Saving Sofia: World's Greatest Parents

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

World's Greatest Parents

I will never be able to thank my parents enough for watching our 3 boys these past two weeks. We plan on coming home on Friday night and I'm sure they can't WAIT to have the house to themselves!

Thank you Mom and Papa (a.k.a. Nana and Grandpa) for loving our boys and loving us enough to watch them! We know how much you sacrifice for us and this is yet another one of those times. We could not have adopted Sofia without knowing that our boys would be in the best of hands.

Thank you always. And thank you also to so many of my friends that also helped out with the boys while we were gone. SO many of you...Michelle, Lisa, Katie, Christine, Cathy, Paige, Mary Ellen, Jennifer, and MANY many others. Our village is amazing!

5 comments:

KelliMay 5, 2010 at 12:01 PM
...and you guys are amazing for what you are doing to bring home Sophia!! You are all amazing people!
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Monica CrumleyMay 5, 2010 at 12:18 PM
I'm sure you're counting the hours already! Is that with or without Sofia?
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LisaMay 5, 2010 at 8:08 PM
ANY time :)
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SharonMay 6, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Amazing parents and the best village!
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shereeMay 7, 2010 at 2:35 PM
Yes, HATS OFF to your mom and dad as well as friends and family who have stepped up!!
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Adoption Timeline

12-13-09- Grandma Esther passed away. Discovered Sofia at www.reecesrainbow.com and decided to donate to her grant fund in honor of Grandma and the Christmas Angel Tree Project. Couldn't get her off my mind.

1-1-10- Received Sofia's Christmas Angel Tree ornament and put it on our Christmas Tree. Still constantly thinking about her.

1-24-10- Hector and I decided to commit to adopting Sofia. Contacted Andrea at Reece's Rainbow.

1-25-10- Contacted Across the World Adoptions to begin the Home Study.

1-26-10- Sent our application to Reece's Rainbow and sent a check for the FSP Donation, Love Offering and Promise Trust.

1-27-10- Jen's physical completed. Vaccines administered. FBI and DOJ/Child Abuse fingerprinting completed.

1-28-10- Faxed Home Study Application and Agreement. Mailed hard copy.

1-29-10- Hector's fingerprints completed for FBI and DOJ/Child Abuse. Completed the required 10 hours of International Adoption education credits.

1-31-10- Mailed USCIS our I-600A application and fees.

2-1-10- Employment verifications completed for Home Study. School evaluations completed on Diego and Mateo. Received dossier paperwork from Reece's Rainbow.

2-4-10- Assigned a social worker for our Home Study at Across the World Adoptions. Had over 15 documents notarized.

2-5-10- Hector's physical completed. Vaccines administered. Child Specific Petition and Power of Attorney's notarized and ready for apostille.

2-8-10- CSP and POA's apostilled and shipped to Sofia's home country! First home study visit is scheduled for 2/15.

2-10-10- ALL paperwork completed for Home Study! YEAH! Working on gathering the rest of the dossier paperwork.

2-15-10- 1st Home Study Visit completed.

2-16-10- 2nd Home Study Visit completed.

2-22-10- Received our I-797C Notice of Action for our Orphan Petition.

2-25-10- State Police clearance fingerprinting done. Apostilled 20 documents at Secretary of State office.

3-1-10- Final revisions completed on Home Study.

3-2-10- Jennifer fingerprinted a third time for USCIS. Hector's police clearance letter received.

3-3-10- Hector fingerprinted a third time for USCIS.

3-4-10- Home Study, Agency License and Social Worker Licence notarized and mailed to us today.

3-11-10- USCIS Approval!

3-12-10- Dossier shipped out to Sofia's home country!

3-15-10- Dossier arrived in Sofia's home country!

3-25-10- Dossier officially submitted. Approximately 10 day wait to get travel date!

4-6-10- Received our SDA appointment for 4/22 at 9am! Booked our plane tickets for 4/19 arriving on 4/20.

4-14-10- Volcano erupts in Iceland causing flights to be grounded throughout Europe!

4-19-10- Flight is cancelled. No alternative routes are available. Requested new SDA appointment.

4-20-10- Got a last minute flight to Kiev through Vienna, Austria.

4-21-10- Arrived in Kiev, Ukraine!

4-22-10- Completed SDA appointment at 9am. Received referral at 6pm. Hopped on a midnight train to Dnep.

4-23-10-Arrived in Dnep at 7am and ran around Dnep for 11 hours today with our facilitator Marina gathering papers and getting notaries. Met Sofia!

4-26-10-Took Sofia out of the orphanage to get her picture taken for Visa immigration, US Embassy and the SDA. 7 day wait begins for court date.

4-27-10-Prosecutor says our documents are complete and ready for the judge and court proceedings.

4-29-10-Still waiting for interpol clearance so court date is set for 5/13.

4-30-10-Interpol clearance arrives. Court date moved to 5/6!

5-6-10- Court completed and Sofia Andrea Sanchez is officially adopted! 10 day wait begins.

5-16-10- Return trip is set for 6/6 and we'll arrive in Dnep on 6/8 to begin the process of bringing Sofia home, hopefully on or before 6/17.

6-8-10- Arrived in Sofia's region and completed all necessary paperwork for her new birth certificate and for her Ukraine passport.

6-10-10-GOTCHA day! Took Sofia out of the orphanage and home to our apartment.

6-11-10- Got Sofia's Ukrainian Passport and took overnight train back to Kiev. Changed return flight home to 6/15.

6-14-10- Got Sofia's Visa at the U.S. Embassy.

6-15-10- Going HOME!

6-16-10-Applied for Sofia's Social Security Card.

7-15-10- Received Sofia's official certificate of U.S. Citizenship in the mail.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

World's Greatest Parents

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