Homestudy Status

Got an email from CCAI yesterday - they have reviewed our homestudy report. Also heard back from SW - homestudy report will be notarized and mailed to us for our dossier next week and we should have it by next Friday. It will be sent to immigration at the same time.

Meanwhile, I need to get the rest of our documents ready to be notarized - there is very specific wording that must be used for those items we will be notarizing as copies.

Homestudy Draft

We got an email from our SW today with our draft homestudy report to review - exactly when she said we would get it! We had to clarify and correct a couple of things and send it back. SW says that it is on its way to her supervisor to review and should be sent to immigration the week after Christmas. Meanwhile she is also going to send the report to CCAI for review to be sure everything required to be included by China is there for our dossier. It looks like Santa has given me my top wish - for our homestudy report to go to immigration by the end of the year! Now for my second wish - a super speedy processing and approval by immigration - I hear they are running slow, so I'll have to wish really really hard...Dear Santa...

Authentication #2 Complete

I received my authenticated birth certificate today - that's 2 Consulates down, one to go. Our paperchase is in the end phase. We expect to receive our homestudy report before Christmas to send to immigration. Meanwhile we will notarize the remainder of our documents and take them to the Secretary of State and Chinese Consulate for authetication either right before or right after the holidays. After that we wait for the I-171 (immigration approval) - we've seen reports of this taking up to 4 months out of the Chicago office. Only after we receive and authenticate the I-171 can our dossier be sent to China.

Rockettes Are Rockin'

We went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular show on Saturday. It was a great show - lots of fun - live animals for the nativity and snow inside the theater. I can't wait until we can take Hana and watch the excitement on her face! As I decorate and get ready for the holidays I'm constantly thinking of how we can make this a magical time of year for her - it's going to be so much fun...

Shaoey and Dot

I ventured to Target a couple of weeks ago with a friend. As we were hunting for gel pens the office supply section I came upon a small stand with several adoption related books (strange place to put it, don't ya think?). This one immediately caught my eye - Shaoey and Dot - the illustrations are very good. As I flipped through it I realized that it is specific to China adoption and it'll be a great story to read to Hana and to help all of us talk about her own adoption story. Even though I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything for her until after our paperwork is in China, I just couldn't pass it up - it's too perfect.