update on Baby Gum

There really is no news to tell but I thought it would be worth posting an update on where we are in the process.

A week ago Friday we officially completed our Home Study- meaning it's done, typed up, signed and notarized. We have 3 copies in our hands and one has been sent off to CIS (some kind of branch of homeland security having to do with immigration) along with our I-800A form. Once this form and our home study are read and we are approved to be adoptive parents, we will be told to go and get fingerprinted one last time. Once the CIS receive our fingerprints verifying that we are not criminals we will be sent our final form needed to complete our dossier.

Once we receive this form we send it and all the other 11 documents that have been gathered and notarized (and that notarization has also had to be verified) we send them to the State of Ohio for the State seal... once they have the State seal we send them to the Chinese consulate in NYC where we get a seal. After all documents are sealed from everyone and their brother (if you have a seal to include, let us know- we'll send 'em your way too!) our "dossier" is complete.

The dossier includes the documents gathered sealed and sent, along with a letter explaining why we want to adopt a baby, a bunch of pictures and a copy of the home study to the Chinese government. Once this is received we are ready to go. Because we are adopting from the Waiting Child program (aka special needs children) things are a tad bit different, and faster, than if we were waiting for a "healthy" child.

The potential hic-up in this could be that letter from China that we were waiting for. It never came. I tried everything. No luck. So we had a paragraph written in our home study saying we tried everything with no luck. We are praying praying praying that the powers that be will see that they are asking for the impossible and approve us anyhow.

As we wait for our I-800A to be approved, we can move forward with some other forms specifically for special needs children. We will indicate from a very very specific checklist what kind of special needs we are willing to take. Things range from very minor (birthmarks and fatty tumors) to very serious conditions such as quadriplegics (sorry for my spelling) and spina bifida etc. FYI, we are requesting very minor and medically correctable issues. Once we fill these forms out we are technically on the waiting list and could be matched with a child per our specifications soon-ish! But we can't go get the child until the dossier is in. We are also beginning to apply for grants and other kinds of fincial aids. Most of these are contingent on the completion of the home study.

Complicated, isn't it?

So time frame?? Some is on us, most is on the process, all of it is on God! But on the very very earliest we could be placed w/ a child by the summer. Most likely it will be next fall. And most children on the Waiting Child list are a bit older. We've asked for the youngest child possible, but we realize that will probably mean that by the time they come home they'll be between 1 & 2 years old. (So there is a good chance Baby Gum and Turner will be twins :)

So there you have it, a very complicated situation for a very exciting event. I'm not sure which is worse, the paper chase or strech marks!