Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Next step....

well, I rested for a few days with no paperwork! I'm happy to do it all though as it just means we are working our way towards getting JD home.

I'm sending off our I800 with a check for $830. That is for immigration and to get fingerprinted. We also are told to get cracking on getting the great seal of Minnesota put on our documents that will be included in our dossier! yippeee.....it's getting closer. So now I'm hoping our social worker is getting close to getting our home study done because then we can get fingerprinted and then we can get our dossier sent to China!!

So, happily back to some paperwork

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

One step closer.....

We just got word from our homestudy agency (here in Minnesota) that we have all our required paperwork in for our homestudy and they are waiting for our background clearance from Minnesota! We're getting there slowly but surely. We do need to send our immigration paperwork though to our adoption agency which is located in WA. Our main agency is WACAP but since they are out of state we needed an agency in state to do our homestudy so we went with IAS in Edina.

So, we now WAIT and feel good about knowing at this moment we have nothing to do for the adoption! Now, that will change and I'm not sure exactly when but hoping it's soon so I can get all this paperwork sent to China and get in the process to bring JD home! Once that happens though....we have lots to do! We have to move my office down a level and then get him a bed and prepare his room. I can't wait to get some measurements on this sweet boy and get him some clothes and shoes! wooo hooo! At this point though I haven't a clue as to what sizes but can guarantee those little legs will require me to learn how to hem pants!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Throw me a life jacket, I"m......

drowning in paperwork!!! It's been quite stressful around here for me. I'm doing the adoption paperwork with the help of my sister, doing school work (nobody's help!) and of course working part time! Can you say....ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Schoolwork is hard but I'm loving learning about the stenographer machine. It's crazy how they do things and I feel cool doing it! Next semester though I'm going to concentrate on my electives and other classes and Fall 2010 or even Spring 2011 I'll resume the realtime (the stenograph part) of my classes so I can really concentrate on learning it and getting my speed up. To be a stenographer you need to be able to type like 225 or 250 WPM! To achieve that you need to practice at least 15 hours per week in addition to doing assignments and lab time. You can imagine how easy all that is while raising a family to boot! Thankfully my family is very supportive and we're working through it all.

Work....well work is good. I'm only part time and know that even sometimes that feels like too much. I have a great job though that's flexible and work from home and know I'm so lucky to have that. Unfortunately for me though....it's a dead end job for me! I really can't see moving up anywhere so a new career is what I"m looking for I guess!! I am very excited to be a court reporter someday and know it's going to be a wonderful job. My teacher at school has been doing it for over 20 years and still can't say enough about it....so there ya go!

Adoption! ahhh, the joy that keeps me going. I can't even describe how lucky I am to have 3 great children at home now and one that I'll bring home SOON. We are all getting excited to meet JD and just to show him what a family is about. After going through adoption already with Zoe I know there will be some challenges but nothing we can't handle (I hope!). We have so much paperwork to go through but really think I'm at the "waiting" stage again. That's the craziness of adoption, you rush around and work like crazy to get your paperwork done and then you sit and wait. And wait. And wait. And then some more waiting! Finally, you get news and then start the rushing around all over again. But it's all worth it knowing that I should be traveling back to China sometime between June and July. I'm praying it's June or July as summer would be a perfect time to bring him home to spend time with him and get him adjusted before starting school again.

So, right now I don't have much to share but can't wait to get all my paperwork to China and wait for their approval! We've been pre-pre-approved so I'm sure we will not have problems with getting the approval to adopt him. So for now....I will let you wait with me!! LOL

I can't wait to post him pictures.....he's so dang cute but until it's official that he's ours I can only show pictures face to face....not online as I don't want to jeopardize getting approved!

thanks all
Liz