Thursday, January 22, 2015

Quick PAIR Update

Just wanted to give a very quick update -- the Embassy interview went smoothly on 1/14!  The very next day we received an email from Embassy that the i-604 investigation was complete.  We were told it could take 1-2 weeks for our PAIR letter to arrive, but we were thrilled to receive it 1/20.  What does this all mean?  We have been CLEARED on the United States side of things.  We are waiting on only ONE thing - MOWCYA approval. 
Our original MOWCYA date was back on 10/29.  It did not happen that day, and instead we were made aware of several documents we needed to redo and resubmit.  Since then, we have not heard of a new MOWCYA date.  Many other families from our agency have had theirs, so we are hopeful we hear something soon.  We have no sense of a timeline, because EVERYTHING is contingent on MOWCYA.  If the review date is soon, and they approve, we could travel 1-2 weeks after that!!!!  We are praying that we hear something soon!  Please join us!  We so badly want to meet our sweet A!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The Latest

It's been almost 3 months since my last blog update, and since then we have had to re-do more documents, pay more bills, and mostly just continue to "hurry up and wait."  In an effort to keep this update somewhat short, I'll just do a timeline of sorts of what's been going on.  To make things easier to understand, keep in mind that anything to do with "PAIR" involves the investigations on the part of the United States, and anything with "MOWCYA" deals with the Ethiopia side of things.

11/1/14 - Received an RFE (Request for Evidence) from USCIS.
11/19/14 - MOWCYA is requiring new POA (Power of Attorney) paperwork that needs to be notarized, state certified, and authenticated.  We immediately got it notarized and sent it to be state certified.
11/25/14 - our new POA arrived at our agency.  They take it to the State Department & Ethiopian Embassy to be authenticated.
12/2/14 - received a grant from the RubyMyles Fund!!!!
12/5/14 - POA sent to Ethiopia
12/10/14 - documents needed for RFE received and immediately printed off & sent to USCIS
12/21/14 - received our updated i-171h (this had expired in mid-November) - need to notarize, certify, & authenticate a copy.
12/23/14 - received notification of PAIR filing - our case has moved to Embassy
1/2/15 - received certified i-171h and sent to agency to be authenticated.
1/5/15 - received request from Embassy to set up interview with relinquishing relative/finder.
           - also received notice that MOWCYA is requesting another new document - agency's commitment to post-placement services.  This is something that our agency's Pennsylvania office will fill out & get notarized.  MOWCYA is not requiring us to certify & authenticate this!!
1/6/15 - notified that Embassy interview will take place 1/14.
           - also on 1/6, received notice that MOWCYA is also requesting new application letters.  We needed to write a new letter & have it notarized, but do not need to certify & authenticate.  MOWCYA is allowing copies (for a limited time) so we can scan it immediately to AWAA.
1/10/15 - Travel vaccines
1/12/15 - received notarized Agency Commitment to Post Adoption Services, scanned & emailed to AWAA.

That pretty much brings us up to date!  Lots of redoing documents, which always means lots of money!  We are so thankful that our grant from the RubyMyles Fund covered it all!  And isn't it neat that we found out about it on the 3rd anniversary of when all our paperwork was originally sent to Ethiopia?  :)

Our i-171h is in the process of being authenticated, and should be on it's way to Ethiopia on Friday!  We are still waiting to hear when our MOWCYA date will be rescheduled from it's original date of 10/29. 

TOMORROW, at 5am our time (1pm Ethiopian time) a very important interview will be taking place at the US Embassy in Ethiopia.  If all goes well and no RFEs are requested, we could be completing the PAIR process within the next 1-2 weeks!  We are very cautiously optimistic that we will hear good news tomorrow, but there is always a possibility an interview will not be able to take place.  Please pray along with us that a favorable interview happens tomorrow!