Rebekah has handcrafted several heart & cross necklaces and bracelets for our family to sell to raise support for our final travel expenses. They're just beautiful!
Click here for all the details!
A few years ago, I met a beautiful artisan at Together for Adoption. She has a precious heart for the orphan and uses her talents to assist adopting families and ministries.
Rebekah has handcrafted several heart & cross necklaces and bracelets for our family to sell to raise support for our final travel expenses. They're just beautiful! Click here for all the details!
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We feel your prayers and love more than we could ever have imagined! Thank you, Beloved.
Thanks to our family/travel coordinator and your countless prayers, we were able to collect and send all the documents requested by USCIS. Our case officer has received them, and we expect our case to be sent on to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa where they will begin the I-604 child investigation. This investigation is pretty much the same process our case just went through via USCIS. It is conducted by an office of the US Embassy which has Amharic speaking staff. They review the Amharic translations of all the documents and will then schedule a closest living relative interview. Considering our children's age and history, along with the number of solid witnesses who have verified I&I's orphan status, we feel confident that their status will be clearly proven. Embassy will then issue their approval to USCIS, and USCIS will finally issue the coveted PAIR approval letter. We'll have that letter couriered back to Addis Ababa to the Ethiopian Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs. Upon receiving the PAIR letter, MOWCYA will schedule an adoption court date. Once that date is scheduled, we'll book a flight and likely fly out one month later. As we wait, we pray that our file will be handled with order, care, and compassion and for the birth relative's travel to be arranged quickly and safely. I do need to share a correction to my last post: I was mistaken in interpreting part of the USCIS data. The reference USCIS lists as Embassy is not the Embassy appointment to issue VISAs as I had understood. It's the time frame for a case to be sent to Embassy to begin the I-604 investigation. Well, the good news is that our case has been moving along quite nicely. The blow was that we clearly won't be home by June. It's more realistic that our Ethiopian Court date will be scheduled for June. An Embassy appointment for VISAs would be scheduled approximately 4-8 weeks after we clear court. The whole process makes my head spin at times! Thanks for your patience, dear Friends. We love you and are so blessed by your company as we walk this home stretch. XO USCIS received our additional documentation! After they review our response to the request for evidence, an orphan status investigation will be opened by the Embassy in Addis Ababa. We're one step closer to a court date!
An RFE is a Request for Evidence. These can be issued by USCIS if they feel additional or edited documents are needed in order to send the case to Embassy in Addis Ababa and initiate the I-604 investigation. It is important to note that National Benefits Center (NBC-the USCIS department which handles international adoptions) has issued RFEs in 83% of the cases they have processed thus far. With 286 cases submitted to PAIR and only five case officers, I'll let you do the math.
Our family coordinator recommended that waiting families should be prepared for the possibility of receiving an RFE. Well, it is a good thing that we were. Last week, we received an RFE letter. AWAA is working to gather or edit the documents requested by NBC. The length of time it can take to obtain or amend documents depends upon what documents are requested and what specific edits need to be made. It looks like we actually submitted all the documents in question, but the reference numbers are not on three of the original Amharic documents to link them with their English translations. Considering that the NBC does not have a translator on staff, it's easy to understand the question. We are awaiting more information from AWAA. In the meantime, we're praying that the matter will be resolved quickly and agreeing that God already has it all worked out. During a conference call a few weeks ago, USCIS shared statistics on the time frames they have experienced for cases submitted to PAIR from September 2013 – February 2014. These give us a general estimate to our wait time and anticipated travel dates. We received our referral on November 27th. Our I-600 was received on January 21st. Average number of days from receipt of the I-600 at the lock box to being assigned an officer 30 Average number of days from receipt of the I-600 at the lock box to a family’s visa interview in Ethiopia 125 Longest number of days from receipt of the I-600 at the lock box to a family’s visa interview in Ethiopia 229 Average number of days from initiation of the I-604 investigation to approval from NBC 23 If our case continues as they project, we could ALL be home around June 1st. For this, I pray. Our February update came early in the form of our AWAA friend, Stephanie, who traveled to Addis Ababa to bring her three boys home. She generously delivered a care package to each of the kids and took pictures for us. The photos were a HUGE deal to our family because they are the first clear jpeg photos of our beautiful children. We are delighted to have them and can't stop staring at their beautiful faces. We sent a care package for each child. Both received a hand-decorated pillow case from Madeline and hand-picked toys from Ben. We made photo books for each of them to show our family, home, dogs, and work. I loved sharing the pics of Madeline with her instruments and Ben on the basketball court. The information below is a combination of AWAA's and Stephanie's reports. Stephanie didn't get much time with Brother. Every bit of his free time is spent in tumbling class/activities. The updates report he is energetic, active, and athletic. His favorite sport is soccer, but he wants to be a basketball player when he grows up. I wonder if the photos of Ben playing basketball had anything to do with that! I is a team player. He cooperates and interacts well with his peers. He is able to introduce himself in English and knows his basic English letter sounds. His teachers report that he is trying to read in English. I sustained a head injury two years ago, so we're monitoring his academic progress carefully with plans to provide the best support for him once he's in the US. He always puts forth a great effort. I currently stands about 3 inches shorter than Ben and is just as slim. It looks like our boys will have a lot in common. Our friend did get to spend a bit of time with Sister and said that she's beautiful and super sweet. Sweet! That was music to my ears! I just wish that you could see her face in the picture with her book open to my teacher/school page. It's priceless! Our monthly report indicated that she shows good physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. She is fit and enjoys physical activity. Having a healthy appetite, she stands 8 inches shorter than her brother, but only weighs 7 lbs less. I is beginning to read English and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She likes animals very much. It sounds like she'll have a great deal in common with her big sister. Stephanie is one of my heroes. A midst settling three boys into their Scottsdale home, she found time to mail us Brother's artwork. He had drawn pictures for us and asked her to deliver them to us when she returned to the United States.
I was stalking the mailbox every day for three weeks! The first question Osvaldo and the kids asked everyday after school/work was "Did I's artwork come today?" Well, it finally did, and it's a treasure. This proud momma is so glad to share a glimpse with you! We think he's pretty darn good! For our adopting friends, here are our February and March update questions. As an ESL teacher, I understand the significance of a child's literacy in their native language. There is a direct correlation between the level of mastery a child has in his/her native language and the rate of that child's second language acquisition. Since we're trying to get an understanding of the kids' educational background and ability, most of our questions were on the topic of literacy in February.
Other questions were asked in an attempt to understand the kid's plans and expectations for their futures. February 1. Are the children literate in their native language? 2. How many years of education have they completed? 3. How much, if any, English do they speak and understand? 4. What do they want to be when they grow up? 5. Do they like animals? March 1. What is your favorite food? 2. What are you most looking forward to with being part of our family and why? 3. What are you expecting life in America, with us, will be like? 4. What will you miss most about Ethiopia when you move to come live with us? 5. Is there anything you want us to know about you? |