It is Friday and I am glad.  It has been a crazy week but for the most part pretty normal in that respect.  I spent most of the week concentrating on work and only did the occasional thing regarding the adoption.  It is funny lately I need to go in spurts.  I spend three days working on the paperwork at night and then need to take a break for a few days.  Then I start to worry that I am not doing enough and back again I go for a few more days of intensive adoption related tasks until I get stressed out and need a break again, and the cycle repeats.  But tomorrow I am going to do an all day adoption marathon.  I am looking forward to it since the fact is that I am probably nearly 65% of the way finished with the paperwork.  By tomorrow I should be through 75% of it.  Most of the forms have been filled out already and notorized but then you have to copy everything umpteen times – which sounds simple enough but they don’t just want to see copies of your info – they essentially want you to make copies that mimic the originals as much as possible.  So that means if one page is in black and white you make a black and white photocopy but if the page attached to it has a stripe of red ink you have to make a color photocopy of that page and then attach your b/w photocopy to the color copy in the same exact way.  Similarly if you are copying a piece of paper that is half a sheet you must cut down your copy to equal the original.  If the originals must be paperclipped together then the photocopies must be paperclipped together and if they are supposed to be stapled together you must staple them together.  I am not the one being this anal…although I am sure close friends think that is the case…in fact this is how my agency has instructed me to do the paperwork.  And in fact I have read several stories about paperwork inconsistencies that resulted in delays happening while in country.  Who wants to stay in a foreign country two weeks longer then they have to due to a missing staple?  Not me.  So that is how I will spend my Saturday.  Fun yes?  I am pretty excited because in my most recent update to my adoption coordinator Alla (who is in California) I revised my list of things still to finish and in fact there are not many left.  I am thinking that maybe ten more hours worth of work (after Saturday) and I will be done.  The two big things are: waiting for my passport to come back and waiting for the I-600A approval. 

As far as my passport goes you might remember me being rather upset about the computer telling me my passport was being handled through routine service rather than expedited – well I called the Passport Office and of course their line was busy but they directed me to call at night since because of the all the delays they are working overtime.  I reached a customer service person at 10:30pm and was pleasantly surprised to find out that my passport was in fact listed as expedited and was being processed that way even though the computer listed it as routine.  However, when I asked roughly when I should expect to receive it I was given an answer of “I don’t know”.  So…….I guess if it doesn’t get to me by August 17th I will have to start making calls. 

As far as the I-600A approval goes they did send me back confirmation that they had received my application.  They sent the receipt that I had heard so much about – it is supposed to contain a reference number on it that you can punch into their website to track the status but of course there is no such reference number on it.  Then the next day I received a letter from them stating I had not given them information they needed – which is not true – they asked me for a copy of my birth certificate – which I had already sent them – and they wanted a copy of my spouse’s birth certificate (single!!!!!!!!!!!!)  and a copy of my marriage certificate (party of one!!!!!!!!!!)  and a copy of my divorce decree (what kind of a girl do they think I am?and how many marriages and divorces do they think I have had?)  Anyway, I faxed them a letter the next day with another copy of my birth certificate and a copy of the original form I sent in where I checked the box that says SINGLE and the box that says NEVER BEEN MARRIED.  Then I wrote this information over again in my cover letter – so I am hoping they get that all straightened out – if not I want them to introduce me to my past and current spouses – because whatever person they are refering to with all these spouses has had a lot more “fun” than me, and I am jealous. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  

It was an extremely busy day at work today.  Half way through the day I ran to my doctor’s office to have them check my arm and sign my paperwork saying that I do not have TB.  On the way there I called Ellen, my social worker, from the car and double checked on the homestudy – Alla, my caseworker in California, said that she wanted two changes on the homestudy and I wanted to make certain that these changes happened.  Ellen took care of everything and so after the agency director looks over all the paperwork and signs off on the packet of information I imagine it will come to me. 

 When I arrived at the office this morning I realized that I had not fully turned off my laptop the night before…which I always religiously do since it is nearly five years old and falling apart.  Well, anyway, it was making an ugly rrrruring noise and I shut it off for about a half hour and then turned it back on.  After coming up it gave me the blue screen of death and I again shut it down…it has so much business and personal data on it that I didn’t even want to chance it again until I was ready to try a quick burn to a cd.  Any advice on this from my computer savvy friend who’s first name starts with an L?  Hint hint.  Anyway, I ordered a new Dell laptop – have been meaning to do this for a while now – because after one day of no computer I am going through withdrawal symptoms. 

