Making Progress

Well our home study FINALLY got certified by CCAI, and was sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on May 22nd along with our application to adopt internationally (the I800A)!

After that made it’s way safely to the post office, we headed out for a road trip to Houston for some time with family, friends and Ray’s coworkers.  We still needed a few “family life” photos for the dossier and I had 4 days off from work in a row (that never happens).  We ended up getting some really good pictures and had a blast.  I even got to spend some quality time with my youngest sister two of the days there.  Thanks again Karen for helping me out with the special project.    As always Louann and Steve were wonderful for allowing us to stay with them.  Can’t wait to see you guys again soon.

On May 28th I went to the Secretary of States office to get the home study Certified and prepped for going to the Houston Chinese consulate.  The ladies in the Secretary of the State’s office were very nice.  In fact one of the ladies was certifying documents for another Chinese adoption dossier! 

The next morning (29th) I made my way to the post office to send the certified home study to the Houston Chinese consulate’s office.  I also sent the bulk of our dossier documents to Colorado so that Kim can review what we do have (if she has time- since it is not yet complete).  Honestly this trip to the post office was a big relief.  I needed to get some of those documents out.  It makes me feel like I am getting closer to having this massive paperwork done.

Now we just need our I797 (approval from the US government to adopt internationally) so that we can send it through the paper chase and get our dossier TO CHINA!  Lately we have been hearing turn around times of about 30 days, so I am being optimistic that we will have it back close to my birthday.  Our original goal was to have the dossier through critical review, translated, and bound by my birthday so that it would be ready to ship but hopefully we won’t be too far off the mark.  We are even contemplating flying down to Houston once we get it to expedite the timeline.  I don’t want our timeline slowed down by even a day because of us. 

Everyday seems like I am working on more and more paperwork.  I know that my check list has to be getting shorter but some days it feels like the never shrinking list.  It will all be worth it in the end though!  One day closer to my Xiao Hai!