Well, A lot has been hapenning again since last time. John and I got all of the required paperwork into our agency that is needed in order for us to be assigned a social worker.
Our medicals were the last thing we had to send in. We got those done last week.
So now we have been assigned a Social Worker. She will begin our homestudy on April 17th. We do have some homework to do before she arrives though. We have to write a long and very in depth self assessment. I was told this that this is the most daunting task of the whole process (other than the wait). We are to hand our self assessment over to our Social worker when she arrives. This will help her write her report on us...so the more good things we write about ourselves the better her report will be!!! Sounds like a funny process, but whatever, we'll roll with it!
She comes to spend a few hours with just John and I on the 17th in the evening and then she will come back the next morning to spend about 4 hours with the whole family. After that she has to write her assessment on us and sent it into the Adoptions director for Alberta (Anne Sculley). Apparently it takes about 6 weeks to get authorization back from her. So Judging by all the timelines I've been told, if I had to guess, I would say we will have our dossier (group of documents) sent to China by the end of July. Here's hoping I'm right and not way out to lunch!

John and I also attended an International adoptions course over the weekend. It was Excellent! We got a lot of important informaton out of it! A family who had adopted from China last year came to speak about thier experience and answer questions for the group. When they walked in and we saw their little adopted daughter(mellissa) I got tears in my eyes. Then I looked over at John and he was grinning from ear to ear like a little kid at christmas! It was a great feeling and I can't imagine what we'll feel the first time we see our daughter, not to mention the first time we see all of our little girls together!!
Although there was a lot of positive moments during the course, it was also heartbreaking to hear about some of the things that happen to children all over the world. Leaves you with a feeling of wanting to do more to help them all...but one step at a time is all you can do I suppose...and every little step helps! It was nice to see that the room was full though! 28 couples looking to adopt meant that there would be 28 little kids saved from a life of poverty stricken orphanage life...or worse. Anyway...the course was great and left John and I feeling very excited.

One more thing that we did was we joined the I.A.F.A. (International Adoptive Families Association) This is a support network for adoptive families and adopted children. They hold special events throughout the year for the kids as well as the parents and families to be. I'm sure we will end up taking Cadie and Avery to many of the playgroups that are held. They also hold a "mom's night out" every once in a while which I would LOVE to take part in!! Any excuse to go out for some fun!!
IAFA also provides education regarding international adoption.

I'll write another post after the Social worker has finished our homestudy visits to let everyone know how it all went!

Until then.....:)