The tale of a lost I-171h- an immigration fairy tale

Once upon a time there was a king and queen whose family had US government pre-approval to bring home one orphan from Ethiopia. The family received the glorious news of this pre-approval in February in the form of the much sought after I-171h. The family went happily throughout their days knowing that the local USCIS office had sent news of this approval to the National Visa Center, the new clearinghouse for the sending of these approvals around the world. Little did the family know that the NVC had other plans for them. The family found a baby, and the courts decided that the family and the baby should be together forever. The family was so excited to be able to go get the baby. One day an email arrived from their fairy god-agency that they had a date with the US embassy in Ethiopia to finalize all the rest of the paperwork. However, the agency also indicated that evil was afoot and that there were no approvals waiting for the family in Ethiopia. So the queen began making phone calls and soon realized that getting a competent helpful person on the phone was like searching for a mythical unicorn. For 2 days, the queen tried to make sense of what had happened- the local USCIS office resent all the paperwork again but still no one could find it. The fairy god-agency called and said that the approval (also known as a Visa 37 cable) was sent to Ethiopia. There was rejoining in the kingdom, but there was also bad news. The visa 37 cable had expired fingerprints with it- even though the king and queen both had current approvals, including fingerprints. Oh what should they do- more phone calls of course. Then after 3 days of calling a miracle happened. One person at the NVC noticed that the name of the petitioner was the king, but the queen’s date of birth was listed as the king’s- clearly causing much confusion for all. That explains why the paperwork they sent was expired- it was all for China from the princess’s adoption last year. Of course, finding the error was not enough to solve the problem- the NVC still could not confirm that it had sent the new, correct visa 37 cable to Ethiopia and the family was ready to depart on their journey in less than 48 hours. Enter the brave soldiers of the US Senate and House of Representatives. They had the magic powers to slay the incompetence at the NVC and get the correct visa 37 cable sent. The king and queen got word from the soldier’s local office staff that everything is in order. And joy reigned in the kingdom.

The moral of the story is- once you get a referral you need to get confirmation that the visa 37 cable has been received and if not begin work to fix it immediately. I know at least 10 families who have lived through this fairy tale (one of whom who had to try to get it fixed while in Ethiopia and one who found out is was a problem for the first time the day before their embassy appointment) Also- if you are dealing with it put your senators and members of Congress on speed dial- you are going to need them.

Just testing

Sitting here at the airport during a weather delay thinking that we will be
missing our connection so I thought I will test the the posting method we are
hoping to use while in Ethiopia. I am having trouble logging into blogger from
the airport so it seems like a good time to test how this all will work.

To recap

Some of this may be review from previous posts on the other site but to recap the last 2 months (and especially the last two weeks) B and I accepted a referral for a precious 4 month old (at the time) infant girl. Once we accepted the referral our agency petitions the court system in Ethiopia to get our case on the docket. In Ethiopia, the approval process involves all of the paperwork, for both the prospective parents as well as the child, being presented to a judge. The judge will also interview any birth family (if they are known) Once the judge is satisfied that the parents have met the standards set by the government and that the child is legitimately available for adoption, they approve the match. Once the court has approved it, the child is your legal child in the eyes of both the law in Ethiopia and the United States. Our case went before the judge on June 12 and we received an email about 3:15 that day that we had been approved!!!

Of course, while she is now our child, but she is there and we are here. Once the court approves the match, the agency applies for an appointment with the officials at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is necessary to secure her immigration visa to come to the US. We were expecting our appointment to be, at the earliest, July 15, but more likely July 22 or 29. We were just beginning to look at options for our travel when we received another email 4 days later that our embassy appointment is July 8 and we are to be in Ethiopia by July 3. We scrambled to get travel arrangements made. If you have every traveled you know that short notice plus a budget equals a challenge. We had intended to go to Rome and Cairo first (since one of the flight routes goes on that path). There were no flights at all from Cairo and the flights from Rome were really really expensive so our trip to see the pyramids and Coliseum will have to wait. Instead we are headed to Amsterdam. We leave on Saturday, June 29 and will be spending 5 days in Amsterdam. We will head to Ethiopia on July 3.

There is one little "glitch" though but I'll save that story for tomorrow.

Could time go any slower???

T-minus 9 days and I just found out that in our agency's last group to go to court 2 of the 3 families did not get through on the first attempt (which is not unusual, some cases take 3 or 4 tries before they get through for various reasons) However, it sounds like the agency will not get our embassy dates till we all are through. I think we are one of 3 families with court on June 12th so we are crossing our fingers we all get through on June 12th.

