Process Update 4/23

Just a quick note to let you know where we are in our process.

Our dossier documents came back from the Chinese consulates last week with seals on them.

This is a photo of someone's China authentication seal. 

We got our adoption petition, police clearances, physical exam reports, employment (or non-employment for me) verifications, financial statement, and marriage license back from the Consulate in Chicago (which oversees several states including Colorado), and our birth certificates back from the Consulate in San Francisco (which oversees Oregon and Washington, where we were born).

Next, we scanned and printed copies of EVERY SINGLE PAGE of this mess.  We need to send a set of photocopies with our dossier to China, and we want to keep a copy of each document here as well, so it's best to have them digital.  We have found that we frequently refer to or need an additional copy of one or another document as we've been applying for grants.

Now, as soon as I get the paperwork in the prescribed order (and yes, that is specified.  Gotta love Chinese bureaucracy.  They tell you EXACTLY what they want) I will send the documents, 3 passport photos of each of us, photocopies of our actual passports, 3 couple photos and 8 family photos to CCAI (our adoption agency) to be checked, re-checked, and checked again, summary translated, and ready for the ONE LAST PIECE....

Which is our immigration approval.  Specifically, it is the I-797c, which is an approval of a form I-800a, which we sent in a month ago and had fingerprints taken for on Saturday.  This form is an approval for us to adopt a child from a Hague Convention country (of which China is one).  Once that gets here (and goes through the same notarization, certification and sealing process - UGH! - then it joins the other documents up at CCAI, where they are lovingly bound in a professional-looking red folder and sent to CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption).

In other news, Lashi just finished his last online parent training - this one on Grief and Loss in Adoption - and we have our last in-person class at CCAI in May.  That class is about Becoming a Multicultural Family. 

And finally, we are thiiiiiis close to finally selecting a first name for our little Snow Angel.  Hopefully I'll have something to announce soon.  :)