Okay, just as I was typing this entry I skipped to go check the status of my passport.  So far it has not registered that they had received it yet.  Today it registers that they received my request – so I am momentarily excited – and then I notice that it says that I requested routine service – which I did not – the whole outside of the envelope was stamped expedited – like at least five times on the front and five on the back.  And of course I paid for expedited service – routine service is taking nearly three months.  Great another round of marathon calls to government offices.  If they are not processing expedited requests as expedited and just making them routine they should just be honest about their current complete inadequacies and communicate this fact.  How annoying.  Why even allow people to apply for expedited service then?  The problems have been all over the news – who do they think they are kidding?  Please excuse typos, spelling errors, grammer and punctuation issues.  I don’t proofread when I am angry.  I’m going home it is Friday and there is nothing I can do about it now.

Today I received an email from Ellen the Adoption Ark’s social worker and she let me know that she was emailing me a copy of my homestudy.  This means that in the eyes of the State of Illinois I am approved.  I am extremely relieved.  I read the homestudy and let me just say that everyone should have a homestudy done just for the opportunity to read a report on yourself written from the perspective of a third party.  It was beautifully written and made me feel very good.  Thank you Ellen.  One step closer. 

The game plan from yesterday’s post was to go home after work and sleep.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, I spent the evening and part of this morning finishing up my 2006 taxes.  I had filed for an extension and was planning on taking my time and going over the taxes at my leisure….but the homestudy agency needed them and they needed to get done eventually so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone – and myself in the process – and so I worked from 5:30 to 12:30 on the taxes.  Then I went home and finally crawled into bed around 2:00 am. 

Up at seven, off to work by eight, I hit bad traffic and barely made it to work by nine before I had to run off to the doctor’s office for the physical for the homestudy for the US requirments and the physical for the dossier for Kazakhstan requirements.  You will love the medical report for Kazakhstan.  I have to type this in because I just don’t think anyone would believe me otherwise.  They ask if you have any of the following diseases:

Leprosy, severe dermatosis with the disturbance/breakdown of callusing(severe forms of ichthyoses, ikhiozoformnaya erythoderma, arthropathis psoriasis, pernfigoid, bullous epidermoliz, and bladderwort.

The last one on the list my doctor said, and I quote, “I don’t even know what that one is.”

Then I gave blood, had the physical, got a TB test and was done around ten.  Then I drove back to the office and here I am.  Concentrating on work is going to be an enjoyable change of pace and tonight I am determined to get a full eight hours of sleep.

 It is cause for celebration because I have officially submitted everything that is required of me for the US requirements now.  The only thing that I may have to do further at this point is update the medical report which is only valid for three months and redo my four fingerprint clearances which are only valid for six months.  But other than that hooray!

Hello everyone.  It is Tuesday today and I finally have had a free second to post the events that have happened over the past few days.  It has been a non stop whirlwind of activity.  Let me begin at the beginning.

 On Friday of last week I received my FBI clearance in the mail.  It came with my fingerprints and the necessary stamp – No Arrest Record.  That means only one more set of fingerprints to go – unless they expire (which happens in six months from now) – and then I will have to do all four sets over again.  No prob – I am a pro now. 

 The next day Saturday was spent cleaning the house for my second homestudy.  Yes, you read that correctly – the second one.  Several weeks ago I had a lovely social worker come to my house and spend three hours asking questions and checking out my house to be able to approve me for adoption.  I was very stressed out, even though she was very nice, and everything went smoothly.  At the end she let me know that she had further questions for me but that they could all be handled over the phone.  After she left, I went next door to my neighbor’s house and my lovely neighbor Tina and I talked for a while.  It helped me calm down and I felt very good about the whole thing.  Unfortunately, the social worker had to go to the hospital for some surgery and complications occured.  As a result, she was not able to finish my homestudy.  I am hoping all goes well for her and that she is doing better soon.  She was very nice to me and an adoptive mother of several children.  Because of this however, I was told last week that my homestudy would have to be done by another social worker.  So, on Saturday I spent the morning cleaning like crazy…don’t get me wrong my house in not messy but I couldn’t stop myself from dusting, scrubbing and disinfecting every surface in the house.  Call it nerves, call it paranoia, call it insanity….I had to do it.  You could, if you wanted, perform surgery in my house now.  Anyway, the second social worker, another very nice lady, came over and we basically had to do everything over again from the beginning.  After about three hours we finished and I, in a highly stessed out state, fled to my friend Lundie’s house for a glass (actually two) of wine and food and movie.  I promptly fell asleep on her couch and missed the movie.  I am not a good guest.  LOL.  I am also a lightweight.  Anyway, near the end of the movie I woke up and feeling much better drove home.  Thanks Lundie for the support and the hugs.  You are a top notch friend. 

On Sunday I spent part of the day at a Kazakhstan picnic in Huntley, Illinois.  There were about thirty to forty families that had either adopted from Kazakhstan, were in the process of adopting or were thinking about adopting.  I met a lot of really nice people and got a lot of great information about the process.  One of the ladies said it best, that this was a select group and some of the only people who could truly understand what you are going through. 

