Tuesday Update

I have one FABULOUS agency. I asked a couple of weeks ago about expediting any part possible. And do you know they are reviewing our homestudy in LESS than a week, rather than the standard two weeks!!!!! I love them!!!! I still don't know about expediting any of the rest of it, but every day counts. It's one less day Tessa has to spend without her forever family loving her to pieces! I'm shooting for having the notorized homestudy by Friday, and mailing out our application to the USCIS on Friday or Saturday.

A couple of weeks after the USCIS gets our application, they will send us a postcard with an appointment date and time to go get fingerprinted. There is an office here in Charlotte, and those fingerprints are used for our FBI background checks. It's common for families to "walk-in" rather than wait for the actual appointment, and we'll definitely be doing that. On a popular message board I visit, a family got their approval ONE day after fingerprints. That is HUGE folks. A major speed up in the process:-) I hate to let myself get hopeful, but I am. I just really want our girl home before Christmas.

In the meantime, we continue to collect and perfect our documents needed to be authenticated. I hope to send the big pile to NC next week. Once those return, the entire stack will go to DC via a private courier. I am a woman on a mission to get this dossier done!

I had a little fun today, in the midst of the paperwork. I went shopping for Tessa! SO much fun! Even the little girly socks are stinkin' adorable!!! I bought a couple of dresses, some PJ's, and a few shirts. And the socks of course. I love Kohl's return policy. I don't normally do a ton of shopping there, but you cannot beat their returns! I can take what I buy now back a year from now, with receipt, and get cash back. And since we don't know, and won't know what size Tessa is, I have to buy a variety. We'll do shopping for her while we are in China, to get us through a couple of weeks, and then do the rest after returning home.

This tired Momma needs to go send yet another email to harass someone about a paper we need, and I'm off to bed early:-)

PS. Enjoy the music. I love these two songs. They really speak to me about this whole process and our sweet girl.

PS. Heard something on the radio yesterday: "If something breaks your heart, that may be God's way of calling you to fix it." That really hit home. Sweet babies without a family has always weighed heavily on my heart. I can't change the world. But I can change Tessa's world.