Papers, Papers Everywhere!

We are head deep in paperwork over here and crazy excited to be working toward bringing our girl home! Little W asks every single day, several times a day "where's my baby sister?"  He is obviously too young to understand that we can't just go get her, but we are doing everything we can get her home as fast as we can!  It just so happens that the biggest lesson thus far in international adoption is PATIENCE! So hard to learn, so God keeps sending little reminders that He is in control not us!

Since accepting our referral on January 14, we have had 5 different sets of paperwork to focus on.  1)First, were the official papers to accept our referral and submit that acceptance to our agency who then submitted it to China (EA- Electronic Acceptance).  This was mainly several papers that we had to sign agreeing to this referral and also a paper that we had to write about our plan to rehabilitate and nurture this child.  This was completed and sent electronically on January 17.

2)At the same time, we had to update our home study because it was set to expire in May.  So, we had to order new state and local police clearances, new medical letters for the whole family, new financial statements, employment letters and plan another home study visit for the house.  {INSERT LOTS OF PATIENCE!}  All of this was complete on Monday, January 28 and our home study update is currently being drafted and reviewed by our agency.

3)At the time we submitted our EA, we began working on our I-800 packet.  I had to wait a few days to look at this because information overload had begun to set in my brain.  But, I did note that we needed an additional 2 hours of travel training to be completed online, so we completed that part of the packet last week.  Just yesterday, I sat down to begin the I-800 application and hope to have it finished this week.  We will mail this packet to the USCIS once we receive our RA (Referral Acceptance) from China.  We are hoping our RA arrives in the next couple of weeks.

4) The fourth piece of paperwork to be completed and submitted is the DS-230.  This is our Immigrant Visa Application for our daughter and I haven't begun to start this yet!  Just looking through the information packet on it, it looks like we will need to have our daughter's English picked out when we fill this out!  Yikes!  We haven't thought too much about a name yet, so it we better get busy!

5) Last on the list is grant applications.  I was able to sit and apply for one grant last week, but my goal has been to apply for a dozen or more before the end of the month.  With just about 36 hours left to meet that goal, I better get busy!!