August Update

I know we still need to post "Our Story".  I wanted to update everyone on where we are in the process.

We are still doing paperwork.  We have submitted our application to Immigration, and we are waiting on them to tell us when to show up to get fingerprinted.  Once that happens, they'll approve us (hopefully), and then we can go back to working on paperwork.  Once we get their approval, that document will go with about 10 others to Richmond to be authenticated by the State of VA.  Authentication means that the state is saying that our notarized documents are notarized correctly.

Then, once we get all those back, we turn around and send them all to the Chinese Embassy in NY for them to do basically the same thing.  When we get them back, our Dossier will be complete.  We will send everything to our agency for them to review.  Then they will send all our documents to China.  That's when we get on the official wait list.

Right now, the estimated time we will wait for a healthy girl is 30-36 months.  Yes, we're looking at 3 years from when our paperwork arrives in China.  We are also on the list to be considered for minor special needs.  So our wait *could* be shorter.

I (Sherry) will be back to teaching high school this year so we can save up the money we need for the adoption expenses.  It wasn't my first choice of a job, but the job market right now is pretty bad, so I feel very fortunate to have any job, especially a good-paying one.

So that's where we are right now.  I was really hoping our Dossier would have been in China by now, but now I'm hoping for October.  Then we can really start waiting!!!!

Sherry, Aaron, and Luke