 On Monday, I ran to the office and tried to get as much done as possible before heading to the dentist for a crown.  As I was sitting in the chair for over an hour I thought to myself that this was the most still and relaxed that I had been in the past three days.  I didn’t want to leave.  This is the state of my life…the dentist chair is the only place I have been able to relax.  LOL.  Oh my.  I was contemplating asking if they could just give me a shot of novocaine to the brain.  I ran back to work and it was a mad pace as I tried to get everything done before the end of the day.  At five-thirty I emailed the new social worker and she let me know that she would need the remaining three items – a 3 to 5 page autobiography, my recent tax return, and the medical report saying I wasn’t about to expire – this week so she could finish up the homestudy before leaving for vacation.  If that didn’t happen she wouldn’t be able to finish my homestudy until the week of August 6th – nearly three weeks away.  In a panicked state, (oh come on this has become my normal state lately)  I ran to my doctor’s office and begged for an appointment this week…my originally scheduled appt was for next week and I had been waiting five weeks for it.  They told me they would call me in the morning to find a way to accomodate me.  I then ran back to the office and finished some more business paperwork and then dragged my tired butt home at seven.  On the way home, my doctor’s office called and told me they had had a cancellation and that I could come in on Wednesday at 9:15.  Once home I ate, fed the dogs, let them out and sat on my couch.  This was a mistake.  I sort of semi passed out and woke with a start at 2:15 in the AM.  I splashed some water on my face and pulled out my laptop and started composing my autobiography.  I don’t recommend trying to write an autobiography at two in the morning but hey I was running out of time.  I wrote until about four thirty in the morning when my battery died forcing me to stop.  I semi sort of slept until six and then got ready in ten minutes flat – a bad hair day for me – and bolted out of the house to the office in expectation of a big shipment that had to be supervised.  I finished up my autobiography at lunch on Tuesday…yes it is Tuesday, I know it is hard for me to keep track of what day it is too….and emailed it over to my social worker. 

And that leaves me at now.  I am going to finish the day out in a semi lucid state and go home and go to sleep.  See you next post!

Even with all the insanity and rush rush rush of my life I am glad that there are moments when I can just enjoy simple things that go right during the day.  A quick conversation with a friend, an understanding person that is helpful at work, the joy of it being Friday and the plans for the weekend.  Such simple things but I am always amazed how it is these simple things that can put me in a really great mood even in the midst of total and utter chaos.  And that these simple things remind me of how much is going right in my life and how much I have to not just be grateful for but in fact extremely happy about.  And I like being happy.  I truly enjoy that emotional state and try to get back to that place as often as possible.  Almost like a compass that can rotate madly round and round but always in the end comes back to pointing north.  I am very grateful that this is my outlook on life…it is definately what keeps me centered and pointed in the direction that I truly want to be heading.  Maybe what this says about me is that it doesn’t take much to make me happy…. but instead of this being a negative I am in fact glad that this is the case

My birth certificates arrived today!!  I am extremely relieved.  I went to the Post Office and filed my application for a Passport and left about $200.00 lighter.  I paid the expediting fee even though the news reports are saying that instead of having the passport ready in a week – expediting now is taking around five weeks.  We shall see.  I figured it was better than just paying the regular fee and taking a chance on it being more than a three months wait – which seems to be what regular processing is taking these days.  

With the whole passport delay issue going on it makes you wonder if the government bothered to do any kind of intelligent research beforehand to figure out what the demand really would be and if they could accomodate that demand – or if they just made the changes without even considering the fallout.  I would have to say the latter. 

Then around lunchtime I ran to the bank and got a $615.00 money order for Homeland Security and mailed off my I-600A – Petition to bring an orphan into the country.  I was under the initial impression that this form takes about three months or more to process, but it seems like it is more around one to two months.  So, that is good news. 

 Everything else that I have left to accomplish is relatively easy and can absolutely be done by the time I receive my passport and get the approval letter back for the I-600A.  So for those that are interested here is my expected timeline, as far as I know now. 

Finish up remaining paperchase items for dossier and receive back I-600A approval (called a 171-H), as well as, passport by the end of August. 

Send off dossier to my adoption agency for approval.  From the point where my adoption agency gets my dossier it should take three to four months to receive the Letter of Invitation (LOI) from Kazakhstan.  That would take me at best to the end of November and at worst the end of December. 

Then once the Letter of Invitation comes it can direct me to travel anywhere from two weeks to six weeks later to the country.  So at best I could be traveling as early as mid December 2007 or as late as the first week of February 2008.  This is, of course, if everything goes normally.

My UPS package is in the next town over.  It got there at 8:00AM and will be delivered to me tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I am so excited!!!!

 Is it wrong to kiss the UPS guy?