Thursday, January 29, 2009
A bit more paper chase... Medicals...
Now, for the medical tests... Really, it's not that difficult: Go to the doctor and get a physical and have him/her fill out the form. Issue: we have never been to the doctor here. Sure, the pediatricians know us well (we're one of the few western families that uses that particular hospital and when you have little babies, you are always there for sicknesses or vaccines), but as for Brett and I we haven't really needed a doctor. So, Brett went to the hospital the other day to check things out. I might mention here that everyone goes "to the hospital" for basic medical stuff. All the outpatient things here are connected to hospitals. It took me a while after living here to get that. At home in the US, you only go to the hospital for the emergency room. Here, your regular doctors are at the hospital. So, based on my many visits there, I told him where I thought he should go. An other problem: our insurance does not cover "preventative medicine". If you are sick, fine but if you want to just make sure everything is ok, not fine. So, since Brett was a bit sick anyway we thought it would be a good time to get him into a doctor. The receptionist spoke excellent English and understood what he wanted, but said that the doctor he needed to see was only available in the AM. I should mention a few other things: they don't take appointments so you just show up and take a number AND they operate on a split schedule 8-12, 4-8. Turns out our physical with all the tests will cost about $300. Not bad considering in the US it would be much, much more I think. We could go to the public hospital for free, but as Brett describes it, that would require "a pound of flesh". So, how much is that worth?
NCFA and comedy relief...
I think doing this adoption process with two little ones already running around makes things a bit more challenging, and sometimes more amusing... I'm sitting here right now registering for our NCFA training. It fulfills 8 of the 10 required Hague hours for parent training. My 1 year old is running around the room (ok, waddling might be more accurate) pushing a doll stroller and wanted to be picked up. So I set her on my lap and she went straight for my credit card. Sure, anything works as a baby toy and she can't do too much damage to that. Then of course, she wanted to get down. Always a bit distracted, I put her down, credit card in her hand. Then my 2 year old had a tantrum over not wanting to get dressed and preferring to run around in the cold naked. So, after getting a bathrobe on her I settled down to finish the registration process. Hmmm, my credit card. Oh, the baby. By this time she was happily moving on to something else. I eventually tracked down the credit card: in the tent full of plastic balls. Yea!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Everything requested!
Our paper chase might be almost over!
My mom went down to the courthouse in CA and picked up certified copies of my birth certificate and marriage certificate. I went online and ordered a certified copy of my husband's Maine birth certificate www.vitalchek.com. Kind of creepy how much info can be pulled up in seconds. In order to verify his identity they had a series of multiple choice questions. What residence do you own? (with a list of addresses, including our condo) Who did you purchase this residence from? (the name of the seller! plus other names) We got a bit stumped when it asked what city he has not lived in. He had lived in all of them but 2. Hmmm... Finally I remembered that the address of our condo manager was listed on our credit report since we had stuff sent to her when we first moved overseas.
I mailed in our FBI fingerprints and our CA fingerprints. My inlaws will be visiting us in in about 4 weeks, bringing with them everything that has been received (we're having most stuff sent to our US post office box). We'll see.
Now we're working on the homestudy survey so we can fly our HS guy out soon to do the HS for us. 32 pages of questions! Everything from "what is your name" to "what kind of discipline did your parents use". Yikes!
My mom went down to the courthouse in CA and picked up certified copies of my birth certificate and marriage certificate. I went online and ordered a certified copy of my husband's Maine birth certificate www.vitalchek.com. Kind of creepy how much info can be pulled up in seconds. In order to verify his identity they had a series of multiple choice questions. What residence do you own? (with a list of addresses, including our condo) Who did you purchase this residence from? (the name of the seller! plus other names) We got a bit stumped when it asked what city he has not lived in. He had lived in all of them but 2. Hmmm... Finally I remembered that the address of our condo manager was listed on our credit report since we had stuff sent to her when we first moved overseas.
I mailed in our FBI fingerprints and our CA fingerprints. My inlaws will be visiting us in in about 4 weeks, bringing with them everything that has been received (we're having most stuff sent to our US post office box). We'll see.
Now we're working on the homestudy survey so we can fly our HS guy out soon to do the HS for us. 32 pages of questions! Everything from "what is your name" to "what kind of discipline did your parents use". Yikes!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
More Fingerprint adventures...
