HOMESTUDY APPROVED!!!!!!

I have it in my hand, the first draft of our approved homestudy. We can now, finally, say that we are adopting from China again.

Tom emailed me the first draft, asking me to look it over and make any corrections I needed to. Just a few here and there, nothing big, and now we move on to getting the USCIS approval, which is really based on what the homestudy says.

So far, so good.

Almost done with homestudy

So, I sent, via return email, the information he wanted, which was very thorough descriptions of the children living in the home, interests, talents, accomplishments, education, etc, and very basic information on the adult children living outside the home.

He said it was something new, that the Hague treaty made necessary or our homestudy would get bogged down with questions.

I also have sent through email, copies of our scanned police clearances.

So, now we wait.

Finally

The reference letters are all in. The homestudy is being finalized, as so far, no indications of a problem. Tom's email had to be resent to my work email. I had called yesterday to see if he had gotten my email for him to reply to on Sunday, and he said yes and that he had replied immediately to it with the information he needed. I don't know why I never got it, but, I gave him my work email and he resent it with no problem.

He just wanted some basic descriptions of the kids, and I have already sent that to him, as well as, copies of our police clearances, which will be faxed on Thursday. So, that's it. Now, after Thursday, we just wait for him to write it and send up the copies. As long as it all goes well, we can then submit our paperwork to USCIS just as soon as we have that homestudy in hand.

That means we wait again. Once they get our paperwork, they send us a fingerprinting appointment for us to go up to Salt Lake, to the local USCIS fingerprinting office, and have them done there. Then we wait again for the approval from them and we are done. Again, as long as it all goes well, we could be done with all the waiting on paperwork in a few months, tops. Maybe less than two, who knows. The process is speeding up, so, we'll have to wait and see.

Im just relieved he wasn't telling us that we weren't going to be approved. At least not yet.

Ahhhh!!!

OK, I called Tom this morning, and he said he had emailed me some questions he needs to have answered, but, couldn't remember what email address he had sent them to. I never received any emails from him, so, I asked for his email address, and said I would send him a message for him to reply to with the questions. That way, I knew he wouldn't get the wrong email address.

Well, that was at 9am, and it is almost 2pm, still no reply from him.

He hasn't called the house, and I am at work, so, it's difficult to call him, but, I may call again in a bit if I don't see an email soon. I really don't want to bother anyone on Sunday, but, this is so important.

On the edge of my seat

I was getting ready for bed last night, about 10pm, and noticed the light on our bedroom phone flashing that we had a message. No one told me about a message, so, I went downstairs to check. It ended up being a voice message, and when I played it back, it was our social worker Tom, saying he has some questions in writing our study.


Questions!!, that's all he said, Questions!! I don't know what that means. Does he want to just clarify some of the information he is writing, or is there a problem that might deny us? AAHHHH!!!

Since it was so late, I didn't feel good about calling him then, but, brought his number with me this morning and will call him from work later on. Please, Please, don't be anything wrong.

Going into turtle mode, pulling my head and arms inside my shell and hoping nothing bad is going to happen.

and the beat goes on

I feel so somber today. Just trying to patiently wait for that last reference letter to be confirmed in. Heidi said she sent hers in, again, on Wednesday, and we asked two other people if they would send reference letters, Frank Harter and Melanie Meacham. Both said yes, and Franks was mailed Wednesday morning. Not sure the status on Melanie's.

It only takes one, maybe two days at the outside for mail to go from Salem to Ogden, so, Frank's letter could be there today. Beesh at WIAA said she would email me to let me know when any reference letters arrive, so I can relax about it. Once the letter is in, no matter who's it is, Beesh will be forwarding it onto Tom so he can finalize our homestudy report.

I'm really not overly anxious. Just a bit pensive.

USCIS wait times are coming down. We may only have to wait a month or two for approval on that. There is also a rumor that things are going to be speeding up at the CCAA, so, that is good news.

I was afraid of this

Just as I predicted, the one thing that could go wrong is that a reference letter could be delayed. Well, that happened. Heidi says she sent it in twice now, and is going to send it again today.

I don't know what has happened. All the other three, including one from out of state, have come in. So, we have asked two more friends to write and send in letters, and hopefully, one of them will arrive sometime this week or next. This is the only thing holding up our homestudy.

Beesh still won't say, or can't say, if we are all set to be approved. She also has not said that we are not likely to be approved, or what possible difference one reference letter is going to make to that decision. Perhaps she hasn't asked Tom if we are being given a positive homestudy report or not. All I know is this is keeping me guessing, and I never like to guess.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Waiting, waiting

Have not heard back from Tom since his last visit. According to Beesh at WIAA they have all of our documents except one reference letter. I was concerned that one reference letter could hold us up, and just pray that isn't happening already.

It's New Years day and I know we may not hear anything until Monday, since most offices probably won't open for just one day this week. It would be great if they did, but, I'm trying to keep myself open to the possibility that nothing is going to happen for the rest of the week.

It's agonizing to not know if we have cleared that hurdle yet, or not. If Beesh could just tell me that we are approved, and are just waiting for that last letter to make it final, that would help me wait. I would think that, if there was a problem, we would have been contacted. Still, last time around, this was the point where we found out we were not going to be approved. The not knowing is the hardest part.

After this hurdle, we have to clear the USCIS approval.