Well it's been a little frustrating (a lie it's been alot of frustration this week). We heard from Holt this week that Eva from KBF (agency affiliated with Holt in the Philippines)has requested the money from ICAB (the governing adoption body in the Philippines) for the boys' visas and medical appointments. This is part of the fees paid by us to Holt to send to ICAB for this purpose. We did our part, Holt did their part and now we wait for whenever ICAB sees fit to release the funds.

Apparently this has been an area in the adoption process that is becoming slower and slower for no forseeable reason that ICAB shares. This slow down has been brought to their attention by several agencies and ICAB says it is a temporary problem they hope to solve soon - -- -huh? It just is frustrating to know the boys are waiting, we're waiting and we are waiting on something as goofy as this. The sceptic in me says "Why should this take so long? They've got their the money from the U.S., where is it?" More patience needed on our part definately!

Waiting, waiting, waiting......

Well it's mid week of the week where NOTHING happens - We're trying to keep busy which isn't hard since school started today for both Sydney and myself. Rachel leaves for college next week. I'll be glad when this week is over because of the international conference going on right now I know nothing is happening and even if we don't hear anything next week I can convince myself something is moving forward cause everyone will be back at work in the adoption arena. Aren't head games wonderful!

Having Trouble Leaving Comments?

Hi - We've heard from many people that they have been unable to leave comments. Here are the directions for posting them: Click on "Comments" under whichever post you want. A window will come up and you can type your comment. Then choose the profile "name/url" type in your name only, leave the url blank. Click continue, click post, a message appears saying your post could not be processed please try again, click post again. Then you will see "your post has been published." Actually it won't publish on the web page until we've read it and clear it for post. Hope this helps everyone to leave comments, we will be especially grateful to read them while we are in the Philippines.

Visa File Uploaded to Manila

I spoke with the National Visa Center and they forwarded the boys' information to Manila on August 13. Now we will wait to hear. The 10th Global Adoption Conference is being held next week (all week) and everyone who handles adoptions will be involved so it will probably be at least a week and a half before we hear anything. Still it's good to know things at least are to this point.

Boys Going For Passports

Received word this a.m. that the boys will be going to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday morning for their passport applications. The powers that be are estimating they should be ready by the end of August.

I800 APPROVAL!

It's HERE! What is the I800 - as far as I can tell it's a major hurdle in the U.S. portion of our paperwork. We sent in the application roughly 2 weeks ago and the approval arrived today in the mail. It's dated last Friday. I almost didn't get it today - Rachel and I got home late from college shopping and luckily she stopped by the mailbox. She came to the house with this cheesy grin and said "Mom you got some big envelope from some citizenship place". For those of you who know the story of Rachel losing a portion of her finger earlier this year...let me tell you she about lost the hand holding the envelope tonight! Now we wait for visa processing, medical and visa appointments in the Philippines. Yippee for this latest development.

I800 at NCIS

We received our "receipt" notice that the I800 has made it to the office in Chicago. Now hopefully they can review and approve it in the speedy fashion that happened with the I800A. There is a huge adoption conference in mid August in the Philippines that will involve a lot of the people involved in Philippine adoptions so probably not a whole lot will get done on the paperwork end of things during that week.