December 25th, 2010

Christmas time! I don't remember exactly when it arrived, but our adoption agency has sent us a 4 page document all about special needs. We filled out a similar form with our dossier about what special needs we would accept. You have to be brutally honest with yourselves when you fill these out, and some of the special needs are horrible diseases and problems. When we filled out the original one, it was just like a one page deal. This new and updated document was very detailed. I would say that over 75% of the items on the list we had to use Google to figure out what they were. Spinal Bifida, Down's Syndrome, the list went on and on. We sat down one night and just went through the list and decided what type of special needs we could handle. Missing Fingers? No problem, I can handle that. Deaf? Yup, I would take that. Blind? We decided against it. This went on for hours. Finally we were done and we sent it back to the adoption agency who then forwarded it to Bulgaria. We didn't think much about it...but it would be important later...

September 26, 2010

Our adoption agency has sent our dossier copies to Bulgaria's MOJ. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the FedEx bill to overnight a ream of paper from California to Bulgaria. Today we got word from our adoption agency that we are officially registered with the MOJ in Bulgaria! YES! It has been a long journey so far, but well worth it. We are now officially listed a prospective parents and the MOJ will do their best to match us up with a child who meets our requirements. I have never mentioned it before, but we have requested a sibling group of two children (with at least one girl) and from the ages of 2 to 7. We have also requested them to be basically healthy (ha! this will be an issue later, stay tuned).

A little more about this process, you have to actually choose parameters of what you want. Will you accept special needs children? how many? boy or girl? what age? As a side note, in Bulgaria they don't offer any children under age 2, so infants are out of the question. All of this information is noted on your I-800A form, so you really can't deviate from it, which is fine, because Bulgaria will match you up with what you want. The more precise your request, the longer you will wait for a child.

Well, now the waiting begins. We are hunkering down for a long wait, hoping that our choices (sibling group) will speed up our chances of a referral.

September 9th, 2010

Our adoption agency says that the dossier looks good, so we have made 5 exact copies of it to create one official dossier that is apostilled and 5 fakes (LOL). The six of them together are one ream of paper! We overnighted them to California (where our adoption agency is located). Here is what Rani had to say about it from our original blog:

After what at times seemed like more paperwork than any two people could manage to keep straight, we finally finished our dossier and got it sent off. After translation and a few more government channels, we are officially registered with the MOJ! Now it is up to someone else to juggle that mountain of paperwork that we sent off, and up to us to wait.

September 1st, 2010

This week we have been working on getting our apostille's done with the State of Ohio. It's not a hard process, but does cost 5 bucks per apostille, and we need like 10 of them or so, it starts to add up. Also, when we arrived to get them apostilled, we missed a page that needed to be notarized. Since we were downtown, we were able to run to our bank's downtown office and get it done, then we had to run to the Clerk of Courts and get it certified, then back to the state office. Whew! We will soon be done with the dossier and will send a copy of it to our adoption agency for them to approve it.

July 4th, 2010

Paperwork has been slow going. Part of this was not our fault, as Bulgaria has updated their paperwork requirements. So this means more paperwork! The big changes were for the medical paperwork, so off to the doctor again. The little things are finally getting completed, and we have been wandering around the state getting our notary certifications. Almost there! Soon we will have everything in order and will be able to get it all apostilled.

April 9th, 2010

I have mentioned it before, money. International adoptions are very expensive, but you can get over 10 thousand dollars back on your taxes after the adoption is complete. This was one of the things we took into consideration when we decided to adopt. But that was a couple of years ago. We found out that the current adoption credits are due to sunset (expire) at the end of 2010. This is bad news...our adoption is not going to be done this year. Anyway, good news comes, here is what Rani had to say about it on this date:

While it may not be a permanent tax credit, and it also may have been hidden in a seemingly un-related bill, the adoption tax credit *has* been extended another year. Hooray for small victories! See story below….

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/09/adoption-credit-expanded.html

Adoption credit expanded

Lower-income families qualify for new refund

Friday, April 9, 2010 2:49 AM

By Rita Price

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Low- and middle-income families who adopt children don’t have to miss out on a big tax break any longer.

If they don’t pay enough in taxes to allow for the credit for adoption-related expenses, the federal government will send them the difference in a refund. The credit tops out at $13,170.

That snippet of tax reform is part of the 2,000-page health-care law signed last month, and adoption advocates want to make sure prospective parents know about it.

“It’s been kind of buried in this huge thing,” said Mark McDermott, a Washington lawyer and member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. “But it’s a big deal for families.”

The new provision replaces and expands the adoption tax credit that was to expire in December. While the old law allowed a credit of up to $12,170 for both international and domestic adoption expenses, it offered less to low-income families, who might not earn enough to owe much tax.

They also tend to be the ones who adopt through the child-welfare system.

“It’s good news for foster-care adoption,” said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. “This is something really significant that families will be able to take advantage of.”

Critics had charged that the 12-year-old law, whose original intent was to promote the adoption of children languishing in the U.S. foster-care system, disproportionately benefited foreign and domestic private adoptions by higher-income families.

One researcher found that, in 2005, more than 80 percent of $355 million in adoption tax credits were taken on behalf of private adoptions. About 17 percent of the tax benefits received went to families adopting through the public foster-care system.

“Now, we’re going to be able to get those families a cash refund,” said Susan Garner Eisenman, an Upper Arlington adoption lawyer.

