When they say "paperchase" they mean it!  I spent the weekend answering my adoption questions on raising a transracial baby (who would have thought of so many questions), my disciplinary tatics, and my childhood.  I also had to write my autobiography basically explaining my whole life to this point - what were my successes, challenges and traumatic events through each milestone in my life.  The only postitive there was that I could leave the question blank about how I met my spouse.  Still, the process took me most of Saturday.  It is finished and nothing critical came up that I hadn't already processed or I may need to book time with my therapist!!!!! 

 

Today, at lunch and after work, I concentrated on all of my forms that I have to create.  I had to create an Adoption Application stating that I wanted a healthy infant girl under the age of 12 months and why I wanted to adopt from China.  I also had to write a Single Adopter document indicating that I have never been married and that I am not a homosexual (what do I have to do have a picture of me kissing a guy?????)  Crazy - but hey, I'm up for that all in the name of adopting!!!

 

Next I had to create a Certificate of Profession for my HR person at work to verify that I make this and that much money and that I am not expected to be fired anytime soon - well I hope that holds up!  And the last document I did was a Certificate of Income and Property which lists out my net worth - sorry nephews but I'm not worth too much!!!

 

All of these documents have to be notarized - luckily I have a great friend here at the law firm that will notarize all of my documents for free.  I don't know if she knew what she was signing up for - there are a lot.

 

I am still waiting on my doctor's final medical form.  She told me that she would do it this weekend so I plan on calling on Tuesday so I can get it at lunch time.  I also will need 7 to 10 pictures of me, my family, my house and doing activities so that they can see where she will live.  I CANNOT, however, include a picture of Izzy, my puppy, because in China they believe that pets are extravagant and frown upon them.  And, don't they eat some dogs?  YIKES, Izzy, run.....you'll have to catch her first.

 

Once I meet with my social worker on Wednesday, she will need to complete my home study.  I also have to send off my 1-600A form and $615 to the Citizenship Immigration Services (CIS) for approval to bring a child into the USA for adoption.  Once they get that form, they will set up a fingerprinting appointment for me with the FBI.  After those are taken and processed, I will receive a I-171 (being renamed to a I-797).  When I recieve that form, my dossier will be sent to China (DTC)!  About 2 weeks later, I should receive a log in date (LID) which means that China has entered all of my information in to the system.

 

From my LID, the waiting will begin.  I will need to wait anywhere from 8 - 10 months for my referral!  It is all going so quickly - I guess it is faster when you are single and only have to deal with one individual.  I may have my baby Maggie by the year's end or the first of 2007.  Please pray for her mom as she hopefully is still carrying her in her womb.

 

Thanks for reading along and praying for me and this journey!

 

Love,

 

Tricia