Updating Paperwork

We are currently in the process of updating paperwork for the adoption. Why? Because adopting from China is taking so long that some of our paperwork is expired or will expire before we travel to bring Malia home. The first step of updating paperwork is to have our home study updated. This entails new physicals, new state criminal background checks, and a home visit from our social worker. Gateway Woods is our home study agency, and we love our social worker, Jenny. She has been so great to work with and has taken good care of us through the whole home study process. She came to visit us today to see how we were doing and to get updated info on what's been going on with us. Last week, Rick and I got our physicals done, and Spencer had his done yesterday. Our background checks have been sent for and should be back soon. We are good to go!

After our home study is updated we'll send away for a new I 171-H from the US Citizenship and Immigration Office in Indianapolis. This piece of paper lets China know that we are fit parents and that the US will allow Malia to become a citizen. This piece of paper is also quite expensive. Not to mention it's the second time we're having to pay for it. It's only valid for 18 months and ours will expire in May of this year - well before we travel to bring Malia home. Once the USCIS Office has our updated home study and application for a new I 171-H, we'll be scheduled to get re-fingerprinted.

Being fingerprinted for the FBI criminal background check is really cool. We travel to Indy for this. No ink is used, rather our fingerprints are scanned into a machine. Now, why we have to be re-fingerprinted is a question many of us adopting parents have. For whatever reason, fingerprints expire after 15 months. It seems that if they're in a computer system they would just have them on hand if we ever decide to commit a felony. But no, we have to pay a second time to have these done. We plan to let Spencer miss school to go with us for this event. Although he doesn't need to be fingerprinted, he really wants to see what it's all about. He has loved being a part of the process of bringing his sister home. We didn't let him go the last time because we didn't think we could. We know better now. And, of course, we'll be stopping at BD's Mongolian Grill in Carmel on our way home - one of our most favorite restaurants.

What's in a dossier? A whole tree-worth of paper! I took a picture of all the documents included in our dossier. Amost all of these stacks have a few pieces of paper stapeld together because not only does each document have to be notarized, but certified by the state and then authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. The bottom picture is of one of these authentications. This is a copy, but the original that went to China with our dossier was a very beautiful piece of paper. Now imagine, the employees who work in the Review Room read through every bit of these documents...for each family. That's a lot of reading!