I-600A

I know it has been a while between blogs, but we have had family in town and I am just too busy to blog! :-) On Friday we went ahead and submitted out I-600A application even though we have not had our home study yet. We figured we would just get a jump start on that process. Hopefully they do not lose it as I have read that they do quite often. It seems that ever since they made the change that every application has to be mailed to the Dallas office the losing of applications has increased immensely. They use to let you turn in your application at your local USCIS office when you went in for your fingerprints. So we will just cross our fingers and pray! Our dossier is ready to go whenever we get our home study and our I-600a approval back!

What it Feels Like to have a REALLY clean house...

You know Randy and I feel that we usually keep a pretty clean house. Now keep in mind we have a 20 month old, so it is not always picture perfect. We get clutter, we get dirty floors, but with our home study coming up I decided I really want to clean our house. Now I know that everyone tells you that they do not bring in the white glove and inspect your house, but I live in a 43 year old house, and who knows when the last time it was really deep cleaned. I haven't and I have lived here for 3 years. Well my mom signed up to help me with this task. It took us a total of about 16 hours over 3 days to get it all done.

We did windows, we dusted, we mopped, we vacuumed, we shampooed carpet, we moved furniture, we did wood work, we did bathrooms, counter tops, you name it, we did it. We finally finished this morning at 11. I never knew that cleaning could make my body hurt so bad. With my allergies, it will probably help me immensely with such a clean house, but I also don't want to live here for the next two weeks, or cook in my spotless kitchen! I don't want to get anything dirty. Also I don't understand how cleaning can make you feel so dirty, every night I just felt yucky. Enough about cleaning, I am very thankful for my mom for helping me clean, I know that it is everyone's favorite thing to do!! :-) I hope everyone has a great day.

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day.

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

P.S. Today is Randy and my's 3rd Anniversary.

Adoption Tax Credit

Here is the link to see if your local Congressman supports the renewal adoption tax credit for 2011.

click here for website

Once you get to the page, click on Co-Sponsors and you will be able to see if your local Congressman sponsors the renewal of the tax credit. I please ask that you write your local Congressman if they don't sponsor this bill and ask them to consider supporting it, because there are thousands of adoptive parents who could really benefit from this tax credit! Thanks for your support.

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

Home Study Scheduled!!

Yeah, we have our home study scheduled! Unfortunately it is not until April 1st. Randy and I were wanting to get it done over spring break for him, because after spring break Randys' busy schedule gets busier. Right now he has class two days a week, and clinicals 1 day a week, after Spring Break he has clinicals 2 days a week and class 2 days a week. He also is unable to miss any clinical time or he won't graduate on time. Our home study agency is closed over spring break because their kiddos are on spring break, which I understand, and then they don't work on Fridays. Then we have Randy's work schedule to work around, he works for 24 hours and then has 48 hours off, and of course his school schedule. So needless to say, we have settled on April 1st. It is okay, it will all work out. God is just giving us more time to get our finances in order, but we can't start applying for grants until we have our homestudy, and our I-600A can't get approved until we have our homestudy. So needless to say, we are waiting!! Impatiently for me anyway!

Paka,
Randy, Denise and Camden

Please Pray!

Yesterday it was posted in the news that a couple who adopted a boy and girl from Russia in 2003 were arrested for killing their son. The boy died a few months ago, but the autopsy finally came back at the end of Feburary. Well the parents were arrested which is good. The daughter is being taken care of by family members. The problem is...
1. This is the second highly publized story of Russian adopted children dying due to poor parenting or negligence. The first was the gentleman who left his 14 month old his his car on a hot day for 8 hours and the child died. That guy was found not guilty, which angered Russia.
2. The United States did not inform Russia about this latest event, which I guess breaks some of their rules. Needless to say they are mad.

Russia is now thinking about forfeiting all U.S. international adoptions. This scares me so much, we are not in near as far as some couples that I have been reading about, but still we are in the process and I don't know what Randy and I will do if they suspend adoptions. So please pray that Russia does not suspend interantional adoptions to the U.S.