We took off for Lexington again tonight for our 2nd group. It's funny the people that you run into. A girl that Michael had went to school with was there with their new baby. Such a small world. You just never know. It was good to talk to them and hear about their experience with domestic adoption.
There are usually different people there. Still a lot of the same faces but lots of new ones to. Everyone is so nice and it's really great to be able to share in the joy and pain. Tonight 2 different couples were there that had just been through a failed match during the last month since we had met. There were lots of tears as the birthmom had changed her mind after the baby was born. I just don't know how I could have dealt with something like that. It has to be devastating.
On a happier note, our crib has been ordered from JCPenny and should be in on the 10th. I'm really excited about it. It's our first nursery purchase. It's a convertable crib, so it will last him forever. I can't wait. We still haven't decided on decor yet. We've got plenty of time for that.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
FMLA drama. 02/26/04
Well, let me tell ya. Today was the day from you know where. I never would have imagined that my employer could be so hard to deal with. The entire time that I've worked in the Lab we have been able to make up our time if we were out. This is what I'd been doing all along. I'd have to leave to chase down papers, I would take a lunch or I'd stay over. Well, apparantly someone's been abusing the fact that we have that option and the employee's down on the floor are complaining. So we get an email from our boss in the Lab that no more flex time. I broke down in tears and went into his office and asked if that meant I was just going to have to take points whenever I had to leave for the adoption process. Looks like it. At this rate I won't have a job by the time we get all of this done.
Luckily my Daddy was there for me to cry on his shoulder and we started looking for a solution. I had already been told my HR and Michael's HR that we would not be eligible for FMLA until after the adoption was final. WTF?? I had approached HR again before I ran crying to Dad to see if there was anything that could be done. Nope. We got on the FMLA site and printed out the rules of FMLA. Turns out that it covers anything up to and including the adoption that relates to the process. I mean I had been told by 2 different people that that wasn't the case. They never even offered to look up "policy". It was just going to be because they said so. Dad and I drug out the BIG yellow highlighter and made the important information very noticiable. If you know what I mean and I marched my butt straight to HR and laid it on her desk and asked her what she thought about that. I thought she was going to swallow her tounge. Needless to say FMLA papers were signed and all was right with the world again. For now anyway.
Luckily my Daddy was there for me to cry on his shoulder and we started looking for a solution. I had already been told my HR and Michael's HR that we would not be eligible for FMLA until after the adoption was final. WTF?? I had approached HR again before I ran crying to Dad to see if there was anything that could be done. Nope. We got on the FMLA site and printed out the rules of FMLA. Turns out that it covers anything up to and including the adoption that relates to the process. I mean I had been told by 2 different people that that wasn't the case. They never even offered to look up "policy". It was just going to be because they said so. Dad and I drug out the BIG yellow highlighter and made the important information very noticiable. If you know what I mean and I marched my butt straight to HR and laid it on her desk and asked her what she thought about that. I thought she was going to swallow her tounge. Needless to say FMLA papers were signed and all was right with the world again. For now anyway.
Fingerprints!!!!!!!! 02/20/04
Wow, that was fast. We got our appointment letter last week to have our fingerprints done today. Michael and I took off for the Gene Snyder Building in Downtown Louisville for our appointment. We got there early and let me tell you the place was packed and we had to wait forever, but what do you do but suck it up and wait. This is one step that we can't "skip". We met lots of adoptive parents while we were waiting. One couple had been in the process so long that their fingerprints had expired and they were having to have them redone. Apparantly they are only good for 1 year. Yikes!!!!!!!! What if it takes us longer than a year???
Turns out a big part of the wait was the fingerprinting machine was broken. Go figure. Once they got it fixed things started moving. We were there almost 2 hours before it was finally our turn. It wasn't what we had expected. I thought just the cop shows on T.V. LOL Black ink and white 10 card. Nope not at all. It was some sort of scanner that they rolled your fingers around on. No ink just some corn huskers lotion. This just all gets more interesting everyday.
After our fingerprint appointment was done, we went and ate lunch at Pizza Hut. Our favorite. :o) Then it was off to Walgreens to have our pics taken for our passports. It only takes a couple of minutes to get them and then we took off for the post office to drop off our passport applications.
