Paperwork Timeline

Friday, 1 October 2004

This is actually being typed in on October 17, 2004, but I figured better late than never. We have done a "ton" of research and finally think that we know which way to head with our adoption. We came across the name Cathy Harris from many websites and phone conversations. Cathy runs a non-profit business called Ukrainian Angels that assists people in adopting independently from Ukraine. After feeling that we had done enough research to get started, we both believe that Cathy’s organization is the best way for us to go now.

Sunday, 10 October 2004

Ordered birth certificate for Summer. We lost hers and knew we would need one along the way.

Cost $32.50

Tuesday, 12 October 2004

Applied for 2 passports @ City of Issaquah, WA Town Hall

Cost $190.00

Dropped off medical background information request at our doctors. (For Home Study)

Wednesday, 13 October 2004

Ordered 2 Birth Certificates for Jon and Summer. We had to mail our originals off to get our passports and knew we might need them before they got back to us.

Cost $65.00

Friday, 15 October 2004

Received Summer’s medical form back from her doctor.

Sunday, 17 October 2004

Emailed Summer and Jon’s autobiographies to Ann Lawrence along with 2 letters of reference (1 to follow)

Tuesday, 19 October 2004

Received Jon’s medical letter back and emailed off 3^rd letter of reference.

Friday, 22 October 2004

Today we met with Ann Lawrence of Faith Int’l Adoptions in Seattle to begin our home study meetings. We discussed very broad subjects in regards to adoption. She asked about how we met and why we got married. How we would pay for the adoption and what kind of child we were after, etc.

Cost $870.00

YTD $1157.50 

Monday, 25 October 2004

Ordered 2 extra marriage licenses……just in case

Cost $ 47.50 

I also contacted Washington State Patrol and Secretary of State in regards to background checks and appostilles.

Tuesday, 26 October 2004

October 26, 2004 – Signed, Notarized and Mailed agreement with Ukrainian Angels along with payment.

Cost $500.00

YTD $1705.00

Wednesday, 27 October 2004

Contacted Northwest Airlines to inquire about reduced airfair for adoptive families.

http://www.nwa.com/features/adopt.shtml 

Monday, 1 November 2004

Received Passports for Jon and Summer along with both returned birth certificates

Thursday, 4 November 2004

Final meeting with Ann Lawrence (Social Worker), more of the same questions. Looked around our house and talked with Kailyn. Hoped to have home study written up in 2-3 weeks, pending DSHS report.

Friday, 5 November 2004

Just a little tid bit....

We began to look into a different facilitator to use for our adoption today. We have been using Cathy Harris thus far, and have been very happy. We just thought that we should exhaust any last minute changes before we go to much further. We have been in touch with Oleg of http://www.geocities.com/adoptukr/. We came across his name in many chat rooms and he seems to have a great reputation. We have contacted him and many people who work for him here is the U.S. He lives in Ukraine, and is regarded by many to be the best. His cost is more than that of Cathy's facilitators, but it includes more services with the fee. With that being said, it may be about the same cost. The one thing that we have noticed, is that his adoptions seem to be a little faster and smoother than others. Both Oleg and those who assist him spoke highly of Cathy and recommended her as a good facilitator. We are left with a tough decision, but feel good that either way we go should be a good choice.

Monday, 15 November 2004

Today we contacted USCIS (fromerly INS) regarding the early submission of our I-600A. We were told by them, that we could submit our I-600A without having the Home Study so long as there was a note saying that it would follow soon. So hopefully this will help shave off 2-4 weeks of down time in the process.

Cost $665.00

Postage $3.27

YTD $2373.27

Summer began taking Russian classes today from the Russian Language School in Bellevue, WA. We are hoping that this will be an advantage to us in Ukraine. I'm not counting this expenditure in with our adoption costs (the lessons are $30 per hour).

