Finished with home study!!

We have been VERY busy collecting all the documents required for our home study.  We began collecting these documents at the end of December, including child abuse/neglect registry clearence, fingerprints/criminal background check, financial statement, copies of marriage certificate and birth certificates, 1040 Federal Tax Return for the past two years, photos of family and house, certificate of immunizations for Brian and Noah, a letter from their pediatrician, statement from our health insurance carrier, CPR class certificate, medical disclosures for Greg & I, vaccination records for our pets, reference letters, and an autobiography for Greg and one for me.  We also spent about six hours in interviews over the course of two weeks with our social worker.  We were VERY excited to receive the first draft of our completed home study on Thursday, February 24th!!! :)  Hopefully, the final draft will be complete next week.  Once we receive it, we will get it notarized and mail it with our I800A form to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  The I800A form is an application for suitability to adopt a child from a Hague Convention Country.  This initiates the immigration process for the adopted child and gives our child permission to enter the United States.  It usually takes about three months to receive an approval from the USCIS.  While we are waiting, we will be collecting MORE documents including another financial worksheet, an employment letter, another medical form, more doctors letters, another criminal check, more pictures of our family and our home, authentication application, and an application letter.  Well, I hope this gives an idea of the process and I haven't bored you to tears. :)  I started the blog to educate others about the process (hopefully not scare them) and to keep people informed about where we are in the process.  Also, I am using the blog as a journal for myself, to help me remember the details and more importantly, for our daughter.  It will be very important for her to know her story.  Unfortunatly, there will be many details of her story that we don't know.  We will share all the information we have with her and from the beginning, we will tell her the story of how God led us to her in China.  We will also tell her of her heritage as a daughter of the King.  We pray that she will accept His offer to become one of His children.  Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers!  "In you the orphan finds mercy" Hosea 14:3.