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...