It's here! It's here!

The CANTS form has arrived and our revised home study can now be sent to USCIS. Yippee! We'll also receive a second copy for our dossier. Chris and I will have to deliver some documents to the IL Sec. of State and TECO next week. This is a busy time for Chris, so I'm not sure when we'll get to go to Chicago to do this. We are ONE step closer to Shao Chun.

Our Little Ham!

Here is one of the first pics we received with the referral paperwork. I'm not sure if he put these clips in on his own or if he let someone else do it. But I think it's adorable and shows a sense of humor and silliness. This trait will carry him far in our home!

April Update

The orphanage in Taiwan has sent us their April update. They will send us monthly updates with pictures until we travel to pick him up. I have to say, he is so cute and it seems he has a sense of humor. The report states he is adjusting to his home and friends at Cathwel. He seems to like his caregiver and misses her when she has time off. Even though he is only 4, he attends school during the day. I'm told he enjoys drawing and coloring.

As for our paperwork, we are still waiting on the CANTS from the state. My social worker said her last client's form took 5 weeks. So I guess that means another two weeks to go. However, I have many friends praying that it will be here today!

I did get a helpful piece of advice from a fellow Yahoo group friend that there is a Secretary of State office in Chicago. I thought I had to send my paperwork to the Springfield office. I didn't know there was an office in Chicago. This will shave a few days off my timeline once the CANTS and updated home study are completed. (Thanks Erin!)

We're still thinking through our names choices. Alexander and Benjamin are the top 2 choices. Samuel is also an option. Since Shao-chun is 4, he may be given the option to choose from 2 or 3 names. We haven't heard from Cathwel if that will be their approach in this instance.

Please continue to pray for our family. Thank you for checking in!

Referral Accepted

We received social and medical reports for a 4 year old boy named Shao-Chun. After prayer and consideration, we joyfully accepted our referral that first week in April. We quickly made the necessary phone call to our social worker and faxed in our referral contract to our placement agency. Thank goodness we had just sent in our I-600A to the US Immigration office in March. We received a letter from immigration allowing us to get our biometric fingerprints taken in Naperville. Would you believe they have Saturday hours even the day before Easter?! Next we received from Taiwan the official documents that needed to be notarized as part of our dossier. Chris' friend at work agreed to notarize our documents. Another item was quickly accomplished. We sent these papers to the IL Secretary of State to get "verified". We used Fed Ex so everything was expedited. Yeah! Now all we would have to do is drive to Chicago and hand deliver to the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO). But wait...that would be too easy. Adoption isn't supposed to be easy. Let's throw in the necessary glitches.

We received word from our social worker on April 23 that our I-600A was rejected due to an expired home study. Home studies have to be less than 6 months old. We were over that time frame by TWO weeks. My first instinct was anger, then frustration. As far as I could remember my agencies had not mentioned this requirement to me. I was told to hold off on filing because the 171-H (received after filing the I-600A) expires after 18 months and referrals out of Taiwan are taking that long or longer. After a few days God reminded me that He is in control and that His timing is always perfect. OK, He told me that right away but it took a few days to accept! :)

When we received our documents from the IL Sec. of State I realized there was an error on the verification of our home study. So even if the home study wasn't expired, I would have had to resubmit to the Sec. of State as well. Isn't life ironic?

So now I wait to be cleared (AGAIN) of child abuse/neglect so a new home study can be completed. Then I resubmit to the Sec. of State. And then, God willing, Chris and I will deliver to the TECO in Chicago.

Please pray that our home study would be completed within the next week so we can proceed with the other steps. Also, peace for me when the unexpected occurs. And of course, safety for Shao-Chun.