Gathering Dossier Stuff

We're going ahead getting things ready for the dossier stage. It's still a bit of a ways off, but we'd like to be ready the minute CHSFS says go. Of course, much of the paperwork has date restrictions, so we're performing a careful balance of "move quickly...but not too quickly." I spoke with two very good friends who are going to write our recommendation letters. There are so many wonderful people we could ask, but we'd like for Sprout(s) and Squirticus to have different recommenders (kind of like you usually give your children different godparents). These two friends are very special in our lives, and we're so thrilled that they are willing to speak on our behalf!

The other aspect of trying to move slowly quickly is that I'm thinking we might already be crunched for time. CHSFS is estimating a two to three week wait for homestudy approval. And the homestudy must be approved prior to receiving the rest of the dossier list. In order to be on the wait list on October 3, we would therefore need to have the homestudy approved by mid-September. This requires the updated homestudy to be written by the beginning of September, and our social worker is sometimes a bit lethargic in getting things done. So we basically need to have her be writing it asap. The plan is therefore to have her combine D's post-placement visit with the homestudy update visit. In that way, she should be able to start working on the update in mid-August. Surely we can have it written in three weeks since it is just an update?! Let's hope so.