Cheezer and Louzer

It’s ok Kim, breathe deeply… We’ve received all paperwork back from the Chinese consulate, and I move onto getting everything photocopied, etc, when I realize we don’t really have the “right” photos. The updates on the CCAI website suggest that our “Couple Photos” need to be clear with no one wearing sunglasses, parents clearly identifiable, etc. Yikes! 3/4’s of our pix show either one or both of us wearing sunglasses! Man! I’ve spent the last 4 days or so trying to get better pictures of us. Either the pix we have aren’t right, or I’ve uploaded them, sent them to a 1-hour print place, only to find out the picture is blurry! Arrgh! I’ve also noticed that we have almost no pictures of just Peter & I. I have 1 professional photo from a few years ago that was taken at a work party. To make matters more frustrating, Peter is stuck on a business trip this week, and I realized Sunday NIGHT that we need more passport photos before we can send anything in, anyway! If I’d have realized that on, say, SATURDAY, we could’ve taken the passport pix then before he left. To compound everything, CCAI is closed on the 24th and 26th. Sigh… In the grand scheme of things, a week is not a big deal, but to me, as anal as I am, it’s a big stressor. Add on top of that, Christmas, and I’m one ball of nerves. The dogs are very stinky, so I’m spending money that we don’t really have to have them groomed. With my stress levels, it’s money well spent. I don’t care if I have to eat peanut butter sandwiches for a week. In fact, who really needs food anyway? I hope to have everything to China by the end of January. We also got an update on the time frame for going to China. The wait time has gone up slightly from 6-8 to 7-9 months. CCAI thinks that it’s because there aren’t currently enough “paper ready” kids to be adopted out yet. There’s not a shortage of children, it’s just they aren’t processed through the Chinese system yet. I do appreciate the Chinese govt’s diligence in getting this done in a timely manner. Anyway, I’m off to get the stinky ones groomed…

I finally received our certified documents back from the Secretary of State yesterday. It makes me incredibly nervous to be sending all of our financial and personal documents like our birth certificates, etc., through the mail!

I was so excited today. I spent 1 1/2 hours at Kinko’s/FedEx making the proper copies & filling out the paperwork which, like everything else related to this adoption, must be exact. Poor Sean had to hang out w/me (due to a cold – no school today). Fortunately he’s still easy to entertain. He helped by pushing the “PRINT” button for each of the 4,000 copies needed. The only excitement was when the machine jammed and I had to open ‘er up to un-jam. I wasn’t about to leave it since the paper I was copying was my birth certificate. Not a good thing to leave about!

If all goes well, we’ll have our dossier completed and sent to our agency in about 3 weeks. Then, to China 2 – 3 weeks after that. I estimate we’ll be in China around October of next year, if there are no delays, and the bird flu doesn’t start spreading easily between humans. I’m praying that our referal and process goes quickly.