Estimated timeline to Min

Now that our homestudy is on its way and knowing that soon our USCIS application will follow we are able to start our timeline to travel to China and bring Min home. This is a total guess at this time and I used the average between the estimated times; for example 1 - 4 weeks I will use 3 weeks to guess the travel date.

USCIS Approval less than 90 days (2 months) is December 24,2014
Dossier documents sent to China Consulate for Authentication 10 business days January 5, 2015
Dossier sent to China Jan 6, 2-15
Log in date 2 - 4 weeks January 26, 2015
Letter of Approval (LOA) 1-4 months (3 months) April 26
I 800 application return  3 - 7 weeks (3 weeks)  May 25
Provisional Application for Article 5 up to 6 weeks (3 weeks) June 25
Letter from NVC to Consulate 1 - 2 weeks July 9
Article 5 10 days July 19
Travel Notice 2 - 4 weeks August 10

Estimated travel date is August 10. 14 days in China and then Min will be home with her new family!

One step closer!

We received the notarized copies of our homestudy from FAC. They were also notice enough to make notarized copies of our reference letters for  our dossier. Now we are able to file for our USCIS clearance to bring Min into the United States as our child. We sent WACAP 3 copies of our homestudy, verification of education, I 800A application, and the needed supplements. We were told that it has been about 2 months after the approval (I am not sure how long that may take) to receive our travel date to travel China and bring Min home. The reality that we may really pull this off is starting to set in. We are almost the parents of 7 children! I am so busy but loving it.

Jackson Citizen Patriot Article

We have been circulating a flyer around town asking for help with funding our adoption. We were contacted by the local newspaper, The Jackson Citizen Patriot, about doing an article on our family, the adoption process, and the fundraiser for Min. Here is a link to the article that was posted on MLive after it appeared in the Sunday paper front page! 

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2014/10/the_journey_home_family_adopts.html

Our family was very excited to share our story even with the short notice, they wanted to interview us at our home on the same day the called us. Obviously we said yes and we talked for what felt like forever. We discussed so many things we were really unsure of how Katie would ever get the story together. We thanked her for the help and waited anxiously for the article.

Sunday we were all very excited to get the paper. We were very nervous when we saw our picture was on the front page. Katie did a great job with our story. She had a lot of information to sift through and put together a great story. Thank you Katie!

Thanks again to all who have supported us throughout the adoption process to bring Min home.

USCIS requirement changes

So much has happened since the last post I am not even sure where to start. The adoption is the main story so I am starting there. Our homestudy has been approved for quite some time now but we still do not have a copy that has been approved by WACAP. It seems that USCIS changed their guidelines for the ages of "children", to be more specific, if the child (sibling in the home) will be turning 18 during the adoption process. It used to be if the child was 17 at the time of the homestudy then the 17 year old was considered a child and the paperwork was filed accordingly. Now the rules state that if a 17 year old will be turning 18 before the adoption is final then the 17 year old will be treated as an adult and the homestudy needs to reflect all of the documents as if the 17 year old is an adult. Why is this an issue? Because we cannot get a clearance on a 17 year old child in our state. We have to wait until our son is 18 to fill out the documentation that will give us the clearance needed to complete the paperwork needed for the final approval of our homestudy.

The choices...

1. Go ahead with this homestudy and file our USCIS docs, then get an updated homestudy when our son turns 18. This includes more cost for the update on the homestudy, more time to complete the addendum to the homestudy, and more time to send the addendum to USCIS for approval.
2.Just wait until he is 18 (this a Michigan law I am not sure the age applies in all states) and then move forward with the process.

Our choice is to wait. The cost out weighs the time we will have to wait. There is no guarantee that it will help Min get home quicker even if we go with choice 1.

I found this out while I was out of state with my mother. She was diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing surgery to have her stomach removed. I was staying to help with her recovery and transition home. The day she came home my step-father was sent to the hospital for a cath of his heart, they found that he needed open heart surgery and he had to stay in the hospital until a bed opened up for him. A week later he had the surgery, a few days after that he returned home. Both are doing well.

Now my attention and finances are pulled between care for my parents and the adoption of our daughter.

I am really getting scared about our financials.