An Update on The Progress

As I mentioned at the beginning of the month, January is our "big push" for paperwork as related to our second adoption journey.  I thought you might be interested to hear what we've been doing since the week following Christmas... Not the most exciting post I've ever written, but I'm LOVIN' all the little crossing off I get to do on my checklists. Prices of most documentations haven't changed all that much since we adopted Li'l E but now we have to include Shaggy in most of the process and maybe even Dr. D for some. Working on clarifying the answers for that but here's what we've done so far....

• Home Study Fee - It's sitting in Mei Mei's savings account as I type! Thank you, Jesus!
• Preliminary Questions Sheet - Done!
• Marriage Licenses - Both copies ordered and in hand already!
• Birth Certificates - All three copies are in hand.
• Proof of Training - Already submitted to agency and cleared.
• Prior Home Study - On file with the agency.
• Medical Forms - Kids are dropped off at the doc's office, waiting to be called for pick-up. Mine and The Boss's will be delivered to dr. at 4 p.m. this afternoon. Please pray about this one with us - we both are a tad concerned as our dr. wasn't the most compliant sort when we had to do this for Li'l Empress's journey. Twice. :(
• Financial Statements - Materials all gathered, waiting to be condensed onto worksheet today or tomorrow and then we need to print them...
• Police Clearances - Forms submitted on Friday. Think we might need to do one for Dr. D now too.
• Child Abuse Clearances - Forms submitted on Friday. Think this also needs to include Dr. D now.
• FBI Fingerprints - Form submitted and approval for appointment granted. The Boss is looking today for the nearest site so we can knock this off ASAP.
• Reference Letters - Sent out five to our closest friends and waiting to hear that at least 4 of the five have been returned. I forgot till now that one of them has to be from a teacher, since we have school-aged kids. Didn't know that detail when I got that done early in December so I'm fixing that today. Ugh.
• Proof of Medical/Health Insurance Coverage - The Boss is getting this done...
• Verification of Animal Vaccination - Really?! Ugh. Guess I'm going to the vet this week.
• Proof of Income - Easy peezy this time of year, letter of employment already in hand, forms being sent by CHOP soon.
• Verification of Debt - The Boss compiled that on Saturday. 
• Verification of Assets - Ditto. I need more ink for the printer before we can officially mark these two things done. Guess I'm going to Walmart while I'm out at the vet!
• Financial Worksheet - Ugh. Letting The Boss do this one too!
• Proof of Life Insurance Coverage - Copying from files, easy peezy, too.
• 6 Photos of "Everyday" Life - yeah, ummmm, really need to go get that ink!

Finally, we have our first "tentative" home-study appointment coming up at the end of the month. And the whole family meeting is scheduled for mid-February. We are hoping to make that the last of the four necessary meetings. But to schedule the other two in our agency's office, we're up against the challenge of coordinating The Boss's work demands, my babysitting obligations, and both Shaggy's and Dr. D's activities. Throw in the social worker's similar constraints and you can see the complications we foresee. But we will push through it and it will get done. I am determined!

Oooh, and in a bit of other fun family news, we think we finally have a name. I'm not sure yet how I feel about sharing it, as it is still kind of new to us and we are "trying it out" for a bit. But I will post more about that later. I promise!  How's that for another teaser?!