Paperwork

I asked CCAI to go ahead and send me the packets of paperwork we'll have to work thru when we get our LOA. I'm glad I did! There's enough there to keep me busy for awhile. And I'll feel better about having as much as possible done before the LOA comes and panic sets in. I've been looking at the I-800 (10 pages plus full tax forms), the I-800 Supplement 1 (1 page), the I-864 (8pgs), the I-864A (3pgs), the I-600 (2pgs), 2 Power of Attorney forms, State of Georgia Pre-Adoption Health Information Acknowledgment form, new Letter of Employment Verification for Mark, and the State of Georgia Non-Recurring Adoption Expense form which may secure a small refund of adoption expenses. Every penny counts!! I have to take extra paperework to China since Mark won't be there, but it doesn't seem like anything unreasonable. Because Mark won't be in China for the adoption, Ke Xin will enter the US on a Visa and we will have to complete the adoption on US soil. (If both parents travel, the child becomes a US citizen as soon as her feet touch US soil.) But it seems that we won't have to do any more work than what we originally intended, since we were going to "re-adopt" her anyway. (I thought there would be lots of extra steps and paperwork.) By re-adopting your new child in the States, they get a US birth certificate and have rights to inherit in all 50 states. Some states don't recognize adoptions completed overseas and some do. I'll get more information about everything involved this Friday at our local Adoption Group meeting.

Here's my favorite new picture of Olivia :

Here she was, all ready for St. Patty's Day:

The cat is "Snowflakes" the stuffed cat. Olivia thinks she's taking her to China, but I have told her that won't work. The cat is just too big to lug around. I sense a fight with lots of tears as we are leaving for the airport... :(

Olivia took this next picture of me, Mark and Lucy! Maybe she'll be the official photographer in China!