By this time I was seriously wondering what more they could possibly want from us. We had given them so much information with our homestudy, which is included in the dossier. By the way, our awesome social worker finished our homestudy and it has been sent off to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) along with our I600A-petition to bring an orphan to the US from overseas. Once that has been accepted, the petition becomes a I171 or something of the sort, and travels to the DRC along with our dossier. This takes about 40-50 days. Somewhere in there we also receive instruction to get FBI fingerprints which are included in our dossier.
This second mailer consists of quite a few documents that you can do quickly and in your spare time (or at 5 in the morning because you can't sleep). We had to put together a letter about our family and why we want to adopt from the Congo, letter about our home, another about Joe, Julia and my personalities, etc. We also fill out our millionth financial record which is becoming a bit redundant--you have to make sure everything is the same, so however much was in our bank account when we first started our homestudy in August, must also be on our dossier and sent to USCIS in their future package (there is another). Anyhoo--it is all worth it. And our agency has made it so easy for us: detailed descriptions of the mailers, a packet on each specific document and how it should be worded, headers and footers, notarization, etc. Children of All Nations is amazing. I've emailed our international help there sometimes 5 times a day with picky questions and she always responds so quickly and kindly. So back to the dossier! We need to send out our Police background checks that we requested for our homestudy so this was easy--they were in our Adoption Assistance folder. We also send out our notarized marriage license, and birth certificates (all three of us). I need a notarized letter stating that I am unemployed, and Joe needs one stating that he is employed. His poor boss, this will be his second letter. We need a letter (on official company letterhead) from the insurance company stating that they will cover an adopted child. This letter has to be signed. Yesterday I called the official branch for insurance from Joe's work and they sent me to the official insurance office. They sent me back to my first call. Nobody will write us a letter. Instead they want to send us all the documentation included in our benefits packets but we don't get the letterhead and signature. This is a little frustrating. That is something we will tackle next week, 8am on Monday!
CAN sent out an email to all Congo parents, letting us know that they are looking to hire more employees that can be on the ground at their orphanages and set up referrals. This is awesome because hopefully the 9-12 month wait for a referral will go back down to 2-6, or whatever it was!
Not concerning the adoption, our baby Julia is not so much a baby anymore. I think we only have a few more months where she will have those babyish qualities and then will turn into a 'kid.' This beaks my heart! I have been proof over the last 2 years that it is hard to leave stages behind and move to the next, but that it is worth it and only becomes more exciting, but I'm not sure I can handle this one! This is a whole other era of her life! Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but she is my heart. It is happening so fast. I take every opportunity I can get to hold her and have her fall asleep in my arms at night before I put her in her crib, and every time she comes to me, reaches for my hand and takes me to her toys and pats the floor to sit down, I do it. Of course if my hands are covered in raw chicken I don't, but I have a hard time worrying that she thinks mommy cooks and cleans too much. And our house definitely doesn't show that I clean too much! Ha! Do any other mommies out there struggle with this? She will be 2 in April and I am so, so, so thankful for the time we've spent together. I wouldn't trade any day of tantrums and time outs for ANYTHING. I look forward to learning more about the personality God gave her before she was even created, but please pray for me as we leave a stage behind and move to another!
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| 6 months |
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| Julia's first birthday |
