The waiting is what gets you

This week epitomizes the roller coaster that is international adoption. We started the week with the hopes that our home study would be finalized so we could take it through the certification process. Our social worker let us know that she was still waiting for the agency to approve the draft and that this weekend the agency is having a big reunion in Virginia Thursday through Sunday. This translates to us not getting a notarized copy of our home study until next week. Bummer, because I had the last three days of the week off of work for mandatory time off as part of my company's expense reduction measures. So much for making hay while the sun shines. The upside is that we received an email from our agency Thursday evening that they approved the final draft of our home study and we are clear to submit our next paperwork batch, the I800-A to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). With this in mind, Julie and I crafted a plan to try and maximize our efforts while I am traveling for work.
1 - We sent a pre-paid FedEx envelope to our social worker so she can drop our home study in it after she gets them notarized and certified in her home county.
2 - I prepared the cover letter for our I800-A and made photocopies of the required birth certificates and marriage license that will be included with the I800-A form.
3 - Filled out the I800-A form and have it ready to sign and drop in the already prepared FedEx envelope to the USCIS processing center.
4 - Drafted our application letter to CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) and submitted it to our agency for approval. Once approved, yep, you guessed it, it needs to be notarized and certified as well. Hopefully we'll get approval so that Julie can print it out and get it notarized and certified by the county during the week.
5 - Sent Julie's birth certificate to the US Department of State for certification since the certificate originates in Maryland. Luckily we get to skip this step for documents that originate in Ohio. We already received confirmation from FedEx that the letter was delivered and hope it'll be returned this week.
6 - Assuming we get Julie's birth certificate back from the US Department of State and our home study certified, we can send them off to the Chinese consulate in New York for certification there, too which can take up to 20 business days. Seriously, who would have thought this process would have this many steps? Sad part, we're still not in a position to say we have our dossier to China which really is the next big step. *sigh*

With this plan in place, it is possible that by the end of week Julie will be able to take the notarized home study and our CCAA application letter to the Ohio Secretary of State for state-level certification. Assuming that falls into place, we should be in a position to mail off our I800-A and documents to the Chinese consulate over the weekend and get that waiting process started. Sounds pretty tenuous, doesn't it? Hope springs eternal, I guess. :)

We'll see how the week plays out. At this point we're trying to control that which we can control and everything else we're along for the ride. Prayer helps, for sure.