Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Delayed Registration of Foreign Birth

In the Courtroom with Judge Maltby
Waiting For Our Turn
Someday I WILL graduate to 2T clothing!

September... wow, this year sure is flying by! Another milestone in Little T's life this morning. A couple weeks ago I applied for a "Delayed Registration of Foreign Birth" at the Probate Court in my county. Once again, a hats off to Lorien at Lighthouse for steering me in the right direction. Today we had our hearing and the Judge signed an approval to recognize Tatiana's birth in Vladivostok, Russia and give us the paperwork needed to submit for a US Birth Certificate. In some states you complete a "re-adoption", in Michigan - this is the equivalents.
Why do I want a US Birth Certificate? Good question!
When I applied for T's Social Security card I was told that they needed to "send her Russian Birth Certificate and Adoption Certificate away to have them independently translated". My translated copies weren't good enough! I talked them into sending away COPIES of these documents. As you can imagine... with only ONE copy of the official paperwork... I rarely let these stinkers out of my possession. It's not exactly easy to run over to the Vladivostok "ZAGS" office to pick up a replacement. After 6 weeks of waiting, I still hadn't heard about her SS#, so we went back to the office WITH her US Citizenship papers. Surely that'd be enough, right? After much convincing, yes!
Same story with her bank account. You'd think I had 5 heads or was asking to take a mortgage out in her name... nope! I simply wanted to start a bank account for her. In other words - give them money! "Can we take this Russian Birth Certificate??"
The next big step is sending away for her US Passport. Living so close to Canada, I'd like to be able to take my daughter across the border, but wouldn't dream of doing it with her current passport - even WITH the immigrant VISA. And what if we wanted to vacation in some exotic locale? Not planned... but a girl can dream! Sending away the only copies of these papers... I get weak just thinking about it.
So now she'll have her very own US Birth Certificate. And to clarify, it will list her place of birth as Vladivostok, Russia. Although, technically she was born in Arseniev, Russia - but that's ANOTHER story! (It was changed in Russia during the adoption process... I can explain off line if you want to know!)
I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Labor Day weekend - or as we call it here in Michigan, "the end of the summer". T has really loved this summer -- spending so much time outside. Which leads me to the final answer of the day... NO! I didn't highlight her hair! But it does look like it, doesn't it? She's got the BEST natural color streaks in her hair from spending so much time outside this summer. It's truly enviable. I mean people pay good money for that! The sun did her a world of good all around. If you compare the pictures of her from now to back when we came home.... MAN - what a change in her coloring. She's finally "got her orphanage" off!


13 comments:

Nancy said...

You both look great!

findingourdaughter said...

Oh my.....you two are such a sight for sore eyes....so beautiful! Makes me miss y'all so much! I wish I was there to celebrate!
Hugs and love!! Ansheen:)

Nichole said...

You 2 look so cute! T even looks like you! I need to get my rear end in gear with getting V's passport and birth certificate. Thanks for the kick in the right direction!

amy said...

Soooo darling! Yeah for happy endings!
~Amy

Barb said...

Congratulations! You two look awesome!

Gloria said...

Congrats! You guys look so good and so very happy!

Heather said...

Thanks for this post Amy. I don't know if the 'delayed registration' is something we can do here in IL but I want to look into it.

The Vlad birth place is interesting. One of those 'things' that take place in Russia that you just can't explain. Justin and I debate when registering Blake for school as to what to put for his birth place.

Barbara said...

Hello,

I hope you don't mind me writing, I found your website on Holly's web page.

My husband and I adopted our little girl from Moscow City this past December.

Your daughter is absolutely beautiful. So happy to see another family so happy.

We are also in the process of "re-adopting". It seems very similar here in NYS, just have to fill out some paperwork. YAY. :-)

Take care,

Barbara

Cindy said...

Amy--she looks so beautiful and adorable--LOVE that hair! Thanks for reminding me that I have to do the readoption. Congratulations on another milestone! Cindy

Roger and Joanne said...

Beautiful picture of the two of you!

Yes, we will have to (very soon) start the paper trail you did to get the kiddos their ss#'s, passports and birth cert.'s here in USA.

The paperwork trail continues....

T is growing up to be such a beauty! Niko is 2 1/2 and he's still wearing 18-24 mos. The 2T's are a tad big but we still wear some of them.

Over-Caffeinated said...

She so adorable!

Congrats on completing the re-adopt.... I still haven't done that for Liam. It's been 8 years! :(

Rich and Jolynn said...

What a great picture with the Judge! T's white shoes and court outfit is so precious. We did not have to go in front of the court but I think it would have been nice. Just got the birth certificates in the mail this week. Took about 3 1/2 weeks, not too bad.

T looks fantastic, a happy baby!

Troy and Rachel said...

YAY! We're still going through our process and it's taking forever!

I love T's dress!