Redecorating & HS update

I was bored tonight - and home study and dossier'ed out (is that a word??!!) - so I decided to play around with the blog design a bit. I created the new header using Macromedia Fireworks because I wanted something that looked a little Christmasy. Did I achieve it??

For those of you who aren't visiting for the first time & remember the old design, let me know what you think of the new one. If you're new here, WELCOME!!, and feel free to chime in anyway!

Okay, so on to where we are in the paper chase...

Our SW and I traded emails on Friday. She received our clearances from CPS, as well as Judy's criminal history that had to be resubmitted a few weeks back. The only thing she is waiting for now is Judy's fingerprints. We're not sure what the hold up with that is since hers were mailed at the same time as ours. The SW said she "placed a call about it" but didn't tell me what the result of that call was. So, I wait....

She did email a draft of the HS to our agency for their review and approval. Hopefully they had a chance to look at it on Friday, and if not then I'm REALLY hoping they will on Monday. Also, she emailed the same draft to her committee members for their review prior to their meeting on Tuesday. Once the committee approves it, it is sent to their Regional Director for his/her authorization and signature. Then, we have a completed HS!!!

I've been praying that we have our notarized copies of the HS by Friday, 12/14 so we can have our Dossier apostilled asap. I resigned myself today to the fact that my deadline may be unrealistic... I admit that I'm very disappointed but there is nothing I can do about it but pray and ask all of you to do the same.

I did have encouragement today after reading Randy & Susan's blog. Susan unfortunately ran into some unexpected snags with her HS as well (and NO that is not the encouragement I am referring to!!). A comment left on Susan's blog explained that had it not been for some of the delays that person experienced in her own adoption, she wouldn't have received the referral she did because her daughter wouldn't have been off the registry yet. So it all comes back to God's timing being better than our own. Very difficult to understand sometimes, but so very important to remember!

On a different note, I had a wonderful conversation a few days agao with "Linda" at the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office in regards to have our dossier apostilled. Since the HS is taking longer than we expected, I wanted to know if we could hand deliver our dossier and wait for it to be apostilled. "Linda" was so excited to hear about our adoption and she is so friendly! She assured me that we could bring it in person and wait for everything. So, believe you me, there's a trip to Richmond in my near future! Thankfully it's only about an hour from my house - even better!