end of February or so.

Meanwhile, we will be preparing things at home (rearranging bedrooms, closets, etc. so that Josiah and his new brother can be in one room, and Nathanael and Luke can move to the other bedroom), applying for adoption grants, and planning a fundraising event.  I guess it's good to be busy while we wait to hear from all the different places and levels of approval - time will fly, I'm sure!

****karen

How Many Stockings Do You See?

You already knew we were adding to our family; now you know his new name!

Once you know what his name means, you know why we have chosen this for our new son: "LAUGHTER."  If you don't believe us, just wait until you meet him!

We also chose "Isaac" because, when we read Genesis 22, we are amazed at Isaac's trust in God (his heavenly father) and his trust in Abraham (his earthly father).  We pray that our Isaac learns to have such an amazing portion of trust in God and in his new father, as Derrick, myself and the boys embrace him as part of our family.

****karen

Check out adoptionheartministries.com (Bob and Katherine Sanford) and go to Articles to find "A New Name."  We so appreciated hearing from this adoptive couple and their godly hearts for adopted children - of which they have 15!!  We're pretty sure we can trust their wisdom on this matter, and many more!

For our adoption story, scroll down to the post from October 31, 2013 entitled "Another Boy?"

Our Unconventional Thinker

If you know our Nathanael (2nd Grade, age 8), you know that he thinks outside the box and has his own way of doing things - he can be very unconventional with his thoughts and ideas.

Here's a wonderful Christmas example.

He came home with this nativity picture he made at school (with the help of some friends).  But, do you notice something flying through the air??  Yes, that's Joseph's staff.

I laughed outloud and said, "Nathanael, what happened here?  It looks like it might hit baby Jesus!"

He said, "Yeah, you know when you are holding things and swinging them back and forth, and you're not paying attention and it goes 'whoo, whoo, woosh' through the air?  . . .that's what happend to Joseph!"

Step 1? CHECK!

Yay!!  So relieved and excited . . .

Just yesterday, we received notification that our Home Study was approved by the state of Illinois for international adoption!  Now that we are approved in Illinois, we can send copies of our Home Study with our application to USCIS (citizenship and immigration) and with our Dossier (foreign paperwork) to the Philippines - which is Steps 2 and 3 working at the same time!  (But approval of these two steps could possibly could take up to 3 months . . .)

But don't worry - there are plenty of things to do in the meantime!

****karen

No More Bianca

Because of the adoption process, we had to submit paperwork on our kitten, which meant taking her to the vet for shots.  We hoped we wouldn't have to do this since she is a garage kitty, but it's still required.  After calling to find out exactly how much that will cost us, we found ourselves in a dilemma, and started looking for ways to find her a new home.

However, that didn't pan out, and after a couple of days of the boys asking what we could do to keep her, we made the Deal-of-the-Year with them:  All three boys agreed that keeping Bianca and taking her to the vet for all the required shots and check-ups would be their one and only Christmas present from us this year!  Easy as that.  Everyone's happy.  (Smart move, huh?)  And don't worry - the grandparents will make sure they have something to open for Christmas.

(Note:  A couple of days later, Luke said, "Mom, I know we don't get any presents this year . . .but will we get presents NEXT year?)

BUT, As everything seems to go in my household, our first vet visit revealed that we do NOT have a Bianca after all; we have a BiancO.  Yes, in the masculine form.  Sigh!

So, "Bianca" is no more, and we all took several weeks to get used to saying "he" instead of "she". . .

The feisty little guy gave the vet tech a run for her money at his appointment, which helped us choose his new MASCULINE name:  Manny.  He's named after Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxer.  Of course, this is a nod to our new son's heritage, so everything fits.

Yea, though, I am still the lone female in this household.  Do you feel bad for me, or for all the boys who have to put up with me trying to put up with them?

Waiting. Our new game.

It seems like we've done so much toward the adoption already, but there is so much left to do!

This week, the first week of December, I am optimistically expecting our Illinois Home Study approval to come through.  We are SO ready to check off Step 1 (which has been a 4 month process, yes, just for Step 1)!

When we get Illinois' approval of our Home Study, then we can send out paperwork to conquer Steps 2 and 3 at once:

Step 2:  Submit an application to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)
Step 3:  Submit our dossier (foreign paperwork) to the Philippines

We understand that it will take about 2 - 3 months for both Steps 2 and 3 to be completed.  After that, we will be closer to getting travel dates.

We are still looking at late spring or early summer to make the big trip across the ocean to for our new son!