Happy Thanksgiving!

Paul and I would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We are leaving tomorrow on our long-planned trip... see you in about 10 days!

Another step closer to done

I sent our Georgia and Florida documents to the Chinese Embassy in Houston today so they can be authenticated. Included were: my birth certificate, our marriage certificate, my police clearance from Georgia, and Paul's police clearance from Florida.

More Books for Caitlin

I think this is too cute not to share... Paul came home today with more books for Caitlin! He saw them on Craigslist so he picked them up for her. What a dedicated Daddy!! :)

First Paperwork from China!

Well, actually it's from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago... We got Paul's birth certificate back with authentication from the Chinese government. I have no idea what this certificate says, but I hope it's something like "Pass these nice people through ASAP!!"

Now that I know how to go about getting this authentication I can send in all of our Georgia and Florida documents to be authenticated as well (they go to the Chinese Consulate in Houston).

USCIS and Ladybugs

Paul and I had our appointment to be fingerprinted today at our local USCIS office. It was amazingly painless: we had an 8:00 a.m. appointment and we were done and out of there by 8:20! And they had these cool computers that took our fingerprints without getting our fingers dirty- no ink! All in all it was a very pleasant surprise.

On the way to the USCIS office we passed a truck on the highway with a big ladybug on it (Paul, thinking quickly, snapped this picture with his cell phone). Ladybugs are kind of considered to be the mascot for China adoptions; according to "myth," whenever you see ladybugs something good is about to happen. Here's hoping that today's sighting was a sign of good news to come (like a quick approval from USCIS!!)

Already??

I couldn't believe my eyes this afternoon when I opened the mailbox and found 2 envelopes from USCIS! We have already been given an appointment to be fingerprinted (next Tuesday)! Philip had said it would take about 30 days to hear back from them, but it's only been 5 days! I hope and pray this is a sign that things are finally going to start going more smoothly...

FedEx is Gonna Love Us!

I sent Paul's birth certificate to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for final authentication today. I spent the morning trying to figure out how to do this, and after hours on the internet I decided that the process was very complicated and so before I send away all of our precious documents, I would do a test-run with just Paul's birth certificate, since it is the only one that needs to go to Chicago. All of our Florida and Georgia documents go to the Consulate in Houston, and our Virginia documents go to D.C. We'll see what happens!

Etc...

Today Paul met me after work at the AAA office so that we could have our Virginia forms notarized (AAA notarizes for free for members!). They also told us that they can take passport photos there, and that they only charge $5 for each set, so we were able to take care of our photos for our dossier and visa as well. We were glad to get to knock 2 more things off our "to-do" list.

The photos that we send with the dossier are used in the matching room when the CCAA is deciding which baby they should match with us, so they are very important! OK, not that a mug shot will ever be good, but these were at least decent, and the nice lady at AAA allowed us to approve the shots before she printed them (although she wouldn't let us smile- she said the passport/visa people don't like to see teeth for some reason)!

Letter from USCIS

We received a very official-looking letter from USCIS (Immigration) today saying that they have received our I-800A application and we are now just waiting for our appointment to be fingerprinted. Philip says we should expect an appointment in about 30 days.