after being totally patient throughout this whole journey, i finally broke down and emailed bettina yesterday morning to see if she had any updates on our article 5. she wrote back in the afternoon and said that luz stella (our representative in bogota) informed her that it should be ready on monday and that she would be requesting our travel dates at los pisingos on monday. yay!!!
i woke up this morning just after 7:00 and couldn't get back to sleep...i'm getting so excited now! was thinking about all the things we need to do this weekend in case we travel next saturday (heath is in vegas monday-friday for work, so i'll be doing a lot of packing and last minute items on my own). as ready as we are, there are still lots of little things to do. think i'll start laying out all of cruz's things that we're taking. fun!
have a great weekend!
ang
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Hurry Up!
no news on our article 5 yet and we are starting to get a little impatient! did hear from bettina yesterday and she said she would be checking in with the u.s. embassy in bogota again yesterday, but haven't heard any more since. boo! we are SO ready to go. heath goes to vegas next monday-friday for work and is hoping we can leave the next day. if we don't hear anything tomorrow, it's looking it will be at least the 12th when we go. shout out to the zuge family who get to leave for bogota on saturday! travel safe! we can't wait to meet you guys and the jaenischs at hotel paris! :)
Friday, January 14, 2011
Moving Along...
two key updates today!
1. i fed-ex'ed our dossier updates to colombia tonight (they should arrive on tuesday)
2. we received our I-800 provisional approval in the mail today! (2 business days earlier than we expected...hopefully that's a good sign that things continue to progress quickly!) this means i will forward our DS230 to colombia for cruz on monday.
happy weekend!
ang
1. i fed-ex'ed our dossier updates to colombia tonight (they should arrive on tuesday)
2. we received our I-800 provisional approval in the mail today! (2 business days earlier than we expected...hopefully that's a good sign that things continue to progress quickly!) this means i will forward our DS230 to colombia for cruz on monday.
happy weekend!
ang
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
We're Getting Closer...
so today we had our conference call with bettina from lss over our lunch hours...it was kinda cute - you can tell we're both so excited that we were home in PLENTY of time for the call (she said she'd call at noon and we were both here by 11:40!). when the phone rang at noon we picked it up and put it on speaker and placed it in the middle of our kitchen table, notebooks & pens in hand for notetaking! here are some highlights from the call:
-should have our immigration approval on or around the 18th
-following that approval, we then sumbit our '230' form to the embassy in colombia
-230 form takes about 5 days to turn around
-approval of 230 form then produces 'article 5'
-'article 5' is sent to los pisingos at which time they can assign us travel dates!
-travel dates can be assigned for as soon as ~1 week out (meaning if we receive travel dates on 1/31, we could travel the following weekend)
-once travel dates are set, we fly to chicago to meet with colombian consulate for visa approval
-upon visa approval, we are allowed to travel
-most likely we will travel on a friday, saturday or sunday (we're thinking saturday so we have at least one full day to acclimate to bogota)
-presentation days (or 'gotcha days') at LP are always on a monday or tuesday, so once we travel cruz will be in our arms in ~48 hours or less!
as of right now, we are hoping to most likely travel either the weekend of february 4th or the 11th. (our dossier updates are being overnighted either friday or monday and it takes about two weeks for translation....the translated documents need to be at LP before we can travel.) this crazy and amazing journey continues and our ultimate prize is getting very close! stay tuned - it's been quite a ride!
ang & heath
-should have our immigration approval on or around the 18th
-following that approval, we then sumbit our '230' form to the embassy in colombia
-230 form takes about 5 days to turn around
-approval of 230 form then produces 'article 5'
-'article 5' is sent to los pisingos at which time they can assign us travel dates!
