Documents part 1 of 2 Authenticated in Washington DC

We Fedex'd our FBI background check to our Washington DC courier on Thursday. They got it Friday and took our 2 documents to the US State Department to be authenticated today (Monday), they kindly authenticate up to 15 documents while you wait, same day. So part 1 of 2 in the authentication process is done! Yay! Now did I mention that this should have been done 9 months ago when our 28 other documents required for our dossier were authenticated? Why is this one being done so late? After we have been approved by the Kenyan government .... When now we should we waiting for our official referral but instead we are doing more paperwork ... Our agency in the US did not realize it was a new addition to the dossier list for Kenya.
The Kenyan government is waiting for this document before they will begin processing our referral so this has delayed our referral by 2 months (at least).
After the Authentication was complete at the US State Department our courier took our 2 documents to the Kenya Embassy, this is part 2 of 2 of the authentication process.  They do not do same day service, so the documents were dropped off for pick up on Friday.
On Friday the courier will kindly pick them up form the Kenya Embassy, photocopy them for us and send us the photocopies.  Then they will send the originals to Kenya via Fedex. AWESOME!   Let's pray it really works out that way ....
Praying our documents will make it to the National Adoption Committee (Government body that approves International adoption applications/dossiers/FAMILIES!) office in Kenya by Friday, May 4th ..... we may just miss it, but we are going to try! We have been approved by the National Adoption Committee ... In February,  but they needed these last documents to make it official.
The National Adoption Committee only meets once a month.
If we miss the May 4th cut off we will need to wait until the next meeting mid-June,  by then we will be living in Kenya.

We are moving forward ....YAY!

Our FBI background checks arrived yesterday,  I nearly hugged the Fedex man!  LOL We are thrilled, it only took 36 days from the time we Fedex'd it to the FBI.

So today I am Fedexing these to Washington DC to be authenticated.  I am sending them to a courier that will hand carry my 2 documents to be authenticated at the State Department.  This will be done same day on Monday. Then it will go to the Kenya Embassy in DC,  I'm not sure how long that will take.  With 25 documents it took a week,  with 2 documents I am hoping it will take less time.

So perhaps by the end of next week I will have these documents returned to us ..... maybe.  I will keep you posted :)  

Moving forward .. Yahoo!!!

Catching up - Friday Photo: Something I found

From the April Photo Challenge, Something I found,  well nothing came to mind immediately ... but I was packing coats away and looking in the pockets I found:

YES,  that's right in all the jackets and coats I put away I found $.12 cents! I would have preferred a wad of cash,  but then it would not have been mine since I don't have wads of cash LOL 

I love this book and in this book Lucy finds something ..... 

A brain named "Fred"

 from Amazon:

A Walk in the Rain with a Brain is the illustrated version of that story. In it, a little girl named Lucy is making her way down a rainy sidewalk when she spies, of all things, a brain -- Manfred, called Fred -- sitting forlornly in a puddle. The courtly cerebrum asks Lucy for help getting home, and as they walk along she worries that she's not smart enough. "Everyone's smart!" explains Fred. "You just need to find out at what!" Fred reassures her that each child learns and thinks differently -- and that every child has special talents.

It's a GREAT BOOK! 

Catching up: Thursday photo: Stairs

From the April Photo Challenge, I didn't get very creative ... here are the stairs in my house ..... soon the icky carpet will be gone and it will be lovely wood:

What's with the banners you ask?  I love the color and fun they add to the house ... we have them up all the time ... sometimes we change them .... I have some for Kenya as well .... Kenya flags, plain white for decorating ....

Catching up ...Wednesday Photo: Where I ate breakfast

From the April Photo Challenge, Now let me explain ... we are putting/resanding wood floors in our house, so on this day the wood floor guy was packing and moving stuff. SO I ended up having breakfast in the family room .... looking into my sunny yellow kitchen:

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Cold

                                    April Photo Challenge today is Cold
                                    Yeti at the Ski lodge :)

the pond by our house during one of the very few snow falls we had this winter

Monday Photo Challenge - Younger You (Or Me!)

April photo challenge today ..... 

So I'm going WAY younger .... this is the only baby picture I have of myself:

                                                                Here I'm about 3 years old

                                                         I'm guessing about 7 years here

                                       That's enough of a trip down memory lane LOL

April Photo Challenge .... Inside my wallet

As part of the April Photo Challenge : Inside my wallet .... now I don't carry a wallet ... I carry my debit card, credit card in a zipper pocket in my purse for now:

My driver's license, My Adderall, first aid cream and red washcloth with first aid kit in case of blood, receipt ... where's Waldo?

Saturday Photo Challenge - Shadow

                                     A little jumping on the trampoline on this lovely Spring day!

How to get an FBI criminal background check

Now most people will never have to do this,  for most of us in the adoption world this is a must .... at least once, for us TWICE! UGH!
Since we have had such issues figuring out how to do this .... I am going to share LOL!!

We did this once electronically a year ago using Accurate Biometrics in our area.  We did this for our home study and the home study agency received our results. They said in our home study that our FBI background check results came back clear (No record found!)

Well now we need a hard copy from the FBI, this was a requirement that our adoption agency did not realize that we needed in our dossier. This should have been included on the list of documents required for our dossier, but it was a newer addition so it was not on our dossier document list. (Remember, a dossier is a stack of paperwork that is required by your adopting country, we had 27 items including birth certificates for the entire family, marriage certificate, divorce decree, medical forms, application, guardianship form for our to-be-adopted children,  references, bank letter .. and much more)  Now our dossier was sent to Kenya and has been approved by the government ... we just need this form turned in to them to be OFFICIAL!

