We received our homestudy and I-600A paperwork in the mail last Friday. We were instructed to call the agency to go through everything ... so we did on Monday. It was a good call.

After one year of planning and listening to all of you, everything the coordinator will have us do seems pretty straight forward and easy. What a relief! We can submit our I-600A in person (there's a local office). We only need one copy of our birth certificates and marriage certificate for the HS. We need to have our doctor complete a simple medical form (including TB test) and I've got that scheduled for October 27. M will work on all of the financial documents (letter from our banks & copies of our other investments). Of course we'll also need four letters of recommendation & a letter from our proposed guardian(s) should anything happen to us. Plus a couple rounds of fingerprints for the I-600A and homestudy. We already have acceptable pics. To get the homestudy done we need to sign a consent form, send in a check and we'll be assigned a social worker and then we'll get going on the visits.

Later yesterday afternoon I received another call from the Director of Social Work from the agency & wasn't able to get in touch with her until this morning. Apparently there was still some concern about the fact we've only been married one year. She says that she verified our application with the head of the agency. They agreed it will not be a problem in some regions, but overall they would prefer to have us in Russia for our court date at our 2-year anniversary mark or later. With paperwork delays, referral times, trip delays and other accrediation issues I was planning on a year; 9 months would be ideal if we received referral right away and everything went perfect! They agreed that we should get going now, but when we are ready to complete the dossier and get it submitted to reassess the situation. If we get things done quickly, and referrals are coming quickly, then they'll "hold" our dossier. She did say that they would keep us moving and that we'll be able to travel of trip one before the two year mark. They just do not want us to go to court before August 2007 (most likely) and wanted to make sure we were OK with their gameplan for us.

It's nice to know our basic schedule for next year already... that will help with planning for work and maybe we'll be able to sneak in a vacation and some camping before the little ones arrive! It's sooo nice to be finally moving forward!