You Haven’t Brought Them Home Yet?

Sadly, we still have not received the call with a court date in Bryansk. So as we watch the temperatures drop in Moscow (got down to 1° this week), we remain in a holding pattern. Though, there has been more paperwork to renew.

We had to resubmit our I-600 (Petition To Classify Orphan As an Immediate Relative application sent to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly INS). The I-600 renews the I-171H authorization (Notice Of Favorable Determination Concerning Application For Advance Processing Of Orphan Petition document from the USCIS that gives us permission to adopt internationally and bring the child to the U.S.). We finally received that on Wednesday after some delay, had it notarized, took it to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office to be apostilled (a cover sheet certification, with a shiny gold seal, which legalizes some documents for international adoption per the 1961 Hague Convention so that the document is accepted in other countries), then rushed it over to our agency.

Our Thursday, we had to redo our fingerprints to renew our FBI clearance (where they check our rap sheet). This is the manual style of fingerprinting, where we go to a third party provider authorized to do fingerprints. They ink you up and roll your fingers on all the appropriate boxes on the standard fingerprint card. It’s sort of like a little dance. The technician grabs your hand firmly, pulls you in close and then you both shift side to side between the ink and the paper, one finger at a time. This is the second time for me, third for Gayle (one set was rejected as smudged). We have also done the electronic version taken by the USCIS (again, twice for me, three times for Gayle) with no ink, but instead large scanners, flat panel monitors, sophisticated verification software…and long lines.

Also on Thursday, our agency’s annual accredidation with the Russian government expired (again). Renewal is in progress. Last year it shut us down for months, this year it should not affect us at this stage in the process.

Still working on the house to get ready for the kids.

The Elmo Room (kid’s bedroom) is mostly done. We have added a few decorations, organized the closet and dresser, and placed glow-in-the-dark stars and planets (Pluto too) on the ceiling (arranged in five constellations, surrounded by random stars). Cool!

We finally found a swing set (small enough for our yard) that was not out-of-stock, and were anxiously awaiting its arrival, but then got an e-mail from the vendor saying Sorry it too is not available. So…??

Still no latches on drawers and cabinets, but have been installing new shelving in closets and laundry to put things out of reach and just to make room for more kid stuff.