Happy/Rude

Happy!
Today we finally got the coveted FBI clearance. . . in less in 4 weeks! This is just the greatest! This part of the dossier seems to be the most time intensive. Lots of waiting and of course there is no one to follow up with or phone number to call. You just have to wait. Our agency said that 4-6 weeks seemed to be the average.

So, today we finally got the FBI clearance. It is our fingerprints with a stamp on the back that says “no criminal record found”. It was also accompanied by a letter talking about how the procedure is done. Yippy!

Rude!
So, here’s the RUDE part. My name was spelled wrong on the letter. My maiden name has “tt” in it and they misspelled it with an “ll” (deep sigh.) I called our agency to see if we could just use one letter for the two sets of fingerprints. Our dossier specialist should be calling me back soon.

We are so close. . . .All we need is to figure out the FBI letter and we are still waiting on the mortgage letter that I requested 3 weeks ago. I have been hounding this guy with calls and emails and finally today went in person. No one at the company was “authorized” to write the letter. It was escalated to the regional level. . . no dice. . . and now is at the national level. Still waiting to hear back on it. The only bummer is that the notary (on the national level) will be out of state and it will make the state certification of the notary on that letter complicated (read: more time and money.)

Oh well as long as we get it!

I will keep all ya’ll posted on the dossier saga. I get a knot in my stomach when I think about this 90 day deadline.

A Pirate says “Arrggggg!”

Yesterday was Spencer’s first birthday party invite. At less then 2 years old, I was hoping it would be a good experience for him and he wouldn’t get mowed over by the older kids. It was his friend’s 3rd birthday and had a Pirate theme. He had a great time!

It was a costume birthday party and he got to dress like a pirate.



There was a treasure hunt during the party that ended with a Treasure chest piñata that the kids got to break open and get more loot. You can see Spencer checking out his goodies in the bucket.



The party also had finger-painting and the opening of presents. There were birthday cupcakes served. Totally cute! They were green with little pirate flag in them. He LOVED the cupcakes.



All in all it was a super birthday party, my friend put a lot of work in this and all the kids had so much fun. Well done Ashley! Your party was a smash hit!

Meet Fran

It is with great pleasure I introduce you to . . . Miss Fran the Van, our 2008 Toyota Sienna!





Our 13 year old sedan has had it. It will cost more then it is worth to fix it and keep it running. So we have been car shopping this week. A mini-van seems like a no-brainer for our growing family. It’s no Pontiac Solstice, but this van is exactly what we need.

We test drove the mini-vans offered by Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan and Chrysler. The Toyota was the leader in all the categories that were important to us. We drove 4 different Toyota Siennas before we settled on Fran. She had the lowest miles for the best price. We made the deal today and will pick it up on Monday after it is detailed and we finalize all the paperwork.

Little Picasso

I guess it had to happen sooner or later. Our first crayon on the wall and baseboard :(

Sheesh. . .

CAR

Our car pooped out on us. We almost had to have it towed, but at the last minute it decided to start and we cancelled the tow, drove it to the dealer with just enough luck to spare before it refused to start again.

Several hundred $$$ later, we drive the 13 year old clunker home and the motor in the rear window poops out, (nothin’ like pouring more money down the rat hole.) I think we are looking for greener pastures. We have a couple of months before the new registration is due and let me tell you . . . .I . . . have. . . . had . . . it.

So, be looking for a mini-van in our future. Well, a minivan or a Pontiac Solstice, I haven’t decided which :)




ADOPTION

The adoption paper work is going well. We have all the documents done except for 1) the letter from the country assessor regarding our home, 2) Mortgage letter, 3) Local Police clearance (or as Spencer would say the “po-po,” thanks Aunt Nae,) and 4) FBI background.

The documents that need to be re-done are: 1) My employment letter, the notary will expire before the dossiers gets in-country, 2) A few Power of Attorney forms have been updated to reflect some new in-country staff.

I really hope that next week we will be fed-exing a big packet to our adoption agency to get the final green light before we get a stack of paper state-certified. Then we just sit and wait for the FBI to do their thing and then off the Dossier goes. . .

Here is what the time frame looks like from here on out: Hopefully the dossier will be completed and agency approved in May. After it has been state certified off it goes to be translated (1-2 weeks). Then off to the embassy (3-6 weeks). Then off to the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan, then it goes to the “in-country staff” to be matched in a baby house in Uralsk.

So, doing the math, if we stay on our timeline target we should have someone in Uralsk looking at our dossier in July. The best case scenario is we get a letter of invitation (LOI) to travel to Kaz and meet our daughter within 1-3 months of July!

A more realistic scenario is we travel sometime in the spring of 2010. Either way, today we are one day closer to little sister.

books, books, books. . .

Thanks for all your advice on books. Over the weekend I have requested 10 books to be put on hold at the library. Here is my list and my number in the queue:

The Eyre affair by Fforde, Jasper: 2
A single shard by Park, Linda Sue: 3
The glass castle: a memoir by Walls, Jeannette: 4
A thousand splendid suns by Hosseini, Khaled: 15
Uglies by Westerfeld, Scott: 16
City of bones by Clare, Cassandra. 30
City of ashes by Clare, Cassandra.: 32
City of Glass by Clare, Cassandra.: 108
Actor and the Housewife by Hale, Shannon: 188
Might as well laugh about it now by Osmond, Marie: 204

All of these books look great! I don’t think I would have found them on my own. Thanks for all your advice. The Clare books were a recommendation on the Stephanie Meyer website, so I thought I would take a look at them. Because the waitlist is so long I thought I might as well reserve them all and if the first one doesn’t spark my interest. . . easy to remove them.

