Big day today--big week coming up.

Today is a red-letter day. I have been officially invited to get fingerprinted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. I go next Friday morning in Fairfax. Yea!!!! I'm also getting fingerprinted by the VA State Police on Tuesday. So I'll have inky fingers all week and by next weekend maybe I'll be behind bars!!! Hahahahahaha...I've been watching too much CSI lately!

I also checked the status of my passport and it has been mailed!!!! It should be here early next week. My birth certificate made it back to WV Secretary of State (I love delivery confirmation) and hopefully they will mail that right back officially certified. I sent a pre-paid express envelope with it. So I will be haunting the mail again next week.

The only sad part is that the USCIS states that their processing time (after fingerprinting) is nine weeks--this doesn't start until after my home study is done (which will be about the second week of May). So I'm looking at not being done with my paperwork until mid-July. So that officially shuts down any chance of getting a baby before the courts close from July-Sept. This is actually what I wanted because now I can build up more sick time for maternity leave (I am shooting for 8 weeks off but thanks to my foot/ankle surgery last summer, I have only built back up about 6 weeks). Still it is a little sad. Oh well, that gives me the whole summer to bond with my niece and learn infant care firsthand. Thanks Chad and Lesa for going first and breaking me in!!