1600A

The 1600A is a major form in the adoption process. It is the form that gets your immigration approval (at least that's my understanding). I had plans of mailing it today, but thought I better make sure I am doing correctly first. So, I e-mailed wonderful Meredith http://cornishadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/ to make sure I was doing it correctly, and she reminded me to actually sign it, not just have my typed name. I had completely overlooked this, so I'm glad she pointed it out. Bill had already left for work, so I will have him sign it when he gets home. I went ahead and had copies made of everything that needed to accompany the form, got my cashier's check for it as well. It costs $830 to file this form and pay for the federal fingerprints that are required as well. OUCH! While I was at the bank, I had them type up a letter I needed for my home study. I had them notarize it just in case. I am now hoping it doesn't have to be notarized because the banker that wrote/ typed the letter is the same person that signed the letter and notarized the letter. How frustrating! I thought it was wrong to notarize your own signature, but second guessed myself. I should really stop doing that! Oh well, I'm sure I can get that fixed easy enough, right? Now I have EVERYTHING together, in a neat little stack ready to be mailed TOMORROW! All I need is Bill's signature and we are ready for FedEx. Please pray that they respond quickly with fingerprinting dates. My home study will be completely finished in less than 3 weeks, so if I have had my fingerprints done by then, all we are waiting on at that point is for USCIS to mail us there approval. These next 3 weeks are super important! My goal is to complete my dossier papers by then, so that when we receive USCIS approval, we can then submit to Patrick's country. I am getting so excited just thinking about getting each step done!!!

Up until yesterday I was still very nervous about leaving the kids at home while we travel. I knew the boys would be okay, they will be with there dad. I had already talked to him about it and let him know what is going on, so he was on board to keep them the whole time. It was the girls i was worried about. I didn't want them shuffled too much, but everyone in my family works, so that made it hard to find 1 consistent person. I had talked to our 2 babysitters that we use most often, but couldn't really afford to pay them for that length of time either. Well, yesterday, my prayers were answered. Bill's parents volunteered to take care of all 3 girls while we are away!! My family will take turns on the weekends to give them a break, but since they are retired, they will have them during the week. This has lifted such a HUGE weight off my shoulders. I know now that all my kids will be well cared for while we are away. Now I can fully focus on getting Patrick home!