I woke up early this morning because Fernando and I had made plans to meet with Kevin and Sam at Il Fornaio. After breakfast we had committed to attend the orientation at Heartsent. We figured that if there wasn't a friendship spark, the orientation was the perfect excuse to cut the awkward breakfast short. Well, Fernando overslept so it was Cindy, Marina and me who went to meet this other soon to be parents of an Ethiopian girl.
I wish we could have talked longer! Kevin and Sam are fabulous! not to mention their little boys, who are magical. We got along great, and were happy to find that we have similar ideas about so many topics. I hope they felt the same way. In the end we had to leave quickly without making any real plans to meet again. Next weekend there is some sort of potluck with other soon to be parents of Ethiopian children (should I start a trend of calling us SPECs? I don't like the term adoptive parents: we're just parents), so if we remember to go, we'll see them there.
The orientation at Heartsent was really good. It had a very personal feeling with a video to begin with, and newly united families talking about their experiences.
I'm off to translate some documents.
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Barcelona, Mexico City, California, and Addis Ababa; a family of four.
E-mail us!
imfairygood@gmail.com
About us
Time line
- 04/26/08-Begin travel
- 04/12/08-Made all travel arrangements
- 04/11/08-Granted Custody!!!
- 03/03/07-made the decision to adopt
- 03/21/07-called Heartsent Adoptions to receive a home study application
- 03/19/07-sent information sheet to Gladney Center for Adoptions
- 03/23/07-received Heartsent application
- 03/30/07-information Sheet Received by Gladney
- 04/04/07-turned in Heastsent home study application
- 04/04/07-Spanish Counsulate General-birth certificate
- 04/06/07-information meeting with Heartsent
- 04/09/07-Sent completed I-600A
- 04/11/07-FedExed Application to Gladney
- 04/11/07-Phone Orientation w/ Judy from Gladney
- 04/13/07-received e-mail list of items needed from Gladney
- 04/16/07-FedExed all of 1st, 2nd and most of 3rd groups items to Tonia from Gladney
- 04/16/07-CIS Checks cleared
- 04/18/07-received CIS fingerprint appointment notice
- 04/19/07-Samantha fingerprints at CIS (El Monte)
- 04/25/07-first home study meeting
- 04/27/07-Fernando fingerprints at CIS (El Monte)
- 04/28/07-Heartsent orientation
- 04/28/07-turned in notarized reference letter to Heartsent
- 04/30/07-turned in notarized work verification to Heartsent-Samantha
- 05/02/07-2nd home study meeting
- 05/03/07-Samantha's physical @ Kaiser
- 05/17/07-Fernando's physical @ Kaiser
- 05/18/07-third, and last, home study meeting
- 05/21/07-Fernando picked-up employment letters
- 05/25/07-picked up notarized account verification letters
- 06/01/07-sent FBI request
- 06/04/07-notarized physicals
- 06/04/07-turned in notarized physicals and copy of Fernando's passport to Heartsent
- 06/07/07-Gladney received our signed medicals and last letter of recommendation-application complete
- 06/08/07-had parent letter notarized
- 06/11/07-Heartsent sent off home study to CIS (last week)
- 06/14/07-We received our FBI documents
- 06/15/07-Reveived Heartsent's license, home study apporver's license, and post placement contract
- 06/18/07-notarized FBI paperwork (Samantha)
- 06/18/07-Received renewed passport (Samantha)
- 06/19/07-picked up completed home study
- 06/19/07-received letter from CIS asking for more proof of citizenship (Samantha). FedExed them a copy of new passport
- 06/22/07-Officially Gladney approved!!!
- 06/26/07-Notarized a copy of Samantha's passport and Fernandp's FBI documents
- 06/28/07-Scanned and e-mailed most of the Dossier documents to Gladney
- 07/02/07-Authenticated in the County Clerk's and Secretary of State offices about half of our documents
- 07/05/07-FedExed authentication packet to NY Secretary of State & about half of completed dossier to Gladney
- 07/06/07-Received Samantha's birth certificante. Sent other half of dossier for California authentication
- 07/10/07-Picked-up CIS approval leter, notarized it and authenticated up to the state level
- 07/25/07-sent for NY Authentication- Kings County Clerk
- 08/01/07-Kings County Clerk sent authentication on to the Secretary of State in NY
- 08/08/07-received NY authenticated documents
- 08/22/07-we are officially waiting for a referral
- 09/05/07-found out that our dossier was sent to Ethiopia as of last week; some time, and that "Belay (one of our in-country representatives) confirmed that he received your dossier in Ethiopia."
