China-specific parent training half done

I finished all of my China-specific parent training videos, so now Kevin just needs to do it.  I will probably "encourage" him to do it this coming weekend. ;)  I did learn some new things and had other things reaffirmed.

I don't have much else to report.  We are waiting for our next (hopefully, last) home study visit, which is a week from tomorrow.  It can't get here soon enough as far as I'm concerned!

Oh!  I almost forgot to share.  Kevin and I both thought his employer had no adoption benefits but we were wrong.  After our social worker encouraged us to check on it (she's had other clients who were employed by the same company), Kevin found something!  They will reimburse up to a specific amount of certain adoption-related expenses after the adoption is final in the eyes of IL.  I am still reading the info packet, but it looks pretty straight forward.  We will file a claim with attached receipts, bills, etc., and they will take 2-4 weeks to review it.  I need to read up on what the state of IL requires for our adoption to be finalized.

A couple people have begun to ask us for updates on our adoption process and that feels really good.  To me, it means they are thinking about us.

It's wild to think there may be a little person on the other side of the world right now, who will eventually become our child.

Added some pictures

I got our picture disc, yesterday!  I have added a few pics to the blog, now.  I may share a few more when I have time.  I think we just need 1-2 more "family life" photos and we'll be set for our dossier.  It feels really good to get that done!

We now have access to the online parent training classes we need to finish up our pre-adoption education.  I think I will start on that, today.  I am actually looking forward to this.

I got antsy eager again, yesterday, so I filled out the authentication request.  After getting some advice from other BTDT adoptive families, I have decided to send all of our documents for state certification and Chinese authentication once we have our completed/approved Home Study.  It will give me something to obsess about do while awaiting our I-800A approval.  Plus, if we have any issues with that part, we can hopefully take care of it without causing a delay.  I think I will be able to relax a wee bit once I have the largest chunk of documents fully ready for our dossier.  After our I-800A gets approved, we will send it for state certification and Chinese authentication by itself.

Fourth home study visit

Well...we survived our family pictures on Saturday!  Our 4 y/o was less than cooperative but I'm holding out hope that our photographer was able to get some decent shots.  I will share a pic or two on here when I have them!

Kevin had his individual session with our social worker, this morning.  He didn't say much about it so I'm assuming it went well.  Our social worker will now start writing up our home study!  When she comes for the home visit on April 3, she will ask any remaining questions she has and check a few things in our home (I'm assuming).  This will be the first time she gets to meet the kids.  Let's hope it goes well!

After the April 3rd visit, our social worker will take a couple more weeks to finish writing our home study.  If I have this straight in my mind, the next step will be for her to send it to our adoption agency.  They will spend about a week looking it over and making sure it meets all Hague and China requirements.  If they see a need for any additions and/or changes, they will let her know.  Once our adoption agency approves it, we must get approval from the state of IL.  I am not sure how long this typically takes so I am going to ask our social worker.  I believe the home study then goes back to our adoption agency before coming to us.  I feel like it will be a small miracle when we finally get the finished document in our hands!

We are still waiting to hear back from our adoption agency regarding the specifics of the China pre-adoption education we still need.  I expected to hear back Monday or Tuesday, so I just sent another email to ask about it.  Hopefully, they won't think I'm too impatient!  Haha!

Kevin and I have started having a lot of adoption related dreams.  I guess it makes sense that our brains would be sorting through adoption thoughts and concerns while we sleep.  I can't tell you how many pregnancy/baby dreams I had during each of my 3 pregnancies!

I've told a couple more people about our plans to adopt a Waiting Child from China.  Most people have no idea we've been thinking/dreaming about this for so long, so they are surprised when we tell them.  I'm sure it seems sudden to them.  Because of this, it has felt different from making a pregnancy announcement.  The reactions have been positive- usually a congrats or questions about the process- but lacking in excitement (except for my mom).  However, my closest friends, who have known about my desire to adopt for a long time, are thrilled for us.

Third home study visit

Our Certificate of Completion for our pre-adoption classes has been faxed to our adoption agency, so we are waiting to hear back from them on how to go about taking the remaining (China specific) classes we need.  I would imagine we'll hear back by Monday.  I expect us to be able to complete those (probably 3 classes) in a matter of a few days.

