Friday, August 14, 2009

RANDOM RAMBLINGS

Tomorrow we are going to our local Families with Chinese Children gathering. I know we technially don't have a Chinese child, but just because she isn't home yet, doesn't mean she isn't ours. So we are going. I also think it is important to get plugged in with the other families. Honestly, I could use the paperchasing support! LOL. I am so excited to be surrounded by sweet little Chinese faces! I wonder if there will be any red threads there?? Wouldn't that be kind of neat? I will be sure to post about how it went when we get home.

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In other ramblings, this paperchasing is *killing* me. I knew that it would be daunting, but I never expected the intensity. I was never told how involved it would be. Most people pursuing Chinese adoption know all about the reqirements from the CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs), however, I am sure most people do not know about all the other requirements. For our homestudy alone, we have had to get birth certificates, financial records, our credit reports (in good standing), criminal background checks from the state bureau of investigation, child abuse clearances (from every state we have ever lived in)medical reports for all five of us (including TB tests for everyone), endless amounts of paperwork, social security cards, pet vaccination records, and the list goes on. At first I thought, well, I have to get some of that for the CCAA anyway, no problem. Nope, none of that can be copies. So I had to go back and get more medical forms signed, multiple criminal checks, etc... We are required to get all of that stuff before we can even schedule our homestudy with the social worker. I thought I would be able to gather that stuff while the homestudy was being done. It doesn't work that way unfortunately. I am a little OCD, so I have everything that is required taken care of. We are just waiting on our criminal and child abuse clearances to come. Hopefully that wont take long. Most told me 3 - 5 days, but one state said up to 30 days. I am praying it wont take that long. The process is long enough in and of itself.

I just never expected to be so emotional about it all. It is proving to be much more difficult for me that I expected. I guess since I have already waited 2 years, I thought it would just all fall into place and move quickly once we applied.

When I finally send our notarized, certified, authenticated documents to China, I am going to C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E!

2 comments:

TanyaLea said...

I hear you!! We will totally celebrate when we are officially DTC, too!! I can't wait for that day! DAUNTING is exactly what the paperchase is all about! I feel your pain. We are done with everything except for our final dossier documents, which are currently working on...taking one day at time. It can be so overwhelming and frustrating at times, as things seem so redundant. But we just keep pressing on towards the mark, knowing that our daughter awaits. All the motivation we need to pull us through as quickly as possible!

Praying right along with you!! <><

Blessings and Hugs!
~Tanya

Tara. said...

Wow! All of this shows how dedicated you are to Jessica and bringing her home. This is quite an undertaking to say the least! How awesome that you are taking it all in and getting it done for the love of a child you've never met. Really touching. :o)