2 Month Recap!

Today marks 2 months waiting for our boys to come home.(1st Month Recap here) Much less has happened this month as we began the hurry up and wait phase of this process. We did though manage:

* PA FOR OUR LITTLE MAN
* Decided to name him Joseph Samuel
* Our 3rd and 4th and final Home Study visit
* Our home study is now written and is being reviewed and edited as we speak...err type....err...read.
* Requested LOCAL police clearances....probably should have done this sooner but silly me thought that the STATE wide police clearances our social worker obtained were good enough. How crazy that I should think that when an entire state clears us of any criminal activity that our local government should need to do the same. Really? Ugh.
* Printed/copied/gathered/notarized and sent off for authenticating and certifying all of our needed documents for our dossier.
* Made only 10 trips to Fed Ex this month. That line item on our budget decreased significantly this month!
* Received an update on Joey which did this mama's heart good.
* Did absolutely nothing over 2 days as I was too busy staring at the photos that came with the update of Joey.
* Did a lot of laundry in an attempt to recover from my 2 days spent staring at the photos that came with the update of Joey.
* Sent our birth and marriage certificates right back to the states that had just sent us them to get them 'state certified'. (Bureaucracy at it's finest!) Received those back very quickly!
* Filled out our I-800A application and it's accompanying $830 money order so that it's ready when our dossier consultant says go!
* Prayed...and is still praying that because we live in a state that requires our home study to be reviewed by the state first before it goes to the federal government that it will go quickly. We have been warned that the lady who handles last name M-Z files that she is slooowwww. -ugh- If you want to pray for us, please pray specifically for the lady who handles M-Z at DHR. I don't know her name but God does!
* Became intimately familiar with nearly all government offices both in our city and on base that I needed signatures or forms from. If I am ever arrested, lose my drivers license, or need to meet with my parole officer I know where I need to go.

So that is that! Month 3 will prayerfully include having I-800A approval and be well on our way to getting our dossier to Ch*na! Finally. This will be a big, Big, BIG step for us as everything will be out of our hands and in the hands of the Ch*nese government. The ball will then be completely in their court. Gracious I've never been so excited about passing a ball to someone else's court my entire life!