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Hello and Welcome to Our International Adoption Page
This Blog was written in 2005 but can hopefully help
others looking to adopt. Today we are a family of 6 !
We are The Ordóñez Family,
Alondra, Jerry & JoAnna.
To everyone who has or will forward
this website to their friends, I thank you. Every little bit helps.
(2005) We have
been married for just about 10 years now and we were unable to have
children of our own. However, we strongly believe that there is
always a greater plan for us and we have been truly blessed in our lives.
We were
fortunate in that adopted our Little Girl from Mexico in 2002 at the age
of 20 months. Today she is a beautiful and happy young lady with a
wonderful personality, super intelligence and love that abounds. We
have been very fortunate that God placed this precious child in our lives.
Now we are
about to adopt Three more Precious Children. They are Brothers, ages
5, 4 and 3 and though we have not met them yet, we have fallen in love
with them already. They are in an orphanage in the interior of
Mexico and God willing, they will join our family sometime in the next
several months.
We thank
you for all your support
in helping us to raise funds via your
donations, purchases
on our website and on ebay.
In the
coming months we will be updating this website with information on the
adoption and looking forward to the day that we can be one BIG Happy
Family !
God Bless
You !
From my journal:
Some Background:
We had discussed adopting a sibling
group sometime in 2005, so I left my engineering job to stay at home with
Alondra and dedicate some time to developing Vidriosa. We made plans to working
towards an adoption. We had no idea how we would do this again, where it
would take place, when, but our plan was to start towards USCIS Approval early
in 2005.
We had adopted in 2002 but had no
Idea what we were doing at the time ! We adopted privately, no agency,
just Jerry & I and our Lawyer in Mexico (who is an Angel) meandering our way
through the very difficult and involved process. We had so many helping
and praying for us along the way and we are eternally grateful.
This time hopefully we will have
most of the background information and documentation ready - Wishful thinking...
Jan 12, 2005 , 8:20 pm
Out of the clear blue sky, we got a phone
call from a dear friend in Mexico asking "would you like to adopt 3 little boys"
- my heart skipped a beat ! Without hesitating I said "YES!" Here we
go again ! Our friend put us in Contact with a Wonderful person from an
orphanage in Mexico who will be helping us through this process. You know,
we are so blessed, we're still asking what we must have done to deserve all this
!
No Home Study, No INS Approval, No
Information ! Oh boy !
Jan 13, 2005
I called USCIS Customer Service just to
confirm what I'd already found on the web and the information from the last
adoption. We need to file an I-600A - Petition for Approval of
Prospective Adoptive Parents with our Local USCIS Office. Fees have gone
up ! We should expect to have a decision in 2 - 3 months once the form is
submitted.
I found an agency in the area who will
do an International Adoption Home Study for us. They will send us
the list of information and surveys for the process and we will send them our
last Home Study as a background.
Jan 26, 2005
Contacted our Congressman's Office and we have
been put in contact with a very nice Case Worker who will help us with any
issues which might come up. "Make sure they fit the Definition of an
ORPHAN per USCIS" she cautioned, "We will" I answered !
We're still getting all of our documentation
to our Contact in Mexico and for the Home Study.
Jan 31, 2005
I spoke to the US Embassy in Mexico City
about the adoption process again. The personnel we worked with on the last
adoption are still in place and will be glad to help us.
Feb 21, 2005
Our Contact in Mexico met with Mexican
Officials and the US Embassy to discuss our case and the issue that the Hague
Convention on International Adoption has not been ratified by the US. The
US Embassy has given "pre-approval for this case".
Feb 28, 2005
We now have all the documentation and home
study for the Submittal of the I-600A form. Mailed to the USCIS District
office - Now we wait !
March 9, 2005
We received a Notice of Receipt for Our
I-600A Approval from USCIS. Now we still wait for them to contact us for
questions, fingerprinting and Hopefully very soon, Approval. I'm praying
for a speedy approval time...
March 29, 2005
We got a phone call this evening from DIF in
Mexico. They would like to know how we were able to complete the last
adoption even though the US has not ratified the Hague Convention. We will
overnight them a copy of our records from the last adoption.
April 4th, 2005
We just got word
today from our contact that DIF Mexico has given the approval for us to travel and meet the
boys sometime in the coming weeks. We are still waiting for INS
Approval for Adoption Abroad and though we can meet them, we cannot start
adoption proceedings just yet. We're getting closer every day !
April 6th, 2005, 9:40
am
We're waiting for a
phone call from DIF (Social Services in Mexico). To date, we
still have no information on the boys, only names and faces.
We would love to know more about them. Those of you who know me know
that patience is not one of my strong suits ! (I heard that !)
Wow, she read my
mind! My contact just called to confirm that DIF should call this
week and that we should plan on spending some time with the boys getting
to know them and making sure there is a bond before proceeding with the
adoption. I agreed. Then we can decide to proceed with the
adoption which should take 6 months or more.
patience breathe patience breathe patience ,
must learn patience...
