Random Tuesday Thoughts

I stole this idea from my friend Elizabeth's blog and thought it was pretty cute.

When my parents first told me that we were moving to Minnesota, I could not believe they would have such horrific taste. My dad was considering churches in Florida and California, yet they chose Minnesota. My first winter here was hard - it was the coldest and snowiest place I'd ever lived...but then summer came along and it was the most beautiful summer I had ever experienced. Every summer I am reminded why I love living here.

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It's graduation season! I am very proud that this year my brother graduated from Minneapolis Community and Technical College and will be going to the University of Minnesota this Fall. This time every year I marvel at how quickly the years have gone by... I used to be the one lifting him up and carrying him around. Now he towers over me and easily picks me up when we hug.

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Every once in a while I am reminded of why I work with lawyers all day long and put up with their endless demands, unrealistic deadlines, short fuses and often over-inflated egos (sorry Jen and Tori - but sometimes it's true : ) At the end of the day, they are just people - scared of the power they have over people's lives and are just looking for a little reassurance.

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Every weekend should be 3 days... I feel so much more rejuvenated after 3 days of rest rather than just 2.

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I am amazed that my husband can work in the yard all weekend and love it. While he worked, I read 2 books and watched a couple of very long movies. Am I a lazy wife? If so, should I feel guilty about it? Why am I feeling guilty of not feeling guilty?

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We have a lava rock planter from Reunion Island where I lived with my family as a child and teenager. It's a shallow planter, but no matter what we - and by we I mean Brandon - plant flourishes in it every year. It's weird.

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I love country music but will never understand or relate to Gretchen Wilson's song "Redneck Woman." Probably a good thing.

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Twilight (the series AND the movie) is one of the best things that has every happened to me. That's right - I'm not afraid to admit that I am completely and utterly obsessed with the book series originally created for teenage girls and now a worldwide sensation. I watch the movie once a week and am starting to read the 4-book series for the 3rd time. It's cruel and unusual that the 2nd movie does not come out until November. Needless to say, I will be premiering it and actually might be wearing some sort of logoed T-Shirt, despite my usual disdain for any T-Shirt, especially those with logos.

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Until last week I had never even been a part of a jury trial. Now I have 2 in one month. It's far from the fun...

Dossier

Quick update - we will be handing over our dossier on Saturday, May 30th. It will likely go down to Colombia that next week. Yay!

Timeline Update

We are happy that steps 9 and 10 of our "Adoption Timeline" have been completed:

1. Submit adoption application to Crossroads- DONE
2. Receive approval from Crossroads - DONE
3. Attend education sessions at Crossroads - DONE
4. Homestudy evaluation - DONE
5. Homestudy completion - DONE
6. Forward documents to USCIS for approval - DONE
7. Receive receipt notice from USCIS - DONE
8. Get fingerprinted for USCIS - DONE
9. Receive approval from USCIS - DONE
10. Collect dossier for Colombia (birth certificates, marriage certificate, letter from Bank, evaluation from psychologist, evaluation from medical doctors, letters from employers, homestudy, tax return copies, ect.) - DONE
11. Forward dossier to Colombia via FANA
12. Receive approval from FANA (in Colombia)
13. Receive referral (notification that we have a baby!!!!!)
14. Seek and receive final approval from USCIS
15. Travel to Chicago for Colombian Consulate appointment (Visa)
16. Travel to Colombia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Hold, love and cry when holding our baby for the first time. Become a family of 3!!!!18. Complete adoption process in Colombia
19. Come home

We are hopeful that our dossier will be able to go down to Colombia either later this month or in early June. I'll post again as soon as it goes down!

Anna

P.S. 9 more steps to go!

A Great Day

It's a beautiful day in May and I just ran my first 5K, yes all the way! What could be better than running a 5K in May? Finally receiving approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to be adoptive parents - Yay!

We are so excited that another step in our journey has been accomplished! More updates to follow!!!

