We Got Our Finger Printing Done!

We went Monday to get our fingerprinting done for the USCIS.  Our appointment wasn't until June 10th.  We drove over 3 hours on Monday morning.  We took all 12 children with us.  We prayed that they would do them early.  I even prayed that the people working would wake up in a good mood and have a good day prior to our arrival!  lol

They did all 4 of our fingerprints very quickly.  They were very nice and complimented us on how well all of the children were behaving.  I was very proud of my kids.  They sat quietly and patiently.  You'd have never known that there were 12 kids in there. 

When we got done we took all the children to a different city about and hour and forty-five minutes away from there.  We went to the zoo and had lots of fun.  We will be going back to that zoo when Cody gets home. 

Our ride home was a little rough.  We got stuck (heading the wrong way) in rush hour traffic.  We then got very confused by Brent's gps while trying to find a Sonic to eat at.  We ordered our food and got to hear the tornado sirens go off.  We waited out the tornado warning and started home.  We got home close to midnight!  I am exhausted and heading to bed. 

We Got Our Finger Print Letters

We got our letters from the USCIS telling us when to be fingerprinted.  It says on June 10th, but we've heard that you can walk in and get them done sooner.  We'll be giving that a try.  :) 

We also are hoping to be preparing for the arrival of Cody in June, so I don't want to be dealing with long drives for fingerprints then. 

The good news is that we have all 4 letters.  Say a prayer that we can get them done by walking in.  I'll let you know how it goes!  :)

USCIS!

Our stuff is headed to USCIS!  We have guaranteed delivery for tomorrow!  :)  Please pray that it goes quickly!  We can't wait to get through these steps and hold our children!  :)

Things are moving so slow here.  Still waiting on the central registry checks for my oldest daughters to come back.  I thought I'd share a picture of Julianne.  She always makes me feel joyful just to be her mommy.  I can't wait to get my other four Chromosomally Enhanced children home to enjoy as well.  Please pray that things start to move quickly and for my babies in Eastern Europe.

This is Julianne and Dayton.  They all love her so much.  He hates his picture taken, but will get it taken just to be in the picture with her.  :)  She has us all wrapped around her teeny, tiny, crooked pinky finger.  :)  We aren't complaining though.  :)

Reality Show?

I was just telling my husband that I think they should do a reality show here as we are trying to do two adoptions (5 kids total) at once.  Here's how it would go:

Episode 1:  They introduce the family and how it came to be.  Then they say as far as the adoptions - "waiting"!

Episode 2:  Tell a little about what is happening in our family that our children who are waiting are missing and then explain - "Still Waiting".

Episode 3:  Same theme as above, but different thing they are missing.

Episode 4:  Same theme as above, but different thing they are missing.

Episode 5:  Amanda has a tantrum, because there is still no news.

Episode 6:  Amanda sobs endlessly while imagining her children stuck in mental insitutions in Eastern Europe.  She also receives word that Cody is asking about coming to "Hio" and eating with Dayton at every meal, so she sobs more. 

Do you see where this would end up?  Maybe the rest of society would see how horrific the process is made to be by our government.  I mean, I wish I could say that any of the hold ups were Eastern Europe.  They aren't!  They are our government (which thankfully didn't "shut down" as I'm not sure how much slower I could survive) that keeps making all the processes more difficult. 

Episode 7:  Amanda talks about how our government's foster care system is so messed up that the children from Eastern Europe are going to arrive in less time than it took to get Cody home from Texas.  She then discusses all the things and bonding time that were missed with Cody as a result.

I wonder how many episodes it would take to get all 5 kids home???  Good grief!  Another useless weekend!

I WILL SCREAM!

Just so that everyone understands, IF the government shuts down and affects my adoptions then I WILL SCREAM!  I just need to make that clear.  I don't want to sound crazy, but I may go crazy as well. 

I need ICPC and USCIS to continue processing everything and not slow down.  I am almost done with ICPC (Cody's adoption) and almost ready to send off to USCIS.  I need the office that does Central Registry checks to keep moving too!  I need that in order for both adoption to move forward.  ICPC has state offices, so unless federal spending helps run it then we should be ok.  The same goes for Central Registry checks, I think.  USCIS could be a BIG issue.  It is federal!  My kids don't have time to mess around and neither does my sanity. 

Keep them moving!

More Waiting

I just went back and re-read my last post about the cost of my adoption.  I am trying to dwell in how easy I have it in comparisson with what God had to do to adopt me.  I am going to try to not have a pity party and just update you on the international adoption process.

We are now waiting for "Central Registry Checks" to come back.  Those can often take months, but we are told that it will be 2 wks to 1 month.  Our agency called to get them expedited on account of Cody's adoption.  His placement can't happen until they come back either.  They aren't for Brent and I, but instead for our 18 and 19 year old daughters. 

We can't send off to USCIS (to start that horrific wait) until those come back.  At that point we will have to get a signed and notarized copy of our homestudy to send to USCIS.  I'm begging God to make them get here in a little less than 2 wks just as a special gift to me, but I know I shouldn't really complain so I keep re-reading my last post. 

I'll let you know when I hear something else.