Update...

It has been a busy few weeks! We met with our social worker Joan for the first time on February 1st. It was an interesting meeting amdist construction on the clinic and renovations still beening completed on the house. We also had family visiting, and 4 little boys here (not during the interview). Chaotic but fun! :) The interview went well, and we think Joan was a little surprised at how much research we had done and how prepared we were for everything. She gave us lots of information and reading material (we thought when we graduated we were done with homework!).

From there we went and got fingerprinted on Friday and tried to have our criminal check done. Little did we know that there would be a few glitches at the OPP office. (Could only pay in cash in exact change, needed Joan's signature on the paperwork etc.) But, we will have it all sorted out tomorrow.

We received our information package from FOI, and have signed the necessary documents there as well to get us on our way. We have started to get together the necessary things needed for our dossier to be sent to China. We are currently waiting on our marriage certificate in the mail but we applied for it 6 weeks ago, so hopefully it will not take much longer.

I meet with Joan alone tomorrow afternoon, and Dan will meet with her on Thursday afternoon to go over a few things. Then we will meet with her another time together. Joan was not sure that she would need to meet with us more than 4 times. We have booked our appointments with our Doctor for our physicals, but the earliest she had available was March! But, hopefully the paperwork will all fall into place and we will not have too many delays on our hands.

Many have asked us when we will go to China to pick out our child! Just to let everyone know, it is not like picking out a puppy in a window! We are matched with a child in China after our paperwork is all approved here with the social worker, and then again on the provinical level. Our dossier goes off to China, and if we are approved, they will match us with a little one and send back the necessary pictures and information for our approvable. From there we will travel to China about 2 months later to complete all of the necessary paperwork and then bring the baby home. All in all we are looking at somewhere between 14, or more realistically 16-18 months of waiting.