Dossier Update

We are working diligently on our dossier at the moment:

-We have our lab draws scheduled tomorrow so we can get both of our doctor's forms completed and ready for the adoption agency approval before it is sent off for apostille.
-We are waiting to get updated copies of our homestudy, since James has a new job now and when we do the employment verification portion of the dossier it needs to match the homestudy.
-The very last minute we will be doing the employment verification to give time for my husband to build up compensation history.  In a perfect situation we would have 6 months of back pay to show for.  This will not be the case for our dossier but we need as much as possible. 
-The very last minute we will be doing the residence verification since we are in a month to month rental agreement. When we submit our dossier the date needs to reflect that we are current in our rental lease.
-We have submitted for marriage license again.  I bought copies last year since I saw it was needed on the Reece's Rainbow website. However, the date the register stamps on the back of the certificate needs to be within 6 months of the court date- so mine is stamped for February last year, this is too old.  I am planning to have the country registrar to mail the marriage certificates to the state secretary so I can get it apostilled at the same time.  The state of Nevada is backed up on their apostille requests for 5 weeks, so I will be paying for 24 hour expediting.
-I will be working on the police clearance tomorrow when I have more time in the morning to make the calls. I went to WATCH.com or something similar and already paid $20 for a police clearance, but this is NOT what I needed. I need to make a bunch of calls because I need a written statement on letterhead and not screenshot on a computer with one line saying they couldn't find the correct "James Brown".  LOL. Hopefully this won't take too long to get.
-Most of the other documents just require us signing, and notarizing, and more apostilles. The rest is easy compared to the above.
-The bad news is that we missed our biometrics, so I made calls and sent in the original appointment forms in with the boxed checked that we need to reschedule and I included a written explanation of why we couldn't make our appointment. I'm sad it didn't work out!! Hopefully we can get a new appointment soon, the adoption agency doesn't think this should delay things too much, if at all.

Biometrics

We got letters in the mail yesterday with our Biometrics date!  So we will be fingerprinted on Dec. 19th. I don't know how long it takes to get USCIS approval after that date, but hopefully it will be very shortly thereafter!
We currently have to work on updating our homestudy since my husband recently accepted a new job.  It is very important that our homestudy matches the emplopyment verification portion of the dossier.  Also, the Ukraine SDA changed a lot of their dossier forms in the past few weeks. I am waiting to get the updated forms from my adoption agency before proceeding with the dossier.  So that is were we are at currently.

Today is Thanksgiving!  I am so thankful for my husband, my son, for my friends and family, for a roof over my head, for food to eat everyday, for my husband's job, for my job, and for money to pay our heating bill.  I thank GOD for these things!  Yes, some would consider these things as basic living necessities, but there are some who don't have any of these things.  I am so thankful to have these blessings!  I will not take for granted the little things, since they are from GOD, I had nothing to do with it- other than obeying His leading in our life. When I have the urge to dream and desire a better living situation, I am stopped almost immediately. I am so grateful to God for what I have, I have no reason nor desire to covet anything else. My goal to to be faithful in the little so the Lord may- if He chooses to- entrust me with greater.  Glory to the Lord!  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

22-Month Milestones & Evan Pictures!

What a cutie!

Yes, I want to bring you home and give you lots of love!

22-Month Milestones:

Not too much different than last month.  David is independently playing with toys much better though- a lot less throwing and just teething on toys, and more appropriate playing.  This is with me out of the room, and me just peeking in on him.  Last month David wasn't doing this as well, though he could play with the toys with my help and direction with each one of them.

Everything else is pretty much the same. We did get a hold of a toddler sized therapy walker for David!  We use it everyday.  David seems to like it- I just need to figure out a better place to use it than just back and forth in our living room, which is kind of boring.

Now on to our adoption: We now have the go-ahead to work on our dossier. So my deadline is mid January to have it turned in to the adoption agency.  Did I mention how confusing this process is?  Our process has not been a walk in the park- there always seemed to be an issue here or there that kept delaying things. So onward to getting our dossier complete!

David's 21-month Milestones

David is a busy busy boy and seems to be doing more this month, which is wonderful!

-David can pull up on a walker and walk with it all by himself.
-David will walk without holding on to anything if I hold on to the back of his shirt to help him keep his balance.
-David can stand without shoes on for about 5 seconds.  With shoes and orthotics about 10 seconds.
-David is now signing "eat" and a very occasional "mommy"
-David now plays "peek-a-boo" and covers/uncovers his eyes.
-David loves to play "basketball" and throw little basketballs into my laundry basket.
-We have this musical instrument kit, where the instruments are stored in a clear plastic drum.  David now loves to put the instruments back in and secure the lid in place.  He will leave something out usually so he can bang the drum with it.  He's playing with more intention now.
-David doesn't say words yet, or imitate, but he babbles with quiet a variety of vocal ranges from high pitch with energy to calm and slow.  He gets very animated when he's talking!

David is on a this schedule that he's been on for quite awhile now.  He doesn't depart from it, it's like clockwork:  Up at 7-7:30am, Nap at 12:30-1:00 for about 1 hour, sometimes longer or shorter, and in bed between 8-8:30. 

A couple months back the only way to get David to nap was to put him in the jumper and he would jump to sleep. But he's since outgrown it, so I transitioned to rocking him to sleep which took about 5 minutes.  That got old, so I would put him in his crib, and he would pull up to stand and cry for 10 minutes or so and finally after that would go to sleep. NOW, I put him in his bed, he pulls up to stand and fusses for 2-3 minutes and will go to sleep.

When it's time to sleep at night, he usually fusses for 1-2 minutes and sometimes will stay down and not pull up to sleep. But he sleeps quicker and all through the night. In the morning he is my alarm clock and will start talking/yelling/crying to let me know he's up and wants me.

But David does so good throughout the day because of our "schedule", I just wonder what Evan's schedule is and how he's doing.  I pray for angels of protection over that sweet boy that I hope to meet soon and take home with me!  He has lots of love awaiting him... :-)

Evan pictures- so handsome!

I just got new pictures of Evan from my adoption agency!  Wow, he is so grown-up looking compared to the original picture I had from Reeces Rainbow- now I know what David will look like in a year and a half!  :-)  Enjoy the pictures, I know I certainly am!

Evan video

Evan comes in at the 30 second mark.  He is so adorable, I just want to love on him too! Thank you Lindsey for sending me this!

Is the paperwork supposed to take this long?

I don't know why everything is taking so long for our adoption.  I see other parent's blogs and how quickly they are getting the paperwork turned in and responses back and it boggles my mind!

I got my receipt the other day for the I-600a form dated September 19, 2011, and when I go online their average processing times is 90 days.  And I hear that when you get the approval form back, your fingerprinting date is usually a month later.  So that puts us at mid/late January and by then all of our paperwork will be so old regarding finances and employment.  We might have to wait until we do our taxes... it will add at least a month for the updating with the homestudy agent.... and that is just for our dossier. Wow.  Does this seem right?  How is it that the other blogs that I read seem to happen so much faster?  Is there anything I should be doing now while I'm waiting? 

Thank you in advance for your comments and encouragement!