I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by fellow blogger Carrie. I'm supposed to post 6 weird things about myself, so here goes....

1. I don't like state fairs. Too many people, too many smells.

2. I don't like butterflies. They are just pretty moths and moths are creepy. My dislike of butterflies borders on phobia.

3. I can do a thumbs-up with my big toes. I used to think everyone could but it turns out it's a genetic trait like tongue curling (which by the way I can NOT do.)

4. I cannot sleep with any glowing light in a room ie digital clock, green dot on the cable TV box, etc. I swear I can still see it with my eyes closed. (Michael thinks that's crazy)

5. This probably isn't too weird, but I'm addicted to reality TV. Mostly American Idol, Amazing Race, and Survivor.

6. I'm allergic to coconut.

I'm sure my friends and family would have no problem making a list for me a mile long but these are the best 6 I could come up with. Now I'm off to go tag some other bloggers :-)

Letters to Congress

With the increased wait for referral it has become evident that one of our most important adoption documents will potentially expire before we travel to get our daughter. Remember the cool "approval to bring an orhan into the US" letter that we were so excited to get in the mail back in January? Well it's only good for 18 months. That didn't used to be a problem. Now it might be, so it's been suggested by many that we all write letters to our senators and representatives to get them to extend the expiration so we don't all have to get re-fingerprinted and pay another huge chunk of money to reapply for a new approval letter.

Here's the letter that I wrote to send to my Ohio representative and senators:

April 18, 2006

The Honorable Mike DeWine
37 W. Broad St., Ste. 300
Columbus, OH 43215

Subject: Foreign adoption
Request: Please help extend expiration date of USCIS form I-171H

Dear Senator DeWine,

This letter is to voice my concern over the expiration timing of form I-171H (Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition) and the fingerprints associated with this approval process.

Currently, adoptive parents are required to resubmit to fingerprinting after 15 months, and resubmit the entire application after 18 months from date of initial approval. There is significant cost and burden time associated with both of these steps.

In recent months it has become clear that processing time for international adoption, from China specifically, will possibly exceed the 18 month expiration window. In the near future there will likely be an extraordinary number of families needing to reprocess paperwork if there are no changes to the current expiration dates.

Increasing the period of validity of this document to at least 24 months (preferably 36 months) would benefit both the adoptive families and the USCIS offices that are required to process numerous applications per year.

We realize your time is limited so we appreciate any attention you can give to this issue and any results you may be able to prompt on our behalf.

Sincerely,

my name

Any of our family or friends are more than welcome to copy this letter or write your own to your representatives to help all the adoptive parents plead their case :-)

You can find contact info for your state's people by going to www.congress.org

Thanks!!

Secret Pal swap

We are in a secret pal gift exchange with other families from our agency that turned in their paperwork aobut the same time. We got our first gift this week. The theme was children's books. We were totally spoiled by our secret pal!
They gave us 7 books, a bib, a soft ladybug basket and a bunny that says "My First Easter."

Our social worker is moving

We got an email last week and a hard copy letter yesterday from our homestudy agency that our social worker is moving and leaving her job :-(

We liked her. Even though our homestudy is complete we will still need post placement visits through this agency. I had a ton of questions that I was saving for her for when we get closer to referral but now we have to establish a relationship with someone new. They have not filled her position yet so I have no idea when we will be assigned a new person. I just liked knowing she was there if/when we needed her. ...sigh...

Funny bunnies

I don't have anything adoption related to report so I'm posting this for everyone's amusement.
My dearest friend who truly knows my sense of humor emailed me this so I had to share :-)