Rebound from Rome

We received an email from USCIS in Rome that our social worker's license document expired April 11, 2008. They needed a new one faxed. I suppose that means they've been looking at our application recently. Please pray that we'll hear good news from them soon.

Staying Busy in The Waiting Place

We wish we had a lot of exciting news to pass along to you all but not much has been happening in the adoption process. We received word that our papers that are with the facilitator in Ukraine have been translated. We also heard that my fingerprints that were sent to the US Embassy in Rome were accepted. Besides these encouraging bits of news, we've settled in for the long wait.

Probably the most frequent question we're hearing at this point is, "What happens next?" The most likely scenario is that we will receive our letter from the US Embassy in Rome that officially gives us permission to adopt kids from another country and provides a pre-clearance for them to become US citizens. Alternatively, we may receive some word about our facilitator about getting an appointment to submit our paperwork to the Ukrainian authorities. From what I've been reading on the blog sites of other people who are adopting from Ukraine, this may take as long as six months or more. One very real concern is that the authorities might stop accepting paperwork for the year before ours is submitted. As tough as that might be it doesn't close the doors to us - we would just prepare to submit papers next year.

Meanwhile our days are filled up to the brim with lots of things that keep our mind off The Wait. Stan has been super busy at work as the economic downturn and rising real estate prices in our area has put them under pressure to keep the budget lean. Although they were anticipating hiring new staff last month they ended up redistributing responsibilities among those who are already on board. It's been tough but business is already starting to look up again.


Last month I took a trip 4 hours south of us to help out with a small community health project in a mountain village. The picture shows us taking blood sugar and blood pressure readings with a group of ladies. Two weeks ago I launched into MSA - Modern Standard Arabic. Although I know the local dialect, this official and written form of the language is very different in grammar and much of its vocabulary. I'm enjoying the challenge of studying again. Which reminds me that I've a good bit of homework to do this afternoon yet. Please don't forget to be praying for God's timing on our paperwork and we'll keep you posted on how things are unfolding.

To Spain and Back Again

We returned from Ceuta on Monday with our freshly printed fingerprint cards. We had to wait about an hour at the police station until the head of the Scientific Police was done with a meeting. He was friendly and efficient and we were done with our completed cards in our hands just minutes after he swooped into the hallway where we were waiting for him. As we walked away from the station Stan let out a big sigh. I knew what I would hear next: "You just gotta love Spaniards!"
Monday morning was just the conclusion of a weekend that we spent in Ceuta. For a while now we've been wanting to explore this Spanish enclave that's within easy driving distance of our home. We had been waiting for our car registration to be completed so that we could take our car across the border. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the registration. We were assured it would be ready in another week or two, but we've been hearing that line for 10 months now!
Since the fingerprints issue was putting a little time pressure on our first visit to Ceuta (except for passing through to use the ferry), we borrowed a friend's car for the trip (thanks, Jon & Kim!). We enjoyed our stay at a smart little 2-star hotel and spent a lot of time walking & hiking during our weekend in Ceuta. Our favorite spot was up on Monte Hacho at the far end of the peninsula. We had a late Sunday lunch there at a rustic country restaurant on the side of the mountain that overlooks the city and the Moroccan coast, just like the above picture.

The Fourth Country

Did we say this was a three-country adoption? Well, now it's officially a four-country adoption. Stan called Ceuta, Spain on Monday to talk with the scientific police about taking fingerprints. He told me they were "super nice" and had agreed to do my fingerprints. Praise God for Stan's good European Spanish accent. It seems to open doors for us in Spain.
Ceuta is a Spanish city on the African mainland. We are planning to drive there this weekend and get the fingerprints done early Monday morning. Fortunately, we still have the U.S. fingerprint cards that we picked up in Casablanca in December.
At the same time we were trying to work out plans to get another set of prints taken, we were communicating with our social worker in Germany. She had one additional set of prints that we had done in Indiana in January. She went ahead and forwarded them on to Rome. If that set is readable, then the US application can move forward before we get this Spanish set to Rome.
Someone asked me recently why we were sending papers to Rome. Since the US application is technically a pre-authorization for the immigration of our adopted children, the paperwork goes through Immigration Services. Rome's US Consulate is in charge of immigration to the US for this area of the world. If we were residing in the US, we would be filing our paperwork with a US Center for Immigration Services in a US city.
So does Italy and Germany make it a five-country adoption ? No, I think you have to either travel to that country and/or deal with their bureaucracy for it to count. Our dealings with Rome and Germany are all still inside the US system.
Even if we only had one country to deal with, we know there are still so many details that are out of our control. We also know the outcome is firmly in the hands of God. Thanks so much for your prayers; they open doors that even a good Spanish accent can't!

