Take a Deep Breath

I walk around with a huge knot in my chest these days. I'm a worrier, and there's so much to worry about with international adoption. I'm also having a hard time staying focused on the normal, everyday routine.

Good News First: The financial director for our agency has been in Taiwan visiting St. Lucy's this week. One of the people there kept putting a baby on his lap and saying "It's the Peterson baby." Well, he knew there were no Petersons from the agency with referrals, but she kept insisting this baby belonged to one of FEC's families. So he took lots of pictures just in case, and sent them to the home office for identification. It was Alex! (But we are not the Petersons, so I hope the Petersons don't beat us there and take him first). I've heard he looks very handsome, but I haven't seen the pictures yet. Maybe they'll get here before we leave, and I can post them. It's been 2 months since our last update. How much has he grown?

Next, Why I've been so knotty: Our criminal clearances finally made it to our social worker on Monday, so we were ready to go with the update--or so we thought. As she looked over things, she realized we needed a note faxed to her from our doctor--fortunately, just a note and not a full medical form. I rushed something over, talked to the nurse, and thought it was taken care of. But our social worker had not received it by last night. I worked on that all morning today. It turns out the doctor's office had not used the right area code.

OK, if the homestudy takes 3 days to get to us, and we can get it to USCIS in 3 days, and they can process it in 3 more days, and mail it back in 3 more, we'll have our I-171H in time to fly out on the 12th. Yea, it's cutting it close. I'd better not make any mistakes

Then, the Bad News: Two families from our agency have been hit with a new USCIS requirement just as they were preparing to fly out. We are not yet sure if it will affect us. The U.S. government issues two different kinds of visas to adoptees, depending on whether or not the adoptive parents met the child before the adoption was finalized. If the parents do not meet the child, they are required to re-adopt the child in the United States before he/she becomes a citizen. They are required to meet certain pre-adoption requirements. Always before, that was verified on the visa application form with a check mark that these requirements have been met. Now our government is requiring a formal certificate of some families, and it requires a lot of paperwork. Our agency has asked us to submit our documents as soon as possible to the Amercian Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in hopes they will promptly notify us if we need a certificate from our state. Uh, would that include the aforementioned homestudy update?

Finally, the travel news: As of yesterday, our appointment with AIT has been confirmed for April 17. So now we have permission to begin booking flights. We are looking to leave April 12 and return April 19. We'll be home before we know it.