Hanging on......

We got a notice from Immigration today stating they are working on our case and it may take up to 27 weeks. (Brings us to March.)
Sent off Hubby's paperwork for a new Passport. We had to have someone at Town Hall put their stamp on it.
Still waiting on some documents to send off to our SW...Criminal record checks, child protection, and medicals.
Have to double check to see if we need to update any travel needles. The Princess will have to have hers done.
.......................................so ya, that's where we are right now.

Homestudy Update

Yesterday morning we had our first home study update meeting, I'd taken our previous study and wrote out all the things that had changed since we did it last so she only really had to ask the usual necessary questions. She was very supportive and pretty much said that other than collecting the necessary paperwork and delivering it to her that we would only need to meet again when we go over the changes. At the end of our session she asked if we had any questions and it has been so long (2005) since we did this end of the paperwork I had to ask how long it would take and where does it go next. She said she would have it ready by mid October (My birthday is mid October! What a perfect gift!) then she would send it to the provincial adoption Co. and they will call to meet with us, then they forward our dossier to our agency to be translated, they will then send it back to the province and then the province sends it to China. We wait for a LID then, with the Waiting Child program our agency will be ready to match us! I called our agency yesterday and they are saying it's possibly to have a referral by Christmas for our little Asian prince! However they said travel is estimated 3-5 months leaning mostly on the 4-5 months. So with that said we can hope at the latest we will travel in May! That makes us VERY happy! Things are looking bright on the horizon!

Better day today...

Today I went down to our local courthouse and got a few documents certified and stamped. The JP is a lady who goes to our church so it was nice that we found favor in her today after the last few days. I brought home the documents and sealed them in an envelope and will send them off tomorrow.

Today was 1 year ago from Gotcha day for our princess. While eating supper it started to rain while the sun was shining..it was magnificent....I just knew in my spirit that there would be a rainbow in the front side of the house so she and I ran to the front door and sure enough. I love how God reminds us of His faithfulness....you see we seen her before our Adoption Coordinator even called us....on a website that advocates for waiting children. called "Rainbow" Kids... You just can't call that a coincidence...what are the chances that out of 147 million orphans in the world we would have seen her face before the phone even rang. That was 100% God. I love how He shows up in the most timely ways.

and yet a few more paper cuts......

Hubby's passport stuff came back today so we have to refile for a whole new passport for him.

His venerable persons check came back with the same snag mine had, so he has to run fingerprints and have it sent away also.

I filled out the citizenship package and paid for it on-line. I have to have some documents certified tomorrow by the notary public.

My licence isn't due for renewal until October but I wanted all current info photocopied so I got that done today.

Then to top it off I had my physical done and my Dr. will fill out the form when my blood work is done. He gave us a hard time about it last time and this time was no different. He really doesn't understand why they want him to fill it out but not send any laboratory test results as proof. I said I wouldn't argue with China about it, they have their reasons and I won't question them.

AHHHHH! So here we are. The citizenship looks like it will take up to 7 months, (this doesn't have to go with our dossier) the medicals will be ready in a few weeks and the police checks can take up to 3-4 weeks so even if our SW is done we can't send everything for translation until all the paperwork is collected. I'm guessing the earliest would be the end of October to mid November before we can send it to China. That is a bit of a downer but everything is in Gods timing so I will try not to dwell on those particulars. He's on top of the littlest details. I know He is. ;O)

and the snags begin....

The rollercoaster is taking a dip...hang on it's only temporary!

Dear hubby's passport went threw the wash over a year ago, (funny China accepted it last September...) he got a call from the Passport office saying they will not renew it because of the shape it's in......AAAAAAAHHHHHKKKK! So they are sending it back and asking him to reapply from the beginning. Which means a different passport number which means more paper cuts as I thumb threw alllllll the paper I filled out with his passport number on them!!! THANK Heavens I didn't start the citizenship packet yet! So....I'm not sure how long that will take for him to get his new one. Still waiting for mine and daughter's to be sent back to us.

Then....if that wasn't enough I went in to have my venerable persons check done and they called the next day to tell me there is someone else in the system with a similar name as mine and they will want to fingerprint me and send it off. This is a new process they started only a month ago the lady was telling me and she said it may take 3 weeks or more but that it would more than likely be longer....ugggg. Praying everything mysteriously gets expedited.

This Monday coming I go for my physical. So I'll have that for filled out and that will be another piece of the paper castle. Hubby gets his done the following week.

More paper cuts!

Sending our registration off to our agency today. This is two forms one to be sent and the other to be filled out and e-mailed.
Yesterday we did our Letter of Request, collected letter from Guardian, reference letter from family member, got my letter of proof of employment from accountant. (Need to get hubby's). Birth certificates collected, Marriage certificate, divorce papers(I was married at 18 then separated at 20), and some pictures collected to mount to card stock(this was new this time around, they want you to mount them on card stock with the date of photo and a line describing the picture. ) Today we will hopefully collect the other two reference letters from friends.