Psychology Appointment

Almost two months have passed since my last entry. I wish that I could say that we have made a lot of progress, that our dossier is in Colombia and that we are into the "real" waiting part of our journey, but things in the adoption world seem to move at their own pace, quietly and slowly. That's not to say that there has been NO progress, but just not as much progress as I hoped would be made in two months. Here's what has happened: our I800 is with the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), we have been fingerprinted twice since February (once for the Department of Homeland Security to verify that we have no criminal records and and the other for USCIS to verify our identity), we meet with the psychologist today to make sure that we are sane enough (or crazy enough) to become parents. Instead of the days of running to the bathroom to pee on a stick, we now come home and run to the mailbox, hoping for approval from USCIS so that our dossier (file of documents) can be sent to Colombia. Not that our dossier is ready, but still, it would be nice to have the USCIS approval SOON so that the frantic running to the mailbox (for the time being at least) can be stopped. We barely even say hello to each other before checking the mail, and if I go to the gym after work, I make the hasty call to Brandon: "Have you checked the mail?" Our neighbors probably think we are crazy or that we have won the lottery and are waiting for the million dollar check in the mail. Little do they know that we are waiting for something much better than that...

Many of you have asked for a timeline of adoption events so that you know what's next... It's a little different for every family, but here's my best estimate:

1. Submit adoption application to Crossroads- DONE
2. Receive approval from Crossroads - DONE
3. Attend education sessions at Crossroads - DONE
4. Homestudy evaluation - DONE
5. Homestudy completion - DONE
6. Forward documents to USCIS for approval - DONE
7. Receive receipt notice from USCIS - DONE
8. Get fingerprinted for USCIS - DONE
9. Receive approval from USCIS
10. Collect dossier for Colombia (birth certificates, marriage certificate, letter from Bank, evaluation from psychologist, evaluation from medical doctors, letters from employers, homestudy, tax return copies, ect.)
11. Forward dossier to Colombia via FANA
12. Receive approval from FANA (in Colombia)
13. Receive referral (notification that we have a baby!!!!!)
14. Seek and receive final approval from USCIS
15. Travel to Chicago for Colombian Consulate appointment (Visa)
16. Travel to Colombia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Hold, love and cry when holding our baby for the first time. Become a family of 3!!!!
18. Complete adoption process in Colombia
19. Come home

There are other steps once we come home, but I figure those can be explained later. Hopefully this helps a little. It's hard to really put in timeframes for each step because there really are none.

Overall, we are doing well. I say it each blog entry, but I will again here - there are good days and there are the very tired, I feel like we are never going to have a baby days. It's amazing, though, that God picks me right back up after the hard days - by either a chance encounter with another adoptive family (who has lived across the street from us for years), a very supportive waiting families group at FANA who know EXACTLY how we feel, or a note from a veteran adoptive mom to let me know that we will be parents one day... It's these little things that mean so much to me and confirm (even though there has never been a doubt) that this was always meant to be our journey to parenthood.

Another Step Forward

To our amazement, our homestudy was approved last week and our paperwork in en route to the INS! Yay! What this means (I have to remind myself constantly that not everyone's daily life revolves around this process) is that our homestudy, along with several other very important pieces of paper, have been sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Department for our pre-approval as adoptive parents. This process takes anywhere from 60-90 days, although some other adoptive parents have received their "pre-approval" in less time. During our wait, we will be compiling another stack of paperwork to send to FANA. It's exciting that such a big step forward has been taken.

Once we receive pre-approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Department, our FANA paperwork will be sent to Colombia for approval. At that point all the paperwork and evaluations will be done and the REAL waiting will begin. We are collecting ideas of some things we can do during that time. My friend Tori has been instrumental in coming up with some fabulous ideas for us. I only mentioned to her in an e-mail that I will need something, anything, to do while we are in the waiting process and Tori sent me about 20 articles and websites, with some really great ideas. Thanks Tori! If any of you have ideas about things we can do while waiting, please let me know!

Exciting Referral!

One of the couples we met through FANA - Rachel and Andy received a referral this week-end! It's very, very exciting since they are the first couple we know to have received a referral. For those of you who don't speak the adoptive language - receiving your referral goes something like this for FANA families: once your paperwork goes to Colombia (which is about 2 steps ahead of where we are at), you are paired with a "buddy couple" which is a couple that has already adopted from Colombia. The buddy couple can answer all your questions about adoption and live with you the experience of waiting for your baby. Once FANA pairs you with a baby, your buddy couple is given the picture of your baby and they present it to you, usually in some fun way. FANA and the buddy couple are pretty much real-life baby-delivering storks!
Congrats to Rachel and Andy on the adoption of their beautiful baby girl! We can't wait to meet her!