On our way to get Amanda's sister in a week

Sweet Amanda doesn't know it yet, but her big sister Eva will meet mommy and daddy in a week and a few days. Luckily for us, one of our RR moms may be allowed to see Amanda while she is visiting her Andrea. We may even get a video and new pictures!! PTL, we are the luckiest parents ever! Thanks Christina, I hope the orphanage allows you to see our sweetie.

Can you say DUH?

I can't believe it, I must be more distracted than I thought, I left the credit card charge slip out of my FBI paperwork for the fingerprints, so I had to send that today. This will delay them a bit. How could I have done such a thing?!

Thankfully Gabe (Congresswoman Giffords' constituent liaison) is once again helping us expedite the prints, so it should not cause too much of a delay. Last time the FBI got the prints back to us in 8 days!

Fingerprints on the way to the FBI

Amanda in August

Arizona has not made it easy for adoptive parents in quite a few ways; but the main one affecting us; AZ does not provide international adopters with a state police clearance letters. So for the 4Th time in less than a year we are got our fingerprints done for a police clearance. We already KNOW we have no record, we were cleared 3 times, but none of the previous clearances can be used for our dossier for Estonia.

So these are on their way to FBI and prayerfully they will be returned quickly. It is the last document we need for Estonia, we do still need the pictures they requested, I took some of the house, but we need one done of the family, and it is usually me who takes all of the pictures and did I mention I hate having my picture taken? In 8,000 pictures in my computer, there are maybe 20 of me.........

We are so grateful

Estonia has agreed to waive our pre-visit, so we will not be making two trips, thus saving us a considerable amount of money for the actual adoption. Since we have a daughter with Down syndrome , we feel we know what to expect from her diagnosis, and happily they agreed with us. We are PTL for this gift.

I-171H just came in the mail

It's here, and now for the police clearance letter. Pretty sure it will be an FBI clearance again, the local police are saying they can't help. :o(

I-171H is completed

The I-171H was in my inbox when I got home, the CIS here emailed us a copy while we wait for the original to get here. Praising the lord right now, everything has seemed to fall into place to bring Amanda home quickly, she has waited for a family long enough. We sent it in September 20 and we have it here October 5. A little over 2 weeks! We are so grateful, especially to Lawana at CIS for her caring help, she has been such a sweetheart.

Happy Dancing Here in Tucson

Meghan 2001

I talked to CIS today, Lawana said she had my letter and the paperwork in front of her and was processing the I-171H as we spoke. She was uncertain whether we could adopt from two countries at once, as her superior had told her we could not, but that was using the I-824 to change countries. I assured her I know of 3 other families who were doing the same. This may cause a glitch, I hope not.

Still Lawana indicated she was mailing the I-171H to us today and we should have it Friday or Saturday. WOW, that was so fast! We just need the police letters and we are done with the paper gathering for the dossier for Estonia.

Some progress made

I checked our bank account and CIS has cashed our check for the I-600A, that did not happen for a few weeks the first time. We also got our appointments for fingerprinting, but we don't need that done again, so we contacted CIS and they said it was a mistake and to disregard it.

The I-171H should be wired to Estonia very soon!

We are trying to get our pre-visit waived, please add your prayers to ours that Estonia will allow it. I know that with God's help, we will have our Amanda home by early summer next year!

I-600A is on it's way

Wow, I can't believe we are doing another one, I remember the first one was a huge deal when we sent it. We just want them to hurry this time, as Amanda is waiting too, and she has waited long enough!!

Dossier 80% complete!

Update on our progress

We are 70% done with our Estonian dossier, we have three more documents to complete this. We do need to have an I-171H from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, CIS for short) that says Estonia, our current I-171H says we are approved to adopt two girls from Ukraine. So that needs to be changed if we want the dossier completed for Amanda's adoption.

It seems it is not so easy to change paperwork for the CIS. We thought we could file a simple form; I-824, and change the I-171H to allow us to adopt from both countries but a message last night from CIS informed us that we could not do this. We have to wait until our adoption in Ukraine is complete before we can request the I-171H be changed to Estonia and then this change wired to the consulate in Estonia. We risk losing the paper approval for Ukraine if we try to change the I-171H now, and we will not risk Eva's adoption.

Our agency for Estonia is very motivated to get us approved as soon as possible and wants the I-171H changed quickly, so our only recourse is to file another I-600A for Estonia and one child. We do not want to lose Amanda due to any delays, we have already lost one beloved little girl.

What is an I-600? I-600A?? I-171H? I-824? Click Here to read about it.