Ok, not really an adventure but always back and forth. When we got the letter from the embassy they told us to send the fingerprints to the FBI when they were done. But after being fingerprinted, the policeman said to go back to the embassy. Hmmm... All there was on the fingerprint paper to indicate who did it was a signature and date. Not helpful, for all the FBI knows that's my uncle. Fortunately, I have a friend here who has completed her dossier for Ethiopia. So, I asked her about it and she had the same questions but sent the fingerprints in anyway. They were accepted. Great! So, I cancelled my appointment with the embassy and instead of going there tomorrow I'll go to the post office to send off my fingerprints to the FBI and California. Yea!
Speaking of California, we need my birth certificate and marriage certificate from there (certified copies). Two options: 1) Fill out a form, have it notarized at the embassy and send it in for the requests. 2) Ask my mom to go down to the local courthouse and request the documents for me. Since her name is on both of those documents all she needs to do is show her drivers license and they will give them to her.
Success! My mom went to the courthouse a couple of day ago and got the paperwork. The line was around the room so she decided not to wait in it. Yesterday, she went back and now has both documents in hand. My husbands should be fairly easy, I just have to send in the request. Maine has no notarization requirements. Guess they are more trusting than California.
Speaking of California, we need my birth certificate and marriage certificate from there (certified copies). Two options: 1) Fill out a form, have it notarized at the embassy and send it in for the requests. 2) Ask my mom to go down to the local courthouse and request the documents for me. Since her name is on both of those documents all she needs to do is show her drivers license and they will give them to her.
Success! My mom went to the courthouse a couple of day ago and got the paperwork. The line was around the room so she decided not to wait in it. Yesterday, she went back and now has both documents in hand. My husbands should be fairly easy, I just have to send in the request. Maine has no notarization requirements. Guess they are more trusting than California.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Adventures in Police Clearances...
One of the problems that I think expats will have in this international adoption experience is that the fact that we are expats also indicates that we probably have lived in several places in our lives. The new Hague regulations state that we need police clearance from all the states and countries that we have lived in since age 18.
Between my husband and I, that is California, Washington DC, Virginia, and Florida. Not to mention the country we are now living in. Yikes! And, on top of that we need Child Abuse Clearance as well. Fortunately though, the places we studied abroad don't count. Only 3 months for each of us. I cannot imagine trying to get these clearances from other countries! Bad enough we have to get them from here.
In order to get a police clearance from our current country, we first need FBI clearance to state that we don't have a criminal record in the US. Our local US embassy does not do fingerprinting, but they do write a letter to the local police department requesting that they fingerprint us. This is actually a good thing since apparently they used to do fingerprinting at the embassy and the fingerprint cards were apparently consistently unreadable according to some friends who had theirs rejected. So letter in hand we went to the police station we had been told to go to by the embassy (and confirmed by some friends who had done it). Nope, location changed. It's behind the stadium they told us. One thing I have learned living here is that Arabic is very vague when it comes to directions. For example, the words "next to" and "near" are the same word in Arabic. So you could say "I live next to the grocery store" but in fact you live 1 mile away. By some miracle I actually was able to find a map of this place online. NOTHING in this country is online, particularly accurate maps. So, day 2, off we went to the new fingerprinting place. And, the website even had their hours of operation. And it was wrong. So we showed up 30 minutes after it closed. We confirmed with some police officers hanging out outside that yes we were in the right place.
Day 3 of fingerprinting...
We returned to the supposed fingerprinting location and asked a guard. He told us "door 11". Turns out door 11 was VIP fingerprinting. Not sure if it was the fact that we had 2 babies in tow, the fact that we had a letter from the US embassy or just the fact that we are white (yes, being white often sends us to the front of the line). Anyway, we needed ink fingerprints. But, apparently most of the world, including here, uses the electronic fingerprinting. So, they ushered us into the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen, where they have 2 ink stations set up for fingerprinting us the old fashioned way. We each needed 3 sets. One for FBI, one for California, and one for the I800 immigration form we will soon fill out.
Next step, back to the embassy for them to put some stamp on it... More later.
Between my husband and I, that is California, Washington DC, Virginia, and Florida. Not to mention the country we are now living in. Yikes! And, on top of that we need Child Abuse Clearance as well. Fortunately though, the places we studied abroad don't count. Only 3 months for each of us. I cannot imagine trying to get these clearances from other countries! Bad enough we have to get them from here.
