Yeah!!! We had our adoption hearing today to validate the foreign adoption of our boys. All went well and the judge was happy to change both names and birth dates for us. The courts usually hear not so happy cases in family court, so...... this was a joyous occasion and they said we are the highlight of the week. O Happy Day! We all got to bang the gavel to make it official. That was fun. Nate banged 3 times, everyone else just a conservative one time. Fitting to personality. :)
We celebrated by swimming after swim lessons, going to the hearing, then Josh and John's ice cream and then pizza at Fargos. What fun. We are all tired and piling into bed as fast as we can. The boys don't understand at all, but the photos from Gram and Grampa should help them have some memories of it later on.
Rejoice with us on this happy day.
Now for the birth certificate, citizenship and SS#. Does the paperwork ever end? I think by the time we get all this done it will be time to fill out college applications!! Just kidding! I hope to have it done by the year end. We will see.
Ethiopia Videos
Friday, July 10, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Paperwork once you are home- validation-SS#, Citizenship
Ok, I have been asked this question a lot of times now. I got great help from other moms home with their kids who have done all this. I am going to put in the way we are doing it and why along with the links to the paper work files.
1. Apply for a temporary adoption tax ID number (ATIN link for info and form) for each child. This is a good option if you will not have time to get all the paper work done before tax time.
2. Apply for the validation of foreign adoption. (El Paso County COLORADO forms if you are in another state just look up your county or state government page and look for forms or information, then look for the word adoptions and then under that validation of foreign adoptions, this should come up with info for you). On this form you can also change your child's name. In most cases the child will not come home with the name you would like for him or her to have, and in many cases will not even have your last name. In many states you can also change the child's birth date if needed. There are varying degrees of proof needed for this depending on your county and state. I would suggest doing this only if it is really needed. In Colorado, I added this to the form under the change of name. I also wrote a letter stating our reasons and attached the "proof" documents. It worked out just fine for us. If you do this first your child's name will be correct on all the rest of the official papers and you will not have to redo it. You have to do this before you can get the citizenship papers anyway. Get the fingerprint reports (FBI and state) and the child abuse record/clearance from your DHS from your adoption agency, ally need is the copies they have on file. Your window of time for them to remain valid is important. Get it done fast or you will need to renew them. That is ok and not too expensive, it just takes time. If you are waiting on age of child to change the birth date, you have time, do the fingerprints again and wait on them to come and your child's progress at the same time. The fee for this in CO is $168 per child if they are not biologically related, $168 if they are blood related and a $3 charge for each additional blood related child. This process and paper does not prove your child's citizenship by parentage.
2b. After you get the validation papers you go to the County Clerk office and file the papers you have been given at the hearing. This gets you a state birth certificate, which is useful and highly necessary. However, it states right on it that it is not proof of citizenship. It also says that it is just a birth certificate certifying foreign birth.... which is about as good as it gets if you don't have any clue when the precious child of yours was actually born. There is a fee here. In CO it is about $38 per child. You can buy extra ones for a discount at this time. Sounds like a good idea. One for the lock box and one for use.
3. Apply for your child's citizenship papers. (USCIS forms and info and fact sheet on citizenship) You will need to fill out the N-600 and pay the $420. Until you do this your child WILL NOT be able to prove the he or she is a citizen of the US. If you met your child in Ethiopia BEFORE the court date and AFTER the referral then you are under a different ruling and your child is automatically a citizen, they enter on an IR-3 visa. If not, like most of us, you will have to file the application and pay the fee, your kids entered on an IR-4 visa (meaning the court procedure declaring the child officially yours happened before you met them in Ethiopia, this is standard). In addition my understanding of this is that you will not be able to do this until after you have filed for and received the validation of foreign adoption as the US does not consider the adoption full and final abroad for certain legalities that I do not understand. Even though it is, you still have to have this paper. Now, this could be wrong, so let me know if you have EXPERIENCED this to be different. This is just what I came up with by reading and re reading the USCIS site and all the documents I could find on it an talking to countless people there and who have done this.
