A milestone....

Wow, yesterday was a milestone in my paper chasing journey. I received the "Order of Certification of Acceptability to Adopt Children" renewal from Pinal County. It had expired, and I re-applied about 6 weeks ago. This particular leg of the journey involved having the home study updated which is described below including the Child Protection Services background re-check, Department of Public Safety re-check, as well as a home inspection and psychological evaluation. All of that paperwork sat on a legal aides' desk for 3 weeks prior to her submitting it to the Pinal County judge!! I can't imagine how these people justify getting paid. It took the judge one week to look at the paperwork, then it sat on the aides' desk again for another week. Finally, I received it yesterday. Now all we have to do is send it to United States Immigration Service along with the Vietnamese paperwork. They will then do a "background check" on Jasmine to look for her parents. If her parents are found, which they won't be, DNA testing is required.

The Vietnamese leg reached a milestone yesterday too. The Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco, for two weeks, had lost an addendum to my homestudy. Since Jasmine had ended being a little older than originally stated in my home study (0-12 months), an addendum had to be added saying 0-24 months. This form had to go thru the same process as every other form... notarized, apostilled by the Arizona Secretary of State, then authenticated at the Vietnamese Consulate ... $65.00 per page. I originally had around fifty pages... so, you can do the math:) The document was supposed to have been sent directly to my agency, Commonwealth, but after 6 weeks, they still had not received it. I called the Vietnamese Consulate every day and only got a real person one time. We didn't really understand one another, but I did understand that my document was not able to be located. Miraculously, it ended up at Commonwealth today. Yahoo!!!

Here is a edited photo with my only photo of Jasmine. I can't wait to see what she looks like when she smiles:) Oh yes, I bought her a tricycle today:)