-travel dates can be assigned for as soon as ~1 week out (meaning if we receive travel dates on 1/31, we could travel the following weekend)
-once travel dates are set, we fly to chicago to meet with colombian consulate for visa approval
-upon visa approval, we are allowed to travel
-most likely we will travel on a friday, saturday or sunday (we're thinking saturday so we have at least one full day to acclimate to bogota)
-presentation days (or 'gotcha days') at LP are always on a monday or tuesday, so once we travel cruz will be in our arms in ~48 hours or less!
as of right now, we are hoping to most likely travel either the weekend of february 4th or the 11th. (our dossier updates are being overnighted either friday or monday and it takes about two weeks for translation....the translated documents need to be at LP before we can travel.) this crazy and amazing journey continues and our ultimate prize is getting very close! stay tuned - it's been quite a ride!
ang & heath
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Celebrating Cruz @ Cravings
we are so lucky and blessed! last night our good friends cyndi and julie hosted a fabulous baby shower for me at cravings wine bar & grille here in woodbury. the weather and road conditions had been a little questionable all day, but the turnout was amazing! all total, there were twelve of us there to celebrate baby cruz. grandma judy and auntie mel got to meet several of my girlfriends for the first time, so now they can all finally put faces with names when i talk about everyone!
cyndi and jules were perfect hostesses: we played some fun games (not gonna lie, i actually took 1st or 2nd place in all of them!), ate some delicious food and drank some tasty wine (yes, that is one of the perks of adopting!). once again, everyone was more than generous with their gift giving as we received so many awesome gifts...everything from his high chair to a handmade diaper cake, courtesy of cyndi, and everything in between! cruz is one lucky little boy and we feel very blessed to have such wonderful & supportive friends and family. thank you everyone and a special thanks to cyndi & jules. love you all!
the hostesses: jules & cyn
cyndi and jules were perfect hostesses: we played some fun games (not gonna lie, i actually took 1st or 2nd place in all of them!), ate some delicious food and drank some tasty wine (yes, that is one of the perks of adopting!). once again, everyone was more than generous with their gift giving as we received so many awesome gifts...everything from his high chair to a handmade diaper cake, courtesy of cyndi, and everything in between! cruz is one lucky little boy and we feel very blessed to have such wonderful & supportive friends and family. thank you everyone and a special thanks to cyndi & jules. love you all!
the hostesses: jules & cyn
Monday, January 3, 2011
2011 is Gonna Be Good!
happy new year everyone! i hope you all enjoyed your holidays and had a little fun ringing in 2011. we were very blessed this christmas and even if cruz was celebrating in bogota, he was still very much a part of our holiday season. cruz is so loved by everyone and is already getting a bit spoiled (i think he deserves it though!). he received some adorable outfits from family and friends and his auntie mel even gave him a carseat! (there's a funny story behind all of that...you'll have to ask her or me about it sometime.)
our i-800 was overnighted to USCIS on 12.23 and our lss rep, sue, told us that we should hopefully receive approval around 1.18 (there is an average 15-business day turnaround and we were lucky enough to hit three federal holidays in that span!). once we receive that approval we will then fax cruz's application for immigration visa and alien registration to the U.S. Embassy in colombia which in turn kicks out an 'article 5' to lssmn and provides us with our travel date! in the mean time, we sent cruz a little package with some photos of his family, a stuffed puppy, a letter from mommy & daddy and a disposable camera (in hopes that some of his friends at pisingos will take some photos of him during his last month at the orphanage). we've also been busy purchasing some additional baby items and i am lucky enough to be blessed with another baby shower this coming friday night! big thanks to cyndi & julie for hosting this one...love you ladies!
it was wonderful seeing so many of you over the holiday season. we hope all of you had as blessed a christmas as we did and we wish you all be the best in 2011. it's gonna be good!
our i-800 was overnighted to USCIS on 12.23 and our lss rep, sue, told us that we should hopefully receive approval around 1.18 (there is an average 15-business day turnaround and we were lucky enough to hit three federal holidays in that span!). once we receive that approval we will then fax cruz's application for immigration visa and alien registration to the U.S. Embassy in colombia which in turn kicks out an 'article 5' to lssmn and provides us with our travel date! in the mean time, we sent cruz a little package with some photos of his family, a stuffed puppy, a letter from mommy & daddy and a disposable camera (in hopes that some of his friends at pisingos will take some photos of him during his last month at the orphanage). we've also been busy purchasing some additional baby items and i am lucky enough to be blessed with another baby shower this coming friday night! big thanks to cyndi & julie for hosting this one...love you ladies!
it was wonderful seeing so many of you over the holiday season. we hope all of you had as blessed a christmas as we did and we wish you all be the best in 2011. it's gonna be good!
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