Biometrics DONE

We had our appointment today at 2pm. Now we wait for the golden ticket. To celebrate, we went to a nearby Ethiopian restaurant to get our first taste of Ethiopian food. All I can say is nom, nom, nom! Loved it.

My heart aches.....

Today, innocent children were taken away from their parents, never to return.  I cannot fathom the thought of ever losing a child.  And I can't even begin to imagine what the parents in Connecticut are going through right now.  Today was a very sad day across the U.S., as we watched the senseless tragedy unfold.  My heart aches for the families that lost a loved one today, for the children who's lives will forever be changed as a result of this incident and for the community that has been shaken.  My prayers are with them.  Hug your children a little tighter tonight, tell them that you love them and remember not to sweat the small stuff.  You never know when we will have to say goodbye. 

Biometrics Appointment!

I am a little late in posting this, but we received our notification for our biometrics appointment on 12/8 and we are scheduled to be fingerprinted on 12/27!!! It seems that it happened so fast. Definitely much faster than we anticipated. What a wonderful early Christmas present!
xoxo

USCIS Acceptance Confirmation

Wooohooo!!!  We received the following email today at 5:08 pm.  Great way to start the week.  :-)

Dear Applicant/Petitioner:

Your USCIS application/petition has been received and routed to the National Benefit Center for processing. Within 7 - 10 days by standard mail you will receive your official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with your Receipt Number XXXXXXXXXXXX.

They just received our application on 11/28/12, so we weren't expecting to receive notification this quick.  Hopefully they will be quick with the fingerprinting appointment as well. 

XOXO

Mailing off I-600a

Our home study was completed last week, but due to the Thanksgiving holiday we were not able to pick it up until today.  But we are excited to be sending the I-600a application off and we hope that we receive USCIS approval soon!  Prayerfully, we are hoping to have our fingerprints completed and have the approval by Christmas. Wouldn't that just be an awesome Christmas gift?  :-)

We are one step closer...

Wordless Wednesday!

Home Study #2

We have completed home study #2.  I am not sure why people typically get nervous for the home study, but we were not nervous at all.  Amber arrived at our home, she walked through each room of our house and then we sat down and answered questions.  Here are some of the questions that were asked:

How do we argue?
How we discipline our children?
How we plan to discipline the child that we will be adopting?
What do we do for date night?
What do we think our own individual strengths and weaknesses are?
How would we describe our kids?
Do we attend church?
How would we preserve the adopted child's culture?


Honestly, we felt very comfortable the whole time and were not at all nervous.  We answered the questions honestly and truthfully, as everyone should.  It was like talking to an old friend about things that we had gone through in life and in our relationships.  No biggie.  :-)

Couple of suggestions, make sure you have the following:

fire extinguisher
carbon monoxide detector a maximum of 15 feet from the bedrooms.
an exit plan in case of a fire
fire ladder (if you have a two - three story home)

Some of these things may not be required for your home study visit, but they were required for ours.  Fortunately, we had everything already in place except for a ladder.

I hope this information helps :-)