Now We're Gettin' Somewhere

Woo Hoo! I feel like we are actually making some real strides now. Yesterday we went to Denver for our fingerprints. These go to Immigration (USCIS) as a piece of the I-171H puzzle. (I'm sure you remember that this is--altogether now--"the holy grail of the Chinese adoption community.") Mara had to get up at 6 a.m. to go with us as we wanted to be there when the office opened. (Jeff had a 9 a.m. meeting he hoped to make.) She was chipper and friendly all the way down which was amazing considering she was awake at 11:45 the night before when I went to bed. Sadly on the way home her on again, off again car sickness reared it's ugly head.

I also finally received word yesterday from the doctor that my most recent blood test was O.K. He immediately filled out my paperwork and we e-mailed it to Myra, the social worker, last night. She assures me that the home study will be sent to the Adoption Alliance for review in less than a week. From there it goes to the USCIS for, yes, the holy grail. (That is so much easier to type than I-171H--try it!)

Jeff WAS going to take all of our dossier documents to Denver today for notarizing at the agency and then to the Secretary of State for certification. However, when I came out this morning, 90 minutes after his departure, there sat the nice, neat stack of documents with all of his careful notes to himself on procedure on top. This is only an issue in that he has so much travel this month that he was not going to be back in Denver for almost two weeks--not during business hours anyway. But he has decided to forego some "boring" meetings in Estes on Friday and go take care of all the adoption stuff then spend the rest of the day working on a "more important" project at the office. I know he is just being nice so that I don't have to take a trip to Denver with Mara in tow, but I think I'll let him do it anyway. Thanks honey!

We are getting close to where we can sit back and wait for the USCIS to do their job. The only thing we are waiting on, besides the home study, is a copy of Jeff's birth certificate to arrive from Nebraska. (I know, you are saying to yourselves, I thought that was all done. Nope, this is another copy of the B. C. for the USCIS. That one was for the dossier which goes to China.) I had this piece until a few weeks ago when I cavalierly allowed Jeff to take it to Weld County with a file of stuff for Mara's Court Validation with the comment, "oh I can get another one real fast--last time it came in three days." Famous last words; we've been waiting 10 days now. God will get his way on timing no matter what! But that's okay. Look who he gave us last time. She is definitely worth the extra month my lack of attention cost us during her adoption.

Well, that is the adoption update for today. I'm not sure what I'm going to be putting in this journal during our 6+ months we wait for referral after our dossier hits China. But I'll find something to go on and on about. Succinct I am not! Thanks for checking in anyway.