I just have to think of more creative blog titles!

Today I called the FBI to make sure that our prints cleared on the 13th. They did and were both submitted the same say to the USCIS. Now we wait. The long wait. It should be about 2 months until we get our I-171H.

But maybe it's a good omen. Today I also received my passport, 2 weeks earlier than the passport office website indicated it would be delivered. There are no errors so I am now free to leave the country! I feel the need to use the passport now. Maybe I'll drive to Canada this weekend, just to do it. When they ask me my reason for border crossing, I'll tell them I want to break in my passport. :-P

I'm done with all the nitty gritty details of adoption prep. We are essentially DTV. We just need that I-171H. Unless we get the approval way earlier than anticipated, we will probably have to update our medicals and we still have to pick up new police clearances but since those are time sensitive things, we are waiting until we get the I-171 H to do both.

Waiting is coming as quite a relief. I don't need to worry (like I will during the post-referral wait!), I don't need to think, plan, coordinate, wonder. I just sit and go on with life like those pre-adoption days. It's weird. And nice. Our little one must be picking up on it because he has not stopped talking about Vietnam and Madeline all day long! He's only 4 so his understanding of adoption is sketchy. We just keep talking about it. I am sure I've explained it before but he was shocked to hear that our baby would be born from a different mother. While we were out today, we ran into an elderly Vietnamese man who needed lots of help with toddler bikes. Noah was sooooooo excited when I told him, later, that the man was Vietnamese! He is also practicing his french because he hopes someone will be able to talk to him in french when we are in Vn. Fun, fun, fun!