After we decided to end our relationship with the Pennsylvania agency, we looked at Russia again. We went back to Adoption Associates because we liked them when we first met them and their Russian program was back on track. Plus they're local which makes things a little easier. We went back to a few meetings and submitted our formal application. The next step was to get our I-600a form done. That form is sent to the U.S. government to petition them to let us adopt an immigrant and subsequently apply for citizenship for the child. Here's Jolynn at the post office mailing in the form.
After the I-600, we had to take some classes. One of which was a multi-cultural class. That was a two session class we took at the AA office. There weren't any tests or anything like that. It was more of a "what do you do in this situation" sort of thing. We also had to take a handful of courses online. We had started this process already with the Kaz adoption. However, these we different courses but we sort of knew what to expect. Again, not a test type of course, more situational thought provoking questions.
By the end of 2007 we had just about everything we needed to put the dossier together. The dossier is a big pile of papers that has the homestudy, pictures and information about us and a bunch of other legal certificates in it. We were ready to go.......
A Small Glitch and A Big Set Back
2008 rung in and we were getting ready to send in the dossier. At the end of January, we got our I-600 back - uh, that's not supposed to happen. What happened? They said the check wasn't included. But it was. They(the feds) put our original envelope into another envelope and returned the form. However, in our original envelope was the check! They just missed it. D'oh!
About a week after the I-600 glitch, I was fired. What? Didn't you say in part two that your boss said your job was safe? Yes I did. He lied. Now I could get on my soapbox and rant but I'm not going to. However, it will be hard for me to forgive those involved. I had never been fired before and I had no idea how to handle it. I really felt like I let Jolynn down. Faced with the uncertainty of being unemployed, the adoption was put on hold.
Jolynn had just started a new job and I spent the rest of February, March, April and most of May looking for work and doing whatever freelance jobs I could get. Finally, right before memorial day I found another job. Now some things will need to be updated on the paperwork but that's a minor issue. Could we have proceeded with things even though I was unemployed? Maybe. But it's hard to go before a judge and prove a steady income and medical benefits etc. without a job. Plus we had no idea of what our future was going to be. We may have had to move out of state. Who knows? That would have been a huge mess. So I feel very lucky to have landed where I did.
Moving On
Now that things are back to normal, we have decided to proceed with the adoption. We met with a friend of Jolynn's who is a notary to sign all the papers. Every piece of paper needs to be notarized then apostilled. Apostilling forms is the way the state verifies the notary. It's just another formal level that the documents must be at for the governments involved. Jolynn took all the papers to the state office last week to be apostilled and then we sent it all to Washington D.C.
Now we wait. There are still a few things we need to do. For example, remember the I-600 form? We sent it in again. This time it went through and now have to go downtown to the USCIS office and get finger printed for a criminal check. Not a big deal. Our dossier will be translated into Russian and then sent over. Once there, the Russian authorities will look over our information and refer us to a child.
Well that's it in a nutshell. You're all caught up. It may take awhile before we get a referral. But keep checking in. We'll be updating this blog every single step of the way to keep everyone up to date on things. We'll be posting soon........
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