More Paperwork

We're still marking time by paperwork completed versus not yet completed (mostly because each step relies on a previous step/approval happening first). We have not yet received any updates on Yan from the Chinese orphanage. All we have from China was all noted back in 7/07! The 4 full-body photos we have of him are from 7/07 as well.



1/29/09: Filled out applications for FRESHLY certified copies of our birth amd marriage certificates. They must have been certified within the last 12 months. Please don't ask me why?! ;-D

2/2/09: Sending Cindy's passport back in for a correction that we thankfully caught before it's needed at Immigration.

2/12/09: Sent Cindy's birth certificate and our marriage certificate to IL to be "authenticated". All of our paperwork for the all important Dossier will need to be authenticated at their state level, and then at the Federal level. Since these were the only 2 documents from IL, off they go! Our Montana documents will have to wait until the homestudy is written and approved.

2/13/09: We have learned that Hague requires parents to have 10 hours of training in international adoption! Between our foster parent days, and adopting 3 previous children in the US, we have many, many hours of training already. But not in international adoption. And so we'll need to sign up for, and complete, 10 hours of training over the internet, and recieve certification that we did that for the all important Dossier!

Trying to adopt internationally is feeling more like going for an advanced college degree every day!! ;-D Only instead of a degree, we are to gain a new son. :-)

We are to be working on a photo album for Yan now also, that will be handed to him when our Dossier is flown to Beijing, China. How does one describe to a 4 yr old alllll the changes he will face moving from southern China away from all he knows, to the foreign land of southern Montana, and into a family full of kids and pets too! Today at church I "coincidentally" met a man who teaches English to a family from China. PTL! Hopefully they, or someone similar, can be available to help communicate with a very bewildered Yan in the early days "home". :-)