I have a sister. . .

We were filling out the "Getting to Know You Dinosaur" for Katelyn's first day of school tomorrow. She had to color in the circle either for: I have a brother, I have a sister, or I am an only child. Katelyn says, "I have a sister, Emma Mei!" I explain to her that we have to color the only child circle, because we don't have Emma Mei yet. When we have Emma Mei with us, then she can color that she has a sister.

I have mixed feelings about this. Maybe I should have let her color that she has a sister. I mean, she has Sunshine as her sister and Emma Mei will be her sister. She just is in the "paper womb" so to speak. But it is just for the other kids to get to know her and I didn't want to confuse the teacher and the kids by what she considers her sisters. I am too practical sometimes I guess!

So for a general timeline of how long Katelyn has to wait for her sister. . .

• Our formal application was turned in August 19, 20005.
• We will be putting together our dossier ( the big pile of papers that I am collecting that China requires), being interviewed for our homestudy, and collecting papers for the USCIS that the U.S. government requires for the next 2 to 3 months. So we will hopefully be dossier to China (a.k.a. DTC) by sometime in November 2005.
  
• Once China receives our dossier, we will receive a referral with pictures and medical information for our baby girl 6 - 7 months later.
• Once we receive our referral, it is another 6-8 weeks until we travel to China.
  
• We spend a few days sightseeing in China and then we will get Emma Mei (a.k.a. "Gotcha Day"). We spend about 14 days total in China with the sightseeing and finalizing the adoption.
  
• Then it is home again, home again, jiggidy-jig.

So where are we in all of this. . .

Homestudy:

• We have had 1 of 4 interviews with our caseworker. (DONE)
• Josh and I will have 2 individual interviews on September 16th.
• And our final interview will be in our home on September 19th.

For the USCIS

We need to have/be:

• Fingerprinted (DONE)
  
• Copy of our homestudy
• Copies of our birth/marriage certificates (DONE)
  
• Employer letter (DONE)
  
• Certification of identity (DONE)
  

For our Dossier:

We need to have:

• Adoption Petition
• Josh's birth certificate from Indiana certified this year (RECEIVED)
  
• Amy's birth certificate from Kentucky certified this year (RECEIVED)
  
• Our marriage license from Kentucky certified this year (RECEIVED)
  
• The I-171-H ( the form the USCIS will send us when we have completed their paperwork)
• Home Study
• Employer Reference Letters (RECEIVED)
  
• Local Police Clearance Letters (RECEIVED)
  
• Medical Exams/Bloodwork (RECEIVED, but needs correction)
  
• Oncologist Letter about my health since breast cancer (Amy)
• Statement that I am a homemaker and not employed outside the home.
• Photos of our family, inside of our home, & front of our home
• Copies of our passports and 2 passport size photos.
  

All of these documents have to be authenticated in the state they came from. Most of our documents come from Michigan. However, our birth/marriage certif. will have to be authenticated in Kentucky/Indiana.

Then all of the documents have to authenticated by the Chinese Consulate governing our state. Michigan & Indiana documents will go to the China Consulate in Chicago. Our Kentucky documents will have to go to the U.S. State Department and then to the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. Kentucky documents are extra special I guess!!

Oh, and did I mention that I have to make sure every one of the documents are notarized correctly or they cannot be accepted!! Yee Haw!! Here's is where hopefully my many days of working in the proofing office will come in handy.

So sorry to bore you guys, but thought some of you would be interested in what the process entails.

Okay, so you have all that memorized right! Any questions so far???? Ha, ha, ha!!