6 months ago today

6 months ago today we adopted our sweet little girl. We thought the day might be chaotic. We thought that we would have a ton of things to sign. It was the complete opposite! Our day ran smoothly. All of the paperwork was done pretty much before we even traveled to China. The only thing we had to do was sign and fingerprint and Ella was legally ours! It's hard to believe just how fast the past 6 months have flown. Ella shows her little personality more and more each day. Ella enjoys dancing with monkey (her stuffed animal), pretend counting (wha two fe ah eh oh), playing with her kitchen set, pulling blankets out from underneath Alfie (our poor 7 year old malte-poo), drinking milk (she's a little obsessed!), and loves being read to. Ella has a cheerful spirit but has just started to sass a little. I guess we're gearing up for age 2? All in all we feel super blessed to be a family. :)



Since it's been 6 months.. we have our Post-Adoption report with our Social Worker today. Our Social Worker gets to play double duty today.. we have our first Home Study today! We stayed up late last night gathering all the documents for our Home Study. I am quite surprised on how quickly I was able to gather all of the documents. We're just waiting on two background checks, our lab results from the doctor along with a letter from our doctor.. and of course the well test. I found out early yesterday morning that our well failed the safe drinking water test! >:( Since we've had so much snow lately.. we've had a lot run off into our well. And get this.. we are preparing for a HUGE snowstorm starting tonight. Ugh. The lab told us that we could shock our well with some clorox and that should solve our problem. If the clorox does not solve the problem, we will have to install a UV light. We are hoping and praying that the clorox does the trick!

Here's the document update for our Dossier:
Birth Certificates- I don't believe we'll be receiving these anytime soon. I contacted Vitalchek several times and they said that they are backed up. They are currently working on orders that were made December 6th! Yikes! Marriage Certificate- Yep. Employment Letters- Yep. Financial Statement- Yep. Physical Exams- Waiting on lab results. Home Study Report- Our first visit is today! 3 Reference Letters- Two of our friends finished writing theirs! USCIS Approval- Need Home Study. Passport Pages- Yep. Photo Pages- Yep. Passport Photos- Yep. Hague Training- Yep!! Home Study Agreement- Yep. Post Placement Agreement- Yep.

I believe we're on track!