Finally

I finally received the Notarized copy of our homestudy yesterday afternoon.  Feels good to have it in hand.  Because now there are things that I can do rather than waiting on others.  The next step is to get it sent off to USCIS(formerly Immigration and Naturalization) to get their approval as appropriate people to bring a child from another country into the United States.  I understand it takes about a month to get that approval which includes being fingerprinted.  The suspicious lawyer in me hates the idea of the Federal Government having a file on me that contains only God knows what including my fingerprints.  But, I guess it's a necessary evil.  Hopefully we will be able to walk in to be fingerprinted instead of waiting for an appointment.  I guess that speeds up the process.  My plan is to have that in the mail tomorrow morning.

She Knows . . . .I think.

I received an email today from our contact in China, Angela.  She says that she received confirmation that the orphanage received our package on January 8.  She will be contacting them about pictures.  Hopefully we will see something soon.  It's exciting to know that Claire knows about us now.  At least I hope she does.  I suppose there is a chance that the orphanage has not given her the things, but I can't think of one reason why.

Praying that she knows we are here and loving her!

Education Done!!!

One of the "new" requirements for international adoption is 10 hours of adoption education.  The reason for this is that China joined The Hauge Convention on Adoptions.  Apparently there have been several adoptions that were not successful for whatever reason.  The education is geared toward giving people a realistic view of issues that can occur and what to look for with their child.  We didn't have to do this when adopting Luke.

At first I thought it was a huge pain.  Mostly because I felt like there should be a waiver for families who have already adopted.  But I've also thought that with a lot of this process.  China already has a file on us.  Our birth, marriage and other documents haven't changed.  Why do we need to resubmit them???  I guess it's just part of the process and we just have to go with the flow.

So we started the education today.  It took us several hours to complete.  We did it together.  A lot of it was kind of what I thought, stuff I already knew.  Much of it confirmed for us that we have done the right things with Luke.  Gives us confidence that we will do the right things again for Claire.  So, in the end I didn't really mind doing it.  It's all for Claire and even at this early stage I'd do anything for her.  So I'm happy to have this step done.  One small step closer to her.

Does she know????

It's sometime Wednesday in China and I can't help but wonder if Claire has received her package.  Oh, I'd love to be a fly on that wall.  Praying that she is happy to know she has a family.  Hoping that she loved the photo album.  Wondering how long I should wait before sending her another package and what should I send??

I want to send so much.  Clothes, books, toys but it's so hard because I don't know what she likes.  More importantly I have to resist the urge to spoil her to death before we get her.  I don't want to create unrealistic expectations on her part.

What I really want is to just hold her in my arms!  Tell her how happy we are that she is joining our family.    Hoping that spring/summer will be here before we know it!

Home Study has Finally Arrived!!

We got the draft late today.  Finally feel like we can move forward.  Had to make some corrections that should take our social worker about 5 minutes to correct.  When we get her notarized copy we can send it off to immigration so that they can approve it and allow us to bring Claire home.  This is a huge step that will take about a month because we will have to be fingerprinted.

But forward progress is forward progress and we are thrilled that this huge hurdle has been cleared.  Hold on sweetheart.  We are making our way to you!!!