San Diego and Mail!

Dean and Jennifer

23 October 2008

Today Dean and I headed to San Diego to attend a wedding for some friends. The wedding ceremony was beautiful - it was aboard the Carnival Elation. When we received the invitation to the wedding, it also stated that everyone was welcome to join the couple and their families aboard the Elation for a 4-day Celebration cruise to Cabo San Lucas, however since we had JUST mailed in our application for China (this was before we even knew about Japan), we decided that we had better "opt out" and didn't book the cruise - after being on the cruise ship, I have to say that is something I would love to do in the future!

When we got home there were two envelopes in the mailbox! Our court paperwork was approved - this means that our Home Study has been approved by the court! YEAH! Today turned out to be a very exciting day!

Edited: Dean hated the photo I had, so I have replaced it with a different one :)

Application/Biometrics/Baby Care Class

First - Yancha Bozu and Wrigley were feeling left out since they haven't been on our blog yet...so for those of you that don't know our fur babies - meet Yancha Bozu and Wrigley.

Now for our update from last week. Last Tuesday (14 October), Dean and I went to the courthouse and signed our Application to Adopt Baby Boy Doe/Baby Girl Doe, so we are officially on the court docket here in Yuma County! Deloris (secretary to the County Attorney) explained that this petition would be filed with the court and once it is granted we would receive a signed copy in the mail, then our Home Study would be logged and processed ~ she said that we should hear something back within a couple of weeks (according to Dean, I don’t remember what she said exactly).

Friday was our appointment for our “biometrics” for US CIS. Dean and I had our fingerprints taken here in Yuma, and I was pleasantly surprised that they do have technology here (just kidding!) – as they did our prints electronically. I am a little concerned since I believe one of my prints wasn’t clear, but hopefully I didn’t “see” everything correctly on the screen and it was fine. When they are doing your prints electronically there is a little green box that appears at the bottom of the screen and it says ---- pass, I imagine that means that the capture was clear, however on one of my fingers there was a little red box that appeared…..I questioned the person doing the prints, and she said that sometimes they “can’t” get it, but that it was okay. We will see, hopefully our US CIS doesn’t take very long and we will have our I-171 soon!

Last night was our Newborn Baby Care Class. Pretty funny – really not much applied to our situation as we’re not going to “nurse”, take care of newborn belly buttons, etc., but the class was entertaining, and we got our letter of completion so we can check that off our list.

I guess that sums up last week’s events. Now we wait for our Home Study to be certified by the court!

Until next time….

Tickets Booked!

Our tickets are booked - we leave for Sacramento Friday, November 7th - for our meeting with Taz and Lesley on Monday, November 10th at 10:00. I can't wait! Hopefully we will have a signed Home Study by the time we head to California, keep us in your prayers. I would LOVE to have our paperwork head to Japan in November!

Tomorrow we have an appointment at 4:00 at the courthouse to sign whatever this "application" is for our Home Study!

Throw me a bone....

An itsy bitsy teeny weenie bone....we got a letter in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security - YEAH - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (I-797C, Notice of Action) with an appointment for our fingerprints.

Our appointment time is next Friday (not the best day, since I have a workshop scheduled here at our house at 1:00), luckily our appointments are at 11:00 - I had hoped that we would go to Phoenix for our prints, but our appointment is here in Yuma.

Another note, Lesley e-mailed earlier this evening to say that Taz is back from Japan and they are going over her schedule and will let us know when to come to California for our meeting!

Bluebirds bring Happy Things

Not much news.....

In Japan bluebirds are said to bring "happy things" to married couples. Dean's cousin in Japan that initially got all of the information about adopting in Japan sent us some chocolates with bluebirds and explained to us about the bluebirds bringing happy things (they're SO sweet, the cousins that is, the chocolates were delicious too!), so I asked a lady that makes these little clay fairies to make me one holding a bluebird to bring "happy things" to us during our wait! I think I need to surround my work area and home with bluebirds - LOL!

Well yesterday I finally called Oasis to find out the status on our Home Study. I talked with Catherine and she let me know that Ralph had received it back from Lesley last week, he implemented the changes that Lesley suggested, and YESTERDAY (October 6th) it was sent to the court for approval. Catherine explained that we would receive a phone call from the court here to come and fill out some 'application' (not sure what that is?), and then it would go to the judge for his review and approval. Then Oasis will get the original back signed from the court and they will mail it to (not real clear here but I think) ATWA (Lesley) for inclusion in our dossier, and another original will go to US CIS. So we really are in kind of a "wait pattern" here...which is ALL TOO FRUSTRATING, I want to know what is happening, and I want to know what to expect as to timeline. I had another sleepless night last night...too many things to think about, and even though I have no control over them, I feel like I should.

