[curlyqgyrl]

How is that for a name?? I wanted to start something so I could have a thread to complain on!
For those of you who didn't read the Just starting out thread, a bunch of us are in the beginning stages, whether its adopting #1 or #2. This way we can all complain about stuff (and celebrate stuff!) that we are all either dealing with now, will be, or just have.

So I have a complaint!! I can't start ANYTHING until I get a packet from my agency. I can't even begin working on my dossier. Well, they said they were sending it out last week. It should only take 1 day, 2 tops to get here! And its been 7! I'm tring to get ahold of someone to see if and when it was sent but I'm not getting anywhere!
Oh, yes, I am not real patient about stuff like this.

Any way. any big news or complaints from anyone else?

[mamaA]

Can I be honest? We are having a really hard time right now because our heads our telling us we should switch countries, what with all the proposed changes going on. We won't be ready for a referral until December at the earliest, and I just have a strong feeling changes are coming in the Spring. It's hard to thing of starting over, yet again, but I'm not sure what we are going to do.

Is anyone else starting out having these same thoughts? Are you going to stick it out? Please share your thoughts with a nervous newbie.

[curlyqgyrl]

This happened to us when we were pursuing Peru. Our caseworker kept saying "guatemala guatemala guatemala!"! She must have known where our daughter was
Go with your gut and your heart. We felt there was a reason we were being led to Guat, even though we had to start from scratch again.
I think we will stick it out with Guat, as I just can't see adopting from another country right now. I haven't even thought of the what if's and I don't want to!

[ashdavis1975]

Originally Posted by curlyqgyrl

How is that for a name?? I wanted to start something so I could have a thread to complain on!
For those of you who didn't read the Just starting out thread, a bunch of us are in the beginning stages, whether its adopting #1 or #2. This way we can all complain about stuff (and celebrate stuff!) that we are all either dealing with now, will be, or just have.

So I have a complaint!! I can't start ANYTHING until I get a packet from my agency. I can't even begin working on my dossier. Well, they said they were sending it out last week. It should only take 1 day, 2 tops to get here! And its been 7! I'm tring to get ahold of someone to see if and when it was sent but I'm not getting anywhere!
Oh, yes, I am not real patient about stuff like this.

Any way. any big news or complaints from anyone else?

Hi,

I am BRAND NEW to all of this. We were given the dossier requirements before submitting the application. We are in love with our agency (so far . . . keeping our fingers crossed!). I hope you get your packet soon. Maybe they can e-mail it to you??? Just a thought.

My only complaint is that I'm not finished yet!!! I know, I know. It takes time. I'm only kidding (well, half-way!).

[myworldisdmb]

We just sent in our application papers yesterday! After thinking about it seriously and researching tons of agencies and all of our options for exactly one year, we decided to use Crossroads adoption agency as our homestudy agency and adopt from Vietnam instead of Guatemala. We haven't got a placement agency yet, there are 3 that we have in mind and we can't decide between them yet, but at least we took the first step! Now all we have to worry about is coming up with all the money!curlyqgyrl got any tips on getting all the money for the adoption since your on your second adoption?

[steph94]

We just received our homestudy today. We took it to the INS and got all our documents for the dossier State Authenticated today. Tomorrow I will travel to NYC and drop them off at the Guatemala embassy and return to pick them up Thursday. We hope to have our I171H in approximately a week according to the officer I spoke with today. So, we hope to have all our documents to the agency Friday with the exception of our I171H.

Hope your packet arrives soon.

[curlyqgyrl]

Well, I called and they to said the packet should have been here by now, and if its not here tomorrow they will send another right away. so thats good!!
I could start my dossier, I already know what I need and have contact with the actual agency doing the guat adoption, but still I want to "play by the rules" .
With Meeah our Homestudy agency did our homestudy and then directed us to the agency that did the actual Guat adoption. Now, they have changed it and basically my homestudy agency is the "middle man" between us and the placing agency so everything goes through them now.
I don't know if I like that at all, but I do love both agencies so either way I guess.

As for money... Well the first one we took out loans and will be paying on them for another 3 years. For this one we have all the money saved.... Luckily!

[curlyqgyrl]

myworldisdmb-

I pm'd you!!

[moelladeville]

Hi Erin -- don't forget those of us (okay, just me really) who are going for #3. With my second dossier, I did the whole thing before even choosing my agency, so don't worry too much about playing by the rules.

My complaint for this week is the Phila CIS office. I spent a WHOLE DAY waiting to get fingerprinted, even though I had an 8:30 a.m. appointment. And let's not forget that I still have the same fingers I had for my first two adoptions. You'd think once would be enough. What happened this time was the CIS scheduling office in Nebraska (at least they told me it was in Nebraska) was supposed to schedule 20 appoinments each hour, and instead scheduled 60. And that flies in the face of the fact that they're only able to process ten cases per hour. Thanks for letting me vent.