4. SS#. (form and explanation of procedure) This is free!!!! Yippee!!! If you do this before the validation and or citizenship you will have to re do the name, if you are changing that. You can get a temporary # like a person on a work visa can get. You have to finalize it after the validation. Some offices will give you a hard time about it and will try to get you to have the cert. of cit. first and validation too. You don't have to do it this way, but we have opted to wait until last so that we have all the needed papers the first time through. We hope anyway. This also will not prove citizenship.
5. Some families get a passport (link form and procedure) for their kids right away. They have good reasons, but it does not prove any sort of citizenship unless you have the paper you paid for. :) We are not getting these until we plan to go abroad. Not anytime soon for us.
That is all!
I would strongly suggest starting on this while you are waiting for the embassy date. You can download most of the forms to your computer and fill out what you can and get the name off the adoption birth certificate, etc. when you receive it. You will need the court adoption forms from Ethiopia. You can have the validation papers ready to go when you get home with a few add in's and that will be great being as tired as you will be when you get home. Sometimes, for older kids you need to wait a bit to see if their given age is off or not. Mostly it is, but if it needs changed is entirely up to you.
Hope this helps.
1. Apply for a temporary adoption tax ID number (ATIN link for info and form) for each child. This is a good option if you will not have time to get all the paper work done before tax time.
2. Apply for the validation of foreign adoption. (El Paso County COLORADO forms if you are in another state just look up your county or state government page and look for forms or information, then look for the word adoptions and then under that validation of foreign adoptions, this should come up with info for you). On this form you can also change your child's name. In most cases the child will not come home with the name you would like for him or her to have, and in many cases will not even have your last name. In many states you can also change the child's birth date if needed. There are varying degrees of proof needed for this depending on your county and state. I would suggest doing this only if it is really needed. In Colorado, I added this to the form under the change of name. I also wrote a letter stating our reasons and attached the "proof" documents. It worked out just fine for us. If you do this first your child's name will be correct on all the rest of the official papers and you will not have to redo it. You have to do this before you can get the citizenship papers anyway. Get the fingerprint reports (FBI and state) and the child abuse record/clearance from your DHS from your adoption agency, ally need is the copies they have on file. Your window of time for them to remain valid is important. Get it done fast or you will need to renew them. That is ok and not too expensive, it just takes time. If you are waiting on age of child to change the birth date, you have time, do the fingerprints again and wait on them to come and your child's progress at the same time. The fee for this in CO is $168 per child if they are not biologically related, $168 if they are blood related and a $3 charge for each additional blood related child. This process and paper does not prove your child's citizenship by parentage.
2b. After you get the validation papers you go to the County Clerk office and file the papers you have been given at the hearing. This gets you a state birth certificate, which is useful and highly necessary. However, it states right on it that it is not proof of citizenship. It also says that it is just a birth certificate certifying foreign birth.... which is about as good as it gets if you don't have any clue when the precious child of yours was actually born. There is a fee here. In CO it is about $38 per child. You can buy extra ones for a discount at this time. Sounds like a good idea. One for the lock box and one for use.
3. Apply for your child's citizenship papers. (USCIS forms and info and fact sheet on citizenship) You will need to fill out the N-600 and pay the $420. Until you do this your child WILL NOT be able to prove the he or she is a citizen of the US. If you met your child in Ethiopia BEFORE the court date and AFTER the referral then you are under a different ruling and your child is automatically a citizen, they enter on an IR-3 visa. If not, like most of us, you will have to file the application and pay the fee, your kids entered on an IR-4 visa (meaning the court procedure declaring the child officially yours happened before you met them in Ethiopia, this is standard). In addition my understanding of this is that you will not be able to do this until after you have filed for and received the validation of foreign adoption as the US does not consider the adoption full and final abroad for certain legalities that I do not understand. Even though it is, you still have to have this paper. Now, this could be wrong, so let me know if you have EXPERIENCED this to be different. This is just what I came up with by reading and re reading the USCIS site and all the documents I could find on it an talking to countless people there and who have done this.
4. SS#. (form and explanation of procedure) This is free!!!! Yippee!!! If you do this before the validation and or citizenship you will have to re do the name, if you are changing that. You can get a temporary # like a person on a work visa can get. You have to finalize it after the validation. Some offices will give you a hard time about it and will try to get you to have the cert. of cit. first and validation too. You don't have to do it this way, but we have opted to wait until last so that we have all the needed papers the first time through. We hope anyway. This also will not prove citizenship.