This is my new mantra
!
April 8th , 2005
Book 'em Dano ! (Okay so now you
know I'm old enough to remember that phrase, I can even hear the music in
the background !)
We're going in for USCIS
Fingerprinting today. No word from DIF yet, but we're hopeful
they will call us soon. I had to stop myself yesterday at Target
from going crazy and buying Boys clothing, toys, etc... I'll wait
'til we get closer to meeting them.
Fingerprinting went smoothly and
quickly !
April 14, 2005
Well, no word from DIF yet, I keep
telling myself this is Mexico after all and things move a bit slower then
we're accustomed to ! We're going to the Mexican Consulate tomorrow
to find out about our Tourist Permisos and to get a permit for our
vehicle .
18 days and counting
- we travel to Mexico to meet the boys
on May 2nd , just 2 more shows to get through and we can "go to the
doption" as Alondra is calling this process.
April 15, 2005
Wow - what a day it has been !
Today we went to the Mexican
Consulate, got out permits for the car and temporary visas and we got some
good news. It seems that one of the most difficult permitting
processes for the FM3 permit can actually be done here at home !
This is great news and will minimize travel back and forth.
Then at 6pm we got THE CALL from DIF
- yeah. We were able to discuss what the required documentation is,
clarify some questions and discuss our trip. Everything is set in
motion for us to meet and spend some time with the children. We
found out there is still some documentation to gather, more reference
letters, medical and psych testing, translations and others, but we still
have some time. We are to receive a package sometime in the next
couple of days with pictures, information and more - my fingernails are
all completely gone now !
Even so, nothing can begin until we
have I-600A approval from USCIS. Keep lighting those candles please,
we need all the help we can get.
April 18, 2005
52 phone calls!
I think we should have most all the
documents ready to go for our trip with the exception of the psych
evaluations. I've worn out the front door, checking every 5 minutes
for that DHL Package to arrive. But all in all, we are making
progress - right ?
I remember this feeling just about 2
years ago and I have been trying to remind myself that there's no use in
getting frustrated with the process - it's all in Gods hands and
completely out of our control. Everyone in our close circle of
family and friends have been very supportive and have been able to move
mountains for us. Wow, we are so very blessed...
April 19, 2005
We just got word from USCIS that we
need an Addendum for our Home Study. Hopefully it will be done very
shortly.
April 20, 2005
11:10 am - DHL Is the greatest
! We just got the package. Lots of information to review...
Oh my God, they are so adorable and
it's amazing, but the oldest one actually looks like Alondra, the middle
boy looks like my dad's side of the family, same square dick tracy
jaw-line, and the baby well I think he looks like one of his uncles to be
! (FYI: for their privacy I will not post their new pictures
until they are actually home with us, sorry...). The file is
somewhat complete... Im calling the director of the orphanage right now to
find out all I can.
Seems they are sound and healthy,
some slight discipline problems - from 3 boys, NO KIDDING !
We decided as a family
today that we'd put all my glass collection away until they're all
in college, eat only on plastic or paper plates and drink from sippy
cups - yeah !
11 and Counting!
April 22, 2005
Every day we inch ever closer.
Today we're going for some more documents. We've sent over 65 pages
of them to the translators and still have more to go. I'm
doing my best to stay busy with my glass and let the time pass quickly.
We've got a Show tomorrow, King William in San Antonio.
I have to mention this - so please
bear with me as I ramble on ...
Every single minute of the day, I am
reminded of how truly Blessed we are. Everyone around us has
been so overwhelmingly helpful, patient, loving and understanding. I
know that we've been in frustration mode for a couple of weeks now, so I
apologize profusely for any indiscretions and hope that in the end I
can repay all the kindnesses we have been showered with. We love you
all and pray that you will be as blessed as we are to have our own
Guardian Angels. Thank you to everyone who has forwarded our site to
friends and family, thank you for the purchases and gifts, and mostly,
Thank you for your prayers.
April 24, 2005
We just got over one of our best
shows for the season - the King William Festival ! God smiled upon
us and we did really well ! We are very happy as all of this will
really help with the adoption expenses.
Tomorrow morning I have much to do:
pick up our criminal history reports. have over 40 documents notarized and
then visit the Secretary of States office for Apostilles, re-scan them all
and send them to the Translator, start packing for the trip, make memory
picture books for each of the boys and much more... And, I
still have to get ready and make more suncatchers for this next weekends
show to boot !
Frazzled nerves move aside, I
haven't the time!
I know I can......I know
I can......I know I can
just 7 more days !
April 25, 2005
What a day, what a day...
