Light at the end of the tunnel

We've made some good headway lately. We sent another packet of paperwork back to New Life on Saturday that contained our authenticated birth certificates, our financial statements, our application letter to the China Center of Adoption Affairs, the updated schedule of fees and expenses, and our Guardianship letters. A HUGE thank you to Steve and Beth for accepting to be the Guardians of our little girl in case anything ever happened to us. We know she would be in excellent hands!

We had our medical exams last Tuesday, the 27th of March. We are waiting for the call from the doctor's office to get the results and the notarized reports. I still have a wicked bruise on my arm from the blood work- it felt like the nurse was rootin' around in there and I think I have the proof!. Allison walked away without a single mark- and she's the one who usually bruises easily!

After the medical report gets submitted, one of the the last pieces of paperwork we need to get in is a letter from an Accountant stating the financial health of Allison's business. Unfortunately for us, we are at this stage at the height of tax season, and we can't get into see an Accountant until the 23rd of April (the 16th if we are lucky). This unexpected delay may push us out about 3 weeks in getting our dossier out. Anyone know an Accountant that is available any sooner?!?

I talked with Vicki at New Life about our situation and she said we will still be able to start the home study right away, but won't be able to have it fully completed and sent in for authentication until we get that letter from the Accountant. Fair enough- at least we should be able to keep some of it moving...

We completed our online computer course, but can't fill out the evaluation to get our certificate until we start our home study. There are questions that we have to discuss with our Social Worker and we have to list his/her name on the form. We don't know who our Social Worker is yet. Soon as we have our first meeting, we can get the evaluation submitted and get our certificate. Not a big deal.

Once we get all the paperwork submitted and our home study report is in from the Social Worker, we still have to wait for authentication to come back from the Citizens and Immigration Service office (CIS). Surprise, surprise- more waiting. To the tune of 4-6 weeks. This is the last piece of the puzzle for our dossier. At least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We'll post another entry soon- we have noticed lots of strange, and very cool things happen lately that we will share with you!

Love,
Gary & Alli