Turns out a big part of the wait was the fingerprinting machine was broken. Go figure. Once they got it fixed things started moving. We were there almost 2 hours before it was finally our turn. It wasn't what we had expected. I thought just the cop shows on T.V. LOL Black ink and white 10 card. Nope not at all. It was some sort of scanner that they rolled your fingers around on. No ink just some corn huskers lotion. This just all gets more interesting everyday.
After our fingerprint appointment was done, we went and ate lunch at Pizza Hut. Our favorite. :o) Then it was off to Walgreens to have our pics taken for our passports. It only takes a couple of minutes to get them and then we took off for the post office to drop off our passport applications.
The Homestudy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 02/09/04
Whooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!! Today I am taking off work to pickup the homestudy and drop it off at INS. I am so excited I can't hardly stand it. Once they get the homestudy, we can get fingerprinted and then the wait for the sought after I-171H. Which is the approval to bring an orphan into the U.S.
I dropped the homestudy off early this morning and they said they would be mailing us an appointment for our fingerprints. Things are starting to move along much faster than I had thought.
I'm going to start working at Mom's office on Fridays to make some extra money and keep myself occupied since I'm not chasing down papers everywhere. I've gotten all of our papers for the regions typed up and ready to go, our physicals are in order, criminal background checks are in, police clearance is in, abuse check is in, homestudy is ready to go, employment verification letters are done, our social workers license, agency license, post placement agreement, our deed, am I forgetting something??? We have to send off to get our passports which takes about 6 weeks to get them back and the I-171H and we have everything. We've still got about 2 months to get those 2 things together and send off the completed dossier.
I dropped the homestudy off early this morning and they said they would be mailing us an appointment for our fingerprints. Things are starting to move along much faster than I had thought.
I'm going to start working at Mom's office on Fridays to make some extra money and keep myself occupied since I'm not chasing down papers everywhere. I've gotten all of our papers for the regions typed up and ready to go, our physicals are in order, criminal background checks are in, police clearance is in, abuse check is in, homestudy is ready to go, employment verification letters are done, our social workers license, agency license, post placement agreement, our deed, am I forgetting something??? We have to send off to get our passports which takes about 6 weeks to get them back and the I-171H and we have everything. We've still got about 2 months to get those 2 things together and send off the completed dossier.
Our first support group!! 02/05/04
Well, tonight we took off for Lexington for our first support group. It was really very nice to meet other adoptive couples. We were the only couple adopting internationally so everyone was very curious about our process. It was good to talk to a group of people that understand what you are going through. As hard as friends/family try, until you've actually been through this you can't even imagine.
The amount of hoops that we are having to jump through to have our dream come true is unreal. What comes so easy to the majority has proven to be the impossible for us. This is turning out to be quite the learning process. Some days are better than others I just hope it doesn't take a terribly long time for us to be united with our baby. We are in the process now of what adoptive parents lovingly call "paper pregnant"
I am actually looking forward to our next support group as this was our first interaction with other adoptive couples. We may actually go to more than the required 3.
The amount of hoops that we are having to jump through to have our dream come true is unreal. What comes so easy to the majority has proven to be the impossible for us. This is turning out to be quite the learning process. Some days are better than others I just hope it doesn't take a terribly long time for us to be united with our baby. We are in the process now of what adoptive parents lovingly call "paper pregnant"
I am actually looking forward to our next support group as this was our first interaction with other adoptive couples. We may actually go to more than the required 3.
Still pecking away at "the list"
Wow, there is just so much to do. It's unreal. Still waiting on the homestudy to be O.K'd so that I can turn it in to INS and get our appointment to be fingerprinted. It's such a good thing that I'm off on Friday's. I get so much done. This Friday I have to make a run into Louisville to pick up an employment verification form for Michael. We got the spindles put up on the deck on over the weekend. Thanks so much to Mom, Dad, Ed and Charlotte for pitching in and helping us get this done in the middle of the winter. You guys are the best. Now the fun part will be staining all of those things this summer. Wonder if I can invite everyone over to help with that little task? :o)
Aside from starting on the nursery we are just in a holding pattern for paperwork right now. We haven't decided on what we are going to decorate with yet. We are going to wait for awhile before we get that far in.
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