We received news from our agency that our Home Study is done and being sent to the State of Illinois today. Yay!!!
The home study is a process where you gather all kinds of documents and information and have a social worker visit and interview your family a number of times, to determine if your family is a good fit for adoption. Then a home study report is written up.
The process involved:
- physicals for all 8 of us
- birth certificates
- marriage license
- tax returns
- financial documents
- insurance records
- shot records for the dog
- fingerprint appointments for Kevin and I and the big girls
- 6 reference letters
- employment letters
- writing our "autobiographies" - which was 18 pages of questions we had to write out answers to
- 3 online training
- 2 classes we attended
- a number of forms we had to get notarzied
- and a number of other things I am sure I am forgetting.
It's not hard, it just takes a lot of time and organization to get all of the information together in the format needed. So it is a BIG reflief when it is done. Not to mention a BIG step towards getitng our dossier to China.
In Illinois, our home study has to be approved by the State. The wait for this will be somewhere between 6 and 10 weeks. Then we will send it to USCIS (US Cititizens and Immigration), which will take another month or so. And THEN we should have all our paperwork should be ready to submit to China. Hopefully by the end of September. Then we will wait approximately 4-5 months for China to process documents.
We are hoping to have Mia home in February.
2 comments:
Yipee! Can't wait to meet the newest member of the Semlow family :) Been thinking about you all lately. Hugs comin your way from the Gillman house.
Woo hoo! So much waiting. . .AGAIN. . .
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