Progress!

Today we took another step in our adoption.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures though. I was in such a hurry I forgot the camera.  But anyway, today we mailed off our I600-A to USCIS (US Department of Customs & Immigration).

The I-600A consists of mine and Daniel's birth certificates, marriage certificate, our approved homestudy (that was a major thing behind us), our application to bring an immigrant in to the US, $890 cashier's check, and a form appointing Ms. Jilma Meneses as our attorney.  (Jilma is the founder of OFA and is our attorney facilitating our independent adoption).  

Now the I-600A was mailed express and should arrive at USCIS tomorrow.  The next step is we will be notified of our biometrics appointment (fancy fingerprints for USCIS) in Nashville.  After that we will be approved to bring an immigrant in to the country!  With that, will be the U.S. side of this adoption completed.  USCIS will send some of the paperwork we sent them on to Kinshasa.  

Our homestudy approves us for 2 children of either gender ages 0-18 months.  We wanted our homestudy to be written up broader than what we are actually requesting.  OFA knows we are asking for 1 girl age 0-6 months.  But take for instance there are 2 girls that come in age 9 months.  Or boy and girl twins ages 3 months.  Or after visiting DRC to get Baby S, we decide we want to adopt again.  This way, we will be good to go for any of those options.  It's much cheaper to do it this way, rather than writing it so narrow and then paying to update our homestudy later.

So, what's next?

Now that Jilma knows we have an approved homestudy, we could be called any time for a referral.  Of course we are second in line (if not first by this point) for an infant girl, so that call could come very soon.  

Now we will start working on the DRC side of the adoption.  The dossier is a set of paperwork that goes to Kinshasa immediately upon acceptance of a referral.  We've already started working on that.  It's really pretty simple compared to other countries.  

I am so glad to have the domestic side (basically) behind us!  Ready to move on to the international side of this adoption.  We are getting closer, people!  :)