We still have not heard anything from the USCIS. I am torn about this. I can't decide whether to start getting excited that we are likely going to be approved or whether to worry that our documents will expire because it will take us so long to fulfill a request for evidence. I have spent more time than I care to think about trying to get an idea of how long people generally have to wait to get their approvals and it really just seems to depend on which agent they get. Some people have gotten approvals 28 days later and others have waited 63 for a Request for Evidence! I don't like such widely different time frames and not knowing which one we will be closer to. Wednesday, I woke up feeling very discouraged in general and was just pessimistic about everything in general. Luckily those days don't happen often, but the stress of everything just sort of hit me all at once that day. That afternoon when I was trying to stay numb and not think about any of the things I constantly think about (especially about the adoption!), I had a thought flood my mind. I got a very strong impression that the agent in charge of our case was finalizing our approval notice and putting the last seals on everything so it could get mailed soon. That really turned my day around! I pray that it is true!! Of course, the next night I dreamt that we got an RFE (Request for Evidence) and had to go about getting a letter from Germany.... I pray that one isn't true! Though, in that dream, I was able to remain calm, so if we do get at RFE, I will take the calm with it. ;-)
In other news, we are trying to get certified translations of our local police reports. I got a quote from a lady just down the street. Oh man!! 60 Euros is for the certification itself and I understand that. She said there was an extra 19% on top of that for the VAT, but it was my understanding that the VAT was included. No way to argue that one though. :-\ The police reports contain about 83 German words, most of which are basic enough that even I know them. She is going to charge us about 40 Euros for the translation! I am not ok with that. It's 98 cents per "line" and she's charging for 42 lines. There are 2 reports (one for me and one for my husband), so maybe she means 21 lines per report. BUT, the German words are all identical. The only things that are different are the names and birthdays and those don't need translated! And, even still, 21 lines seems excessive. So, D is contacting his former German language teacher because the business that she works for also offers certified translations. We are hoping that they can do it for a much more reasonable fee, especially considering how much money they have made teaching him German! Aside from that, we are still waiting. Waiting to receive a few more things in the mail so that we can begin the notarization, certification, and double authentication process. Then we will mail those to our agency and wait some more. I think the general theme of adoptions is "hurry up and wait"! lol! I am hoping to get things moving so I can stop checking my mailbox 17 times per day! (Seriously, I've gotten a bit neurotic about checking for mail....it might be a problem....) Not to mention, I want to find out more about Z and I have found a great support system that seems like they can probably fill me in on a lot of information and possibly even get me in touch with her foster family. (See, I didn't even know she HAD a foster family until I found this group! Now I know she does, but I can't find out who yet) I can't make contact with anyone until we have our approval. Then, the emails can start flying! ;-)
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