The paper chase is no joke!

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. That's the name of the game! But we're getting closer to being done with the paper chase-at least on the US side. There of course will be more paper chasing once we're over in Ukraine.

While our social worker put together our home study it was time to start on documents for our dossier. Certified marriage licenses, proof of home ownership, another round of medicals...and then yet one more because I messed up the birth date for Lance on one of them, employment verification...and then yet one more because of a minor typo, etc, etc, etc.

Lance and I made a quick trip to Arlington on a Saturday morning before Tanner's soccer game for the live scan fingerprinting for our FBI background report...and once it came back (all clear!), I turned around and mailed it off to the U.S. Department of State to get apostilled. Still waiting for that one to get finished and returned to us (but I check the tracking on its return envelope daily...maybe the more I check the faster it'll happen?!?!?).

We got our home study back to review and then off to Ukraine it went (via email) for them to review. After a few minor revisions we got the completed packet of our home studies in the mail last Friday! Talk about happy mail! Saturday morning we had the Green Door 5k but I managed to make a mad dash to the post office 30 minutes before they closed to mail our I-600A form to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

They review the documents, send us for yet another set of fingerprints and then will eventually issue us our I-171H...basically saying we can bring an adopted child into the States. Homeland Security's website says their normal turnaround for this is 2.5 months...ugh. SLOW!

This morning I got the last batch of forms that will be included in our dossier. 14 different forms, some needing multiple copies, for a grand total of 29 documents to sign and get notarized! They don't call it a paper chase for nothing! This was what Hadley's nap time looked like for me today...double checking birthdays, passport numbers, names, etc. on all the forms before printing them out! Our poor printer is tired!

So the dossier paperwork is almost done...but now it's time to start working on adoption grant applications. There's non profits out there willing to help people adopt, but of course they each have their own application and supporting documents (references, tax returns, pay stubs, etc) that they want to review. We've gotten one application submitted and hope to have a second one complete and in the mail later this week. I've got them all on a spreadsheet and hope to apply for 5 or 6 different ones that we might qualify for.

And then we wait. Wait to hear back on whether we are awarded any grants and wait on Immigration to issue us the I-171H - the last document we'll need for our dossier to be complete! Both of those things are completely out of my hands. This popped up on my Instagram feed yesterday and it was such a good reminder for this control freak.

So that's the boring update...just lots and lots and lots and lots of paperwork. But totally worth it and won't be a big deal at all when it means we get to bring Bailey kiddo #3 home!