Progress with the paper chase (and a cute picture)

It's been just over a week since I posted an update.   We're making some nice progress.  As far as the homestudy goes...two more letters of recommendation are completed (we have fabulous family and friends), and Mark's employment verification is finished and notarized (thanks, Brandi!).

We've gotten a bunch of things done for our dossier this week too!  In fact, here's a list of documents we have completed and had notarized this week:

• Post-adoption commitment letter (stating that we will provide the required follow up reports at 3, 6, and 12 months post adoption and annually thereafter)
• Power of attorney (giving Mathewos Humbamo authority to represent us in Ethiopia in all things regarding the proceedings of this adoption)
• Our application letter (giving brief history on us and our reasons for and intentions with this adoption)
• Financial statement (pretty obvious what that is)
• True and Accurate copy forms to accompany the copies of our passports
• Local criminal background checks

Whew!  Now, we found out that the notary commission expires too soon for the papers on the city police papers we had done (and they only have that one notary), so we had letters done by the county police (with a 2016 expiration) that are ready for us to pick up.

Also!  On our way to Lincoln's eye doctor appointment we stopped at the state capitol to take in our now notarized power of attorney papers to have them state certified.  Here is a picture of Lincoln holding the papers on our way in!...

So we are making great progress with the paper chase!  We need to get additional passport photos taken, and we have family photos scheduled this Saturday so we can include those in the paperwork.  We also  need to photograph our home (inside and out), wait for a few more things to come in the mail, and then do all our immigration paperwork - but that last thing isn't turned in until our homestudy is finalized.

I think our case worker (Toni) will be pleased with our progress when we have our regularly scheduled phone call on Monday.  We have a standing appointment every 2 weeks.

I know that completing the paper chase just means starting an extremely long waiting game before anything else "real" happens, but the sooner we get started waiting the sooner our baby girl comes home!!!