Adoption orientation went well today! We got there on time and Chaundra, the lady that will be helping us with the adoption says we did GREAT with our paperwork! I did not feel like we did great. We were typing Matthew's 5 page autobiography while we drove to Atlanta, and I had just finished typing my 7 page Autobiography Wednesday. You can't leave any area of your life unturned starting from birth, parents, siblings, school, marriage, fiances, extra-curricular, and parenting! We were printing copies of our Autobiographies and double checking our checklist of required documents about 12:00 midnight after the drive up. We realized we had one paper that was supposed to be notarized that we missed. . .GOOD NEWS, Chaundra said that was our copy of one of the documents, so it did not HAVE to be notarized.

What a wealth of information!! 

We got to stay with my cousin Keith Barnes and Hillary Owen last night! They were great hosts and they have a beautiful little girl! Then, Saturday night we traveled across to the other side of Atlanta and stayed with another cousin of mine, Phil and Jamie HongKham and my Aunt Flo and her husband Raymond also came over too! So a trip that started out rushed and stressful ended up being a lot of fun and a great time with family! 

On the ride back to Savannah we filled out LOTS of paperwork for our Dossier, which includes our Home Study and I-800 A paperwork.  The Dossier is pretty much the completed document of who we are physically, financially etc. . .that will be translated into Cantonese and mailed to China. It includes birth certificates, marriage certificates, certificates of employment, and a copy of our Home Study. The Home Study is completed by a social worker in the Savannah area that we will met with three times. At least one of the visits will be at our house. The entire Dossier can take up to 5 months to complete.

 The I-800 A is a document we submit to the United States Citizenship and Immigration department that they use to determine our suitability to adopt from a convention Country. The Department of Homeland Security will complete this.  After the meetings with the social worker, we will go to be fingerprinted in Jacksonville.