Oh Where Oh Where Has Our Home Study Gone?

Ok, we're STILL waiting for our hard copies of our home study! I contacted Jenna this afternoon to find out where they are. Haven't heard back yet. I have the FedEx account set up and nothing to mail. FedEx offers something like 16% off their express mail fees if you use their online services to process the shipment. When you've got a $40,000 bill looming ahead of you, every little bit helps I say! The US Postal Service express service is the cheapest way to go, but the reliability factor has me rather hesitant. Of course, to date the USPS has never lost anything I have mailed, but I suppose the fact that they can't guarantee that it will be there by 10:00 AM tells me that they don't really know where it is to begin with. I'm only in the first stage here, but after all my time and effort, I need to know that I know that my little paper baby will be taken care of.

So what's the reason behind my impatience? Besides the fact that (a) I will be having my 42nd birthday this summer (b) I don't want a humongous age difference between Kennedi and her little brother (c) something psychological in my being lets my control freak operate at top capacity when I am actually doing something--somehow walking to the mailbox doesn't constitute doing something and (d) the adoption tax credit goes back down after this year. (See below for further explanation.)

While we all wait, here's round two of Russian adoption vocabulary:

MOE--Ministry of Education. This is the Russian department who is in charge of adoptions.

PAP--pre-adoptive parent (That would be us!). When we "graduate", we become known as APs (Adoptive parent--I suppose it's a right of passage in a way!)

Gotcha Day--The day adoptive parents receive custody of their child.

Lifebook--an adopted child's life record told through the child's eyes. I'm not exactly sure how it's all suppose to come together, but it seems to be VERY IMPORTANT from everything I've read about adoptive children.

Dossier--(pronounced dos-ee-ay) our paperwork that goes to Russia to be translated

Adoption Tax Credit--this is set to expire the end of 2010 and will revert back to the old amount some 10 years ago if Congress does not vote to renew it. Contact your congress man and woman! There are so many kids who need families and this encourages parents to step out and adopt. Currently, families can qualify for a $12000 tax credit on their income taxes. I have no idea how it actually works, but I'm told it's better than a deduction. We'll see... After this year it goes back down to the Pre-Bush amount of something like $5000. Your adoption must be completed by the end of this year to receive the credit.

Ahhh, a blog that is both entertaining AND educational!