Adoption Paper Trail Update

Ok, sorry I have been away from the blog for so long. I have been so swamped with work stuff lately, it is getting really hard to keep up with everything as Halloween gets closer. The 6 day headache really put be behind schedule. Plus, I started a FaceBook profile - that is a really fun thing too, so I was playing around on that - infringing on my blog addiction!

And now on to the update:
Our passports came in the mail on August 30th - another important document crossed off the list.

We also received a paper from INS with contact information for a lady in the office. She needed copies of our tax info (not sure why?) and I had missed answering a question on my previous marriages (zero), which I told her over the phone.

So, I faxed the tax documents last week and she was just waiting on the home study report, which came in the mail on Wednesday - yeah! So, I mailed the home study off to INS today. She told me to expect to hear from her 10 days after she receives the home study. I wonder if that means I17h in 10 days?

I also received a packet from ADOPPT Wednesday in the mail. It contains our dossier check list and our travel packet! So exciting to look through that! I think we pretty much have all the paper work that we need for our dossier. Except for the 5 extra passport pics - we are going to go to CVS to get them done sometime in the next week. I also need to confirm that our marriage certificate is in the format, with the proper seal that they need.

So, depending on the I17h, I'm thinkin' we could be DTV by maybe October 15th? A referral with picture would sure be a nice Christmas Present!!!!!

I know that is cutting it close, and involves a great deal of wishful thinking! But come on, Santa, I haven't asked for much lately, and you never came through with "the new colon" that I asked you for many years. And never mind, that I grew up Jewish either, I have always believed in you!

I was really hoping it would be a little earlier time line, and I pretty much blame myself for not keeping on top of things. If I remember correctly, we were supposed to receive our home study report about a week after our home study visit, which was June 29th. I am in no way blaming our social worker, she has been awesome, the delay is really my fault. In the beginning of July we were away for a week and I expected to see it when we came back, but it wasn't here. I was so busy trying to catch up after traveling, I kept forgetting to call about it. Every day was something else and before I knew it, it was always late at night. (The burden of a night owl combined with a busy business owner. I get into work and its non stop for me all day long.) Then at some point, I had a memory lapse, brain fart, or whatever you call it, and started thinking that I only needed the home study for the dossier, not for the I17h, so I wasn't in a rush for it and didn't call to inquire where it was. I don't know when, why or how my thought process went down the wrong path, its just so much paperwork and filing, etc. I think I prematurely started trying to cross things off the dossier list. I just started a wrong thought process, and it finally dawned on me when I received the INS paper. DOH!

So, my delay might have cost us two or three weeks with INS. If the INS lady had the home study before August 30th , I would have faxed her the tax info on September 4th and 10 days from then, would have been this Friday! Maybe it makes a difference in the grand scheme of things, maybe it doesn't. Either way, everything happens for a reason. And in this case, that reason is a specific little girl out there in Vietnam who is meant to be in our family! So, our dossier HAS to get there at a specific time that fate has intended. That is my belief. And this is the end of my update!