“Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
It’s going to be endurance that gets us through this adoption. The latest update on our adoption is that we have to renew our immigration paperwork with USCIS (U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services) as our approval expiration date is fast approaching in November 2013. In order to renew and extend the approval for immigration, we need to submit an updated copy of our home study, which we completed last April. Our home study agency was separate from our main agency as our main agency is located in AZ and our home study agency had to be in CA. “No problem” we thought naively, we will just contact our home study agency and get a renewed version to send in. And then this happened: Siana dialed the phone number – it is no longer in service. The agency has closed, no forwarding info.
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
We were panicked and resigned to the fact that we were going to have to do the entire home study over. But after much digging through old emails we found another phone number for the previous director of said agency and found out that all the files from the closed agency were sent to another agency. Yay!! We contacted the new agency and yes they have all our files and can do an update. Whew. Of course an update requires re-doing things like TB tests and a few other annoying documents, but it’s better than having to do EVERYTHING over so we can’t complain. Much. Well maybe we just did….
In case you are ever in a situation and this happens to you, here are the steps for renewing USCIS approval and/or requesting an extension:
- Step 1: Send in a request to USCIS to extend the deadline due to the extenuating circumstance of having to renew a home study with a new agency. We’ve been told they usually approve these extensions, fingers crossed they do so we don’t also have to do the whole USCIS process over. Also this renewal is free. Finally something is free!
- Step 2: Get the update started, this may require doctor visits again, more fingerprinting (really?!), employment verification and financial information. If this were a movie it would be called Home Study, Part II: This time it’s personal. And by personal we mean they want to see our bank accounts, etc. This step is not free, but also not as much as re-doing the home study from scratch, so that is a definite plus!
Marathon Training Update
The latest on our marathon training is that we’ve gotten up to running 8 miles, woo hoo! Siana has never run this much before and is in awe that she’s still standing. Edgar seems pretty cool about it all,whatever, show off… 🙂 Each week we add more miles and hope to keep going. We are grateful for our pace groups and can’t imagine training for a marathon without our training program with LA Roadrunners. We are actually happy to have something to distract us from the delays and obstacles of the adoption process. Having to get ourselves up and out of bed early on Saturday morning to do our long runs is, well, therapeutic.
Nopal Update
They’re still growing strong. Gotta be a good sign, right?
OMG. I can’t believe what you are having to go through…..the only thing I had to renew was my CORI before I went back to Russia the second time.
Masha will be running her third 5K on Thanksgiving. We’ll be thinking of you marathon day….
Stay strong.
Xxoo,
Claudia