Confused

Jason was the one to be on the phone and computer today with AGCI. It worked better with his schedule. They basically went over information that we had received in the mail the other day. I'm so totally confused on things. We have to file a I600A application. This is the “Application For Advance Processing of Orphan Petition” form. At this point, this feels like our biggest hurdle. However, part of the feeling I have comes from not really knowing anything. We need to send a letter requesting an appointment to be fingerprinted. This gets sent to an office in TX. They pass the information to the office in our area. They give us a date and time to be there for fingerprinting. This whole time, I've been thinking we will have to go to SF for this. Well, after much research today, I wasn't able to find anything in SD. When I typed in our zip code to see what office "served" us, it came up with The Twin Cities. Really? Needless to say, I'm freaking out a bit. I also do not know for sure when we can apply for this. It takes MONTHS for this background check to be completed. One place I read that our Home Study needed to be completed before we applied. Another place said that we would be sending them our Home Study in 4-6 weeks. Well--that makes a big difference as to when we do it. This part really makes me nervous. I don't want to do something wrong that will cost us time and money. I emailed AGCI and asked them about it. They are going to be calling us tomorrow as a follow up for the call today, so we will talk about it then. Hopefully, we are home to answer the phone. I thought it would be so awful to have to drive 4 hours one way for fingerprints. Now, 4 hours one way sounds great!!! Time will tell. Also--we needed to have our Power of Attorney letters certified by the Secretary of State. I didn't understand what that meant. So after more phone calls, I at least have an answer to that. We have to have that piece of paper notarized. Then we mail it to the Secretary of State in Pierre. They will put something on it saying that the notary is good. Then they will mail it back to us. WOW! It is one thing to have lots to do. It is another thing when I know I have lots to do and have no idea how to do it.