5. Some families get a passport (link form and procedure) for their kids right away. They have good reasons, but it does not prove any sort of citizenship unless you have the paper you paid for. :) We are not getting these until we plan to go abroad. Not anytime soon for us.
That is all!
I would strongly suggest starting on this while you are waiting for the embassy date. You can download most of the forms to your computer and fill out what you can and get the name off the adoption birth certificate, etc. when you receive it. You will need the court adoption forms from Ethiopia. You can have the validation papers ready to go when you get home with a few add in's and that will be great being as tired as you will be when you get home. Sometimes, for older kids you need to wait a bit to see if their given age is off or not. Mostly it is, but if it needs changed is entirely up to you.
Hope this helps.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Traveling through Frankfurt, Germany from Ethiopia to the US
If you are going to be traveling through Frankfurt, Germany on the way home to the US with your adopted Ethiopian child you will need a German visa for your child. You do not need one for yourself if you are a US citizen. But your adopted child WILL. Lots of people have questions about it so I am posting the answer we just gave to our agency about how it works. It was a bit of a pain, but worked out fine. We did not have good directions for doing this but my awesome husband did figure it out!
1. At the Wednesday (our agency has this day) US Embassy appointment they have to tell them that they need their papers NO LATER than Thursday morning BEFORE noon. You will need to tell them they have to get a German visa.
2. After the US embassy appointment you will need to go get biometric photos of you child, you just get them when they are taken it takes hardly any time to get, and they are not expensive. This can only be done at Erat Kilo photo studio, it is a Kodak studio on Erat Kilo. THE Awesome driver Terefe knows where it is too. His number is on our blog for driver recommendation, look for that post. He is awesome and drives only adoptive families.
3. Thursday pick up the US embassy papers and then take them directly to the German Embassy. You HAVE to take the kids. Stand in line and fill out the papers, give them the kids passports. They need to have the passports and they have to have the American visa stamped already. It takes a bit to fill out the papers, take something to entertain the child in a very happy and pleasant manner. (No messy treats, messy is bad PR for adoptions. Make sure your child is dressed nicely, and appropriate for the season. Rainy season wearing layers, at no time/season should the child's legs or arms be exposed if an infant and if an older child pants are the best bet for boys and a dress for girls, plus a jacket in rainy sesaon.) You will have to tell them that you need it by 10 am Friday, or it will be a full day from when it is requested. You will have to tell them when your flight is and that is why you need it that early.
4. You do not need to take the kids to pick up the visa on Friday. Then you are good to go.
5. When you land in Germany because you have an Ethiopian citizen traveling with you, you have to go through customs and have the visa checked and then go check back in to the terminal.
That is it! Not too bad if you know what you are doing and start asap!
You can not wait to get this rolling it will cost a lot in time and effort and maybe a delayed ticket/flight, and the German embassy is not that nice to deal with if you are late. They are very nice and work with you if you give them time and flight schedule. Just get it done asap. They speak English, and that is very helpful. They have selective hours so you should call them to make sure of the times that they are open, it varies. Your guest house host should be able to do this for you or get you the number. It is good to plan your return flight with this in mind.
Germany (Frankfurt) has a great play area up by the Mc Donalds. It is a life saver. There are lots of restaurants and a pharmacy.
Hope that this is helpful!
1. At the Wednesday (our agency has this day) US Embassy appointment they have to tell them that they need their papers NO LATER than Thursday morning BEFORE noon. You will need to tell them they have to get a German visa.
2. After the US embassy appointment you will need to go get biometric photos of you child, you just get them when they are taken it takes hardly any time to get, and they are not expensive. This can only be done at Erat Kilo photo studio, it is a Kodak studio on Erat Kilo. THE Awesome driver Terefe knows where it is too. His number is on our blog for driver recommendation, look for that post. He is awesome and drives only adoptive families.