We got an update and 11 new photos. Her face has gotten fuller and she is looking much healthier. She is still teeny teeny tiny. She is 4.2 kg (which for those of you who don't remember metric from way back) is about 9.24 pounds (which I think is about what the boys were at 2 weeks old) Although for some perspective, D was only about 7.8 kg at 12 months so while "Baby X" (we don't have a name yet) is smaller, she is not worried panic mode small. She is smiling at the woman holding her and is reported to be interactive with caregivers. She reaches for objects and can sit with support, but not roll over. The doctor notes that now that she is eating again and gaining weight, they expect those delays to improve. Once we know our travel dates I will be setting up appointments with Early Intervention just to have everything all ready to help her get all the support she needs to catch up. But overall, it was a very positive update.

Please send prayers/good thoughts/good karma our way next Thursday- for all the families going through court.

Court date

For those of you who are still checking in with us... We got an email from the agency on Thursday night that our court case is scheduled to be heard on June 12th in Ethiopia. So far every case our agency has been able to present has been approved so we are hoping to get through on the first try as well. They did have two cases though that did not get heard on the original date- hopefully that won't happen to us. If we get through court successfully she is legally our child. Once the agency gets her passport, adoption decree and (I think) birth certificate from the courts we can make travel arrangements. There have only been 2 groups of families in front of us so timing is still hard to know but the documents will be issued about 2 weeks after our court date and they will want us in Ethiopia about 2 weeks after that. We are hoping to stop for a few days in Europe on the way to Ethiopia but with the tight timetable- we aren't sure it will be do-able (or at least do-able for an amount of money we can live with)

Normally, once a case is through court, the family can post photos. I think our agency will make us wait until they have the documents. Once we can post, we are hoping to link this blog to a new blog for the baby. I am currently looking at private hosting companies for the new blog. Blogger (we have been told) is blocked in Ethiopia and internet connections will be dicey, slow and (gasp!) dial up. In the best of circumstances a bad combination. If we have to go through a "back door" to post (like we did in Beijing) the blog will likely be unusable. We are looking at our options now but rest assured- the plan is to blog during our trip.

More info to follow soon

It's Another Girl

Several weeks ago B. and I accepted the referral of a baby girl currently waiting for us in Ethiopia. She is currently 5 months old and unfortunately, due to Ethiopian law, we are not allowed to post any photos of her until she is legally our child. We are currently waiting for a court date in Ethiopia. We are hoping for a date at the end of May, but more likely June. Once our case goes to court, provided nothing unforseen happens, she will be our daughter. I am checking my email 100 times a day just in case we have a date scheduled but so far we are still waiting for the Ministry in Ethiopia to assign us a date. Stay tuned- we will keep you posted.

A year in review...

It is hard to believe that we are coming up on a year since D was placed in our arms and clearly I am a big slacker since the last post was from a LOOOOONG while ago. So here it is... a year in review

August 2007-she realizes at the state fair that fair food is the best food there is.




She also really enjoys the pool- she has been a water baby since the first trip to the pool in China



October 2007- There is something about apple and pumpkin picking when it is 95 degrees outside that is just totally wrong!





CUTEST BABY EVER ALERT- check out the adorable Halloween costume (also once she realized trick or treat was all about the candy- she was hooked)





December 2007. Things we learned-
Christmas cookies, GOOD
Presents, GOOD,
Santa, BAD







New Years Eve- 'Nuf said



February 2008- D gets her first haircut before Chinese New Year.
The kids performed in the local FCC Chinese New Celebration. It was beyond cute to see about 25 little Chinese girls (and X.) dancing and jumping around the stage. I would post more photos but there are other kids in them and I don't want to post someone's else's child without their permission- so imagine 25 girls as cute as D and you get an idea- Now stick X. posing in the middle of everyone and you can imagine what it was like.





March 2008
The "It Wasn't a Blizzard" Blizzard of 2008
(apparently 22 inches of snow in a 24 hour period does not necessarily mean you have had a blizzard- who knew??)




We also had Easter in March this year. Things we learned. Finding Eggs, GOOD, Painting Eggs, GOOD, Eating Candy, GOOD, the Easter Bunny, BAD (But not as bad as Santa)








And of course, most importantly in March, D turned TWO!!! (although honestly, she thinks she has been 2 for about 6 months now and has acted accordingly)





So there it is- our year in review. Hopefully, the next update won't take 6 months to do.