School....

My daughter started school this week. Finally, something to concentrate on other than the adoption! We are using a different curriculum than last year, and love it so far! (It's the Lifepacs from Alpha Omega.) I was homeschooled in middle school with the same thing and I liked it. We also seem to have lots of extra time to do stuff I want to do. Like play with that globe beach ball she's holding in the picture! We even have time for art & music class.

And yes, we got her a bookbag even though she doesn't go to 'real' school. Bookbag shopping was always her favorite thing about school, so I just couldn't take that away from her!

By the First of September...

Well, a supervisor from the NBC called me back the other day. He wasn't able to help either. But he said they plan for all the boxes to be unpacked by the first of September. At least that's some kind of time frame. He said there are about 20 people working overtime on weekdays and Saturdays trying to get it all done. Still isn't as logical as unpacking the old boxes before processing new applications, but hey- who needs logic?

Anyways- I've already been sitting around since March with no progress. What's another couple of weeks?
 
Six months of nothing- here I come!

Weekends...

I HATE weekends. They used to be fun. Not this year! At least on weekdays I have this small inkling of hope that someone will actually call/mail/email me with something. Anything. But not on the weekends. All offices and agencies are closed. On weekends I just feel so hopeless.

Absolutely hopeless.

I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. It's hard to sleep. I'm not about to hang out with friends, for fear they might ask me how things are going. Can't even talk about it without crying. And my poor daughter. I know she feels like she has a hundred year old mom, because I never feel like doing anything. I am so emotionally and spiritually drained that I feel half dead.

I read other people's blog, and they all seem to be going somewhere. They get court dates. They meet their kids. They bring them home. Me? I'm just frozen.

Maybe, Just Maybe.......

I just spoke to a WONDERFUL lady at the NBC in MO. She didn't say "Sorry, you're file is in a box. We don't have a timeframe."


She asked me lots of information on my case. She asked the date I filed. The date I submitted my homestudy, and to which office it was submitted.

She asked me to email her copies of my receipt notices and stuff like that from USCIS.

She is going to request my file. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, she will take my file out of the notorious box in the back room?

I. Hope. So!

In Hiding....

Over the weekend some friends asked my husband, daughter and I to come to their pool. It's a weekly thing. We all (about 7 couples) get together and just hang out with the kids at the pool. But this weekend- I wasn't interested.

I haven't even wanted to hang out with the extended family lately.

I try to escape church before I see one of our friends after the service.

I avoid making new friends.

Truthfully- I'm afraid someone will ask about our adoption. How is it going? And I don't want to have to answer.

I'm tired of saying "I don't know." Or "We're still working on it." Or "It's just going very slow"....

I'm tired of explaining where we are in the process, and why it hasn't changed.


I'm in hiding.


Praying that something will happen. Soon.

NBC.....

Just as sort of an update... I am still waiting on my 171H. I filed the I600A in January. My homestudy was sent to DSS in March. DSS sent it to USCIS in May. On July 1st, all local offices sent all of their I600A's to the MO National Benefits Center to be processed. I have called twice a week since the first week of July. Everytime I call I am told "I apologize, but your file is still in a box in the back. We can't give you a timeframe of when your case will be looked at." Someone is supposedly unpacking the boxes and entering the information into their system. Then the file gets assigned to a worker. My case isn't in the system yet.




So this time I asked the rep about the cases that she is currently working on. What date were they filed? The answer: July. So the people who have filed recently are getting approvals VERY quickly. (Which I am glad about. I wouldn't want anyone to wait.) However, all the new files are being worked immediately. They haven't made time to even take the old files out of the boxes in the back room.



Seems a little backwards, doesn't it?



Anyways- someone suggested that I contact my senator to get involved. (Glad she thought of that. I'm not that resourceful!!!) So, I called them today. They are very nice. They emailed me a form to fill out and send back to them. Hopefully they will be able to help!

So Tired of Waiting......

I am seriously losing my patience! When we first started this whole adoption process, I thought for sure our kids would be home by this time! Instead, we haven't even met them! Haven't been to court. Haven't really progressed at all in the last 5 months! I understand things just go slow sometimes. But geez louise! I want my kids!!!