Wednesday, July 19, 2006

More Paperchasing

April 26, 2005
Today we sent the I600A. This will require us to be fingerprinted soon. We will wait until we hear from the orphan's officer. We hear that this piece takes about 4-6 weeks to complete.

April 29, 2005
Today was our home visit with the social worker. It was an interesting time. She came in, looked around at all the rooms, especially the baby's room. She sat with us for quite awhile and asked various questions. It was strange to think that anything we did or said could have changed it all!!

Our last visit is scheduled for May 7th - a playday at Brackenridge Park. After that meeting, the social worker will write a report.

May 7, 2005
We had our playgroup meeting today. I have never been to that park before...it is a very nice park. We met with the social worker and she had many interesting things to say. She spent a lot of time talking about the things to do in order to bond with your child.

Jake had a great time playing with the social worker's daughter. It was fun to see the way he might interact with his sister.

May 24, 2005
We have sent our documents off for certification. We have received most of them back, we are only waiting on our homestudy and our I600A. We have sent both of our birth certificates for the last step - authentication. This step is where each document, with the certification attached, is sent to the Chinese Consulate (that corresponds with the state of origin) in order to verify the Secretary of State's seal. We are hoping to have our dossier complete and to China by the end of July.

I received an email from a friend today. She has another friends adopting from China and she often shares that friends ideas. The email stated that they were making a Bai Jai Bei. It is a tradition in China to invite 100 family and friends to donate material and a well-wish for the baby. The material is used to make a quilt and the cards are kept for the baby to read for years t0 come. Bai Jai Bei translates,'a blanket united by 100 families'. It is stated that when the blanket is wrapped around the baby that the well-wished from that families that donated the material surrounds the baby. I decided that this would be a great summer project. I will send the first letters asking for family and friends to donate soon. There is also an ancient Chinese proverb, 'An invisible red thread connects those that are destined to meet, regardless of time. place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break'. I will quilt the blanket with 'an endless red thread'.

I spoke with the social worker today. We are supposed to receive our homestudy via email tonight. We will check it and make and necessary corrections, send it back and then we will receive a hard copy via mail.

May 25, 2005
We received our homestudy and made corrections. We will now wait for the hard copy. Once I receive it, I will take it to a notary and then send it off for certification.

I sent out about 30 letters for the Bai Jai Bei. Also, David's dad sent out an email version of the letter to some of his Army friends. We also handed out some of the letters at church tonight. I al so excited to see what people will donate.

May 28, 2005
We received our first piece of material today. Way too cool!

We also received our homestudy on the mail. This is the last piece of paper. The social worker will now send this to the orphans officer so we can get our I600A finished. A friend of mine from church, that is also in the process of adopting from China, will drive with me to Austin tomorrow. We will take the last of our paperwork to be certified.

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