Progress update

March 11th would be our official first step on this journey.  The email from Holt International with our welcome packet arrived in my inbox.
It said it takes about 12-14 months to be matched, 6 months longer if you want to adopt a girl.  John and I both are leaning towards a girl but our minds are not totally made up yet.  I'd love Mayumi to have a sister since I can't imagine my life without mine but she's already 10 years old and is quite protective of her space.   I know it will be clearer to us as we move forward.  

So far we have submitted legal documents from birth certificates to divorce decrees, submitted for background checks from every state we've lived in, had thorough physicals and affidavits with notary signatures.  We've had amazing friends write letters vouching about our intentions and capabilities and we are finishing up our online classes and 70+ essay questions about anything from your how you were punished and maybe traumatized as a child to how are dealing with infertility grief.  We get to answer these 70+ questions each, by the way.  
I respect this process because it's an important one but I see a big advantage to having a child the old fashioned way.
The one small potential insurmountable delay is the poor quality of my fingerprints according to the FBI.  I've had my prints done both with ink and paper and with electronic scanning four times with four rejections.  Each submission takes about two weeks to turn around.  I called the FBI who said they could not give me any alternative other than to keep trying until they passed though they did recommend me go to my finger print appointment with packing tape stuck to my finger tips (it didn't work, obviously).  I begged them for a solution so eventually they gave me another number to call that said there was no other way unless I started with an office that had an alternative in place but they didn't know where an office like that might exist.  Come on, FBI!
I called the adoption agency and they did not recall this being a problem before but were able to research and send me a document with a phone number for an FBI 'name search' strategy.  I called the number and got grilled on where I got the number, from whom I got it and when this request took place.  After being put on hold so the agent could talk to a supervisor, they gave me another phone number where I answered the same questions and finally got a fax number to send in a request via the adoption agency.  Phew. It is out of my non-fingerprint-bearing hands now and I hope to hear something positive back by the end of the month.  When all documentation is submitted successfully, we get assigned a social worker and schedule our home study....can't wait!!