And Tiff, I put “Talking to Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 4)” on my goodreads list, but wasn’t sure if I could borrow your copy or if you got it from the library.

Man, reading is so fun. . . sometimes I just forget how much :)

50 books/52 weeks

I just finished a book “Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption.” I couldn’t put it down. It was quite moving and really generates a lot of ideas. I only wish I knew someone else who has read it too; it would be great to talk about. I heard about this book on The Diane Rehm show (NPR), when she interviewed the authors. I waited about a month on the library wait list, so worth it.

This year I have a goal to read 50 books. I want to read a variety of genres (young adult, classics, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, sci-fi . . .). So far I have read 13 books and if you have any good suggestions let me know. I am all about reading things that I normally wouldn’t pick up on my own.

Well, I am off to book club to talk about “Wednesday Letters” . . it was “eh.”

Piles of Paperwork

It has been a busy week in adoption-land. We got all the medical information taken care of for the dossier, no less then 16 documents notarized and collected. This Saturday we do the big batch and then we just wait on a couple of other stragglers to be mailed to us from the fall reaches of the universe. (Yes. . . Mr. FBI , I am talking about you.)

I feel the pressure. It is odd, because I always liked this part before. You feel like you have control. You feel like, Bob the builder. . . “Yes I can!” I can gather the piles of paperwork and I can organize, but frankly I am feeling a little . . . downtrodden. Yes, that is the word I am looking for. . . downtrodden. I just am not in the mood to placate all the powers that be with ridiculous requests and notary expiration dates looming like a guillotine.

Well, my little guy is looking for his tractor, I should go and see what I can do about locating it :)

Easter

We had a great Easter. The Easter service was perfect, we had fast and testimony meeting. The Choir also sang two lovely songs. It was a perfect morning.

In the afternoon we went to Grandma & Grandpa’s. Patti made a perfect dinner and my sisters (Janelle & Tiffani) also came. Spencer loved the tractor set the Easter bunny left and of course the eggs with candy.

Here are a few pictures of the hunt and a couple of family shots.

Easter Bunny

Yesterday we ran to Wal-Mart for a few supplies and low and behold. . . look who was there. They were offering free photos with the Easter Bunny himself. I thought it was kind of cute and of course Spencer was all about the sucker.

Blurb

Last year I used blurb.com to make a hard copy of my blog & journal. I finally got my 2008 book done and ordered. It will include my blog & my personal journal and Dave’s blog for 2008. The 2007 book was 95 pages. The 2008 book is 240 pages. Having little one around makes for a lot more stories.

Blurb is a great service and for anyone who is thinking about making their blog into a book, I highly recommend the service; high quality and easy interface. “Hurray” for record keeping.

I feel sick

It seems every semester or so I have students who plagiarize. It is a sickening feeling. A student submits a paper and as you read it, it becomes blaringly obvious that this student did not write the paper. The first feeling is doubt, then after a quick Google search your feelings are confirmed and you feel sick.

You have been lied to, disrespected and worst of all everything you feel you tried to teach has been trampled under. The penalty for any cheating in my class is a failing grade for the semester.

I just hope today’s college students will learn more then science, math and the arts. I hope that Spencer’s future doctor, or our future business leaders, or the future manager of my 401k will not have “made” their way through college by learning more about being dishonest then acting with integrity and self-respect.

I-171 H

We finally got our I-171 H in the mail! It arrived on Saturday (wow, so fast.) Now we push through to get the additional 37 items needed to complete the dossier. I like said, my goal is to gather all the needed paperwork by the end of the month. . . it will be like a full time job, but I am up for it. . . Just. . . one. . . . more. . . dossier.

Guess What?

Today our clearance did not come in mail. . .*deep sigh*. I was getting sad about the wait and antsy that the update would not happen before the expiration. So I was practicing what I was going to say to the agent tomorrow. . . Then it happened.

The phone rang.

It was the local USCIS office. They wanted to clarify something in our application. The agent said he was processing the paperwork and it all looked in order. I clarified that it would be extended and the country was being switched to Kazakhstan. There was a pause, “Not Nepal?” I said that we where switching countries and the homestudy had been updated. He looked it over and said that it all looked good!

I am hoping the pre-visa approval will be in my hot little hands next week. This was great news. I cancelled my appointment tomorrow and will be running around instead, getting FBI fingerprints and money orders put together for the background check. My big plan is to have our dossier to our agency (for pre-approval before we get it state certified) by May 1st.

Happy May Day to us!

Rattling some cages

Wendy gave me some great advice, make an appointment and rattle some cages and let the peeps at USCIS know how serious it would be if they let the visa expire while “processing” the update.

I made an appointment for Friday morning to get some answers and impress on their minds the urgency of the matter. Friday will be 6 weeks since we applied and when we submitted the application it was averaging 3-4 weeks. I hope it comes tomorrow in the mail and I can cancel the appointment and breathe a sigh of relief.

Cross your fingers.