USCIS Fingerprinting

Yesterday Chris and I got fingerprinted at the USCIS office! It was actually really quick and easy--much better than I'd anticipated. Now we just have to wait for our approval, and finish up our Dear Birthmother letter and our Photobook (the fun part!).

Final draft of homestudy, and mailed the I-600A

Ah, today I feel pretty accomplished. We received the final draft of our homestudy in the mail (huzzah for having an agency so close that mail arrives the next day!), and after work I mailed our I-600A form (complete with check for $830, certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license, and notarized copy of our homestudy) to the local US Citizenship and Immigration Services office (it should arrive tomorrow). This is a step I have anticipated doing for probably close to 10 years - ever since I started looking into international adoption - so I find it rather exciting :) Now we have to wait. We were told it could be 30 to 90 days total until we get the approval, although during that waiting period we will be given an appointment to go get fingerprinted. In the meantime we get to work on the other parts of our dossier - mostly pretty simple stuff. I've already started working on our photobook (pretty fun!) and the "Dear Birth Mother Letter," which is a little bit more difficult. I feel the need to make it and the photobook JUST RIGHT, since I know it could actually be influential in the referral process.

In Fox news, he will be 3 months old day after tomorrow! He is sitting on my lap as I type this, babbling like crazy. He is getting SO close to rolling over, too! He's sleeping longer at night, too - he went 6 hours the other night, which was wonderful. Five hours is becoming pretty standard. Here's a picture of him on his new activity gym mat I got on eBay. His head is still pretty gigantic :)