I800A Off to DC

Well things didn't got exactly as I planned on Thursday. I ran home to get the approval to take to the county and quickly realized it had not made it to us yet. They apparently emailed our agency the approval the same day they put it in the mail to us. Yesterday I was able to take it to the capital for state certification and overnight it to AGCI!! This has been a week of running to make things at the last minute. I almost missed my flight on Monday due to me pushing my shuttle time too late and a ridiculous security line. Since I literally got through the security line at the exact time my flight was scheduled to take off, I ran, very awkwardly, (since I was in 3 in. wedge shoes while carrying my luggage that wouldn't roll) toward my gate while screaming "will you still let me on?". Thankfully they showed me grace and allowed me to board. Then yesterday, after pushing the time a little later than I should to take off from work to make it to capital. I arrived just minutes before closing and ran (once again, awkwardly, due to being in heals and a dress) up the hill to the building in the 100 degree heat. The security lady asked if I was ok and encouraged me to calm down. :) Praise the Lord He allowed me to make it!

It's HERE

We've received our approval!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Four days after our fingerprint appointment. So excited about this news! It took 6 weeks to the day (the day they received our application, that is) for us to receive our approval. Thank you Jesus for this moving along!

Fingerprinting

We just finished round 3 of fingerprinting for the adoption. You'd think they could share them among departments: FBI, USCIS, State of Georgia. Our third and hopefully last (for this adoption) fingerprint appointment was on Monday, June 18th at the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) office here in Atlanta. Time and again Nathan and I have commented that we're so blessed to live in Atlanta while going through the adoption process. Many families have to drive many, many miles to a USCIS office for this process. The office is only 30 minutes from us! The event was pretty painless but we were grew nervous about the wait time upon our arrival. I could suggest just a few hospitality tips that would make the process more pleasant but there seemed to be no takers for my suggestions. Upon arrival you walk in the door to a small "lobby"(I use lobby loosely since it's about a 6x6 square) that is blocked by a rope with a sign stating "STOP..DO NOT PROCEED BEYOND THIS POINT". Apparently they only allow a certain number of folks in the building at a time. This would all be fine except that the little space gets very full, very fast. There were at least 15 folks smashed into that little area. Everyone was pleasant but I did feel sorry for the moms with little children. I'll have to admit that my anxiety was growing at this point thinking "if we can't even get into the building, how long is it going to take once we pass "The Rope". Well, to our surprise and delight the rest of the time was very fast, efficient and pleasant. Good job USCIS, minus your greeting! We're now eagerly waiting on our approval from them in order to send our dossier to China!

Whew!!

Praise the LORD we were able to send our portion of the dossier off to our agency on Monday, June 4th. Sadly, this is not a picture of our documents, but ours would look very similar plus about 10 family/ home photos, passport copies then all of it multiplied by 3 since we had to send originals plus 3 photocopies. I'm so sad that I didn't take a picture before I sent it off!! Can't believe I forgot to do that...I was just so anxious to get it to Fed Ex accurately. I must have checked and re-checked it at least 10 times. There was seriously a knot in my stomach when I dropped it in....did I remember everything? Are all of our notaries EXACTLY right? Are all of our documents filled out correctly...geese! Praise the Lord for His Sovereignty and Control in which we can put our trust. So for the sake of record-keeping, we mailed the dossier to AGCI on June 4th to be sent to Washington DC for authentication. This should take about 3 weeks. Once we receive our I800A approval from USCIS, we'll expedite it through the authentication process and send our entire Dossier to China. Our USCIS fingerprint appointment is scheduled for June 18th. I've heard most folks receive their approval about one month after their fingerprinting appointment.