Waiting

No real news. We're WAITING for all kind of things right now.

We're WAITING for our first draft of our homestudy. Our last visit was 18 days ago. We get a copy of the draft and so does our adoption agency, Families for Children. We look it over for errors (like if it said that I drive taxi cabs for a living and Kevin was raised in Alaska with wild wolves - that would be an error) and our coordinator at our adoption agency looks it over to make sure that it's in the format that the orphanages and courts in Taiwan want to see. Then all of these notarized copies are made of it. I get one, our adoption agency gets several, and USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) gets one so that little Hannah can get a visa (the kind that lets her come into the US, not the kind I use to buy fun stuff at Target).

After our homestudy is approved there's not much else for us to do except WAIT. We've already mailed our I600a application to USCIS. USCIS waits for a copy of our homestudy. Then we get appointments to be fingerprinted with some kind of electronic scanning device by USCIS in Indianapolis. All of this goes with our I600a application to get a I-171H - Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition. The I-171H allows us to get a visa at the American Institute in Taiwan so we can bring Hannah back into the US with us. Sigh. And we WAIT.

We're also WAITING to talk with our adoption agency coordinator as I have a whole bunch of questions for her. She's been busy, just back from Taiwan, so I'll try and be patient and WAIT my turn to talk with her.

Speaking of VISAs, I did go ahead and buy bedding for the nursery. Well, I've ordered it at least. and now have to WAIT 2-3 weeks for it to be shipped to our house. I read from multiple sources that preparing the nursery can keep pre-adoptive parents sane while they WAIT and WAIT and WAIT for a referral, well that's a good enough reason to justify this purchase to Kevin I think. Pink, brown, and cream scribbles are on the way!
Kevin and I went to Babies R Us a few weeks ago and picked out a crib for Hannah. We think it's really pretty, and practical as it will convert into a toddler bed and then into a full size bed when the time comes.
Sedona had a bath today and then a photo shoot to keep us busy while we WAIT. It was honestly hard to get her to sit still as she was much more interested that licking my forehead and mouthing my fingers. There were a lot of "sit" and "stay" commands during the photo shoot. She listened for a little while expecting a treat, but stopped listening after she figured out that I was busy taking pictures and didn't have any treats on hand. We invited my mom and dad over for dinner. Dad's been going through Sedona withdrawal and keeps talking about wanting to give her more gravy. Yuck. They brought over Valentines presents for Sedona and Hannah. Sedona got treats of course, and Hannah got a bunch of great books. Arf! Thanks, Grandma!