Tag: immigration

Dossier out the door

In the midst of a all the snow Friday, our family made the trek to Columbus to get all of our dossier documents state sealed. This is a HUGE step in adoption.

What is a dossier?

The dossier is a set of documents used to describe our family to the foreign courts. Our homestudy is part of the dossier but there are around 19 other pieces!

What’s in a dossier?

Our dossier included birth certificates, our marriage certificate, letters from our employers, financial forms, police clearances, medical forms, our homestudy, passport pictures, additional pictures of our home, our immigration approval, and a letter of our intent to adopt Eli.

How is a dossier prepared?

Completing a dossier is yet another reminder that it takes a village to adopt! Several parts of the dossier required us to rely on someone else to help us with its completion. Small hiccups can be pretty nerve wracking because Eli is on our minds day and night. We don’t want him to miss out on any more opportunities. We know a school year is ticking by and we’re just….eager. Collaborating with so many through the process has also reminded us how grateful we are for others time and attention. We know paperwork isn’t fun…for anyone. These forms are generally more complicated too because most have to be notarized-or signed in front of a notary. After this step, Adam took every document to (3!) different county offices to confirm our notaries were the real deal. AFTER that, we headed to Columbus for our state seals. None of this can be done in too much advance because some documents must be no more than three months old by the time they are processed in China.

After we admired our shiny, gold state seals, we headed STRAIGHT to the post office and overnighted our dossier to our agency. They will help us obtain federal seals and then, it will be off to China!

What’s next?

Adoption is alphabet soup. There’s always a new acronym to look forward to….Right now, we are waiting to officially be DTC (Dossier to China). After that, we’ll be waiting to hear our dossier has been translated. The entire 40+ page document has to be translated into Mandarin. THEN, we’ll be waiting for the ever-coveted Letter of Approval (LOA)…there are many more steps, but we are making progress!

While we wait and wait…we’re reminded that Eli has been waiting much longer…for a family, for a home, and for a future. Other orphans-especially those with disabilities-are doing the same. I found a quote today from Helen Keller that was perfect timing…We hope Eli remains brave and we’ll work on the patient part.

Introducing another next step…

Bravelet red bracelent with inscription Be Brave

In celebration of completing our dossier, we’re launching a new fundraiser. You can now purchase Bravelets to help us bring Eli home. Bravelets are bracelets, rings, and necklaces with the inscription “Be Brave”. Everyone can use the reminder and we loved having the opportunity to select colors specific to our cause. The support and love that so many have shared as we fundraise has been incredible. In the next few months, we’ll try to offer some options where you, too, can get something awesome in return for your support. Bravelets are the first of a couple things we have in mind!

We’ll receive $10 for each Bravelet purchased from the Bravelet page we created. We have several options. Just make sure you are within our page if you’d like to support our cause. Here’s what your page should look like and here’s the link: https://bravelets.com/bravepage/ayers-adoption

Please share our Bravelets page with your village. We appreciate your help, support, and purchases. So much!

Bravelet website for Ayers adoption

 

BeBrave



i800a approved!

graphic reads i800a approved

i800-what you say?

i800a…It’s adoption-speak for one of the longest phases of the international adoption process. The i800a is a form sent to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Since I haven’t been the most timely blogger, let’s take a brief stroll through our adoption memory lane. Our i800a was received (via a lockbox in Texas) back in October. On November 14, the three of us hit the mean streets of downtown Cincinnati to get our fingerprints done at our local immigration office. It was scheduled to be a school day for Hannah but she ended up joining us due to a self-described “porcupine in the throat”. On December 23, Adam and I were excited to see an envelope from immigration. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a request for more evidence. Our agency caseworker contacted immigration on our behalf and our application must have been approved later that day. We received the hard copy today!

So what does this mean?

It means that we are (tentatively) approved by US Immigration to adopt a child from a Hague convention country (which includes China). The i800a approval specifies the age, disability, and even gender of the child we are approved to adopt. It’s a big step because the wait for this approval is one of the longest parts of the process. We still have LOTS to do but many of the other steps will (hopefully) move faster.

So what’s next?

We’ve officially entered panic mode as we try to get our dossier completed as quickly as possible. The dossier is a compilation of a number of documents-everything from letters from our employers to medical check-ups. These have to be notarized and then authenticated at a state and national level. It feels a little overwhelming but I know we can do it. Should you be one of the fortunate few we’ll be hounding for paperwork, please forgive/understand. We don’t want Eli to wait a moment more than he has to.

I hope this adds a little clarity to this phase of the process. Questions are always welcome. If you wonder, feel free to ask.

Next up: a fundraising update. Stay tuned!