Adding to the A-Team: Showers of Blessings and Announcement

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Showers of Blessings and Announcement

Last Saturday we were given a HUGE Blessing. These ladies, Pam, Sarah, Tammy, Debbie, and Allison (not pictured because she was taking pictures) put together a wonderful shower for Sam.

There were:

Wonderful Guests!

Sweet Hugs!!

Cute Decorations!

There was another really cute decoration with Sam's new name on it, but I am not ready to reveal that here.

Food, Amazing Food!!

Blessing of Gifts!

We now have many wonderful stimulating and educational toys.

And a really wonderful stroller!

Sweet time of Prayer!!

Oh how this time blessed me so. Our family and Sam are so covered with prayer. It is so exciting so see what God is going to do in our lives through Sam.

Sweet helper!

So, I'm in the middle of putting together this wonderful blog post about this shower and I get a phone call. A friend of mine who is also on this adoption journey calls to tell me to check my e-mail. In an e-mail to both of us, our agency tells us each of our court dates.

OCTOBER 6th

We will stand before a judge in a far away country and convince her that Sam should be made ours. We are so excited and a little bit nervous. Please keep us in your prayers!!

6 comments:

ConnieSeptember 15, 2011 at 2:05 PM
Rejoicing with you at receiving your court date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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JeanetteSeptember 15, 2011 at 7:04 PM
Woohoo!!!!! Wonderful news!!!! Shower looked beautiful!!
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SarahSeptember 15, 2011 at 7:40 PM
Whooooot!
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AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 7:34 AM
Awesome news!! I am so happy for you. I have been following Sam since he was on Mckmama's blog. I am so excited for him. The shower looks so fun and it is great that you have some cool stuff for Sam. Yay!! Let the countdown begin!!!

Sharon
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AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 9:45 PM
I check in on your blog all the time........I too saw the story of "Sam" on Jennifer McKinney's blog.....and in another town......God TOUCHED you.......and told you to go get Sam.......our God is an awesome God!

Sam isn't going to know what hit him when he comes into such a large and loving family as yours.......plus a whole gang of loving nuts down at your Church!!!

Oh goodness.......I wish I could be right there to watch the whole darn thing. I truly do.

(For some reason your blog hasn't allowed me to sign in under my email account.......my name is Barb Malley....I don't want to be anonymous).
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AnonymousSeptember 17, 2011 at 1:37 PM
So happy for you and for Sam... I love the comment above "Sam isn't going to know what hit him when he comes into such a large and loving family..." I was thinking that exact same thing!
Becki Davis
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"Tony" Adoption Timeline

May 14, 2013

Asked for information about "Tony".

June 7, 2013

Submitted applications to both home study and placing agency.

June 25, 2013

First home study visit.

June 27, 2013

Letter of Intent (LOI) submitted.

July 8, 2013

Pre-Approval (PA) received.

July 29, 2013

Homestudy Complete and approved by placing agency.

I800a sent to placing agency.

August 14, 2013

I-800a received by USCIS

October 25, 2013

Request for Evidence issued. Duty of Candor statement for adult children left out of home study.

October 29, 2013

RFE received

October 30, 2013

Addendum overnighted to USCIS.

November 12, 2013

I800a approval received, Documents certified by Secretary of State, and overnighted to courier to take to Chinese Consulate.

November 18, 2013

Received a phone call from courier, our dossier was returned to her not authenticated. Turns out our state got a new SOS the week before our certification and the Chinese Consulate did not have the signatory forms for the new SOS.

November 21, 2013

Dossier resubmitted to Chinese Consulate.

November 26, 2013

Dossier picked up by courier and forwarded to agency.

December 3, 2013

Dossier to China (DTC)

December 18, 2013

Dossier officially logged in

December 31, 2013

Dossier out of translation

January 28, 2014

Letter of Approval (LOA)

February 3, 2014

Received LOA - delayed do to snow storm

February 5, 2014

I800 sent by agency to USCIS

February 11, 2014

I800 Receipt

February 21, 2014

I800 Provisional Approval

February 28, 2014

Received e-mail info from National Visa Center

March 1, 2014

DS260 completed

March 5, 2014

Received pdf letter from NVC

March 6, 2014

Article 5 papers dropped of at US Consulate

March 20, 2014

Article 5 picked up and sent to CCCWA.

Travel Approval wait begins.

March 31, 2014

Travel Approval Received

"Sam" Adoption Timeline

11/08/2010 Made the decision to adopt. Reckless Abandon

12/08/2010 Officially committed to Sam and started Home Study Process

12/13/2010 Application received by Adoption Agency

12/21/2010 Home Study Visit

12/28/2010 Started online International Adoption Course

(required education)

1/2/2011 Completed Online Course

1/15/2011 All Homestudy Paperwork Turned In.

1/28/2011 Received Draft of Homestudy, but realized needed to have background checks on two oldest girls. Waiting for those to be completed.

2/8/2011 While waiting for completion of Homestudy, finished collecting all papers for Application Dossier.

2/17/2011 Attended our first DSAT meeting

3/4/2011 Home Study Complete

3/5/2011 Application Dossier Complete and Apostilled

3/8/2011 Dossier sent to our adoption agency

3/10/2011 Dossier received by agency. Notary mistake on two copies of a document by our home study agency. Picked up corrected copies of document.

3/11/2011 Mailed corrected copies to friend that works at the state capitol to be apostilled.

3/12/2011 Friend received documents, had them apostilled, and sent them on to adoption agency.

Sent I-600a to USCIS

3/19/2011 Received text that USCIS received I-600a

3/28/2011 Received USCIS Biometrics appointments for parents

3/30/2011 Received USCIS Biometrics appointments for adult daughters

3/30/2011 Registration Dossier sent to Sam's country

4/8/2011 USCIS fingerprints done

4/25/2011 Registration Dossier officially submitted

5/3/2011 USCIS Requests more information

5/9/2011 USCIS Approved

5/23/2011 Received word that Dossier was officially registered, waiting for travel date.

6/14/2011 Received our travel date. We will be meeting Sam on 6/29/2011

6/26/2011 Left for Sam's country

6/27/2011 Arrived in Sam's country

6/29/2011 Had a 20 minute visit with Sam.

6/30/2011 Had a 1 hour visit with Sam.

7/1/2011 Had a 1 1/2 hour visit with Sam.

7/2/2011 Arrived back home glad to see our kids.

8/1/2011 Kids had their medical exam.

8/2/2011 Social worker visited to update our home study.

8/4/2011 Facilitator let us know she wants us to wait on home study update until judge sees our dossier.

So, scramble to get the rest of our dossier together.

8/5/2011 Court Dossier is apostilled and sent to our agency.

8/17/2011 Court Dossier forwarded to Sam's country.

9/5/2011 Court Dossier submitted to the judge.

9/15/2011 Got our court date: October 6th, 2011

10/2/2011 Arrived in Sam's country for our court trip.

10/4/2011 Medical Exams

10/6/2011 We are named parents of "Sam" now Alexander Savely Mounts by an EE judge.

10/7/2011 Head home to wait out the 10 day waiting period.

10/17/2011 Head back to St Petersburg, Russia

10/20/2011 Gotcha Day!!

10/21/2011 Applied for his Passport, takes 5 business days.

10/28/ 2011 Got Alex's Russian Passport.

10/30/2011 Take train to Moscow.

10/31/2011 Alex's medical exam and paperwork submitted to USCIS for immigration.

11/01/2011 Appointment at the US Embassy and got Alex's visa.

11/02/2011 Paperwork submitted to Russian Consulate for registration.

11/04/2011 Fly Home!!