Well, the courier service that I used for the last step of our domestic journey called today. The Chinese Embassy approved all our docs and we will have them back tomorrow!!!! We are very excited! This means we do not have to get new physicals or any other paperwork done, thats it!
Now we just ship the packet to the adoption agency with our passport photos, some family photos, and the next agency fee. They will review the documents and make sure they are all in order, and then bind them in a nice little portfolio and send them off to China. We basically have a few events after that, the next one being after it gets to China, which is called the "LID", the log in date, which just confirms that it is officially in China and in the line to get a child. This is the point where we just sit and literally wait for an undefined amount of time.
A side note here. I forgot to attach the actual application form for the Chinese Embassy that explained what the paperwork was, and who it was from etc etc. Well, I panicked and called the courier service back and the lady said that she noticed it was missing and filled one out for us, WOW! I literally told her "I love you" on the phone. Afterwards I went to Edible Arrangements and sent her a box of chocolate covered strawberries from us saying thanks. She called me back about an hour and a half later to thank me for them, lol. Edible Arrangements works FAST to get them delivered within an hour. If anyone is looking for a GREAT courier service in DC to do this, the website is and they were fantastic. Now we are just waiting for the docs to arrive tomorrow so we can put the rest of the things in and FedEx it off on Saturday to the agency.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
TN is Amazing
Well, our documents got sent off last week on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday in Nashville. To my surprise Friday morning the FedEx man delivered them back to use, signed/sealed. They weren't even in Nashville a full 24 hours, INCREDIBLE! I want to send that office flowers.
After this, we got everything together, and got a hold of "Caring Hands", which is a service in DC that will take the documents in person to the state dept and then the Chinese embassy. The state dept will process the papers the same day, actually the courier service said they are only open from 07:30-11:30AM, and they stamp them all right there. Afterwards the courier will run them over to the Chinese embassy and drop them off. The embassy takes 4 days, unless you pay more(40 bucks a document!), and will hopefully give us the packet back with a green light. This should be done by Thursday, but maybe Friday depending on whether or not the courier service gets the package started today. So hopefully we will know where they are by the end of the week as far as any documents that need to be corrected and re-submitted. Fortunately if there is a problem with any of the paperwork and it needs to be done again we only have to resubmit that particular document as opposed to the entire packet. Just wanted to make this entry to basically mark the event, hopefully we will have another note put here with an update on the DC paperwork.
After this, we got everything together, and got a hold of "Caring Hands", which is a service in DC that will take the documents in person to the state dept and then the Chinese embassy. The state dept will process the papers the same day, actually the courier service said they are only open from 07:30-11:30AM, and they stamp them all right there. Afterwards the courier will run them over to the Chinese embassy and drop them off. The embassy takes 4 days, unless you pay more(40 bucks a document!), and will hopefully give us the packet back with a green light. This should be done by Thursday, but maybe Friday depending on whether or not the courier service gets the package started today. So hopefully we will know where they are by the end of the week as far as any documents that need to be corrected and re-submitted. Fortunately if there is a problem with any of the paperwork and it needs to be done again we only have to resubmit that particular document as opposed to the entire packet. Just wanted to make this entry to basically mark the event, hopefully we will have another note put here with an update on the DC paperwork.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Shipping Out(Docs)
Well, we got the main paperwork shipped off today! Fedex Tracking # 797348613733 . I love the little Fedex Tracking thing we have now, it reminds me of the Dominos Pizza Tracker they have when you order online.
Anyways, I drove to downtown Memphis yesterday to get the Shelby county documents certified by the county clerk. I was worried this would take a while, but surprisingly enough I was only in the office maybe 15 minutes total. Me and a friend went on lunch and got in and out fairly quickly, making me regret the 1 hour of parking time I paid for in one of the lots.
I called before going out to the Fayette county clerk's office, which is good because she was not in yesterday. 2 days in a row(Fri and Tues) that she "wasnt in" but thats ok, she was there today and we got the documents done. I had already printed the Fedex labels at work for the shipment to Nashville and the return label to us, so everything minus some hot paper clip action was done. We made out a check for 26 bucks to the Tennessee Sec of State, $2.00 a document, and put it all in the Fedex envelope and dropped it off at the station.
I had already done this step for the birth and marriage licenses March 2008, I need to get these docs back and in DC before the middle of March so they don't go over the 12-month mark. Alot of the pre-prep-paperwork that I was told I could do was somewhat ruined by the length of time it took to get our homestudy and then the addendum done. The addendum alone took almost 2 months. We honestly don't even care about the time, we know we will be waiting enough in general, but because some people took so long to get their parts done we may lapse on some of our paperwork and need to get it re-done.
Optimistic me hopes we will get the packet back Friday, thats them getting the packet tomorrow, stamping it all, and then shipping it back tomorrow, so it is possible. We actually got the birth/marriage certificates back in less than a week. More than likely we will get the packet next week. After that we are going to turn it over to a specialized agency in DC that runs the paperwork to the US State Dept and then to the Chinese Embassy. Its supposed to be the quickest turn around time you can get, even vs. Fedex'n so I'll go that route. Its not too expensive, and if we have any problems from the embassy I'd like to know ASAP so I can get it corrected and re-submitted.