I had my individual session with our social worker, this morning.  It went really well!  My throat was tired from talking so much, but that was my own fault- I just couldn't stop!  Our social worker reported that she is waiting on the following documents: 1) IL background checks for both Kevin and me, 2) two of our reference letters.  I know that 1 of the reference letters is on its way to her, so that should arrive within the next few days.  The background checks typically take 6 weeks, so we are not concerned about those.  Everything else has come back!

Our family photo session is tomorrow morning.  We will be able to use several of those photos for our dossier (and hopefully share some on here!).  I was able to get some clarification on a couple of questions I had regarding the photos, so I am feeling good about that.  We also still need to each get 6 extra passport style photos.  Three of those will be included in the dossier and 3 will be needed for travel.

Kevin's individual home study session will be Wednesday.  After that, our social worker will start writing up our home study.  We have scheduled our home visit for April 3, so that is when she will actually come to our home, which is the last part of the home study.  I asked her how long it typically takes her to finish writing our home study after that and she said approximately 2 weeks.  At that point, we will begin a series of checks/approvals needed before our home study can be sent to the USCIS with our I-800A application for immigration approval.

And THEN....you guessed it- more waiting!

We do need to keep an eye on the calendar as most of our documents not only have an "expiration" date but also won't be accepted by the Chinese Consulate for authentication past 6 months from the date they were printed.  Our earliest document is dated February 4, 2014, which gives us until August 4, 2014 to have them state certified and then authenticated at the Chinese Consulate.  I am planning to send ALL of our documents at one time to be certified and authenticated, but if it doesn't look like everything will be done before August, I will just have to send what I have in the first batch and send a second batch after the arrival of our I-800A approval.  We will be using a courier in Chicago, so it would be more financially efficient to send everything in 1 batch.  That is the only reason I am trying to do it that way.

I seriously love talking about all these details.  Something must be wrong with me...

Kevin's passport arrived

Kevin's passport renewal arrived in Saturday's mail.  I was definitely relieved!  I had started to get concerned over his renewal taking so much longer than my new passport.  Plus, I knew they had cashed the check to pay for his renewal, so I was starting to fear that it had been lost in the mail.  Alas, the passport arrived and calmed my fears!

I have my individual home study meeting with our social worker on Friday.  I am both eager and a little nervous about it.  Kevin's individual home study meeting is a week from Wednesday.  We will need to schedule the home visit, next.  Hopefully, I will know when that is going to be after my meeting on Friday as I like to get things on the calendar ASAP!  I also want to ask our social worker approximately how long she expects to spend writing up our home study after our last meeting.  I just want to make sure I have reasonable expectations.

I spent some time this past weekend obsessing planning outfits for our family pics this coming weekend.  I told myself I would remain relaxed about this photo session.  I mainly wanted to make sure all 5 of us had clean clothes that wouldn't clash come Saturday. Of course, I ended up getting a little more involved than that.  Luckily, I was able to bounce ideas off of a friend.

I don't have much more to say this week.  Perhaps I'll have more to share on Friday.  Back to watching "Gotcha Day" videos on youtube...

Classes almost done

I went to an adoption/foster/orphan care conference this past weekend.  There were some moments when I found myself deeply touched!  I wasn't expecting to experience such strong emotions!  I was able to choose 3 sessions to attend (aside from the 2 main sessions) and I focused on post-adoption concerns.  I definitely came away with some tools in my bag and a list of books to read!

We have our last pre-adoption class, tonight.  This will satisfy IL and USA, but we will still have to take some China specific online classes through our adoption agency.  I am chomping at the bit to get the official list and get started on these!  The classes through our home study agency have been good!  It has been great to make some in-person connections with other couples who are adopting internationally.

All physicals have now been completed!  I will give our social worker Nathan's form at class, tonight.  We have also had all of our documents notarized and are in a holding/waiting pattern.

Here is what we are waiting for / have left to do:
~arrival of Kevin's passport renewal (really surprised my new passport beat his renewal)
~arrival of our 5 reference letters to our social worker (although I know she has at least 1 already)
~my individual home study meeting (scheduled for 3/14)
~Kevin's individual home study meeting (scheduled for 3/19)
~whole family home study visit at our home
~6 passport style pictures of me
~6 passport style pictures of Kevin
~3 photos of Kevin and me together
~8 photos of Kevin and me with someone else

Perhaps Kevin and I can knock out the passport pics this coming weekend.  That would be good!  A large chunk of the remaining photos will be taken care of when we have our family photo session on 3/15.  We will probably still have a few to get after that, so we may be hitting up various friends for help with this!