Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Working through the Loops!

Here are a few terms you need to know in order to understand: I600A is a approval that you get from the USCIS office (immagration) to adopt a Orphan. You do this in the beginning of your adoption process.

I600 is approval you get from USCIS office(immagration) to adopt the specific child (Gracie) that the good Lord has given you.

I feel like we are in a stage of this that Im not doing so well with anymore! More of the "waiting" period. Im beginning to really hate that word just as much as I hate the word "busy". We made some calls this week, in the hopes that this person would be able to give us some answers or help move things along a little faster. The USCIS office is now where the paper work sits. On the desk of someone who has no idea what our story is, or who our little Grace is. Seems the office that our paper work had to go through is doing work for two states and has a reputation of being extremely back logged. With being in this process for over 2 years now, we are so ready to have our little baby girl home with us. In fact "ready" is an understatement. We heard back from the person that was going to make some calls for us later today. He told us that he was able to contact USCIS and that they had not showed they recieved our paper work for our I600 (to bring home our specific child). We overnighted it last week Tuesday as soon as we got Gracies legals, and we show a reciept that they did get it! I guess it is sitting on the desk of someone , and has not even been opened or entered into the computer. Our life has been "hurry up!!, now wait!!"

Our 1600A (to adopt an orphan) acually Expires on the 28th of this month! Don't worry we applied for a renewal at the end of December so that it would not expire. Turns out he found out that they have not even processed the renewal app yet and would get to that in a couple of weeks. What?? What happens if they miss something here and let our 1600A expire..this is our fear! We now have our "specific child"...have sent in our forms to get I600 approval and they are still getting us renewed?? Why worry about that and not skip ahead to our current paper work which will bring home our daughter. Something is so wrong here! I can not believe all the hoops you jump through with this office. Or would a better word for it be obsticles? I pray that our contact person can do more. He was going to make contact with them again later today or tomarrow morning. I pray God works through this whole mess and will make things start moving in the direction that will bring Grace home.

Mean while our little Gracie is growing so fast and every single day people all around me are asking the big question "well any word yet?" It is frustrating to never have an answer for them! It breaks my heart every day that goes by that she is not home with her family! We miss her and love her so much!

"Lord God watch over our sweet little Gracie, surround her with your angels, and hold her tight in your arms. Keep her safe and healthy, surround her with love and caring people each and ever day. Surround her with happieness, contentment and peacfullness! Bless her and her foster family with all your blessings! Amen"

3 comments:

Katie said...

Just wanted to give you a word of encouragement from a fellow mom waiting "patiently" to bring home our child from Korea. I can totally sympathize with your frustrations - the waiting is the worst and while people have such great and loving intentions when they ask if you have heard anything yet...there are some days that I just want to scream "NO, I haven't heard a darn thing yet - don't you think you would know as soon as I know ANYTHING!" But, I know they ask because they care so much about us and are anxious to meet our little person almost as much as we are!

So....hang in there....when I am feeling most anxious I try to remind myself that a few extra weeks of waiting feels like forever now, but 5 years from now it won't even matter in the grand scheme of life.

God Bless!

Sunnymama said...

I'm sorry your having so many issues. Your frustrations are justiciable! I will pray that things get worked out for you and you can get her home soon!

Katie said...

Thanks Tina....it is nice to find support in unexpected places! We are in a tough part of waiting right now....referral date was 10/9/08, NVC sent paperwork to Seoul on 1/16/09 and P3 went to Eastern on 1/28....as of today, they have had it for 4 weeks. We are so desparate to travel and bring our baby boy home....it is taking FOREVER! Our son was born 4/29/08 so he turns 10 months old this weekend.

My husband and I live in Moline, IL (smack dab in the middle of the country). This is our first child so we are anxious to start our family...have been trying for over 3 years.

Thanks for you wonderful note....always appreciated to know there are friends out there that we may never meet, but touch our lives at the right time and in the right way.

Katie