The mount of paperwork.

The paper work begins. First I had to locate an agency to do a homestudy for me. That was difficult since I live in a small town. I tried several different agencies. I finally located New Beginnings in Tupelo, MS. The home study was done in May 2005. I passed with flying colors. Oh, I had to get another smoke alarm. That was not a big deal. My social worker Laurie was very nice. She is adopting also. I think that made my homestudy a lot easier.

I then started the paperwork. I had to get INS approval and fingerprints. That was done in New Orleans right before Hurricane Katrina hit. Thank God my fingerprints were already processed. However, it did delay the processing some. I wasn't approved until November of 2005. That gave me plenty of time to finish the other paperwork. While waiting for INS approval I worked on reference letters both personal and work, name affidavits , affidavits #1 and #2, medical clearance, local and state police clearance, etc... Just too name a few of the hundreds of documents. Of course all of this had to be notarized, certified, and authenticated. I spent a lot of time at the post office. Thank God the paperwork is over. My dossier was sent to Guatemala in November of 2005.