Since we leave on vacation in a couple days, now is the perfect time to send out some forms to some bureaucracies for processing. To that end, we sent out our requests to the state police for criminal background checks. We had to ask the police to not include any ominous-sounding disclaimers in their reports such as "This information is valid through 9/12/2006" or "This does not preclude the individual from having a criminal record elsewhere" or anything which might spook the Guatemalan government. Now we're waiting on that.
We got notarized proofs of employment from our employers. We're now at the point where absolutely everything is going to have to be notarized. Turns out the notary public at the UPS Store we use also has a son from Guatemala, so he's been through all this before himself. That might have been what prompted him to become a notary.
The title character of this blog entry, however, is the package we sent to Homeland Security/INS in our last entry. It came back today with a note that they do not take personalized cheques, and kindly try again with a certified cheque or a money order. I shredded the cheque, and off I went on my second trip of the day to the post office, where I got a money order instead and shipped it back.
If this is the biggest snag we have to deal with in this process, I'll be happy with that.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Fulfilling Friday
It was a good day. I finally worked on a paper rewrite that I'd been putting off for months; we were part of an excellent Praise Band rehearsal and watched a silly movie with a friend afterward; and Jim put our I-600A application in the mail to the Department of Homeland Security.
The I-600A is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. It means that we don't have a child in mind to adopt yet, but we'd like to have official permission to search for one. It was accompanied by our homestudy, our birth and marriage certificates, and (of course) another check. After reviewing it, the sub-department of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will mail us an appointment to have our fingerprints taken. Once we're cleared by the FBI database, they'll send us official permission from our government to move forward with the international adoption process.
In other news: less than two weeks until Alaska!
The I-600A is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. It means that we don't have a child in mind to adopt yet, but we'd like to have official permission to search for one. It was accompanied by our homestudy, our birth and marriage certificates, and (of course) another check. After reviewing it, the sub-department of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will mail us an appointment to have our fingerprints taken. Once we're cleared by the FBI database, they'll send us official permission from our government to move forward with the international adoption process.
In other news: less than two weeks until Alaska!
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