If all goes well with the Chinese Embassy my ulcer will probably completely disappear instantaneously and we start the process to get the FULL packet ready to send over to China. We have a few other puzzle pieces to put into the final "Dossier" as they call it, mainly some recent family photos and photocopies of our passports. After all that the agency reviews the packet and puts it in a nice binder and preps it for China, ie. correct page order, and translation into Chinese for some parts.
Anyways, I drove to downtown Memphis yesterday to get the Shelby county documents certified by the county clerk. I was worried this would take a while, but surprisingly enough I was only in the office maybe 15 minutes total. Me and a friend went on lunch and got in and out fairly quickly, making me regret the 1 hour of parking time I paid for in one of the lots.
I called before going out to the Fayette county clerk's office, which is good because she was not in yesterday. 2 days in a row(Fri and Tues) that she "wasnt in" but thats ok, she was there today and we got the documents done. I had already printed the Fedex labels at work for the shipment to Nashville and the return label to us, so everything minus some hot paper clip action was done. We made out a check for 26 bucks to the Tennessee Sec of State, $2.00 a document, and put it all in the Fedex envelope and dropped it off at the station.
I had already done this step for the birth and marriage licenses March 2008, I need to get these docs back and in DC before the middle of March so they don't go over the 12-month mark. Alot of the pre-prep-paperwork that I was told I could do was somewhat ruined by the length of time it took to get our homestudy and then the addendum done. The addendum alone took almost 2 months. We honestly don't even care about the time, we know we will be waiting enough in general, but because some people took so long to get their parts done we may lapse on some of our paperwork and need to get it re-done.
Optimistic me hopes we will get the packet back Friday, thats them getting the packet tomorrow, stamping it all, and then shipping it back tomorrow, so it is possible. We actually got the birth/marriage certificates back in less than a week. More than likely we will get the packet next week. After that we are going to turn it over to a specialized agency in DC that runs the paperwork to the US State Dept and then to the Chinese Embassy. Its supposed to be the quickest turn around time you can get, even vs. Fedex'n so I'll go that route. Its not too expensive, and if we have any problems from the embassy I'd like to know ASAP so I can get it corrected and re-submitted.
If all goes well with the Chinese Embassy my ulcer will probably completely disappear instantaneously and we start the process to get the FULL packet ready to send over to China. We have a few other puzzle pieces to put into the final "Dossier" as they call it, mainly some recent family photos and photocopies of our passports. After all that the agency reviews the packet and puts it in a nice binder and preps it for China, ie. correct page order, and translation into Chinese for some parts.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Authentication Process
The authentication process is the last step before we send our documents to China. In TN it kind of sucks because we have additional steps, but the basic flow of it is for us to package up our:
Adoption Petition(Hey, We want to adopt!)
Birth and Marriage Certificates
Employment Verifications
Financial Status Report
Physical Exams
Police Clearance Report
I-171H(The thing from the US Gov saying we can adopt)
Child Services Home Study
Then we need to get all these items notarized, and since we happen to have some things done in Fayette county where we live, and most other things in Shelby county, where we work, this is even worse. I have to get the things notarized in Shelby county certified by the Shelby county clerk, and then the same for the Fayette county side. After everything has been certified by county clerks, then we package it all together and send it to the Tennessee Secretary of State, to certify that the county clerks are indeed.....county clerks. There are obviously alot of notary/county clerk impersonators I was unaware of.
After the Sec of State certifies that, we send all of that paperwork to the US Department of State. I wish I had paid attention in that school trip we took to Nashville and I might actually know what some of these people do. The Dep of State certifies the state sealed docs are legit as the final check before we send it to:
The Chinese Consulate in D.C. for the final signature. This is the critical step. Up until now, nobody is actually looking at what is on the paperwork, just looking for the previous person's stamp. At the embassy they will be going over each document to check and make sure we have in fact met all the requirements for the adoption. This is where we may run into issues. We didn't update our bloodwork on our physicals to be less than 6 months old. Mainly because I hate needles, but also because insurance wouldn't pay for it, and the AIDS/Hep tests are kind of expensive. The physical itself has an updated date on it, and our adoption agency says that they have seen it go both ways where A: The embassy sends it back and says "Get this updated" or B: "Everything looks great, way to go Americans!" That is our main concern, but there are also all the other docs that could potentially be 'too old' or have typos, or missing a stamp, or even a wrinkled or smudged document. If anything is sent back, we will have to get it corrected, and then go through all the certification process again for that particular document, and try to make sure that nothing else is going to expire in that same time.
