Biometrics......DONE!

The last document we are working on is the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) form.  We have been waiting for our biometrics (fingerprinting) appointment with them.    Last week we received Jay's and my appointments in the mail, but not Ben's (being 18 he gets one too.)  Tonya, our facilitator said that Ben's would come later, but to call and see if we can schedule his with ours.  Once we have all three appointments in hand we can go in earlier and try to get in.  On Monday I called and left a message with a supervisor at USCIS.  Then later that day I was surprised by receiving three new appointments from USCIS in the mail.  There was one for each of us.  I called Tonya that night and she said that was unusual to get new appointments and for all three of us at the same time.  She said that someone is looking out for us.  Yes, someone certainly is!  I've witness many small miracles and had promptings that I have followed that have made a difference.  Tonya told us to go ahead and try to get in the next morning.

Tuesday morning, with our three appointments in hand, we drove up to Salt Lake City, over an hour's drive away.  We were about there when I remembered that I had meant to remind Ben to bring his driver's license.  Thankfully he did have it with him!  Tonya had told me that we'd have to plead our case to the security guards when we arrived and she wasn't kidding!  They were nice, but wondered why we were coming early.  They were really busy that day, couldn't we come back next week (which would still be early, our appointments were three weeks away!)  Jay and I were about to give in to coming next week, but I suddenly spoke up and explained to them how we have three girls waiting for us in Ukraine and Ukraine won't be accepting new applications soon for a couple months.  That we have to get our application done so we can go sooner to get them.  Their hearts softened once they realized we were there for an adoption and there was an urgency to it.  They went to speak to the people who would be processing us.  Then came back and told us that we could proceed.  We were excited!  We were filling out the paperwork when we realized it needed our social security numbers.  Ben doesn't have his memorized so I called home hoping that one of the kids would pick up the phone.  They did on the first ring (unusual) and I guided our daughter, Sara, to find our folder with our social security cards in it.  She found Ben's and we thankfully were able to finish filling his form out.

We were elated when we left that we'd been able to complete that part of the USCIS application.  We then decided to run a few blocks up to the state capitol building to see if a form I had dropped off last week to be apostilled was possibly ready to be picked up.  It wasn't done, but the clerk told us that we could pay the expedited fee and she could do it then.  I saw that I'd left a self addressed and stamped envelope with the form so we told her to go ahead and process it when it was scheduled to be processed.  We'd just receive it in the mail later.  The clerk then said, "Well, it's on the docket to be processed today.  I'll just do it now if you want to wait 15 minutes."  We were happy with that and took a tour of the capitol building for 15 minutes.  Today I'll UPS all of our apostilled documents to Tonya to be translated.  The only document we are waiting for now is the USCIS one.

I can't believe how far along we are in this and how fast things are moving.  From what I understand, we are getting things processed faster than normal.  I have been doing my part as quickly as I can, but I know that people have been touched in ways to help things move along faster.  I strongly feel that someone wants the girls here with us and soon.  I keep thinking about Snezhana and how she ended her conversation with me when she found out we are adopting her with, "mamamamama."  She needs to be here!  Both girls bonded with our whole family.  I have posted a picture below of Snezhana snuggled up to me.  I feel it shows the bond she has with me and how comforted she is by us.

 

 

 

We still need $37,000 to raise to complete the adoption.  There is a good chance we will be traveling to Ukraine in February to pick up the girls.  We are doing all that we can do to get them here.  There are three girls in Ukraine who are in an awful situation, through no fault of their own.  They want to be with our family so desperately.  Even before they found out they were being adopted they asked us when they could come out again.  What the girls face at age 16 when they have to leave their orphanage and provide for themselves is unthinkable to us.  We can't let it happen!  I have witnessed many miracles in all of this and know that it will happen.  I just have to keep my faith up that it will.  Is there anything you can do to help them? Can you donate ANY amount to their adoption fund? We would be grateful forever! This truly makes a difference for three precious souls.