Not much to update, update. . .

I wish I had more news to share. We are in the middle of finding our way through our first round with immigration. We have been fingerprinted (again) and filled out more and more paperwork in anticipation of sending our dossier to China. We are still on schedule for a referral by February (hopefully) and travel late summer to bring our baby home. I will update once we are DTC- get ready the acronyms will be flying the next few months! DTC, LOI, LOA, TA. I just have to figure out what they mean:-)

Great information source

This is a great website that was sent to me from another mom who is adopting from China.  It explains the process and the current state of adoption from China.  Thought some of you might find it interesting.
http://www.china-adoption-online.com/index.html

Whew! We made it through the home tour!

This past Saturday was a busy day. Our social worker came at 5:30 pm to tour our home and meet with Chandler and the boys. Of course I spent the entire day scrubbing the floors and making sure everything was perfect. Not even close! We were already scheduled to attend an all day seminar put-on by the International Adoption Clinic here in Birmingham and I didn't want to miss that. So, at 8:30 that morning I left my 2 busy little boys in the hopefully capable hands of Chandler with clear instructions to play outside, eat outside and to do their very best not to touch anything! I will admit that I was a little nervous about what we might find when we got home with social worker in tow. Sweet Chan Chan! Not only were my little men bathed and smelling sweet and everything in it's place, but she had taken the time to light a candle. Needless to say, everything went great and we are inching closer to bringing our baby home. Oh yeah, did I mention I ran 20 miles before going to the seminar? Started my day at 4:30 and crashed hard that night!

First interview with our social worker

We had our first of four interviews with our social worker, Karla, this past Tuesday. She is super nice, extremely knowledgable about the process and put us immediately at ease. It amazes me how real this all now seems. I guess hearing someone confirm that we will be getting a little girl makes it seems so. Now, it is just a matter of working through the process. The rest of our interviews will occur over the next couple of weeks. Karla also informed us that our Alabama CAN (child abuse and neglect) clearance forms are already back. These can often take up to 3 months, so things are moving a little faster than normal at this point. Based on what we have learned from study, Karla, and other families that have adopted, it is reasonablemto hope for a referral by January or February. If that timeline holds true, we would hopefully travel early next summer. Please pray that things continue to progress and that the little girl that will soon be ours is safe, well fed, and comfortable.

Buying my baby's first doll

I couldn't resist going to the American Girl store while we were in Chicago. I didn't go crazy. Just bought one bitty baby. I will wait to buy matching outfits as soon as I know how big our little girl will be. I can't wait to pack the doll up when we eventually get to China. All the books say to take a doll with you when you travel to bring your little one home. Gotta do what the books say;-)

Fingerprints are in the mail

Today was a big step forward.  We mailed our fingerprints to the FBI along with permission for a complete background check.  According to our social worker, the time frame for return on the fingerprints is 8-12 weeks. Apparently, fingerprinting is often a source of delay due to poor quality of prints or failure to fill out the application correctly. I was so nervous today putting it all together.  I am praying that every was done correctly! The goal is to have our home study completed by the time our prints are "approved" so that our dossier can be sent to China.    It is an amazing amount of work to complete, but we are getting it done.  We spent 2 hours last night online working through our seminar modules.  Six more hours of that and then we will move on to something else. . . autobiographies, required reading, study of China from the state department, written questions, and so on.   Our first interview with our social worker will be September 13th.

One good thing from Obamacare

I spoke with our health insurance carrier today and found out that no matter the medical need our baby has, it will not be excluded as preexisting.  Definitely good news!  We also started our medical screening process and I have begun compiling a voluminous amount of personal information.   Adoption is going to be labor intensive, too.  I even took the dog in to make sure she is current on vaccinations.  Gotta show proof of that also.