Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
USCIS
Went to USCIS to get fingerprinted this morning, which seems to have gone well. Met somewhat of a local "celebrity" in the New York adoption community (I would say so anyway). WAY back when we were rushing to meet the China deadline 3 years ago, I had found a contact name of someone at the Manhattan USCIS office from a couple different local Yahoo groups, Mr. Hernandez. I've read good things about him being helpful and all that. We had contacted him by phone once or twice about expediting our paperwork (deadline was approaching fast) and we even drove into the city to go in person to the office back then. We didn't actual meet Mr. Hernandez then (even though we did ask for him), but I believe his assistant/co-worker had to get him to approve something for us and had disappeared into the office and came back with our fingerprinting appointment..FOR THAT SAME DAY! Only thing we had to do was drive as fast as possible back in the other direction to another location before they closed. LOL Which we did and managed to get our I171H in time to meet the deadline.
So anyway, back to today. This time our appointments were in a USCIS much closer to us. We got there early and were taken right away. Freddy went to the back of the room first where they did his.. then I went with another guy to do mine. We were a couple of sections apart but I could see him and heard him talking with the girl doing his fingerprints. Another guy had gone over to the area where he was and they were all chatting and laughing, although I couldn't hear what they were talking about. Then when my prints were done I sat back down and waited for him to get done. What I didn't realize was that he was already done but was chatting it up with the guy that walked over to his area. Then Freddy starts walking toward me the other guy disappears into an office and he was like "you know who that was right?" And immediately I said "Mr. Hernandez?!?" LOL Like I am old friends with the man or something and it could only possibly be him. LOL And it was! I was like why didn't you tell me!! lol So when he came back out of the office we went back to chat with him a little. He had remembered our names.. which is a pretty common name and FROM 3 YEARS AGO! What was really funny was that while Freddy was doing his fingerprinting and Mr. Hernandez had gone over there, he was actually the one that said to Freddy that he recognized the name and said to Freddy that Freddy probably knows him. And when he told him his name Freddy told him it sounded familiar, but it took him a minute to link it since he's in a different office, then it hit him. Then apparently, the guy doing my fingerprints said something funny and I laughed and Freddy told them "That must be my wife laughing at me for not immediately knowing who you are". LOL Ok so if I had actually heard what they were talking about I probably would have been laughing. LOL
So we chatted a bit about the new adoption and about how he ended up in the new office due to USCIS centralizing it's process now and then left. I know this means nothing to anyone (unless #1 - You live in NY and #2 if you've been desperate to find a contact name at USCIS that can help you..AND came upon the name Mr. Hernandez. LOL) but I just wanted to document it here and I really did feel like I was meeting a celebrity.. LOL Oh my sad little world! LOL I did manage to resist the urge to ask for his autograph! A valid I171H will have to suffice!
So anyway, back to today. This time our appointments were in a USCIS much closer to us. We got there early and were taken right away. Freddy went to the back of the room first where they did his.. then I went with another guy to do mine. We were a couple of sections apart but I could see him and heard him talking with the girl doing his fingerprints. Another guy had gone over to the area where he was and they were all chatting and laughing, although I couldn't hear what they were talking about. Then when my prints were done I sat back down and waited for him to get done. What I didn't realize was that he was already done but was chatting it up with the guy that walked over to his area. Then Freddy starts walking toward me the other guy disappears into an office and he was like "you know who that was right?" And immediately I said "Mr. Hernandez?!?" LOL Like I am old friends with the man or something and it could only possibly be him. LOL And it was! I was like why didn't you tell me!! lol So when he came back out of the office we went back to chat with him a little. He had remembered our names.. which is a pretty common name and FROM 3 YEARS AGO! What was really funny was that while Freddy was doing his fingerprinting and Mr. Hernandez had gone over there, he was actually the one that said to Freddy that he recognized the name and said to Freddy that Freddy probably knows him. And when he told him his name Freddy told him it sounded familiar, but it took him a minute to link it since he's in a different office, then it hit him. Then apparently, the guy doing my fingerprints said something funny and I laughed and Freddy told them "That must be my wife laughing at me for not immediately knowing who you are". LOL Ok so if I had actually heard what they were talking about I probably would have been laughing. LOL
So we chatted a bit about the new adoption and about how he ended up in the new office due to USCIS centralizing it's process now and then left. I know this means nothing to anyone (unless #1 - You live in NY and #2 if you've been desperate to find a contact name at USCIS that can help you..AND came upon the name Mr. Hernandez. LOL) but I just wanted to document it here and I really did feel like I was meeting a celebrity.. LOL Oh my sad little world! LOL I did manage to resist the urge to ask for his autograph! A valid I171H will have to suffice!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Transracial Adoption & Adult Adoptees
Lately I've been reading a lot of transracial adult adoptee blogs and have found them to be very interesting and informative tools to learn more about adoption and identity from the perspective of the adoptee, which after all, will be my child(ren) one day. I really appreciate those bloggers for being so open and honest about their lives, and even though I am sure they don't all blog to enlighten adoptive parents and potential adoptive parents, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be able to read their stories and to be able to be open to being enlightened (I hope that made some sense! lol ). I will say that some of posts may not easy to read (maybe they weren't easy to write either), but I still find it important to be exposed to it and that's really my main point for posting this.
