Final Home Study Draft Received

It finally arrived. The biggest hurdle is complete! I am off to the post office to mail it off to USCIS.

So excited!

Checking In

Our adoption agency called yesterday to check in. Our China-only agency never calls (and this is our 2nd go-round with them). Made me wonder what was wrong. The lady at the agency just wanted to know how things were going and if I had any questions. Made me worry---are we taking too long to get this dossier done? I mean this is our 3rd (or 2nd) adoption---we don't ever just get a call to check in unless we call you! Right? Apparently not with our Ethiopian adoption agency.

During our conversation, we did uncover that we have to re-do the letter from Matt's employer. He got a pay increase and it needs to reflect his current salary since our homestudy will too. Not too hard to do. Matt is getting it done today.

In the meantime, we are waiting for our home study draft to be evaluated and then the final copy should be coming our way. In some good news, our adoption agency told us that the I-600a/I-171h process has been going relatively quickly since other international adoption nations have gone to the Hague and now require the I-800.

I so want the home study complete so we can move to the next phase....waiting for referral!

Homestudy Draft

We received the draft of our homestudy today. Matt and I read over it this evening and are sending it back to the homestudy agency for corrections. Not too much to correct, so we are very excited to have gotten through this milestone in the adoption journey.

WHOHOO!

I received good news this morning from our homestudy agency---all our missing documentation has been received and a draft of our homestudy is being sent to us and Dove for review and approval! Yippeee! The end of the paperchase is in sight!

Ugh!

We only received two copies of our criminal clearances so I had to request two more copies. They just came in the mail. They look nothing like the first two copies and they aren't notarized. Back to the police station tomorrow.

Off to the Post Office

I am about to set out to the Post Office to mail the three remaining documents needed to release our homestudy. Our social worker never returned my call so I called the homestudy agency and left a message. It was returned on Tuesday and I finally got to speak to someone this morning that told me that we were actually missing 3 documents---a general declaration (that we actually completed with our social worker in September), a notarized reference (of which I had an original) and Chloe's adoption decree. After two moves, we have paperwork scattered here and there. I found the decree, in Chinese, which I hope is ok. It does say "Adoption Certification" at the top and have our names on it. The search for that document proved that I must sort and organize the boxes and boxes of documents in our basement!

I am off to the post office to mail these documents to our homestudy agency. Wish us luck that these three docs will finally release our homestudy.

Mailed off the I-600A

I mailed in our I-600A and all the necessary paperwork today to our local USCIS office. All the documentation to release our homestudy should be in to our homestudy agency though I cannot get our social worker to call back and confirm.

I've been working on the dossier still and here's where we are currently:

Document Checklist for Ethiopia Dossier:

· Letter to the Board of Toukoul {WRITTEN}

· Family Registration Form

· Financial Information

· Letter from Bank {DONE}

· Criminal Clearance {GOT TWO COPIES—NEED TO RETURN FOR ONE MORE COPY}

· Two Letters of Reference {DONE}

· Letter from Employer {DONE}

· Medical Form {DONE}

· Marriage Certificate {DONE}

· Birth Certificates {DONE}

· Introduction Letter {DONE}

· Home Study Report {HOME VISITS DONE—WAITING FOR DRAFT COPIES}

· Obligation of Home Study Agency {MAILED TO AGENCY}

· Deed of Home

· Power of Attorney {DONE}

· USCIS Approval I-171h {I-600A MAILED}

· Passport Photos

· Family Pictures

· Adoption Education Certificates