Documents Certified-Check!

We just got back in town and the IL certified documents were waiting at the post office for us. I made copies, triple-checked to make sure everything was in order, said a prayer, and mailed them off to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. The lady at the post office was impressed at how organized I was this time. I'm getting the hang of this! Now I understand why they call this phase the paperchase!

Iowa is fast!

We already received my birth certificate back from Des Moines. They received it Wednesday morning and it was on it's way back to IL later that day! I am really impressed with how quick the turnaround was. I talked to our agency and they said IL is much slower. I'm hoping we'll receive everything back from Springfield in the next few days. I'm nervous having all of those precious papers in someone else's hands!

Papers are moving

I sent off 12 documents today for state certification. After they are certified, I will send them to Chicago to be authenticated at the Chinese Consulate. Then, we will gather those documents with the rest of what is required in the dossier (which is all of the paperwork & photos that are sent to China) and send it off to our agency, who will then review it and send it to China. We're making progress!

Special Needs Video

I just watched this amazing video, and it does a wonderful job of portraying what special needs adoption in China is. Please take a few minutes to watch it. These children are so precious, and this video really touched my heart. Since we're going through the special needs program, our daughter will have a special need, but her greatest need is that of any child-to have the love of a family.

Update

Since it's been over a month since I posted, I thought I'd give a quick update. According to Holt, we can get a referral at any time now, but it could take up to 6 months. It's hard to believe after so much waiting, that this is finally happening, and happening relatively soon! There's so much to do in the meantime that it can feel overwhelming at times. We're working on the dossier, applying for grants, finding out as much as we can about adoption by reading books, blogs, chat groups and listening to podcasts, and both working extra jobs to help finance it. It's really great to be making progress finally, and we can't wait to be matched with the little girl God has chosen to become a part of our family. Once we have the referral, it will be about 6 months before we travel to bring her home. That's the part of the wait I dread the most.

Home Study Approved!

Our social worker sent our HS off to Holt on Friday, and they already approved it. They said it looked great, so now once our SW notarizes it, she'll send us a copy. Now we can move forward with grant and loan applications. Please pray for us as we do some serious fund-raising. It's exciting to have one big thing done!

They need to know what?

It's amazing the information you need to reveal when you go through the adoption process. Our SW knows our life stories, including the names of our siblings' children, how much money we make, and what we eat for dinner. Well, not that, but you get the idea. We thought we had already laid it all out on the line, but we just got an email from our SW saying that we need to provide DCFS with a monthly breakdown of expenses, including what we spend on things like utilities, clothing, and family fun!! I just can't believe the level of detail they need about our lives. I didn't think there was much more that we could tell, but apparently there is!