Orientation

We had a phone conference orientation last night with CCAI. If I thought the maddness had already begun...I had NO IDEA what more was in store. My friend, Kim, let me see their dossier, but oh my word, hearing exactly what was entailed in getting documents certified for China standards is CRAZY! Just to enlighten those of you who aren't familiar with international adoption in order for a document to go through authentication it has to go through a ton of offices. For example, in order for our birth certificates to be up to China standards they have to be notarized, then sent to the secretary of state who will certify it, then we must send it to the Chinese Consulate in Houston, TX to authenticate it. This has to happen for about 15 documents needed for our dossier. We need physicals, police clearance reports, passports, financial statements, employment verifications, etc. I am not even going to go into what a home study entails. And we will also need to work on I-797 by the USCIS. I don't even know what that really is yet, but I know it's a 26 page application...

So why am I blogging instead of working? In the weeks to come there will be a lot less blogging and a lot more document chasing. If you want to see me maybe we can set a date at the sheriff's office, physicians office, or feel free to come along for fingerprints.