At some point I came across the below blog post and I've seen other adoption blogs link to it since then so I figured I'd post it as well.
Great information about books, movies and links to other adoptee blogs, some of which I've added to my sidebar and have been going through. I think it's a great place to start if your looking to learn more about various transracial adoptee perspectives. I've included some of the books from the post below.
Happy reading!
At some point I came across the below blog post and I've seen other adoption blogs link to it since then so I figured I'd post it as well.
Great information about books, movies and links to other adoptee blogs, some of which I've added to my sidebar and have been going through. I think it's a great place to start if your looking to learn more about various transracial adoptee perspectives. I've included some of the books from the post below.
Happy reading!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Fingerprint Appointments!
We send out our I600A application to USCIS on 6/2 (overnight) and I received our fingerprinting appointments in the mail today!! Our appointments are for 6/22, less than 2 weeks away! Wow! That was pretty quick! I wonder how long it will take to get our I171H after that.
On another note, I can't believe it's June already! One month and a day since getting on the wait list and already down 2 spots! The estimate wait time till referral is supposed to be about 8-12 months, which I think will probably be at least 12 months since the list seemed to have shot up in the past couple of months. Eight months would be January 2011 and 12 months would be May 2011. I just hope that we can get her home before the end of 2011. Oh I CAN'T wait!! :-)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
We Picked A Name!
When we decided to start an adoption from Ethiopia we decided that we'd pick a new name for our future Ethiopian daughter instead of using the name we picked for our future Chinese daughter, Raven. I just feel that that is our Chinese daughter's name and if we don't get to complete that adoption then we won't be using it at all.
ANYWAY, we decided on the name Alicia, pronounced "ah LEE sha". One thing I like about it is it has the same first two letters as Freddy's given name. Freddy also likes the spanish connection & pronunciation "ah LEE see uh". I think it's a pretty and feminine name. I've had it in my head for a few months now and it's definitely the one. :-)
Most likely we will use "Alicia" as her first name and use her Ethiopian name as her middle name, depending on how old she is when we receive her referral and what her Ethiopian name is. We might keep her Ethiopian name as first name and use Alicia for middle name. Not sure yet, but we will in some form be keeping her Ethiopian name.
ANYWAY, we decided on the name Alicia, pronounced "ah LEE sha". One thing I like about it is it has the same first two letters as Freddy's given name. Freddy also likes the spanish connection & pronunciation "ah LEE see uh". I think it's a pretty and feminine name. I've had it in my head for a few months now and it's definitely the one. :-)
Most likely we will use "Alicia" as her first name and use her Ethiopian name as her middle name, depending on how old she is when we receive her referral and what her Ethiopian name is. We might keep her Ethiopian name as first name and use Alicia for middle name. Not sure yet, but we will in some form be keeping her Ethiopian name.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Ethiopia Wait List Movement
A family accepted a referral of a six-month old baby boy today so we get to move up on the list one spot (they were probably on the baby girl list as well which is why we get to move up a spot). Congrats to that family!
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