Biometrics are....

DONE!!! On Saturday (just 2 weeks and 2 days after sending out our I-600A form that I wrote about here), we got our biometrics (aka fingerprints) appointment letter in the mail. Scheduled appointment time was noon on April 14th, down in Fort Myers! Now, if you know me, you'd know that I could just not wait that long (yes, 11 days was too long for me! :-P)! So, I had read about people attempting walk-ins at various USCIS locations and all they did was take their appointment letter in and ask if they can get their fingerprints done early. Most had no problems doing it, as long as it was not busy...

So, I wanted to go on Monday, but unfortunately ran out of time and Michael was unable to get a break from work, so we planned to go the following afternoon (since I had a long doctor's appointment with Ilana all morning). Michael wanted to check and see if it was even doable, since I would have to drive almost an hour down there, so since he works in Fort Myers, he checked Tuesday morning before he went into work. She said that it would be no problem and to try coming in at 2, because they're usually not too busy then. On the way there, I prayed they wouldn't be too busy and that I wasn't making this hour long drive for nothing. Michael met me there right at two, and we walked in and lo and behold.... We were the ONLY ones there! No wait at all!!! I was so excited I wanted to dance around, haha!

Went back and got our fingerprints done by a really nice man. He said he was doing much better now that we were there and I said "Oh, yeah?" And he said "Yeah, I love when people come in wanting fingerprints because they're adopting.  I will be praying for you!" (How cool?!) Fingerprints were done via computer screen. It was a cool process and very quick! We were in and out in about 15 minutes!

So now... We wait for approval... Once we get that, we get all our documents notarized, then state certified, and then we send them to our agency to check over them and they send them via courier to Washington DC. From there, they go to Ethiopia and we're put on the waiting list!! YAY!!! We'll see how long it all takes! I'm just so excited that we're finally almost to the end of the paperwork! :)

Thankfully, we have saved and raised enough money to pay for the dossier and the dossier authentication fees ($4100) and our next step is saving up the money for our in country fees ($7200) that are due after we accept referral of the child. This could be in several months, but could be sooner than that - we're just not sure! If you didn't read about it earlier, we started a new fundraiser that you can read about HERE. All the proceeds from that fundraiser will go towards our in country fees!

Also, if you're on facebook, we created a page to keep quick little updates on our journey and fundraising efforts. Please "like" it and feel free to share with your friends and family!  

Orphan's Hope

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