An unexpected visit

I thought by now I would be happily blogging about our wait for I-800A approval.  But, unfortunately, we are still waiting for our home study approval.  By some unlucky coincidence, our home study was "pending" earlier this month during our agency's Hague re-accreditation visit.  And even unluckier for us, some changes were made to the home study process, and now our home study must be updated to reflect the new requirements.  So, we had a 3rd (unexpected) home visit on July 25th.  And now we wait....but not very patiently!!  Tim and Dawn are in the same boat as us and had their third home visit on the 26th.  We all are anxious to move on to the next step in this journey, anxious to be waiting for something else!  We have been in the home study phase for too long!

The Waiting Game

So, I was going to post yesterday about the awful process we must endure..."the waiting game".  Each time a document is due to be submitted we rush around making sure we gather all the necessary paperwork and have it organized, notarized and compiled exactly to the directions we are given.  Then, once that big rush is over all we can do is sit back and wait...and wait...and wait...for the approval, notary, certification, etc. that is needed for that particular document.  This part is really hard.  I am already preparing for the next step but I can't proceed.  I must wait as our paperwork sits on someone's desk in a huge stack until it's turn to get a "stamp of approval". 

 Right now we have been waiting one month for our home study report to be approved (our last visit was on June 11th).  There's nothing else I can do until that's done. 

Then...yesterday I got a email from our caseworker...she is planning to submit our home study report for approval TODAY!!  Once it is approved, notarized and in our hands we can proceed with the next step.  But I am ahead in this game...I already have the I800a form filled out and signed, copies of all the required supporting documents, and checks written out.  All I need is the notarized home study report and I can send it all overnight to US Citizenship and Immigration (hopefully by the end of this week or early next week).  Then the next round of waiting begins....