Crisis Averted
OK, maybe I’m over-reacting a bit. But if there’s one thing certain about this process, it is that nothing is certain.
About a week ago, we sent off a packet of papers to the adoption agency’s dossier service. This packet included a copy of the I-797C (A.K.A the I-171H), a few photos, and a few fees. We were excited, as it appeared to us that the only thing left to gather were a few more photos (family life and passport-type). They received the package via FedEx on Thursday, as expected.
Like clockwork, I receive an email from CCAI. (Actually, they are very good about confirming receipt of paperwork.) Everything that we sent looked good, however… they are still missing the final home study report. As we knew that our home study agency had sent a draft copy to the adoption agency for comments, we had assumed that they had also sent them the finalized copy. They had not. No big deal. The home study agency had provided us with several copies. Just need to visit FedEx again.
The other problem, which we thought would be more difficult to handle, actually turned out to be a simple fix as well. Apparently, the Chinese Consulate in Chicago recently had a policy change that requires all documents to be current within the last 6 months. This rendered my physical exam form “expired.” The form needed to be re-done with a more current signature, but the data from the physical exam in July was just fine. The key was the date by the signature. But would the physician be agreeable to re-completion of the form without another office visit? We were thinking that this would be difficult to explain. A night of indigestion ensued. However, Ben went to the physician’s office on Friday and explained the situation to the front desk. They were reportedly a bit confused, but the physician overheard the conversation and performed the necessary paperwork on the spot! I really didn’t think it would be that easy.
This weekend we plan to mail off the final home study report and the new physical exam form. There’s still a matter of those pictures… So, happily, we are back to where we started.