We are still waiting to hear from Lesley and Taz as to when we will head to Pleasant Hill, CA to meet with them. I was hoping for early November, as Taz mentioned that she would be available the first or second week in November since she has two trips planned for October already to "deliver" babies....when I talked to Lesley she said that Taz has two more babies in November, but Lesley didn't know if those babies were going to be "International adoptions" or if they would stay in Japan. Taz works for the agency that handles both, she's a very busy gal! So we are patiently (hahahaha!) waiting to hear when we will go.

We have our Baby Care Class scheduled for Monday, October 20th at the hospital here. That is a new requirement from Japan.

I did get my employment letter signed and notarized last week, so I can officially check that off my list. We just need Dean's to be signed and notarized and that one will be done too.

Don't forget to leave us a comment....there's a little "hyperlink" below our post. Until next time.

I-600A - check

On Wednesday I called the Adoption agency and chatted with Lesley about our I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) which goes to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (US CIS). I wanted to make sure that everything was filled out properly - otherwise they will send it back to us and I just don't want to play that game. So now our forms are all filled in - I went to Kinko's last night (after reading online on another adoptive parents blog that this "helps" speed them along because typically salmon paper = baby) to have our forms photocopied onto "salmon" paper. Yes it gets THAT picky! You just wouldn't believe?! So now our I-600A form is all filled out, I'm waiting for Dean sign it when he gets up, then I'm off to the bank to get a certified check and then off to the post office with copies of our birth certificates, marriage license, and all of the other necessary photocopies they require when submitting this. Our finalized Home Study will be sent separate, since we don't have it back yet.

Backtracking a little - earlier this week we got our next 'checklist' from Lesley at ATWA. Our note from her says:

Welcome to the Japan Program!

Hi Dean and Jennifer: Here's the next step and I'm so glad that you're with us. Cheers, Lesley

Now that your home study is well under way, on to the next step! (Attached was a list of documents that we have to supply to her.) When you submit any of these items, the next payment is also due.

Only really waiting on the home study so that we can send that off to US CIS and hope that they don't reject our paperwork. Once our paperwork is "approved" by US CIS, they will send us an appointment to have more fingerprints done, I think we have to go to Phoenix for that, but I'm not positive, the fingerprints have to be taken by one of their people, unlike the others, we just went to the Security office and had them do 3 sets of fingerprints - the luxury (?) of working for the Government. We have started our "Dear Birthmother" letter, but need to "fine tune" it with some particulars that Dean wants to include...gotta love my husband!

I don't think that I had mentioned previously - in the Japan program we aren't allowed to specify gender (or complexion ???), and we are required to choose two Japanese girl names, and two Japanese boy names. From these names that we have chosen, the birthmother will ultimately choose one name (depending on the sex of the baby) - which Dean and I will include in our baby's name. I have a list of about 10 girl names, and only a few boy names. I would like to use Dean's middle name (Masayuki) as one and his Dad's (Masao) as the other, but we will have to see what Dean wants, I guess he should be included - Just Kidding!!! LOL!

Well I think that I have covered all of our happenings this week.

Home Study Visit

My immediate worries are over. Last Saturday and Sunday we had our Home Study visit.

Our Adoption Social Worker Ralph arrived around 10:30 and we really had a nice visit. One question came up that Dean and I hadn't addressed - Guardianship if something were to happen to Me and Dean who would take care of our precious baby? Dean promptly suggested that his sister, Linda, and her husband, Mark, would fill that responsibility best. So I called and asked Mark (couldn't reach Linda, and Ralph needed to talk with them) and he said that they would do it!

Otherwise I think we had everything covered. Ralph asked a few questions about different pieces of our lives, childhood, etc. that we must have not addressed in our lengthy autiobiographies (8 pages each). Ralph will write up our report, send it to his boss, Catherine (Oasis Adoption Services), then they will send it to Lesley at Across the World Adoptions (ATWA) for her review before it is submitted to the Yuma Court for approval.

What comes next?

Well I know that we have to do some immigration paperwork. I am hoping to find out what exactly we need for that in this next week so we can have it ready once the Home Study is "signed" by the court - due to having to send a copy with this immigration stuff.

We have our book for our birthmother done - I'm hoping that comes back from the publisher within a week or two. We ordered a second copy so that the baby will have it when he/she gets older. We are trying to arrange our meeting with Lesley (ATWA) and Taz in Northern California the first week or so in November. We need to have our "Dear Birthmother" letter done to take with us for them to review.

Right now that is about all I know. Again thank you all for your prayers and support, I will post again when we know something new!