Monday morning, Tim and I woke early (thank you, jet lag:)) and had a great time with Eli. We were planning on getting our labwork drawn and chest xrays completed and dropping off my request for a new passport in the mail. When I called to verify it would only be a few days for the expediting service, I was literally horrified to find out that regular passports take 4-6 weeks, and expediting, with an additional $60 fee, takes 2-3 weeks...WHAT????
After dropping Eli off at school, I called and spoke with a representative about getting one done sooner.
"Well," she said, "You can go to a passport center to have it done."
"How long before I can get the passport?" I queried.
"Should take 5 days... hmmm....and the nearest location is Detroit, MI... Hmmmm... OK, I see here that the Detroit office does not require you to have a set travel date to get an expedited passport, so you should be able to go there and request it. You should have it in about 5 days."
URGH!! Our return to our daughter is in direct correlation to when I get my passport, since the number appears on several of my final documents that need to be completed. So, I began to plan for a trip to Detroit on Tuesday!!
Our lab draw and chest xrays went smoothly, both completed and films on our countertop, waiting to go with us to Moscow for our physicals.
Monday night was quite emotional for Eli (and us!!). He didn't want to be apart from us again after being so brave and being apart for a week, but we were both leaving before 5 on tuesday morning, and this allowed both Eli and Mamaw to sleep in:) We went over and tucked him in and heard him crying as we left. Oh the sacrifices required to bring this second little one home. Soon, my sweet children, soon, this will all be a dream behind us!!
Tuesday is a blur in my memory. I left at 5:20am and arrived home at 5:20pm. In between I traveled all over the globe during the end times with the Left Behind book on CD series. Sure made the time go quickly!! When I arrived at the passport agency, there was, of course, screening of bags, jackets, etc to enter. The guard looked a little quizzically at me and asked why I had so much change in my purse.
"Oh," I said, without thinking, "That must be the Roubles. I haven't had a chance to clean out my purse yet. We just got back Sunday evening from Russia where we met our daughter for the first time. That's why I'm here, to get a new passport, so I can go back and get her soon!!"
He looked at me and laughed. He handed the purse back to me and said, "Anyone that admits to having Roubles in their purse is not trying to get away with anything."
The staff were all very friendly inside the office. It reminded me a bit of the American Embassy in Moscow. I asked when first being processed if there was any way I could wait for the passport and receive it today?? The agent asked when my travel dates were. I explained that I didn't have any, but they were directly related to my obtaining my passport as the numbers were needed for the paperwork we had to turn in to get the travel dates, and I REALLY, REALLY wanted to have travel dates very soon.
"Sure," he said. "No problem. Pick up time is usually around 3-3:30.(I almost swooned--- it was almost 10am when I was talking to him)....but I'll put you in as waiting and we should have it done around noon."
I wanted to sing. I wanted to burst into tears of happiness. I wanted to jump up and down and praise God, shouting to the heavens that only God could have done this!! Instead, I quietly said thank you and sat down and began my waiting.
I finally decided to head to lunch while waiting so I could make it home as early as possible. I had just come back from Russia, a foreign land, where I don't know much of the language and customs are dissimilar to ours. I wasn't afraid to go out there. I actually embraced it. I laughed at myself that I was afraid to leave the building to find something for lunch. I felt so unnerved even thinking of walking around the block in this almost downtown area of Detroit!
So, passport done, as soon as I reached my car, I took a picture with my phone and sent to our family coordinator and social worker to get the paperwork finalized. Our family coordinator emailed the new passport to our facilitator in Kras, so hopefully, the final document we need from her will be coming to us soon.
Wednesday was a lull in paperwork as I exercised my Pharmacy muscle at work in Somerset. Nice to see my coworkers and swap stories with them for a day.
Yesterday we got our labs back, all notarized and ready to go for our physicals in Moscow. We stopped by, got the final paperwork notarized that we had, picked up Eli and headed to the Dr for our physicals. Today we received the final paperwork from our Homestudy Agency.
So, as of right now, the big question everyone is asking is this... When do you go back? We should receive our medical letters Monday or Tuesday, everything else is done and ready to be County Certified and Apostilled (want to do that Monday if we get our Medicals back early) and hopefully, prayerfully, our petition to court very soon.
Once these several documents, along with the 30 other documents already turned in for our court dossier, are all translated they get submitted to court. 30 days after submission, we should receive a court date. 30 days after our court date, we will be able to return and take custody forever of our little girl.
So now, we are waiting on the the courts to make legal what we already know in our hearts. Lael is our daughter!!
