Approved on March 17th

Boy that was quick. We were approved by CCAI in one day! Bill told me not to worry but of course I worry.

An interesting fact came with the approval, CCAI confirmed that we wanted an infant under 12 month, boy or girl. I said yes. She said we have about a 30% chance for a boy. I didn't realize it was that high. We thought our child would definitely be a girl. I better not run out and buy pink!

This will be a long process. I have been reading that referrals can be as long as 12 months from the time you get your paperwork to China. We hope to have our paperwork (called a Dossier) to China by late August.

We have orientation scheduled for April 8th. Mom will come out and watch Emily for 4 hours. Emily likes it when grandma watches her. Mom always comes with stuff to do.

The paperwork is already starting prior to orientation. Bill and I have to write autobiographies about ourselves. They ask tons of questions. This will be used for our homestudy. We also need to gather rabies vaccinations certificates for the dogs, home safety checklist (which includes getting our septic tank inspected), copies of our health insurance cards etc. We are also working on Emily's passport. I hope to submit our application next Friday for that -- both Bill and I need to be present in order to submit the passport.

Jen