Fingerprinting, Home Study Completed, Gladney Approval and Passports Received

We just returned from vacation yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful to have time together and a break from our regular jobs and this paper pregnancy. Our vacation was filled with many firsts...Ciara's first time playing putt-putt, her first time flying a kite, her first time fishing (she caught two, Sean caught three, and I caught none), and her first time eating the fish that she caught (she said they tickled her tummy). The picture above is of one of the fish Ciara caught (with Daddy's help, as she dropped the pole when she saw a fish was on it) and of Ciara and Daddy at Tweetsie.

We went on the 28th for our fingerprints. We left Garden City, SC around 7:15am and traveled to Charlotte. Our appointment wasn't until 2:30, so when we arrived around noon, we decided to go ahead and get a bite to eat. Around 1:00, we decided to head over to the Application Support Center and just see if they could go ahead and fingerprint us. We were in and out in about 15 minutes for both of us. To our knowledge, they were able to get clear fingerprints on both of us. We then traveled on to the NC mountains where we continued celebrating Ciara's birthday (it began at the beach with Sean's side of the family and continued in the mountains with my side of the family).

After grabbing a bite for supper yesterday, we hurried home to check the mail. Sure enough, both Sean and I received our passports (they are still processing Ciara's). We also received our official letter of approval from Gladney and two copies of our home study (both dated on July 31--Ciara's birthday). We will work on completing our Power of Attorney (we needed our passport numbers first) and notarized copies of an original of our passports this week, as well as getting our home study sent to the Texas Secretary of State for Authentication. We also received my employment letter and our "Statement of Accounts in Good Standing" from our bank back from the Virginia Secretary of State without any issues. The only item remaining that we need to receive before we can finish our dossier is our I 171 H from USCIS. I must say that it feels like we need to celebrate a little more with all of these documents coming in.