In order to get a police clearance from our current country, we first need FBI clearance to state that we don't have a criminal record in the US. Our local US embassy does not do fingerprinting, but they do write a letter to the local police department requesting that they fingerprint us. This is actually a good thing since apparently they used to do fingerprinting at the embassy and the fingerprint cards were apparently consistently unreadable according to some friends who had theirs rejected. So letter in hand we went to the police station we had been told to go to by the embassy (and confirmed by some friends who had done it). Nope, location changed. It's behind the stadium they told us. One thing I have learned living here is that Arabic is very vague when it comes to directions. For example, the words "next to" and "near" are the same word in Arabic. So you could say "I live next to the grocery store" but in fact you live 1 mile away. By some miracle I actually was able to find a map of this place online. NOTHING in this country is online, particularly accurate maps. So, day 2, off we went to the new fingerprinting place. And, the website even had their hours of operation. And it was wrong. So we showed up 30 minutes after it closed. We confirmed with some police officers hanging out outside that yes we were in the right place.
Day 3 of fingerprinting...
We returned to the supposed fingerprinting location and asked a guard. He told us "door 11". Turns out door 11 was VIP fingerprinting. Not sure if it was the fact that we had 2 babies in tow, the fact that we had a letter from the US embassy or just the fact that we are white (yes, being white often sends us to the front of the line). Anyway, we needed ink fingerprints. But, apparently most of the world, including here, uses the electronic fingerprinting. So, they ushered us into the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen, where they have 2 ink stations set up for fingerprinting us the old fashioned way. We each needed 3 sets. One for FBI, one for California, and one for the I800 immigration form we will soon fill out.
Next step, back to the embassy for them to put some stamp on it... More later.
The beginning...
We're a few weeks into this process, so here's a quick overview. My husband and I decided several months ago to begin the process of adopting a child from China. Although I had done much research a few years ago, we quickly discovered that it is now a whole new ballgame with the new Hague laws. What would have been an arduous process a year ago, will now be many, many times more difficult.
My husband and I moved to a small Gulf country in the middle east 4 years ago. This country, like all the countries blessed with lots and lots of oil are growing quickly and have many foreigners living here.
We have two beautiful little girls, ages 2 1/2 and 1. Why adopt then? Well, for a long time we have felt God leading us in that direction, like our family is not complete without our daughter from China.
We feel a bit like the guinea pigs in this entire process. First, most adoption agencies have stopped working with expats because it has become more difficult with the new Hague requirements. So, finding an agency was a challenge. Then, the new rules for homestudy providers were made more stringent, so finding a qualified HS provider was an other challenge. I believe we found both and after many many emails back and forth with this agency, they still could not guarantee that we would be able to complete the process. But, having lived in the middle east for these years we have learned to be comfortable with uncertainty and decided that we knew as much as we were going to know. So, we put our money where are mouths were and put down the agency deposit. As for the homestudy providor, previously people living overseas could use a social worker who just happened to be living in their country. Now, the HS provider must be associated with an agency that is approved for Hague adoptions. There are two guys who live in Germany (different companies) who travel around the world doing HSs. We're going to have to fly one of them out here. He's been very helpful, but again, since he has not done a Hague adoption yet, he cannot gurantee us 100%.
My husband and I moved to a small Gulf country in the middle east 4 years ago. This country, like all the countries blessed with lots and lots of oil are growing quickly and have many foreigners living here.
We have two beautiful little girls, ages 2 1/2 and 1. Why adopt then? Well, for a long time we have felt God leading us in that direction, like our family is not complete without our daughter from China.
We feel a bit like the guinea pigs in this entire process. First, most adoption agencies have stopped working with expats because it has become more difficult with the new Hague requirements. So, finding an agency was a challenge. Then, the new rules for homestudy providers were made more stringent, so finding a qualified HS provider was an other challenge. I believe we found both and after many many emails back and forth with this agency, they still could not guarantee that we would be able to complete the process. But, having lived in the middle east for these years we have learned to be comfortable with uncertainty and decided that we knew as much as we were going to know. So, we put our money where are mouths were and put down the agency deposit. As for the homestudy providor, previously people living overseas could use a social worker who just happened to be living in their country. Now, the HS provider must be associated with an agency that is approved for Hague adoptions. There are two guys who live in Germany (different companies) who travel around the world doing HSs. We're going to have to fly one of them out here. He's been very helpful, but again, since he has not done a Hague adoption yet, he cannot gurantee us 100%.
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