Adoption Update....literally

Our social worker came yesterday to do Hana's first post-placement report. As we were looking through our paperwork I saw our USCIS approval paper and asked her if we needed to "do something" to update that or anything else.....me being very scared that we would finally receive our referral and then find out that something had expired or that we were missing some important paper!  I had asked her a while back if we needed to update our homestudy and she didn't seem to think we would have to because her homestudy is good for 18 months.  She was thinking that the updated homestudy that she did for us when we brought Hana home would work for our USCIS renewal but it only included Hana and not our original request of 1 or 2 children.  So due to this and also the fact that Hannah will be turning 18 next month, we are back on the paper chase!  =(

We now have to:

*Go back to our county Sheriff's office to have our police clearances re-done, this time Hannah will have to go.....Liz went last time because she was over 18 but she has since gotten married and left home.

*Go back to our doctor to get another health check so we can get the letter from him saying that we are all healthy and that Todd and I are capable of raising another child.  8 people heading to the doctor!  =(

*Have Todd's employer draw up a new employment letter stating various facts and $ amounts.

*Complete a new financial statement---hate these!---Need to answer too many financial questions which usually make me have to go digging for specific info....ugh.

*Re-apply for our State clearances.  Michigan needs to say that we are upstanding and law abiding citizens!  =)

*Have our super friends re-do their references for us.....you know who you are ;)

*Re-apply for our USCIS approval......this includes getting re-fingerprinted and also Hannah getting fingerprinted for the first time.

At least this time around we don't have to go get "Great Seals", certifications and get things notarized etc.  I know this won't end up being to overly painful but ----insert whiny voice--- I DON'T WANNA DO IT!!!  =(    UGH.  So there.

As far as where we are sitting on the waiting list???!  Who knows??  We "think" we could possibly be #4.  We know that there are at least 4 or 5 girls in the nursery, if not more......it's just a question of when their paperwork will be ready so they can be referred. We're pretty confident that our little one is actually in our agency's care center now.....that's pretty exciting!  =)

In other words, it seems like we are pretty much in the same boat.....we could get our referral in mere days or it could still be a few weeks away.

Have a great day.....
Wendy