All About Adoption

When T and I received our I-171H. . . Which is the approval from the Department of Homeland Security, we were both shocked!

The way most Dossiers go, is that I-171H is the last thing to come. And as soon as it comes, you send your paperwork to the agency, who then sends it to the country of adoption. Because it can take so long to receive that approval, T and I were taking our time with the Dossier paperwork.

So, on October 1st, when the approval came, I all of a sudden panicked and realized that holy crap! We can submit our Dossier and be on the official wait list. . . just as soon as we finish the paperwork on our end. Unfortunately, the paperwork wasn't (and still isn't) complete. But we are SO SO SO close! We were thinking it would be at least another month before receiving the I-171H. Basically, everything is done that is in our control. We are still waiting on a notarized reference letter, which I am told will be mailed to me tomorrow, and then we are waiting for T's job situation to pan out. He is a contractor and his contract is nearing completion, so we didn't want to put his current position down because then we would need to update it fairly soon when he either got a new contract or full-time employment. So, we've been holding off on the employment stuff, and are hoping that that situation is resolved this week.

We are so darn close to being on that waitlist now, I can almost taste it! My initial goal was December, and now I'm thinking I could be mailing all the Dossier paperwork as early as next week.

I've heard being on the wait list is the hardest part, but I just want to get there so badly. What's been hard for me is filling out all the paperwork, and knowing that we're not even on the list yet. I just want to get on the list. I have a feeling all of this will feel so much more real once we're on it.

My goal is to mail out the Dossier no later than Friday of next week. I hope this is all possible.
:-D