I just wanted to say Happy Turkey Day to everyone. I hope you have a fantastic holiday!
We had our first Home Study visit last night. Everything went well. Our social worker is a pleasure to work with. We meet with her again on Friday.
One step closer!
I had a nice surprise waiting for me in my mailbox today. My passport arrived. That was fast!
I have to say that if there was ever a contest for the dorkiest passport photo, I'd win it!
Things worked out with my Employment Verification Letter. It wasn't easy. But after a bunch of emails and phone calls we managed to come to an agreement.
I also received copies of my Birth Certificate on Friday. And we've got our first meeting with our Home Study/Social Worker on Wednesday.
Things are really starting to move along...
I talked to my manager about getting an Employment Verification Letter. He said that I had to contact HR. So after looking into it I found a form on our intranet that allows me to submit a request for and EVL. After submitting it and getting a case number I decided to call HR to follow up just to make sure they would be willing to follow the format that CCAI recommended. And here's where it gets ugly...
The person I spoke with said they use a template and basically just change the person's name, the hire date, the job title and base salary. Everything sounded great except the part about the base salary. I'm in sales and so my total compensation is made up of three components - base salary, commission, and bonuses. My base salary is approximately half of the total amount. Ugh... I guess it's a legal thing because they can only predict what my base will be. They don't know if I'll make bonuses and they have no idea how much my commission will be.
The problem is I have 3 different documents that include my salary that have to match. First there's the Employment Verification Letter. Then my Home Study agency includes financial data. And finally I have to create a personal financial statement that includes our income, assets, etc... So all three have to match. Piece of cake, right? Ugh...
You know I expect to run into bureaucracy and red tape when I deal with the government. But not at work. Oh well, they're looking into it. Hopefully I'll be able to get some answers today. We'll see...
This will probably be the first of many posts where I simply complain about the weather. It's currently 48 degrees here in NC and we don't like it. I grew up in Florida and Naomi grew up in Hawaii. All I can say is these NC Winters kill us. I know, I know, go ahead and call us wimps. We know it. But to us, happiness is being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt year round.
We sent in our application to Nathanson Adoption Services yesterday.
After talking with them I felt that they covered a few of my biggest concerns. First, they are experienced with China adoptions. Second, they have worked with CCAI before. And finally, they have an expedite option where you can pay a little more to get the Home Study completed in a shorter amount of time.
I talked with a few people who had used them for their Home Study and everyone had great things to say about them.
We ordered our passports today. I guess that's one more thing we can check off the list!
We signed, notarized and returned the paper work that CCAI sent us (Fee Policy & Service Agreement) along with the first payment. When they recieve it they will send us their Dossier Kit.
Naomi scheduled physicals for us with our doctor. And we plan on filing for our passports tomorrow.
It actually feels like we're making progress!!!
We received the approval letter from CCAI. Now we need to sign and notarize a few documents and send them back. Every time I pick up the phone and call them I'm reassured that we made the right choice!
Yesterday I ordered multiple copies of my Birth Certificate (5) and our Marriage License (4) from VitalChek.com. I really only needed 3 BC's and 2 ML's but since I was ordering them I just went ahead and got a few extra. I'll order Naomi's BC on Monday when I have a copy of her drivers license. The BC's will take 5 - 8 business days to process and then they will be shipped overnight. The ML's will take 7 business days to process and then they will ship them regular mail.