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.