Two blog posts in one day!! One hour after I prayed the prayer mentioned in my last blog post, our agency called me. As usual, our agency showing up on caller ID caused my tummy to flip out.
(Yet, somehow, I had a feeling this was going to be good.)
Our agency director had just gotten off of the phone with the USCIS. Our USCIS officer told them this morning that we do NOT need to fill out the i800 form for Mohale again. We originally completed that application in February 2014. It turns out that we do not need to apply for this a second time!!! That saves us several weeks.
Therefore, the next step is for us to jump ahead and resubmit our visa application for Mohale (DS-260.) We originally submitted this last July 23, 2014. At that time we were told to expect travel approval within about two weeks. However, five months later, in December, the US told us they could not issue a visa for him because he was already adopted by us. Due to child safety regulations, visas are only given before a completed adoption. Therefore, it was mandated that his adoption be dissolved so a visa could be issued and then he can be readopted by us. Finally, last Tuesday, Mohale's adoption by us was dissolved.
Today, Leora stayed home from Science co-op and cared for our thee littles so I could get this visa application form filled out and submitted again. However, when I got online to do it, I was not able to open the form because the system still considers it submitted from last July. I left a message with our helpful USCIS officer.
(Update May 7, 2014: The USCIS officer just called and said she is working on getting the form cleared out so we can redo it. She is uncertain of how long this will take. This step could take several weeks. However, she is certainly working hard with others in other departments to get this done. Grateful.)
Please pray with us!
(Update May 7, 2014: The USCIS officer just called and said she is working on getting the form cleared out so we can redo it. She is uncertain of how long this will take. This step could take several weeks. However, she is certainly working hard with others in other departments to get this done. Grateful.)
Please pray with us!
(Because the facts sound so crazy, I want to say: Although the delays have been hard and I've fought discouragement and panic, we signed up for this. We were told when we signed up for the Lesotho program in early 2013 to expect glitches and delays. They told us we would be the first Americans to adopt from Lesotho since HAGUE accreditation and therefore, our agency and both governments would be learning together with our family. Although it's taken an additional 10 months so far to sort out, this is the only glitch we've hit. Everyone we've interacted with has been up-front with us, helpful and clearly concerned for children. We pray that the result is a flood of children who need forever families into homes who long for them.)
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