We Have It In Writing!

Sometimes I don't appreciate government notices that arrive in my mailbox.  The recent demand by the county health department to update our septic system was one such notice I could have done without.  However, we received an official document from the government today that has me smiling from ear to ear.  The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) sent us a beautiful thing today!  We have received our written APPROVAL NOTICE.  It states, "You have been approved to adopt two children from the following Convention country: People's Republic of China"

I faxed a copy of this to our agency.  They say that it will be heading to the Secretary of State tomorrow. Once this document has been certified/authenticated our dossier will be DONE.  I'm loving National Adoption Month so far!

Speaking of which, have you noticed the really GOOD videos that have been coming out in response to the special focus on orphans this month?  One of them is by Third Day.  It is relevant to all believers.  There is a message for us here.I hope you'll take five minutes to watch it.

I800A Approval Granted Today!

Today was a great way to kick off National Adoption Month!  I received notice that our I800A form (immigrations) had been approved by USCIS.  The full name of this form is Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, the convention country being China in this case.

This was the final document needed for our dossier.  Once the hard copy arrives in the mail next week, we must notarize, state certify, and authenticate it for our dossier.  For those who are trying to keep track of these things,  the dossier is the all important file of documents that will be sent to China. It contains the application and letter requesting permission to adopt a Chinese orphan, home study, police reports, immigration approval, reference letters, medical reports, marriage certificate, birth certificates, letters of employment, and photos of our family and house.

It may take a month before the I800A has all of its certifications, then we will be DTC which is Dossier to China.  It is approximately five to eight months from dossier log in until travel.

I can breath a HUGE sigh of relief that most of our paperwork this side of travel arrangements is done.  Or not.  Next week I start applying for grants.  International adoption is quite expensive, and most people need help to complete it.  We'd appreciate your prayers as we enter this phase that we would find favor with the organizations that are able to assist.

We received a huge blessing of new photos of our girls at their orphanage, this time photos of them together!  An online friend "happened" to be there and got permission to take photos.  We didn't have many pictures of Mei Mei, so we were REALLY especially extra happy to get those! Our agency does not allow us to post photos of the girls online, but I would be happy to show them to you next time we meet.  Just ask -that is, if I don't immediately pull them out to show you!

Lastly, as we enter the final two months of the year, some of you may be thinking about donations, especially tax deductible donations.  Our girls were accepted for fundraising by Reece's Rainbow (advocates for special needs orphans) this past week.  We'd be ever so thankful if you considered them worthy of some of these end of the year donations.  There is a donation button in the right margin on this blog, or you may find our family's page on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here!  Donations through Reece's Rainbow are tax deductible.  Thank you!

Save on your household expenses, help bring our girls home!

-- DUE TO LACK OF ORDERS, THIS FUNDRAISER HAS BEEN CANCELLED --

New Fundraiser that helps us all!

This is a fundraiser for our adoptions from China.  We are selling Tide & Gain Formula Laundry Detergent,  and also Downy Formulated Fabric Softener in 5 gallon Pails. All detergent and softener is available in regular or HE for high efficient washers.  All Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener buckets are $40.00 each and come with a dispensing pump.         

  

Five gallon pails contain 672 oz. I did a price comparison at Walmart on line.  The largest containers of Gain are 150 oz for $14.97.  You’d need more than four of them to equal the bucket.  Comparing Tide at Walmart, again the largest size of 150 oz  with a cost $17.97 each.  You’d need more than four bottles with a total cost of $72.00 plus.  Largest Downey was 103 oz for $9.00.  You’d need more than six bottles!  Save money in your household budget while helping to bring our daughters home!

We purchased a Tide and a Downy.  I’ve found that keeping the buckets in the garage and refilling a smaller jug as needed works very well, and has saved us a lot on our laundry expenses.  If you’d like to purchase from our fundraiser, please print and fill out this order form.  We must pay for the order when we place it, so prepaying would be greatly appreciated.  If you prefer to use Paypal, that is fine, but we will still need your order form emailed to us.  You can pick up your product at our house, or we can arrange to meet you in the Cincinnati, Ohio or Lafayette, Indiana area when the product arrives.

Buyers Name:

Address:

Home Phone:

Cell Phone:

 

	Regular Quantity	HE Quantity	$40.00 each
Original Tide Formula
Tide Formula w/ Downy
Tide Formula w/ Bleach
Gain Formula Original
Gain Formula w/ Bleach
Downy Formula Blue
Downy  Formula Lavender
Downy Formula Green

Celebrating the milestones

I can't believe that I forgot to post these pictures from back on August 2.  It was our 32nd anniversary, and we had just found out that China had given us Pre Approval for Abigail Dawn.  Of course that morning we had already taken a CPR class and been fingerprinted (this first time for FBI clearance.)  Perhaps all the paper chasing distracted me.  Whatever the case, we celebrated!

We went to a favorite place of ours in Montgomery.  Tikvah likes to go here and listen to the people around us speak Chinese.  We are attempting to learn a bit of it, but so far she is the only one who has absorbed enough to catch a word here and there when she hears it spoken.

