What Do You Mean That's Not My Dossier?

O.K. there's no way to tell this story without you all thinking I'm stupid, but here goes anyway. Yesterday we had our second visit with the Social Worker. All went well, until she asks us how we are coming along with our Dossier. My answer was "Oh, we're coming along great! In fact, we're almost done!" And she answers "That's great! Do you have it so I can make sure that things included in your homestudy match up with what your dossier paperworks says?" I replied "What do you mean? You have it right there!" (I was referring to the packet of stuff we completed for our homestudy-fingerprints, references, biographies, medical forms, financial info, etc). She looked a little puzzled and said "Oh no, this is just the stuff we need for the homestudy. You should have a whole lot more documents from the agency you are planning on using for the China end". To which I replied "Huh"? "You mean there's more?!" She smiled sympathetically and said. "Yes, I'm afraid there is a lot more". Then she graciously called the agency we are planning on using and had them send out the dossier package to us right away. Ummmm....Duh! Apparently we got our wires crossed somewhere. When Joe first spoke with the agency we are using for our homestudy, they gave him the impression that we were supposed to wait until the homestudy was done before we contacted the agency we will be using to facilitate with China. This is of course, not the case. We were supposed to be doing these two things concurrently(the homestudy and the dossier). In my defense, I did ask my sister about ten times "Are you sure this is all we need to do for our dossier?" And she said "Yes" every time! I blame it on the fact that she now has two children and really can't remember as far back as when she was doing the paperchase! In her defense, she used an agency that worked exclusively with USAA, whereas our agency has their own China program, and people usually use that instead of another organization. So now I am anxiuosly awaiting the dossier package so I can get started on that. The S.W. said not to worry because a lot of the dossier documents are just duplicates of things we have already done. She also said she has seen people put together their dossier in as little as three weeks(after the homestudy was completed). So I should be feeling better. But I'm not. Because now I have a whole new set of things to worry about!


On non-adoption related news, I had my first mammogram done today.
Whooeee, is that fun! :) It actually wasn't that bad. It wasn't painful at all(like one of my co-workers told me it would be). I was pretty amazed at how flat they can make your breast! Flat as a pancake I tell you! I know, I know, too much information!