Saturday, 20 November 2004

Today we signed an agreement with Dr. Kelly Conaty of Ukrain Adoption helper. We chose to him assist us because we have chosen to go with Oleg as our facilitator. So far Kelly has been extremely helpful and very quick to respond to emails.

Cost $5.00 (Notary)

Monday, 22 November 2004

I got two items notarized for our dossier today- #1 Copy of Passports (both on one page) #2 Letter of employment for Jon.

We also received a draft of our home study from our social worker. It is 8 full pages and very in depth. I forwarded to Kelly to have him look it over to confirm there is nothing missing.

Wednesday, 24 November 2004

Today I got 2 marriage certicates appostilled at the Oregon Sec. of State

Cost $20.00

We also made a donation to "Cure Autism Now" per our aggreement with Kelly Conaty.

Cost $500.00

YTD $2898.27

Friday, 26 November 2004

Mailed check to Faith Intn'l Adoptions for final home study paperwork

Cost $250.00

YTD $3148.27

Monday, 29 November 2004

Ordered 2 background checks from Washington State Patrol. They should be back in about a week.

Cost $20.00

YTD $3168.27

Thursday, 2 December 2004

Recieved 2 background checks from WSP

Tuesday, 7 December 2004

Recieved our home study back from Faith Int'l Adoptions today.  There are 2 problems that will need fixing, but all in all we are track so far. USCIS should have there copy today or tommorow.

Friday, 10 December 2004

Today we recieved 1 of our items that needed to be fixed on our home study. It was a letter of reference from our social worker. The second item is a copy of Faith's license, though we will wait to get this until after the first of the year.

Wednesday, 15 December 2004

We received Summer's medical form back from her doctor today....Jon's should follow soon. We had our physicals last week.

Thursday, 16 December 2004

We received Jon's medical form back from the doctor today....Kelly reviewed both and said they looked good.

Also, I contacted Ann Lawrence to confirm that our home study was sent to USCIS. She confirmed that they received it on December 8th. We have heard nothing from them yet, so we hope that no news is good news.

Thursday, 23 December 2004

We received 2 items today as an early Christmas present. #1 we got our paperwork work immigration to go get fingerprinted. #2 We received a new license from Faith Int'l which was one of previous problems with our homestudy.

Tuesday, 28 December 2004

We went to Seattle to be fingerprinted for our I-600A today, everything is coming along very well.

Tuesday, 4 January 2005

We finished getting all of our documents notarized today, with the exeption of our I-171H from USCIS. Only 1 document left....

Monday, 24 January 2005

We got our I-171H from USCIS today and rushed down to Olympia to get all documents apostilled.

Cost $225.00 + $5.09 notary & copy fee

YTD $3398.36

Tuesday, 25 January 2005

We shipped our dossier today via DHL...it should be there on Friday

Cost $77.41

YTD $3475.77

Friday, 28 January 2005

Our dossier arrived in Keiv today to begin being translated....just about 4 months flat to complete our paperwork (seems pretty fast). Now we play the waiting game. We hope to hear back by the end of February or early March, and hope for an appointment in April or May.....guess we'll wait and see.

Thursday, 3 February 2005

Shipped off visa applications to Doyle Authentications via Fedex

Cost $300.00 (2-double entry visas), $6.50 cashiers check fee, $21.15 fedex

YTD $3803.42

Monday, 21 February 2005

Recieved our visas from Doyle Authentications via Fedex....good service. We also recieved word that the translation of our dossier has begun.

Tuesday, 19 April 2005

We have an appointment on June 2nd. Now we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to make arrangements for everything. Let the fun begin... 

Tuesday, 26 April 2005

We ordered our airline tickets today through Rowland Enterprises.

Cost- $2558.70

YTD- $6362.12

May 2005

We are ready to go....the rest of the cost will be accrued in Ukraine. We believe that our final cost will be approx. $23,000.00. This seems to be in line with what most people are spending at this time.

JP

tags: paper