Homestudy finalized!

I got a call this afternoon that our homestudy is finalized and notarized. I'll pick it up from our agency on the way to work in the morning! YAY!
I also mailed our birth certificates off to the Consulate in Chicago today.
Our I600A will go to the USCIS office in Boston TOMORROW!
All we need now is to be fingerprinted and get through homeland security. USCIS will send us a 171H form and then we just need to send everything off to be authenticated by either MA or NH, then off the the Consulate in NYC.
We may have everything submitted by the end of Feb!!!!
If we get everything in as planned, then we are looking at a Nov 2006 referral :)
(assuming current wait times hold out)

yay! we received bill's birth certificate yesterday!

Now that we have both of them back certified, they'll go out to the Consulate in Chicago to be authenticated on Monday. I finished the I600A form this weekend as well, so that is sitting in an envelope awaiting our finalized homestudy copy to arrive so we can mail it. The other bit that needs doing is we need a second original copy of our state police clearances for both NH and MA, so that's my Tuesday project this week. The NH one is easy because I can walk in the office and have it done while I wait, but the MA one needs to be mailed in and back again.
Soon soon soon :)
gives new meaning to "hurry up and wait"....

One birth certificate down, one to go....

My birth certificate arrived back from the Michigan Secretary of State last night with their seal of approval. Now we just need Bill's back from Illinois and we can send both off to the Chicago Consular office to be authenticated.
who knew there were this many layers of approval for one document....

Our homestudy draft arrived today!!!

Yay! We just need to edit it, send it back and we should be getting the finalized copies soon! :)
One step closer. I'll get the edited copy back in the mail tomorrow, so maybe if we are lucky we'll get the final version by the end of next week???
:)

another nursery photo...

This is a picture of the laundry hamper/toy storage bins that came in today, as well as her castle bookcase :)





And this is the first baby gift we have received (from a friend at work):





She's likely not even born yet, and already being spoiled....
:)

Our agency chose our Dossier photos :)

so here are the photos that will represent us to the Chinese adoption agency:




















I should be able to pick up my medical clearance next week, and then all we are waiting on is our finalized homestudy to get the final round of paperwork started. We are also still waiting on the state certification for our birth certificates, but that should be relatively quick (in theory).
yay :)

paperwork update

I got a call from our social worker saying that our homestudy is in the process of being typed up and should be finalized soon! Yay.
I also unfortunately just realized that I have several more steps to put some of the documents through that I could have been working on the past few months...
We have certified copies of our birth certificates (mine from MI and Bill's from IL). These certified copies need to be sent to the Secretary of State in the state they were issued in order to be certified on the state level. Once we get those back, they have to go to the consulate for the midwest (which is different from where the rest of our documents have to go) to be authenticated. So we need to get documents certified by 4 states and then authenticated by 2 consulate offices....
Yipes.
Hopefully that will all go quickly and smoothly. We still have likely another week or two before we get the finalized homestudy in order to submit the INS request for permission to adopt an orphan, and get fingerprinted and cleared by homeland security.
So January is not going to happen as far as getting the paperwork to China, but hopefully Feb or March! We also got an update from our agency saying that the current wait times are 1 month for our documents to be logged into the system in China, and 8 months from the LID (log in date) to referral of our child. Which means if we get our paperwork in to China in February, we are looking at a November referral unless things speed back up (the wait was 2 weeks to LID and 6 month to referral a few months ago).
sigh. we'll get there though :)

Dang Pats, go BEARS!

Nursery progress :)

Finally, some progress and some photos :) This is the closet (and the ever helpful Clyde)

Another wall and the valances:





The rugs:



The big wall:



yay :) the crib and changing table will be in oak to match the trim and the dresser, and there will be a glider in the corner with the green paintings. we are still waiting on a few small pieces of paper and then we will be officially in business as far as waiting for a referral :)

nursery and paperwork update...

Happy 2006!
The paint is on the walls, the bedding has arrived (although there is no crib yet) and the valances and blinds are bought. We even started a registry at amazon.com....
I'm hoping to get some of the decorations up on the walls this week and maybe I'll post some photos then (after I get the junk out of there and into the basement or attic).
As far as the paperchase goes, we are still waiting for our medical forms and for the home study to be finalized. I need to call our social worker to find out if she's gotten everything she needs yet and if the draft has been submitted for processing.....
The rest is done and waiting.. :)
2006 looks to be a good year already.