Here's what we are doing:
I am getting this information directly from the FBI web site here : http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/background-checks/submitting-an-identification-record-request-to-the-fbi

We got hard copies of our fingerprints at local law enforcement office,  police department, sheriff's office,  my husband found a place in Chicago near his office that did them in a government  building for $9.  it's a GOOD idea to print the form you will need,  Law enforcement may only have a criminal fingerprint card .... you DO NOT WANT THAT!
Here is a link to the card you will need: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/background-checks/standard-fingerprint-form-fd-258
Mine were $16, I got 2 copies of my fingerprints.  It's good to get at  least 2 copies just in case one is not good.

I printed the application form for the FBI back ground check  HERE: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/background-checks/applicant-information-form

One for my husband and one for me.
We need our results authenticated by the FBI, you should add a cover letter with this request or add a note to your application with this request. In the right margin of the first link I posted, there are FAQ's , #9 in the FAQ's is:

9. Does the FBI provide apostilles*?

(*An apostille is a certification that a document has been “legalized” or “authenticated” by the issuing agency through a process in which various seals are placed on the document.)

The CJIS Division will authenticate U.S. Department of Justice Order 556-73 fingerprint search results for international requests by placing the FBI seal and the signature of a division official on the results if requested at the time of submission. Documents prepared in this way may then be sent to the U.S. Department of State by the requestor to obtain an apostille if necessary. This procedure became effective on January 25, 2010 and will apply only to documents finalized after that date. Requests to authenticate previously processed results will not be accepted. This procedure replaces the letter formerly provided by the CJIS Division that indicated the service was not provided. Note: FBI-approved Channelers cannot provide an apostille. A request for your FBI Identification Record must be submitted directly to the FBI if an apostille is needed.

If you are doing this for adoption (and other things  I am sure,  but this is an adoption blog :) you will need to do this. 

The cost is $18 at the time I am writing this per copy per person.  We wanted 2 copies per person so we paid $72.  NO CHECKS are accepted, money order or cashiers check or credit card.
If paying by credit card you will need a credit card from.  You can find that here: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/background-checks/credit-card-payment-form

Now just to make sure you got it all, they provide a checklist.  Found here: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/background-checks/fbi-identification-record-request-checklist

After you checked everything off, you can mail it or Fedex as we did .. to:

FBI CJIS Division – Record Request
1000 Custer Hollow Road
Clarksburg, WV 26306

and I love the note at the bottom of their web site: 

Note: Although the FBI employs the most efficient methods for processing these requests, processing times may take approximately eight weeks depending on the volume of requests received.

at the time I am reposting this (April 7) it's been 3 1/2 weeks since we have sent this .... still waiting :(

We did send a Fedex envelope and air bill with this request,  hopefully they will use it.  It's not a prepaid air bill, they will charge us only if the FBI chooses to send it Fedex. 

I will update and let you know if we receive it Fedex (after 36 days it arrived Fedex, they used our Fedex air bill) ...... for those NOT in the adoption world,  those of us that are Fedex EVERYTHING we can. 

For one,  it's faster than mailing! and we do a lot of unnecessary waiting in the adoption process so this makes for a bit less waiting. 

For two, We can track it! 

Friday Photo challenge - Lunch

Thai Chicken Peanut noodle dish ... it was lunch on the go yesterday .... but yummy!!

April Photo Challenge .... Just DO IT!

Like the Nike slogan ... Just DO IT! From my Dear friend 'Jo' in Canada

For all you Mom's out there who are in the same position as we are - WAITING. I hope you consider joining my challenge - something to help the time pass! I could use a little distraction.... so let's do it!

I know we are late... but here you go... snag this photo and posted on your blog and post one photo a day. I realize we missed the first two... and I will make it up by posting them later. But for now we have Day #3. 

MAIL

It was a low mail today,  but here it is! 

                                                        Someone who makes me happy:

Group photo of A & B and Paul, my husband in a bit of a silly shot

                                                                           Tiny
                                                                         

This is "A" born at 32 weeks 3 1/2 lbs. Here he's 4 days old.

                                       Backtracking to April 1: Reflection

So what are we waiting for?

So with our NAC approval we found out that we were missing a required dossier document. Now this document was not on our list of 28 required documents ..... it's "new"  we were told.  But my friends using another agency have this document on their list ... frustrating since we have been waiting 6 months for the NAC approval! :(
But the adoption process goes on .. So what we need is a hard copy of our background check from the FBI.  Now we did this digitally a year ago when we did our home study,  so we know it's fine and it's written in our home study that our FBI background check is clear.  But the NAC wants the hard copy.
So we got our fingerprints done the following day we were informed we needed it. I went to our local Sheriff, we live in an unincorporated area so if we went to the local police department ... they charge us $100 .... residents .. $0!!!  NICE!!! So the sheriff charges $16.  Paul was at his office in Chicago and I found a place in the Federal building near his office that did it for $9. I filled out the applications and credit card forms on the FBI website and asked them to authenticate our documents when they send them back. And off to Fedex they went.

So now we wait ... for up to 8 weeks .... we Fedex'd it on March 13, it arrived March 14 at the FBI location in West Virginia.

After we receive it back from the FBI we need to send it to Washington DC to have it authenticated by the US State Department and the Kenya Embassy.  We did this with our 27 other documents so we will use a courier,  it's a LOT faster (7-10 days as opposed to taking 3-6 weeks if we mail it) .

We SHOULD be waiting for our referral (the information about the children we are matched with) right now ...... but that can't move forward until our FBI background check is submitted! UGH!
The waiting is hard!