And to MamaA, I agree with Erin. Go with your gut and your heart. I had decided to adopt from Ethiopia this time, for all the same reasons you are describing, and when I went to a site to "get acquainted" with the faces of Ethiopian children, there on the splash page was my Guatemalan daughter's face. Make your decision and don't feel guilty about it! You're doing the right thing by soul searching.

Marjorie

[mattecook]

Here is my update

I600A fedexed off last Tuesday
Agency App Fedexed last Tuesday
Birth certs, Marriage certs done
1/2 of homestudy paperwork done

Next week off to complete as much as possible

Marjorie-- You would think that since our fingers are the same that being finger printed again would just be a waste of time but I guess they need our $$??

Ami

[LEnAK]

We're just getting started too. Well...sort of. We just signed w/ an agency, but we already have the homestudy done. Now it's USCIS time... apparently Alaska USCIS makes you wait for the homestudy to be completed before you apply

This will be our first child

[golden_x_two]

Hi everyone,
My only complaint today is why can't I just snap my fingers and this paperwork will be done? I shouldn't complain I only have to get the police letter done and the financial form if I can figure out what to put on it. They have two columns for the annual income, one says last year and the other says this year. Well the last time I checked this year wasn't over yet so how am I suppose to know. I work hourly and my dh is self employed. I'll have to e-mail my agency on that one.

Erin - I guess great minds think alike. I was trying to come up with a name last night and I thought of fall beginners, fall 2005 beginners and The 2005 fall group. I was going to post today to see if anyone thought of anything.
I'm glad you got in touch with your agency about your packet. So are you going to attack the mailman when he comes tomorrow?LOL

mamaA - I have to agree with the others. Go with your gut and heart. When we received our completed homestudy it was a few days before the third reading of the law proposal was suppose to happen. My first thought was why bother sending in my I600a I'm probably going to have to switch countries. But I went ahead and sent it in because Guatemala is the country I want to adopt from and I believe there's a little girl there waiting for me. Things can change in any country during your process. I try to think positive that the new law will not pass but if it does I'll deal with it then.

Marjorie - Sorry you had a bad day but at least you did get it done. And yes you would think getting fingerprinted once would be enough. I don't know of anyone who grows new fingers.

Kathy

[cheri25]

I'll join in here. I am just waiting to get my homestudy in the mail to send all my docs to Sec of State. I sent my corrected homestudy back to the social worker 2 weeks ago, and was dismayed when last week, what should arrive in the mail-- you guessed it, my homestudy stating I didn't have enough postage on it. ARGH!!!! I used the same amount of postage my social worker used when she mailed it to me, but I guess the weight of the ink on the parts I corrected caused it to be heavier. LOL
Anyway back it went last Thursday, so I am just waiting to get my copy in the mail and hoping my social worker sent the corrected version to USCIS yesterday or today.

Good luck to everyone

[zanjen05]

Hi! We are starting our fourth Guatemalan adoption for our sixth child. We have our agency chosen, same as the one we used for our youngest child, and our dossier is nearly complete. Our home study update will be picked up on Friday, Lord willing! And then sent to USCIS on Monday. Praying for fingerprint appointment by the end of the week. Then we should have 171h by the end of the month!!! We are picking up our medical statements tomorrow, they had a mistake on them when we went to pick them up last Friday. Our agencies wait for a baby boy is anywhere from one day to one week, so we are praying that we have a referral by the first week of November! My biggest complaint is my state police clearance. We specifically asked that the notary be good for at least one year, and the clearance that they sent back to us last week has a notary that is only good until the middle of February. I think we will be out of PGN by then but it is too close of a call so now we are going to have to either send it back in to do it all over again, or we will have to go to the Public Safety office in Austin one morning, take fingerprints, and then wait until the next morning to pick up the results with new notary. And Austin is about five hours from our home, so we would have to spend the night! Grrr! lol! But, if that is the worst that happens, I will be one happy Mama! lol! Anyway, glad to meet all the new beginners!
God Bless,
Jenny

[rfeely]

Well I just figured I might as well chime in although we are no wheres near the stage you people are at.

We just went to an adoption fair on sunday and spoke with a whole bunch of different agencies. I think we have narrowed it down to 2 of them. One of them was really nice they even said if we have any questions at all to give her a call even if we don't decide to go with them.

Last we just have to figure out how to fund the whole thing. Yes I know this is a problem everybody is having but it still is so frustrating!!....lol