Paperwork Update!

I've been able to get a lot accomplished since my last post. We received our finalized, notarized homestudy reports in the mail on 3/21. On 3/22 I overnighted my I600A to USCIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) in Newark. They received it on 3/23. Now I wait for them to send me a letter stating when & where Craig and I go for our fingerprints (yes, our 3rd set of prints). After the fingerprints are processed they send us out an I171H form. This is the form that approves you for international adoption. This is the form that will put us on the wait list at our agency. We're *hoping* that we receive this form by May 1st.

In other paperwork news, we finished all of our dossier documents. They've been notarized, certified by the Secretary of State office in Trenton and authenticated by the Guatemalan Embassy in NYC. I've made a zillion copies of everything and my agency will have the dossier on Monday, 4/2. Along w/that goes a nice fat check, of course. As soon as I get the I171H, I fax it to the agency and then we officially go on their waiting list. The wait list for girls is anywhere from 12-14 weeks. I did a quick calculation and if I receive the I171H by May 1st, we should be receiving a referral between July 24th and Aug 7th!! Which will hopefully mean our little girl could be home by my next birthday...woohoo!!!

I also have a funny (or maybe not so funny) story about my two trips into NYC to get my paperwork authenticated by the Guatemalan Embassy. So I brought the documents there on Monday, 3/26. I wasn't going to go until Tuesday, but Craig stayed home on Monday so I figured I would run them into the city while he was home. So I called and it turns out they close at 2pm; well, I guess they are open later but you can't drop anything off after 2pm. I leave my house at 12:45. My google directions say it will take 1 hr and 15 mins...that means without any traffic, without any wrong turns and if I find an immediate parking spot I will arrive at exactly 2pm. Good lord! After some speeding, and luckily no traffic or wrong turns, I turn onto Park Avenue at exactly 1:55. I drive down Park Avenue and see the building on the left. I turn right at the next cross street, East 37th, see a spot on the left side of the street & park. I'm sure it's illegal to park there but I could care less. I turn off the car, grab my folder and start RUNNING!! I ran across Park Avenue clutching my folder for dear life and make it to Pedro's desk (he's this great guy who works there who does the authentications) at 1:59!!!! I could not believe I made it. I get back to my car, no ticket (woo hoo) and drive back home. A weird thing happened to the car on the way home...the temperature light went on & started beeping and the temperature gauge was pinned on HOT. It stayed like that for about 10 minutes but then went off. I figured it was an electrical fluke.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning and I leave @ 8:30 to go back into the city to pick up the documents. On my way into the Lincoln Tunnel the car does the same thing it did on Monday. I wasn't concerned; I figured it would go off in a few minutes. Well 10 minutes later and its still on and still beeping and now I notice that smoke is coming out of the engine!! The car is overheating and I'm on 42nd St. w/nowhere to pull over. I figure I'll go as far as I can. I made it to Park Avenue and pulled down East 37th Street like I did on Monday, saw the same spot open and parked. I turned the car off, turned it back on and nothing. Okay, so the car is dead. I didn't care, I just wanted to get my paperwork! :) So Pedro had my documents ready, they all looked good and back I went to the car. I called AAA and in an hour they were there to tow me back to Flemington (1 hr & 40 min. tow). Luckily it was free because we have AAA Plus...yay! So it turns out that the fan and the thermostat blew up. We had it all replace ($1200 later) and the car seems to be running well. It doesn't look like we did any damage to the engine, which was a possiblity. So we lucked out big time...this is not the year for a new car...or even a used car!! Too many other expenses, adoption expenses, to worry about. Hopefully the car will last us at least another two or three years.

I'll update again when I get my fingerprint appt. from USCIS.
Thanks for reading!!!
Jen :)