3. Thursday pick up the US embassy papers and then take them directly to the German Embassy. You HAVE to take the kids. Stand in line and fill out the papers, give them the kids passports. They need to have the passports and they have to have the American visa stamped already. It takes a bit to fill out the papers, take something to entertain the child in a very happy and pleasant manner. (No messy treats, messy is bad PR for adoptions. Make sure your child is dressed nicely, and appropriate for the season. Rainy season wearing layers, at no time/season should the child's legs or arms be exposed if an infant and if an older child pants are the best bet for boys and a dress for girls, plus a jacket in rainy sesaon.) You will have to tell them that you need it by 10 am Friday, or it will be a full day from when it is requested. You will have to tell them when your flight is and that is why you need it that early.
4. You do not need to take the kids to pick up the visa on Friday. Then you are good to go.
5. When you land in Germany because you have an Ethiopian citizen traveling with you, you have to go through customs and have the visa checked and then go check back in to the terminal.
That is it! Not too bad if you know what you are doing and start asap!
You can not wait to get this rolling it will cost a lot in time and effort and maybe a delayed ticket/flight, and the German embassy is not that nice to deal with if you are late. They are very nice and work with you if you give them time and flight schedule. Just get it done asap. They speak English, and that is very helpful. They have selective hours so you should call them to make sure of the times that they are open, it varies. Your guest house host should be able to do this for you or get you the number. It is good to plan your return flight with this in mind.
Germany (Frankfurt) has a great play area up by the Mc Donalds. It is a life saver. There are lots of restaurants and a pharmacy.
Hope that this is helpful!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
GospelGrass
We just had a great day out in Calhan at the GospelGrass Summer Festival click for the link. There were bands from all over, many large families playing together. Really really great gospel bluegrass music. We all loved it and want more. There is only one day left. Sunday they have stuff until 4 pm. So if you are in the area and have a mind to go out and enjoy some good music it is well worth the trip. On the web site are some other summer events around the area and further if you are interested in bluegrass.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ark of the Covenant
Just heard amazing news and looked up the article. The Ark of the Covenant has long been an item of interest to many. Some believe it has been taken up to heaven, others say it is burried in Jerusalem. Still many, and even many scholars, believe it is indeed in Ethiopia, as the Ethiopians claim. Kept in seclusion and under lock and key for centuries, they are now announcing that a museum will be built in Axum which will house the Ark for all to see. This is amazing because they have not allowed anyone but the select priest to see it for centuries, only the guardian of the Ark could see it. Now, they are unveiling it. I personally would like to go see it, real or not.
Here is a link to the story if you are interested.
Here is a link to the story if you are interested.
Family going to live in Ethiopia
A family who is on one of the groups I am with is going to live in Ethiopia. They will be working with SIM and Wycliff, both organizations are dear to us. We know several missionaries with Wycliff and SIM and we served in South America with SIM. Aser will be a construction manager with Wycliff and Kimberly will be teaching at Bingham Academy which is related to Carachipampa Christian School which Dave taught at when we lived in Bolivia. Each thing highlighted is a link and you can check out a bunch of cool stuff. They have five kids, the littlest one was adopted in Ethioipa. This is a YouTube of them and their blog if you are interested.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Talking to a friend and blog usefulness
The boys just got to have a skype conversation with their best buddy from Sele Enat. They were shy! I guess this is after all their normal response to a new event, person, situation. But, they had a good time and recognized Gabriel and were excited to see him. They did some talking, mostly Gabriel. :) They did ask if they could do this again and are excited to talk to him again.
I am so glad to be in contact with his family.
I have been encouraged to learn that my blog is coming up on google searches for Ethiopian Adoption info. In fact, my packing list has been declared the best there is. Our agency is even using it to pass out to families traveling. :) That is good confirmation for me. I had such a hard time finding anything when we needed it I thought, I will do what I can to have the resources out there for others. I am so glad it is being found and used and apprecitated.
I am so glad to be in contact with his family.
I have been encouraged to learn that my blog is coming up on google searches for Ethiopian Adoption info. In fact, my packing list has been declared the best there is. Our agency is even using it to pass out to families traveling. :) That is good confirmation for me. I had such a hard time finding anything when we needed it I thought, I will do what I can to have the resources out there for others. I am so glad it is being found and used and apprecitated.
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