So Many Things…

I took this past Friday off as it’s my annual "Take the Day Off of Work Because Boz Won't be Home to Get in the Way Because He is Finally Back at School Day" and decided I’d better run over to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department to have my FINAL BACKGROUND CHECK DONE!! Once it was ran the woman working there typed out the letter we needed and had me look it over. Then she found the Sheriff, had him sign it then got it notarized and I was out the door. Another thing checked off the list. Or so I thought. It wasn’t until i got to my car that I realized I needed to have my maiden and previous married name on the letter. So I ran back in and she was nice enough to add the two names. She then had to go searching for the Sheriff as he was wandering around the building…. She came back about 10 minutes later with it signed and notarized. YAY!!! So I took off and ran a bunch of errands, cleaned the house and then remembered that I needed to fax that letter to our family coordinator. That’s when I noticed it…. She didn’t just add the other names to the letter, she must have retyped the whole thing! How do I know this?? Because “Indiana” was spelled wrong..... My zip code had too many numbers...... My SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER was WRONG (she added an extra digit)! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I’m kicking myself for not proof reading it the second time (but being as she went out the back door there wasn’t much of a chance to). Of course by the time I noticed this it was too late to go back. So this means I will have to take half a day off of work to get this taken care of ~ though I think I’m just going to wait and do it the same day I get my fingerprints done… but still! How frustrating. Oh well, at least I know it can be done in a matter of minutes, so that’s nice. ;-)

On a GOOD note, over the weekend I was able to finish up our Family Photo Pages! This one was a bit hard, as we hardly have any pictures of us together – and they need to have been taken within the last year! So the past couple weeks we’ve been bringing the camera with us and taking as many pictures as possible. I suggested he bring the camera to school (to get some pictures with friends he works with or maybe even his team) but he was a little weirded out by the idea. LOL! I saw nothing wrong with that suggestion as I’m always bringing my camera to work and taking pictures (and I'm not the only one!)!

Yesterday I finished up our Application Letter ~ we needed to write this as part of our dossier. It’s the letter requesting permission from MOWA (Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs) to adopt a child (the decision rests with them). Not to brag, but I think I did a pretty good job on the letter. LOL!! I’ll let you know if our family coordinator agrees with that statement.

Last week we found out that our Home Study was COMPLETE and we should be receiving a copy of it THIS WEEK!! If I didn’t have to be at work, I’d be sitting on my front porch stalking my mailman right now! Instead it’s a mad rush home to see if I can beat Boz to the mailbox (which rarely happens). He was sweet this morning he told me that he wouldn’t check the mail until I got home! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? What a sweetie, but let’s get real here. I WANT TO KNOW IF IT CAME!

Once it comes that means we can submit our I-600A form!! For those who don’t know…. THAT’S HUGE! In order to adopt internationally, we must be approved through the USCIS (United States Citizenship Immigration Services). The approval (the coveted I-171H form) is what allows us to bring a child born overseas into the states and is a required step for our child to gain US citizenship. So clearly, this is a huge step. The expected wait time for their approval however is 6-12 weeks. ICK. But I’m not worried, it’s all in God’s time. Not that there’s anything we could do about it anyway.

At the risk of sounding like a crazy woman, I already have the I-600A form filled out and copies of a few others documents we need ready to go. Just waiting on the copy of our home study. Oh, and we need to get a money order in the amount of $830.00. It is our hope and prayer that we can have this sent out by the weekend! AAAHH!!! HOW EXCITING WOULD THAT BE!?

Last week I contacted our church about seeing if we could have our fundraising dinner there. i also asked about putting something in the bulletin. I was told the request would have to be brought before the Management Team and that they meet weekly and I should hear back soon. However, I just found out that they haven’t met in about a month and it’ll be another two weeks before they meet again. GRRR…. i would really like to get moving on this.

WHEW. I think I’ve got you all caught up now.