It's here! It's here!

Yay! I was feeling a little down regarding the adoption and questioning a lot of decisions, but it's been a great week! My agency got it's first referral in a few months. Yay for the new family! And even better (well for me at least - can I be a bit self-centered on this one?) my I-171H came in the mail on Saturday! I was out of town for the weekend so I open the mailbox and saw the brown envelope. I almost started crying because I thought it was my homestudy sent back again. I cautiously opened the envelope and saw a signature and knew it was it! I'm so happy! It's getting copied and notorized and sent off to the Secretary of State by lunch tomorrow!

Pins and Needles

Well, no 171-H for my birthday. Quite the opposite actually. My home study was returned- again! The information is there, it's just not in the wording the CIS reader is looking for. So we resubmitted and I hope to hear something soon. Until then, I'm a nervous wreck. For those of you wondering, I have a great social worker. She returns my calls on a Sunday night and gets things done the next day. She completes about 100 home studies a year for the past few years and has never had one returned. Mine is the never-ending home study. It's not how one acts when everything goes right. It's how they act when things go wrong. And my social worker is on top of things!

Can I still hope to be DTV by the end of the year? We'll see...

Wow! A second post

I'm so proud of my second sewing project. I thought I would share. It's for my five-year-old niece. It's not quite finished. I still have the arm holes and hem left, and I'll finish those this weekend.

Okay, after viewing the uploaded image, it's not as impressive. It's a cord jumper with two pockets in the front. Oh well, I hope C. likes it.

The best news (so far)

After three physicals, six vials of blood, and countless phone calls I received word from my agency coordinator that my physical form is good to go! Yay new doctor for getting it right! Now I'm secretly wishing for my I-171H as a birthday gift from the government!

Cara and the Much Better, Nice, Fun Weekend

As you can tell, I'm back to feeling like myself. I didn't think or talk much about the adoption this weekend, and instead spent some time in the gym, reading, running errands, and taking my first sewing class. Overall, a great weekend with nice weather! My sewing class was fun. I learned to use my machine (most of which I already knew) and we made a pin cushion. Its actually a very small pillow, but it's all semantics, I guess.

Cara and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Okay. It's not quite that bad, but I just really wanted to use the title. I am still in a crummy mood, but I am thankful that I have a wonderful social worker who is writing an amendment to my home study this weekend and will mail it to the SA USCIS office on Monday morning. I realized as I reflected last night that it could have been worse. They could have rejected me based on something in my incorrect home study. And on the postive side, it means that my home study was reviewed. Hopefully, there won't be too long of a wait once the amendment is submitted.

I have excitement this weekend. I'm taking a sewing class this weekend. I learned to sew when I was in elementary school, but haven't done anything since then. When I went up to visit my parents a few weekends ago, I noticed my Mom had a few sewing machines sitting around. (She's a home ec teacher, so this is acceptable in their house.) So I confiscated one and signed up for a community education learn-to-sew class. What fun! In talking to my sister this week, she encouraged me to take as many classes as I want and can while I'm waiting for referral. I could see the difficulty in setting up a weekly babysitter for a few weeks. And besides, since I work am I going to really want to leave my child for a while?

Bummed...

I received a letter from CIS today. I was immediately suspicious since I've heard the I-171H is delivered in a brown envelope and this one is white. I opened it to my surprise and they are requesting additional information. Actually, they write that my home study is missing five elements. Five!!! After my initial freak out, and looking through my home study, I see that most of the items are covered, but not in the Q&A they require. Ugh. I wish they would just take my word that I am a good person. If it were only this easy. So, I'm bummed tonight. Not even the thought of watching Grey's Anatomy sound good. At least tomorrow is Friday...