Thank you, God, for your hand on every aspect of our adoption. Thank you for your amazing blessings so far and for providing the large fees we must have within the next few months. Thank you for bringing our baby girl home!!!
After dropping Eli off at school, I called and spoke with a representative about getting one done sooner.
"Well," she said, "You can go to a passport center to have it done."
"How long before I can get the passport?" I queried.
"Should take 5 days... hmmm....and the nearest location is Detroit, MI... Hmmmm... OK, I see here that the Detroit office does not require you to have a set travel date to get an expedited passport, so you should be able to go there and request it. You should have it in about 5 days."
URGH!! Our return to our daughter is in direct correlation to when I get my passport, since the number appears on several of my final documents that need to be completed. So, I began to plan for a trip to Detroit on Tuesday!!
Our lab draw and chest xrays went smoothly, both completed and films on our countertop, waiting to go with us to Moscow for our physicals.
Monday night was quite emotional for Eli (and us!!). He didn't want to be apart from us again after being so brave and being apart for a week, but we were both leaving before 5 on tuesday morning, and this allowed both Eli and Mamaw to sleep in:) We went over and tucked him in and heard him crying as we left. Oh the sacrifices required to bring this second little one home. Soon, my sweet children, soon, this will all be a dream behind us!!
Tuesday is a blur in my memory. I left at 5:20am and arrived home at 5:20pm. In between I traveled all over the globe during the end times with the Left Behind book on CD series. Sure made the time go quickly!! When I arrived at the passport agency, there was, of course, screening of bags, jackets, etc to enter. The guard looked a little quizzically at me and asked why I had so much change in my purse.
"Oh," I said, without thinking, "That must be the Roubles. I haven't had a chance to clean out my purse yet. We just got back Sunday evening from Russia where we met our daughter for the first time. That's why I'm here, to get a new passport, so I can go back and get her soon!!"
He looked at me and laughed. He handed the purse back to me and said, "Anyone that admits to having Roubles in their purse is not trying to get away with anything."
The staff were all very friendly inside the office. It reminded me a bit of the American Embassy in Moscow. I asked when first being processed if there was any way I could wait for the passport and receive it today?? The agent asked when my travel dates were. I explained that I didn't have any, but they were directly related to my obtaining my passport as the numbers were needed for the paperwork we had to turn in to get the travel dates, and I REALLY, REALLY wanted to have travel dates very soon.
"Sure," he said. "No problem. Pick up time is usually around 3-3:30.(I almost swooned--- it was almost 10am when I was talking to him)....but I'll put you in as waiting and we should have it done around noon."
I wanted to sing. I wanted to burst into tears of happiness. I wanted to jump up and down and praise God, shouting to the heavens that only God could have done this!! Instead, I quietly said thank you and sat down and began my waiting.
I finally decided to head to lunch while waiting so I could make it home as early as possible. I had just come back from Russia, a foreign land, where I don't know much of the language and customs are dissimilar to ours. I wasn't afraid to go out there. I actually embraced it. I laughed at myself that I was afraid to leave the building to find something for lunch. I felt so unnerved even thinking of walking around the block in this almost downtown area of Detroit!
So, passport done, as soon as I reached my car, I took a picture with my phone and sent to our family coordinator and social worker to get the paperwork finalized. Our family coordinator emailed the new passport to our facilitator in Kras, so hopefully, the final document we need from her will be coming to us soon.
Wednesday was a lull in paperwork as I exercised my Pharmacy muscle at work in Somerset. Nice to see my coworkers and swap stories with them for a day.
Yesterday we got our labs back, all notarized and ready to go for our physicals in Moscow. We stopped by, got the final paperwork notarized that we had, picked up Eli and headed to the Dr for our physicals. Today we received the final paperwork from our Homestudy Agency.
So, as of right now, the big question everyone is asking is this... When do you go back? We should receive our medical letters Monday or Tuesday, everything else is done and ready to be County Certified and Apostilled (want to do that Monday if we get our Medicals back early) and hopefully, prayerfully, our petition to court very soon.
Once these several documents, along with the 30 other documents already turned in for our court dossier, are all translated they get submitted to court. 30 days after submission, we should receive a court date. 30 days after our court date, we will be able to return and take custody forever of our little girl.
So now, we are waiting on the the courts to make legal what we already know in our hearts. Lael is our daughter!!
Thank you, God, for your hand on every aspect of our adoption. Thank you for your amazing blessings so far and for providing the large fees we must have within the next few months. Thank you for bringing our baby girl home!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment