“Now serving ticket H-5 at counter number 11” says the electronic voice over the loudspeaker. Then we hear a ringing ping, like a finger tapping on a crystal goblet. “Now serving ticket H-6 at counter number 11.” Big Papa and I are at the Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS. We are trying […]
Paperwork
What are the odds?
Math has never been my forte. When I was in grade school, I was fair to middling at math. Unfortunately, in tenth grade I suffered through “SMSG geometry” and a teacher—amazingly enough, a woman—who did nothing to inspire or motivate me. So by the time I was a senior in high school, I was doubling […]
Crime and punishment
“Now serving ticket number H1 at counter 11.” “Now serving ticket number H2 at counter 11.” Big Papa and I were tickets number H21 and H22 respectively as we sat in the waiting room at the Tukwila, Washington office of U.S. Office of Immigration. We’d received our appointments (Big Papa at 8:00 and me at […]
Why aren’t you adopting from Haiti?
If I had a $10 for every time someone has asked me recently why we aren’t adopting from Haiti, I could probably fund the update to our home study (more on this in an upcoming post). Here’s the thing, even if we wanted to adopt from Haiti, we can’t. In the wake of the disaster […]
Deja vu
On November 11, 2008, Big Papa and I submitted our “I-800A,” a form to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) requesting approval to adopt internationally. As part of that process, we had to have our fingerprints to run a criminal background check and obtain FBI clearance. Our approval, called the I-797C, was received on January […]
The twelve days of adopting
On the first day of adopting my true love gave to me, one apostilled dossier On the second day of adopting my true love gave to me, two governments’ approval On the third day of adopting my true love gave to me, three 1040 forms On the fourth day of adopting my true love gave […]
Smart cookie
Paperwork, official documents, a home study and a dossier are just a few hurdles we have to clear on our path to adoption. Our adoption to-do list also includes 35 educational credits. In 2007, when the U.S. signed the Hague Convention Treaty on International Adoption a minimum of ten hours of parent education was required. […]
Hurry up and wait
Waiting makes me grit my teeth, pull my hair and worry. I’m a take charge, can do sort of gal. I like to get stuff done and make things happen. Patience is a virtue I’d do well to cultivate a bit more. When we were doing our home study and getting all our documents together […]
Walk a mile in my shoes
A year ago, at the end of May, Big Papa and I started our adoption journey. I suppose the exact anniversary date is a bit hazy. It’s a bit like trying to pin down when a romantic relationship started. First date? First kiss? Everyone seems to have their own unique way to define when “it” […]
A Fork in the Road
Adoption is not for the faint of heart. Navigating the twists and turns that you expect to encounter sounds relatively straight-forward at the onset. You figure you’ll gather this form and that form, find a few people to say nice things about you, get some fingerprints, pay a few fees, wait awhile and, voila, parenthood. […]