Contracts all signed

Last week we received the contracts from WACAP to sign. Essentially, we had to agree that we would not hold WACAP responsible if things did not go smoothly, and we had to sign that we read all the material that WACAP sent us about adoption. We had to sign six different forms and mail them back with our first agency payment. We will pay three different installments to WACAP for their adoption services, in addition to the home-study fee and all the fees to the government. I wish adoption was more affordable. I know several families who would adopt if it wasn't so complicated and expensive. On Wed. night I received a call from Elizabeth Rose telling me that we should be receiving another finger-print appointment soon. Yes, we already had our finger-prints taken for this adoption, and several times for adopting Ben and John, but they need to do them yet again. This time we will need to go to the immigration department in Buffalo. As soon as we get our finger-print appointment (and go to Buffalo) we can pursue our I-800A approval. Then the entire packet gets sent to China. Hopefully, they will still let us use our dossier from last year and we won't have to re-do that big mountain of paperwork!!! That will save us months and months, and quite a bit of money too. I read today online that China is making the post-placement and pre-placement requirements more arduous. We will have to have six post-placement visits from the social worker (instead of two) and provide letters from Logan's teachers saying that we are good parents. The social worker will even have to visit us two and five years after the adoption!! Yikes! What a whole lot of effort we adoptive parents put forth. It's worth it though. Look at how well John and Ben are doing!

I-800A

I received a call yesterday from Elizabeth Rose. She is now in charge of our paperwork, now that our home-study is complete. Elizabeth Rose called to say that we are officially accepted into the China program! Elizabeth also needed us to fill out another form, send her copies of our tax returns from the last two years, along with a check for $890 made out to the USICS. Our I-800A form, the check and our home-study needs to be sent to the US. Department of Homeland Security. It took me awhile to realize that the USICS and the Dept. of Homeland Security are one and the same thing. I don't know what the acronym USICS actually stands for, but I now understand that the Department of Homeland Security is where the I-800A and I-800 are processed. The I-800A is the Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country. The I-800 is Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative.

shopping!

The other day, Ben and I went to Rochester to a Dr. appointment at Strong Memorial Hospital to see the pulmonary specialist. On the way there, we stopped at a store to shop and to have a few photos printed up to give the Social Worker for her next visit on March 18th. While we waited for the photos, we wandered around the store. On the shelf near the photo lab, there was a toy that when dropped or banged on, it lit up. Ben recognized the toy immediately as the same type of toy that Logan was playing with in the video that we saw! Ben decided we should buy two of these types of toys to mail to Logan in China. We also purchased an inexpensive digital camera to send to him too. We know he might not actually receive these gifts, and we can't mail them to him yet because China has not yet approved the adoption, but it was fun to shop for Logan for the first time.