Rebounds

Drawing on my Hoosier roots, I've come up with a name for the work we're doing on paperwork that we've previously submitted but for various reasons has not been accepted: Rebounds. For some reason (in a three country adoption there are plenty) the ball never found net and we find it in our hands again.
Yesterday's rebound came from the U.S. side of the paperwork which we submitted to the office in Rome. They informed us that Stan's fingerprint card was readable, but mine wasn't. We sent two copies of each just in case this might happen. Unfortunately, both of mine were illegible.
We had these prints taken while we were in the States. Before our trip to the States we asked the consulate here in North Africa how we should go about getting prints. They told us the local police were the only ones who could do so. When we brought our US fingerprint cards to our local police, they told us they needed a letter from our government requesting fingerprinting. Our consulate told us yesterday that they do not issue such letters. Sigh.
Next step: Spain. I talked to the Spanish consulate today. They told me that the only people that can take fingerprints are the Spanish police. However, they are not obliged to provide this service to foreigners such as ourselves. The US Consulate in Spain does issue letters requesting fingerprinting. Our next step will be to start talking with the police in Spain. Please pray for a favorable response.

Dossier documents in the mail

Last night we went to bed with a sense of relief. Two DHL letters had been mailed - one from Indiana and one from Rabat - and were on their way to Ukraine. Hopefully, these papers that we whipped together in a little over a week will allow the facilitator in Ukraine to submit our dossier before the rumored closing of the SDA office.
On Tuesday we received word that the physical form that we had sent to Ukraine did not have the required lab test numbers on it and would have to be filled out again, signed by our doctor, notarized, authenticated in Indianapolis, and mailed to Ukraine. As the Moroccan paperwork was moving along on schedule, it looked like this would be the thing that might hold up our dossier.
So how do you get something like that done from the other side of the ocean? Lots of loving friends! We called friends from our small group and Sunday school class from church. Our friends Mike and Tanya picked up the physical form from our doctor's office Wednesday afternoon and took it down to Indy to walk it through the authentication process before mailing it. Our friend Shari helped them by taking care of their kids while they were on the road.
On the same day, our papers from Morocco were making their last stop at the Ukrainian Embassy in Rabat. These documents have stamps from four offices on them: local, state, foreign office and Ukrainian Embassy.
It's been a wild ride over the past week, but we are very thankful that so many things have been accomplished.

First Entry - U.S. Requirements Complete

We are convinced that God has chosen some children to be in our family and that he is now leading us through the decisions and activities that will bring those specific precious ones to us. We don't know who they are yet, or even how many they are. They are our hidden treasures.

Our adoption adventure started to become a reality in December, when we selected a country (Ukraine) and an agency (Adopt Abroad, which specializes in helping Americans resident overseas to adopt) after careful research. We took advantage of our time in the States around Christmastime to take care of some paperwork, and we had our social worker visit us to do a home study less than a week after returning home to Morocco.

The process has three phases: get U.S. permission to adopt, get Ukrainian permission to adopt, then take a trip to Ukraine to meet children and leave the country as a family if all goes well. In the last week, our roller coaster ride has kicked into high gear. We've been busily checking off requirements for the U.S. application until some news from our agency changed our focus. The central Ukrainian office may stop accepting new dossiers soon, so we are now doing everything possible to submit our application; this is the harder one, because all documents need an international legalization to be valid in Ukraine.

Thanks to some last minute scrambling by Mom to add the last document to the folder and by Amy to hustle them through the State Department in Indianapolis, our American documents are legalized and on their way to Ukraine already. Yesterday, we set the wheels in motion for our Moroccan documents to be authenticated for the Ukrainian dossier and we'll see how that progresses this week. This is what they looked like when we got back from the signing office. We legalized 44 signatures and 11 copies.

Today we finished our last requirement for the U.S. application, and it seemed like a good time to get this record of our adventure started. We completed the third of three online classes, and with the stack of documents that we sent off a week ago, the agency should have everything they need to submit their home study and request permission for U.S. immigration. Each of us will post separately from now as we try to give you (and us!) a chance to relive the experience of finding our hidden treasures.

Stan and Julie