Still waiting for AGCI to review homestudy.....

Still waiting and waiting. Lots of layers to go through. Must remember to be Patient. I am wondering how easy it is for George to wait since he knows we are coming and he is only 7 years old. Must be pretty hard for him when some of these timelines and waits are pretty arbitrary and dependent on people's time off schedules. Must remember to be patient and not bitter as time slips by that he can't be home with his new family while all these layers of forms and more forms are reviewed and reviewed to death by people needing a full day to look at a paragraph or two and then needing another day to walk it someone else's desk that needs another day to review it and change it back ad nauseum.

Finally an email. The reviews are back and it is ok to send it to CIS today.

Just 5 weeks to review and edit it. One extra month for our son George to live in an Orphanage when he is already 7 years old. I find it hard to believe that there could be a more maddening process than a Domestic Adoption like we have done in the past but this is an indication an International Adoption might be just as frustrating if not worse.

I will run out immediately and mail it overnight to Chicago for our I600a!
I wouldn't want anyone calling me to ask me about paperwork I am supposed to send them that might be a day or two later than they were expecting. I really couldn't quantify how little respect I have for double standards. : (

Also sadly this 5 week delay on finalizing our Homestudy ensures that George will turn 8 years old in the Orphanage as his Birthday is coming up at the end of February and he will have to celebrate yet another year without a family of his own around him yet. And it also ensures our file will get bogged down several extra weeks by shut downs at AGCI and any other US service providers for the week of Thanksgiving and at least a week if not more at Christmas. I would love to know who I could thank for those outcomes. : (

Home Study and Background Checks

We have been busy working on getting in the appointments we need in order to finish up our Home Study and our Background Checks. There are lots of things to coordinate and think about and share with the Social Worker but soon it will be finished and we can move on to the next step of the process.

It takes Jim and I back to all the paperwork and hoops we had to jump through like we did for Nicole's Domestic Adoption 9 years ago.

It will all be worth it in the end like it was when we made the decision to have Nicole become a permanent part of our family!

We love her so much and it was totally worth it and we are faithful that it will be the same in George's case.