They were right!

One thing we've been told over and over is to not worry about the money - it will be there when we have to have it.  This was proven today.  We had two things that HAD to be done since we're working with a very tight deadline to get our pre-approval from China.  Both of these things were VERY important and both cost several hundred dollars each.  We were $80 short.

As I was talking with the International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital about a mandatory consultation (to the tune of $805) they told me that they are going to waive one of the fees (it was $230!)  So, instead of being short the $80, we actually have something left in our account!!  We are thankful.

What has today looked like?  I got up at 5AM, and have worked on our papers for about 9 hours so far.  Much of the day was spent on the "Parenting Resource Plan" document.  This beast  (so far) is 32 pages of research on things such as medical conditions, attachment disorders, behavior issues, etc.etc. A new email/telephone friend put it like this, "It is so hard to find all the local resources you might, hypothetically, could need.  Sometimes I think WACAP makes you fill that out just to test your perseverance."  Yeah, she summed it up perfectly!

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with the International Adoption Center at Children's Hospital.  Wow!  If their review of the records are half as informative as what I was told so far, we will get a LOT from this review.

When Ethan gets home he has to notarize the request for his out of country birth certificate then hope it gets here before the usual several month waiting period.  Did you know that China requires the birth certificate to be issued no more than six months before the dossier is sent?  So much for thinking we were on top of things by having two of the hard-to-get certified documents in hand!  A trip to the post office is scheduled next, then MORE professional passport photos.  We wish we had known to request several photo copies the first time we had them done.  They are needed for numerous other things in addition to the passports.  As I type this, there is a huge thunderstorm raging outside.  I'm thankful for the rain, but thinking there might be a better time to go have photos taken!