Tick Tock.......

Well, I haven't posted in a while. Not much to say other than we are just waiting for the referral. Our dossier has been sent down to Guatemala for translation while we wait.

Apparently everyone currently at this stage with our agency is waiting on girls. So, it might be a little longer than the two weeks they had thought(that expires this coming Monday).

So, I just sit back and wait for the phone to ring. As anyone that knows me well is aware, not an easy thing for me to do!!!

Precious Cargo On-board

Well, the documents are safely tucked in their snug little Fed-Ex envelope and will be taking a plane ride or two to Dallas, TX to our agency. They are due to arrive Monday. It felt a little scary handing them over to the lady at the Fed-Ex counter. Such hard work and frustration getting every little signature right, every i dotted and t crossed properly. When I made some comment about how precious the documents were, the lady said, "Well, you could always resend new copies." Uh, no, you misunderstand!! These are originals that represent a couple of months of compilation.

What a long, butt-weary day of driving in the car! I so hate the Miami area. The traffic is a nightmare. It took us just under 4 hrs to get there(not including the requisite Cracker Barrell breakfast stop). If not for 50 miles of stop-and-go traffic, it would have taken less. We got to the Consulate around 11:00 and they had our documents authenticated in under 30 minutes. While we sat in the waiting area, I saw that there were two Guatemalan couples that had infant girls. I found myself staring at them imagining whether my little girl would look something like them or altogether different. I also felt pretty emotional realizing it won't be long at all before I can answer that question. It's starting to feel quite surreal.

We drove around the South Beach area for a bit and eventually had some lunch in a small Cuban restaurant somewhere in the North Miami Beach area. Then, it was back home. We got home a bit before 6pm.


So, now we wait.....

Road Trip!

We received our pack of certified documents yesterday. Ferdy and I will be driving to Miami on Friday to get them authenticated at the Guatemalan Consulate. It seemed to be pushing our luck to expect such a fast turn-around once again, so better safe than sorry for the last leg of the race. They also don't ship back via Fed-Ex (we'd have to use priority mail) and that makes me nervous.

I had emailed our agency over the weekend and asked how long referrals were taking now and it seems we should likely see a picture of our little girl within the next 3 weeks!!!!!!! Oh my......

They just keep coming!

This morning I decided to check the FedEx tracking number for our documents when they are sent back to us from Tallahassee. I wasn't expecting anything and much to my surprise, they were already sent back to us Friday and we should have them tomorrow!!! I think I will do some kind of Adoption Dance (not to be confused with a rain dance as we had enough of that the last couple of days) that things continue along without hitches from here on out.

Oh, and I added a picture of Ferdy and I from our anniversary last Sept under my profile.

SURPRISE!!!!!

Today, my mom and I went to a nice lunch at our favorite seafood restaurant and then did a little shopping at Kohl's. We got back home and Ferdy handed me a piece of paper and said "Here, this should make you happy." OMG!!! It was our I-171H approval from the USCIS!!!!!!!! I had to read it a couple of times to make sure this was the actual approval and not just some acknowledgment that they got the homestudy and were continuing to process. They just received our homestudy Wednesday and must have processed it right then and mailed it to us. I thought we were a couple of months away based on the dates on the website. The website as of Jan 24 said they were processing applications received Oct 9. Ours was received Dec 1.

So, as soon as we have our documents back from Tallahassee and then back from Miami, we are completely done and ready for a referral!!! I will email our agency and talk to them on Monday, but they may say we are referral-ready now since the I171-H is the main thing that is needed. WOW!!!

Documents in Route

Well, I am happy to report that at long last, all of our notarized documents have been collected and they were sent off via FedEx to Tallahassee today! YIPPEEEEE! So, we will now be obsessively checking the FedEx tracking system to ensure they arrive safely. The loss of this little envelope would be catastrophic and it's funny how tense you get when you arrive at this stage.

The homestudy was also mailed to the Orlando USCIS office so they can continue to process our 171-H.

So, now we sit back and wait for the return of our package of docs and then they are off to Miami.