Forms and Fingerprints

On Wednesday I came home around noon, so Michael and I would be able to make it downtown in time for our 1:00 fingerprinting appointment. Much to my surprise, their was an envelope in our mailbox from the Secretary of State. They had sent us back the forms that we needed to be certified... which meant that we now had in our possession all of the documents required for the dossier. Kudos to Madison for their fast work... I sent these forms Friday evening and got them back the following Wednesday!

Michael met me at home and posed for a photo op, before we traveled downtown to the Department of Homeland Security. Glad we left with plenty of time to spare... since my map & directions weren't overly helpful. Also, thankful to have our friend Peter, who's a government employee home on "paternity leave," to lead us there via phone.

So now our fingerprints are in some national database... and we await another form that tells us we are who we think we are. I believe this form will also allow us to ultimately get a visa for bringing our child into the United States.

After our trip to the Department of Homeland Security, I spent the next 3 hours getting all of our documents (letters of recommendation, medical exams, tax forms, bank letters, background checks, etc...) notarized, triple copied, checks written and everything (AKA the "dossier") sent to Children's Home Society and Family Services. Now we await their review of our dossier to tell us if it looks complete or needs any tweaking. This will mean lots of obsessive email checking on my part - for news of their review!