There have been many, many paper chasing days since that day in August.  We've jumped through more hoops than a circus animal, but here we are, pretty much finished with the paper work, and now we wait.

At last we have Pre Approval for MeiMei, and keeping to the pattern, we went out for a Chinese dinner to celebrate.  We are a little wiser, a little more tired, and much better with the chopsticks! This time we tried a place very close to our home.  The dining wasn't as pretty, for sure, but the food was REALLY good.

Ethan downloaded an app for his phone, so now it does panorama photos - sort of.  We look like we are in a time warp in it!

But you know, it sums up how we feel today, having finally arrived at this point.  We are tired, we are happy, we are giddy.  We are officially approved for both Abigail Dawn and MeiMei.  Whew!

Introducing MeiMei, Our Second Treasure from China!

 You've been asking, and now we are telling.  YES!  We are bringing home two girls!  Our agency gave approval on October 4th for these two specific girls to be placed together in our home. There has been some scurrying around behind the scenes, papers sent, her file lost somewhere in the computer system between our agency and China, (VERY scary) but we have just received our PA (pre approval) from China for another adorable six year old, also from Southeast China.  We are so blessed to introduce her!

MeiMei is the Chinese name that those closest to her would call her. She is called "Jennifer" or "Jennie" at her school.  At this point all that has been decided name-wise is that "Jennifer" and her Chinese name will appear in some form.

So what is MeiMei like?  She is a lovely child who gets along well with others, though she is a bit shy.  She attends an English speaking preschool a few days a week. She likes playing with toys, building towers, and watching cartoons with other children.  In a video that we have of her, MeiMei puts puzzles together like I do. You know, put the piece down and try to slam it into place, to make it fit?   (Ethan got a big laugh when he saw that!)  And get this statement that I read in her report - she knows the answer to "Why should you wash your hands before meals?"  LOL!  Yes, I know she is MINE!

Like Abigail, MeiMei is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, though hers is a bit more involved physically.  At this time, she uses a walker to assist her, but her mobility is improving rapidly.  Dr. Staat (from the International Adoption Center) who reviewed her medical files on October 9, was very encouraging about MeiMei's expected progress once she begins therapy in the states.

We've been fingerprinted by the USCIS, and they are processing our immigration papers for both girls.  We're currently waiting for an officer to be assigned to our case. He or she will review our homestudy and our fingerprints, and if all are acceptable will then issue approval. Once our Form I-800A approval has been received in the mail, it will be notarized, state certified, and authenticated.  That is the final document needed for our dossier.

We expect to bring both of our daughters home at the same time.  The best guess for travel is still predicted to be sometime towards the beginning of the summer of 2013.  That seems like a VERY long time from now.

We've Been Fingerprinted!

We received our letter today from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)  stating the appointment time for our  "biometrics" processing was scheduled for November eighth.  They always schedule the appointments out pretty far, so our agency had advised us to try a "walk in" early once this letter arrived. 

I've been stalking the mailman for several days (not really, but I did have the "Mr. Postman" song going around in my head this morning...) so I was pretty excited to see the letter in the mailbox today.  I had a few things that I had to get done before I left, but was out of here pretty quickly.

Ethan's office is near to the Federal Building, so we were able to meet up during his lunch hour for our attempted walk-in.  I have been hearing horror stories from online friends who have done the walk-in.  Some were turned away, and some were successful after being chewed out, but no one reported it as a pleasant experience.

Fortunately my friend, Maren, reassured me that the staff at our local office are NICE.  And she was so right!  I will admit it was a little intimidating to put my purse in a bucket and walk through a metal detector, but at least I wasn't wearing a belt - poor Ethan!  And Ruth's metal nail file sent the guards at the door rummaging through her purse....  We got through and had our id's checked, then got directions to the correct room.

I had the nicest guy!  After he took my prints (electronically) he showed me a huge bulletin board in his office where he likes to post photos of the children he helps.  I added to his collection, of course! The staff was quite pleasant, and very efficient.  Even with a few people in line ahead of us, we were in and out in probably fifteen minutes.

When I got home I followed up with an email to let the USCIS know that we were fingerprinted early.  I have already heard from them that we have not been assigned  to an officer yet.  It was notated in the system so that when our case is assigned, our officer will know that we went in early.  Its looking online like its taking about a week after printing for the I800A to be approved.  Here's hoping that at the end of next week we are another huge step forward!

Abigail is Six

 Happy 6th Birthday, Abigail!

There isn't a lot of consistency with the rules while one is waiting on an adoption.  Some agencies allow posting photos online and allow care packages to be sent at any time following PA (pre approval) and others interpret the Hague laws VERY literally and allow NO CONTACT until the LOA (letter of acceptance) shortly before travel.  We happen to be with one of the agencies that interpret the law very strictly.  Thus, Agibail's sixth birthday came and went on October 5 with only a small family celebration.

One of our adult daughters, Hannah, made this cake for her "baby" sister.  She took such care in using Abigail's favorite color, and even wrote in Chinese characters at the top of the cake.  It was obvious she put a lot of thought and love into it.

We sang Happy Birthday and ate a piece of cake in honor of our youngest child in China.  We can't wait to get her home!