Today has been rough, reminiscent of
Alondra's adoption 2 years ago and some of the walls we ran into. It
turns out that the procedures for Apostilling documents have changed and
that each and every document generated by Doctors, References, etc...
needed to be fully Notarized by the person writing the letter. So,
Im having to find a notary close to our Drs. Offices so that the notary
can join us there, and I've had to ask our reference to re-write their
letters and start all over again. We decided last night that we'll
go with the documents we have now and wait to see what else will be
needed. I gave in to some major tears of frustration today...
We went to dinner after this very
long day, just the 3 of us and had a great meal and Cake and Spumoni
! We talked about maybe postponing the trip until we are ready with the
I-600A approval, but I really would like to go and meet these boys, so I
haven't given Jerry an answer... I then came home and made up the memory
books...
April 27, 2007
Here we go again... I found a
traveling Notary and some of the documents are being re-issued so we can
have them re-notarized and re-apostilled !
We're getting ready for the trip, so
much to pack and have ready. Im really starting to get excited now,
we actually have hotel reservations and everything is starting to gel.
Must be all those candles and prayers out there - Thank you.
We leave in ~ 4 days !
April 28, 2005
So it begins... I know Im in for
many sleepless nights. I usually get this way when I have something
big coming up and this as you know by now is Huge ! Yep, it's almost 2 am.
Tomorrow, or rather TODAY, I still
need to get some more apostilles, but it looks like the translations will
be done on time. All we can do is go to Mexico with the
Documentation we have and if there is something missing, we'll get it to
them when we return.
April 30, 2005
Okay, all the translations for now
are done. We have most every document ready to go and we Got INS
Approval of the I-600A on Friday... We're off...
May 10, 2005
We're BACK !
Our intention with the travel log
was a good one, but of course our hotel had snail paced internet and we
were so busy there was little to no time. Sorry !
But, here is the wonderful news to
this saga. We met the boys and they are everything we imagined them
to be ... smart, funny, loving, full of wonder and mischief, athletic,
playful, willing to be a part of our family and excited about the process
of adopting and moving to the United States.
We got to take them to Walmart (2
carts), the Park and Pool and had a blast singing in the car
"si te vienen
a contar cositas malas de mi,
mandas todos
a volar y diles que you no fui "
We had a wonderful time and
hopefully if all goes well with our Psychological Evaluations ( oh boy,
for those of you who know us, this might be a point at which you just
burst out in laughter ! ) and the meetings from DIF to follow, we
should be returning in 3 weeks and then another 3 weeks or so to collect
the boys. Thank God we had all of our paperwork together and that
everything seemed to be in order.
In about 2 weeks, a couple of DIF
personnel will be visiting our home just to make sure everything is in
order. We are very close.
June 2, 2005
We're at a standstill... We've
been waiting for a home visit from DIF, but they don't have Visas to
travel to the US at this time. We speak to the boys every M/W/F but
last night Chris asked "when are you coming for us?" - my heart sank...
"soon, very soon" I replied.
We were originally going to be in
Mexico by now proceeding with the adoption. Please keep us in your
prayers.
June 20, 2005
We just got back - seems that
everything is in order and we're moving ahead. They've told us we
are to return in about 20 days, but we're thinking more like 5-6 weeks.
Any time before that would be great. We were blessed with 4
days as a family and they are all a hoot when you get them together.
July 8, 2005
Okay here's the latest. It's
been a little difficult at times, including a last minute one day trip to
take care of a Permiso (SEE FM3
STEP 6 ) we were missing, but we're getting very close to
going for the boys.
Today we got word that the Request
for Sentencing was made on Wednesday - so now it's just a waiting game and
hopes that we get the sentence of adoption decree very soon. As soon
as it is in hand, the translations will begin and we'll travel to pick the
boys up and proceed to the Embassy and the Visa Process. Here's
where we need your prayers in multitude.
July 19, 2005
Today we are officially a family -
our Children are all OURS ! We registered the boys and will be off
to get Mexican Passports and US Visas hopefully very soon.
July 21, 2005
We're getting closer - we received
the Mexican Passports Today and visited the town of Metepec where the
"tree's of life" are made. We bought one to commemorate the day -
One with a Calaca (day of the dead skeleton) holding its head as if in
pain - surrounded by lots of little skulls !
Aside:
Those of
you who know us know that I love all things "Dia de los Muertos", not
morbid, just fun ! I promise I am not crazy !
End
Aside
July 22, 2005
We were just granted the US Visas at
the US Embassy in Mexico City - Thank God !
We're off on a very long drive to
Juarez.... Thank God for In Car DVD's !
July 25, 2005
The Boys are Now Officially US
Citizens !
Just 2 years of Post Placement
Follow-up and Finalization of the Adoption and we'll be done...
July 27, 2005
Home Again ! Safe and Happy !
Again, we can't thank
everyone enough for all the prayers & support !
November
10, 2006
We are so
very happy and our family is complete !
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