Right now we have all the Fayette county docs notarized, but the stupid county clerk lady left "early" yesterday so we didn't get the certification from her. I now don't like her, and if that is a job that you get elected into, I will not vote for her, take THAT. We need to find a Shelby county person to notarize our other docs and then one of us will go to see the Shelby county clerk person. After that I'll just be FedEx shipping everything around, least we get an awesome discount. We have begun the nickle and dime you to death section of the process now as well. After the notary portion, every document stamp is about $5 bucks, not a big deal, but we have 13 docs, and 5 stops, not to mention the FedEx bill, :)
We have never done anything this complicated in our lives. School, college, wedding, a bio-baby, nothing has prepared us for the amount and level of work this involves.
Adoption Petition(Hey, We want to adopt!)
Birth and Marriage Certificates
Employment Verifications
Financial Status Report
Physical Exams
Police Clearance Report
I-171H(The thing from the US Gov saying we can adopt)
Child Services Home Study
Then we need to get all these items notarized, and since we happen to have some things done in Fayette county where we live, and most other things in Shelby county, where we work, this is even worse. I have to get the things notarized in Shelby county certified by the Shelby county clerk, and then the same for the Fayette county side. After everything has been certified by county clerks, then we package it all together and send it to the Tennessee Secretary of State, to certify that the county clerks are indeed.....county clerks. There are obviously alot of notary/county clerk impersonators I was unaware of.
After the Sec of State certifies that, we send all of that paperwork to the US Department of State. I wish I had paid attention in that school trip we took to Nashville and I might actually know what some of these people do. The Dep of State certifies the state sealed docs are legit as the final check before we send it to:
The Chinese Consulate in D.C. for the final signature. This is the critical step. Up until now, nobody is actually looking at what is on the paperwork, just looking for the previous person's stamp. At the embassy they will be going over each document to check and make sure we have in fact met all the requirements for the adoption. This is where we may run into issues. We didn't update our bloodwork on our physicals to be less than 6 months old. Mainly because I hate needles, but also because insurance wouldn't pay for it, and the AIDS/Hep tests are kind of expensive. The physical itself has an updated date on it, and our adoption agency says that they have seen it go both ways where A: The embassy sends it back and says "Get this updated" or B: "Everything looks great, way to go Americans!" That is our main concern, but there are also all the other docs that could potentially be 'too old' or have typos, or missing a stamp, or even a wrinkled or smudged document. If anything is sent back, we will have to get it corrected, and then go through all the certification process again for that particular document, and try to make sure that nothing else is going to expire in that same time.
Right now we have all the Fayette county docs notarized, but the stupid county clerk lady left "early" yesterday so we didn't get the certification from her. I now don't like her, and if that is a job that you get elected into, I will not vote for her, take THAT. We need to find a Shelby county person to notarize our other docs and then one of us
We have never done anything this complicated in our lives. School, college, wedding, a bio-baby, nothing has prepared us for the amount and level of work this involves.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Bitter Sweet
Well, after being very excited yesterday about the I-800a, today I was getting all the docs together and checking with the adoption agency to make sure I had everything and she said "...and the physical and criminal background checks have to be less than 6 months old...". I almost threw-up on my desk at work. The background check is pretty fast, I just have to go to the police station and get it. The physical is too, I just have to schedule it.
Oh, did I mention that I have a HUGE HUGE MASSIVE needle phobia? Mainly involving giving blood. I PURPOSELY waited to do the physical last for the homestudy because I'm a huge girl. But when it takes 6+ months to get the homestudy completed, AND approved by the agency, AND approved by homeland security it is more than 6 months later. So now I have to go and get another physical. I am extremely upset about this as it seems kind of retarded that they have a 6 month window on it. It doesn't matter I suppose ,I dont think there is much I can do about it. The only upside to it is that this time we don't have to get the tuberculosis test because that is a Tennessee social services only thing.
So my day went basically in the complete opposite direction I thought it was going. Instead of sending paperwork off to get the certification stamping process started, I'm once again setting up days off and visits to the evil doctor office to stick my arm with sharp pointy metal tubes, :(
This little girl better be extra cute, cause making kids naturally is way easier and way more fun.
Oh, did I mention that I have a HUGE HUGE MASSIVE needle phobia? Mainly involving giving blood. I PURPOSELY waited to do the physical last for the homestudy because I'm a huge girl. But when it takes 6+ months to get the homestudy completed, AND approved by the agency, AND approved by homeland security it is more than 6 months later. So now I have to go and get another physical. I am extremely upset about this as it seems kind of retarded that they have a 6 month window on it. It doesn't matter I suppose ,I dont think there is much I can do about it. The only upside to it is that this time we don't have to get the tuberculosis test because that is a Tennessee social services only thing.
So my day went basically in the complete opposite direction I thought it was going. Instead of sending paperwork off to get the certification stamping process started, I'm once again setting up days off and visits to the evil doctor office to stick my arm with sharp pointy metal tubes, :(
This little girl better be extra cute, cause making kids naturally is way easier and way more fun.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Last document!
We got our I-800A today from the Homeland Security!! This is the last piece of "approval" paper we have been waiting for(lol, I think) before we pack it all together to get it notarized/certified by Tennessee and then the Chinese Embassy to get ready to send it to China. I'll post more tomorrow after I call and talk to the agency to make sure I'm not missing anything.
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