Adoption Update

How fun to be writing adoption updates again! I know that absolutely nobody is half as interested in our paperchase as we are (as it should be), but here's a summary the current state-of-the-paperwork.

Done:

• Financial Statement
• City of Orem Adult Criminal History Records Request (shew, glad that China will have notarized documentation that we have no outstanding warrants in the metropolis of Orem)
• Jamie's employment letter
• Dr. Appointments for the "General Physical Examination for Adoption Applicant" form. Found a doctor in Provo with a notary in the office and had our appointments today - hooray! So much easier than carting around our own notary. Need to wait 10 days for all of our bloodwork to come back and verify that we're not medically interesting
• Requested birth and marriage certificates from Maryland - do you think that the State of Maryland will ever stop and wonder why we need copies of our marriage license every few years?

Still to do:

• I-800A from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This requires:
  • Abuse clearance from Kazakhstan. Sigh. This is my new least favorite part of the process. I have emailed every ambassador and consulate on the internet (and, no, I don't know what the difference between "Ambassador" and "Consular" is) and am still pursuing any kind of background check I can procure from Kaz. If anybody can point me to where to request a police report on the Kazakhstan General Prosecution Office Website you will be my new best friend. All of this is required because I "lived" in Kazakhstan for over 5 weeks...we'll see how it all develops
  • Homestudy, which has already been started but is waiting for said criminal background check from Kaz
  • Fingerprinting at CIS
  • I-800 approval
• Steve's letter of employment
• Adoption application letter, stating in no uncertain terms that we will raise this child with all the love showered on the rest of our kiddos, will educate them, will give them all due legal rights, etc.
• Verify all of the documents once we have them all (it's like the apostilling we had to do for Kaz only different, and don't ask me what the difference is)
• Family photos

So, all of that was a really long way to say that for being only a few weeks into the process we are definitely chugging along. What can I say, if it involves stamps and forms in triplicate and official-looking stamps, I'm all over it! I do excel at the mundane... especially when there's a daughter waiting at the end of the paperchase :)