- 12/18/07-Recieved a picture of our baby
- 01/24/08-Court date scheduled for 02/19/08
- 02/19/08-Courts need more information
- 03/03/08-1 year aniversary since our adoption proces began
- 03/19/08-Judge states our file is incomplete
- 03/26/08-Judge did not go into court
- 03/27/08-Judge states our file continues to be incomplete
- 04/09/08-Made hotel reservations
- 04/10/08-Court for the 5th time (postponed till tomorrow)
Who's reading
Here are some blogs I like to visit
- (Court) Christine
- (Court) Winter in Ethiopia
- (Home again) Babylicious
- (Home) Albertsons
- (Home) Anil & Angie
- (Home) Ashley & Jason
- (Home) Atwoods
- (Home) Baggetts
- (Home) Bauer
- (Home) Breedloves
- (Home) Daileaders
- (Home) David & Robin
- (Home) Drew & Carey
- (Home) Elliotts
- (Home) Eric & Sharon
- (Home) Eric & Tara
- (Home) Ethiopia Mama
- (Home) Faulkners
- (Home) Freys
- (Home) Grace
- (Home) In Flux
- (Home) Kepleys
- (Home) Lydicks
- (Home) Martins
- (Home) Mestas
- (Home) Moak
- (Home) Nick & Sarah Marie
- (Home) Nick & Tessa
- (Home) Pages
- (Home) Roberts
- (Home) Runnions
- (Home) The Biggest Ethiopian Flag on the Block
- (Home) The road to our own
- (Home) Thornes
- (Home) Treats
- (Paper again ) We will bring them home
- (Paper Work again) Clevingers
- (Paperwork) Bottomlys
- (Referral) Bettina
- (Referral) Dunns
- (Referral) Eyes toward Ethiopia
- (Referral) Fournet
- (Referral) Shawn & Jami
- (Waiting) Byars
- (Waiting) Ryan & Meredeth
- An Aussieopian Family
- Swerl
Useful links
Adoption Related Costs
- Gladney Information Sheet-$50
- Heartsent home study application-$200
- 6 certified copies of Fernando's birth certificate-$43.50
- Heartsent home study first half-$1400
- Live Scan (finger prints)Samantha-$67
- CIS-I-600A-$545
- CIS-fingerprinting X2-$140
- Live Scan (finger prints) Fernando-$67
- Gladney Application Request-$300
- Gladney Program Fee-$3000
- Gladney Home Study review fee-$250
- 3 Copies of our marriage certificate-$39
- Heartsent home study second half -$1215
- 3 notarized employment letters-Fernando-$30
- FBI finger prints So. Pasadena PD X2-$7
- FBI Finger print processing X2-$18
- Heartsent post placement fee-$1200
- County Clerk's Authentication of 14 documents-$126
- Secretary of State authentication of 15 documents-$320
- Samantha's birth certificate-
- NY Kings County Clerk-$3
- NY Secretary of State-$10
- State of TX Authentication-$40
- US Dpt of State-2X $7
- Ethiopian Embassy-2X $94
- Gladney Balance-
- Courier-$75
- Total FedEx-
Continuing Education
- Samantha-09/08/07-Welcoming a Sibling
- Samantha-09/08/07-Infant/Child C.P.R
- Samantha & Marina-9/22/07-Heartsent Picnic
3 comments:
Thanks for the shout out!!
We LOVE you!! You are SO much our kind of people - down to Earth, funny, and smart!
Let's make plans to get together soon! Hope you can make it to the SoCal Yahoo group potluck on May 5th! We'll call you with the info.
And Marina is TOO cute!! What a girl! Hope to meet Fernando next time!
Glad the Haertsent meeting went well!
Sam and Kevin :)
Sorry, we loved Cindy, too!!
You guys rock!
I love the way you tell your story, the parallel to DMV was way too funny! I am glad you found some nice new friends to share your journey with...lucky kids to get to have you for parents!
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