Are we Suspended, or Not??

The news this morning said we were suspended, now they are saying that we aren't. Your guess is as good as ours.
Denise

This is not what I was going to write about today.

I was going to write about how so far adoption has changed our lives, even though we are still new to the process, but we woke up this morning to news that all adoptions have been suspended to U.S. citizens until an agreement is reached between the U.S. and Russia. This includes all 200 families over there who are currently picking up their children in Russia. I feel so horrible for them. I am not sure what to think right now, but I am sure we are going to stick to our guns. I have already heard of people dropping out of the program. Please pray that this is a very temporary thing and we can get back on track soon.

Paka,
Randy, Denise, and Camden

Good News and Bad News

The good news is we got our completed homestudy!!!!! Less that two weeks from the visit, and we have it in our hot little hands. Now we can really get moving.

The bad news is, we got our I-600A application back rejected. They rejected us for 2 reasons. The first is our own stupidity. We forgot to sign the application!!! How crazy is that we need to really double check our stuff before we send it in. The second reason we were rejected is because of their stupidity. They said we didn't pay enough money.

Here is the break down. The filing fee is $670 for the I-600A application. Then you also have to submit $80 per person over the age of 18 living in your home to be fingerprinted. There are two of us which equals $160. Now please tell me if my math is wrong, but

670
+160
-----
$830

That is the amount that we sent them, but they say it is wrong. I have scoured the website looking for an additional fee that maybe we missed or something, because I do not want to spend another $20 sending it back again if they make the same mistake again, but I have not found some extra fee. Please tell me if I was wrong. Hopefully the person who added it up just couldn't add. That is sad though that a government worker can't do math. It is bad enough that we forgot to sign our application!!!

So long for now.

Randy, Denise, and Camden

Suspension of Adoption Agency

click here

I suggest we call the D.A. of Shelbyville, Tennessee to make sure the U.S. takes action against this mom for abdonment, so that Russia sees that the U.S. does care about the well-being of these children. All those poor people in that agency who have no control over their adoption now because of one selfish person. There is a process for returning a child that has been adopted internationally, but this woman thought it would be okay to just send him on a plane. She assumed that the Russian Government would just take care of it. Also the congressman of that district, and senator of their district. Even the Mayor of Shelbyville.

Here is their info.

Bedford County Mayor
Eugene Ray
One Public Square, Suite 101
Shelbyville, TN 37160
(931) 684-7944

Congressman Bart Gordon
Washington Office
2306 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4231

U.S. Senator Bob Corker
202-224-3344

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander
Washington Office
455 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944

District Attorney General
Shelbyville, TN (931) 684-1746

I don't understand...

What goes through people's minds.

click here

A beautiful healthy child treated that way. It saddens me greatly as we know of people over there right now getting their children. Pray that it doesn't affect them in their process.

There are ways to end an adoption, this is not one of them. So sad.....

Home Study Draft

Yeah, just a quick post to tell you all that we got our home study draft today. There were only some minor fixes that we needed to make, such as the spelling of names and such. So back to the home study agency to fix and then on to our international agency to see if they need to make any changes. We are getting closer.

On a side note, I got Camden's picture yesterday for his 21 month old pics. See below!

Musings....

They say that in adoption waiting is the worst part. Even though we are barely two months into this, I have to agree. I am not a patient person, and I hate waiting. I am the person who will change lines 3 times in Wal-Mart just to get through the line faster. I still always chose the wrong line though. :-) Since we have our homestudy done, now all we are doing is waiting for them to send us the rough draft, so that we can approve it, and then have it sent to our agency so that they can approve it. Then we can send it in to be with our I-600A application that hopefully is not lost with the USCIS. I mailed that two weeks ago and they received it 1 week ago. I do have a new task ahead of me though. A garage sale. I was researching ways to raise money for our adoption without actually asking people for money, and I came across the idea of have a large donation garage sale. Well I have sent out the letters and so far the response has been great. I believe we are going to have a wonderful turn-out. If you live in KC we will be having our garage sale May 21-22nd. Stop on by.

God is teaching me patience through this time. He always teaches me and then rewards me afterwards. I know that beautiful little girl at the end of our adoption journey is going to be my reward, just like Camden was my reward after a long frustrating pregnancy.

For now,
Randy, Denise, and Camden