The law is in effect through 2011 and applies to adoptions this year and next.

International adoptions generally are the most expensive on the front end, with some families spending as much as $40,000 on travel, paperwork and other requirements.

Foster-care adoptions rarely cost more than $2,500 for paperwork and home studies, which sometimes are paid by agencies.

But that doesn’t mean families don’t incur expenses with former foster children, most of whom are considered special-needs adoptions, Eisenman said. Under the law, only certain expenses are allowed, but families don’t have to document them if the adoption is of a special-needs child.

For higher-income families, the full credit is available for incomes up to $182,520, McDermott said. Beyond that, the amount of the credit decreases as income rises until it hits zero for those making $222,520 or more.

Soronen said the challenge is making sure families know about the law. One report found that, in 2004, a credit was claimed for just 21percent of foster-care adoptions.

“Very, very few of the folks taking advantage were adopting through the foster system,” she said. “This will, I hope, help them.”

March 14th, 2010

Paperwork is going along quite well, at least on the surface! For the dossier, all of the documents that we are gathering have to be notarized. But wait, that's not good enough for Bulgaria. They need to be certified by the Clerk of Courts in each county that the notary resides. Oh wait, I'm sorry, that's *still* not good enough for international paperwork. Now that each notary has been certified, it has to be apostilled by your state. Then it can be sent to Bulgaria. Let the fun begin, as our paperwork has been notarized by people in three different counties. Like Stark County, in Canton...2 hours away...see I told you that was going to be a problem. Here is Rani's blog post for this date:

We received our ‘invitations’ to be fingerprinted in Friday’s mail - not a bad turn around time! Dare we hope that all of the processing of our I-800a form goes this well?

In the meantime, we have to start the process of going to the various counties in Ohio to get our notaries certified by the clerk of courts in the county of said notaries - a requirement for the apostille. Lucky for us, that is only 3 counties, and we live in one. Unlucky for us, the furthest one away has very limited information on their website concerning doing this. Still, gotta love a challenge…

March 1st, 2010

The second of our paperwork errors today, but it was easily rectified about a week later. Amazingly enough, tucked into the paperwork there is a toll free number for USCIS that actually gets you to a human immediately. If only I had found it the first time (of many) that I called USCIS. We are also waiting for USCIS to set us up with our fingerprint appointment. Yes, that's right, the state of Ohio, the FBI and USCIS don't talk to each other. They all need our fingerprints. Gotta love that! Here is what Rani had to say on this date in our original blog:

We received a letter from the government today stating that they have received our I-800a application - hooray! Alas, the personal information (Mike’s birthday) is wrong. Let the fun begin!

Trying to follow the instructions on how to rectify this, Mike called the USCIS customer service number. Perhaps it is from our call center work experience, but the experience failed to impress. However, after much time spent in prompter menus and two humans later, it was established that he needed to call a different number.

He called that number, spoke to a woman who knew what he was talking about (the prior number had never heard of the application), but advised that she couldn’t do anything about the error because the actual application hadn’t made it to her yet. After I mistakenly sent the application to Chicago, it was sent to Texas for processing. From there, it is apparently sent to Missouri, which is the actual location of the home office for adoption stuff.

We were just too on top of things, it seems. But, all is well, the application is at least received and making the rounds. Hopefully we can get the information corrected and get our fingerprint appointments soon!

February 22nd, 2010

This previous weekend we finally got our stuff in order and sent off our USCIS form I-800A. This form is like a "pre-approval" to adopt someone from another Hague country. Well, technically in government speak it is an "Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country". It requires $620 bucks, your home study and a lengthy application. Here is what Rani had to say about it on the original blog post on this date:

Sent our I-800A form off on Saturday. Wouldn’t you know it, I figured out today that the address we were supposed to send it to has changed? I should have checked earlier, I suppose, but I had just checked it when we started putting the form and paperwork together back in December. It will be forwarded, but I’m still kicking myself on that one.

Haven’t received our letter back from the FBI yet, but that is supposed to take 8-10 weeks, so we need to be patient on that one as well. I’m starting to realize that I don’t like all of this waiting. I know, I know, we’ll have to get used to it, and there are even bigger waits ahead of us, so this should be good practice, right? Riiiight…

In the meantime, we have a few more bits of paperwork to gather for our dossier: new letters of employment and also some paperwork about our finances and house. We’re getting down to the last of it, though - hooray!

January 17th, 2010

A new year, and renewed interest in our dossier. Hopefully we will get everything done here in a few months (yeah right). Rani mentions a us taking psych tests, but that never materialized. One less thing to worry about. Here is the original post on this date by Rani:

Finally! We got the final home study sent to us about a week ago, but we found a couple of typos, one which contained false information, so we had to send it back. New revised ones should be here this week I hope. Found out from our insurance company that they will not cover the STD and AIDS tests that we need to have done for Bulgaria, so looks like that is gonna cost us. Initial numbers look like 600 dollars plus for all the tests. Our adoption agency also wants psychological exams done, which are NOT required by Bulgaria, so we are going to question that, as once again, our insurance will not pay for them. I envision the tests being like the screening questions for replicants in Bladerunner…and I am afraid that I will say something stupid on the Rorschach ink blot tests

Waiting another paycheck or two and we will have the cash set aside for the US government forms, and then that ball will start to roll.

Wish us luck!