So what is happening with Isaac's adoption?

Someone recently suggested keeping the blog up to date with the news about Isaac's adoption.  If only I had something to update!  At this point (and really many points) all that is going on is WAITING. 

We are STILL waiting on the Supplement 3 to the i800a to be updated.  This was supposed to be a fairly simple step.  Alas, nothing this time around has been as easy as predicted.  We are past the amount of time it took with the Little Princesses when their entire i800a had been approved - and theirs required three of us getting biometrics done downtown (fingerprinting). 

Our form arrived in the lockbox on September 4, and our agent confirmed it on her desk as of September 16.  I assumed that approval would happen within a few days of hitting her desk as that is what is pretty typical.  When I inquired this week I was told there was no news yet, and she'd keep me posted.

It is hard to wait.  The wait gets harder when it passes the amount of time that was expected.  I keep reminding myself that God has His own time table and it is often not mine!  I am also taking comfort in the fact that our boy is in a good foster home, able to attend school for the first time in his life, and is likely having a ball with his foster brother.  I'm at least imagining that the wait isn't as hard on him as it is on this Mama's heart.

Birthday Party!

One really fun thing about being part of a large family is there are lots of birthday parties to attend.  We went to a combined party for two of the nephews (nephews of the Little Princesses - my grandsons) a couple of weekends ago.  Their faces upon arrival indicated they weren't exactly sure about the whole custom!

 

They began to see the advantages once the party got going though!

Cupcakes!

Party bags!

Petting the rabbit

 The birthday boys wanted a trip to the park and boating on a nearby lake to be part of their day.  The Little Princesses REALLY supported that idea!

 

Abigail literally gasped when I asked her if she would like a ride on the boat.  What a fun day!

Visiting Baba's Workplace

The company where Ethan works had an open house on Saturday to celebrate their 125th anniversary.  Even though it has been over two years since he was transferred to Ohio, this is the first time the family has been allowed in the building.  It was great timing for us!  Every day The Little Princesses ask where Baba is, and we always tell them that he is at work.  Abigail has gone through various stages of thinking she understands what that means.  In her mind (as she signs it to us) he does everything from drive a truck to being a doctor to building things.  In reality he works in information technology, so I'm guessing she still has no idea what he does.  

They really enjoyed seeing photos of themselves and photos of us taken in China on his desk.

The company served us snacks in the cafeteria.  It was at this point that Jen stopped being suspicious of us for taking her to this unfamiliar and big, official looking building. 

Fruit, cheese, crackers, summer sausage, cookies, pretzels, veggies... yum!

 

 

Our next stop was in the "Crown Tower" which is a building nearby.  Ethan's employer had it built, and leases most of the floors. 

(photo from their website)

The public lobby has a fountain that puts on quite the water and light show, and the girls were fascinated with it.    

The twenty-ninth floor isn't leased yet, so they invited us to go up and take a look at the city. 

 

Of course we had to stop and watch the fountain again on the way back out.  This time it had some additional special effects that Tikvah referred to as the "grand finale".  The Little Princesses clapped and jumped and squealed with delight.

Photo op outside around the building...

To put the size in perspective, Ethan went across the street to take the last picture.  The tiny spots are our children!

We got it!

We have been waiting for MONTHS for social security numbers to arrive for the Little Princesses.  It required two trips to the office and a follow up phone call, but they finally arrived!  Why the excitement?  In our city they will not issue a handicap tag for a vehicle without the social security number of the person to whom it is issued.  Yeah, don't get me going on the legality of that one for a child, but those are the rules.

Gone are the days of dodging vehicles as we take a long hike across a parking lot. Jen did a really good job of keeping up with her walker, but we're so excited! We can park close to the door now because we got our tag!

Update on Isaac

We've been sitting on some VERY GOOD NEWS waiting for the ok to share it.  It is now public information on the website of the organization that has been responsible for "Peter's" care.  Here is their announcement:

Update:  In mid August 2013, Peter joined his new foster family in China until his adoption.  The transition to his foster family went very well and he has started school.  His foster family is doing so much for him helping him adjust and he is doing great so far.

There are dozens of questions that I would like to ask about the paragraph above, but alas.  Getting this much information while waiting is actually pretty good!  We are totally and completely in awe as there were some obstacles, and it appeared as if Isaac would have to return to his orphanage.  We are so very thankful to the many people who worked together to make this foster placement a reality. 

China is just not set up to handle special needs.  (We experienced this in a very real way the two weeks we were in country with Jennifer.)  Unless an orphanage has a school within its building, most orphans with a physical need cannot attend school.  How amazing is it that Isaac is able to attend school while our papers are making their way around the world?

Another huge blessing of this foster home is in learning English. We've been speaking a strange combination of English/Chinese/Sign language with the Little Princesses around here for the past four months.  It works, but isn't ideal.  We're told the foster family speaks at least some English in the home which is going to help with his transition to us so much.

We are excited and anxious to meet our young man, but in the meantime it is comforting to know that he has a family looking after him. How I pray God will bless them richly for looking after Isaac while we are paperchasing.

A Special Friend Visits the Princesses

It is very hard when you love a child who lives on the opposite side of the world.  Getting information about them is difficult. They do so much growing up in the year or so that you are "in process" and there are NEVER enough photos.  One thing that adds a spring to your step while waiting is for another traveling family to check in on your child.

While we were paperchasing to bring the two Little Princesses home, a few online friends visited their orphanage.  One was a therapist, and the others were adoptive parents there with their own newly adopted children.  Beth was one of these friends to me.  She took the time to meet my girls, get photos and tell them that we were coming soon.  Priceless.  Golden.  The photos I looked at time after time after time while I waited; and they helped me to stay just a little bit more sane through the process.

I had another priceless moment on Friday when Beth and her adorable son, Bobby (who had appointments at a nearby medical facility) were able to come to our home for a visit.  Bobby and our girls lived in the same orphanage in China and attended school together there.  I showed Bobby's photo to the girls, and they obviously remembered him and called him by his Chinese name.

The princesses were very excited as our special visitors came up the driveway.  Abigail actually chased Bobby to give him a hug (we're a huggy group around our house) but he didn't want much to do with that nonsense! 

Abigail was right there to check out their arrival.

Jen watched from the porch.

I have to say that Bobby is a charming, well behaved little guy with lots of curiosity and an AMAZING command of the English language after having been home only six months!  After answering his burning questions about how many pets we have, their color, and their names, he was ready to go in the house.  Bobby was interested in looking around and especially in seeing the girls' room.  You've seen the photos on this blog of the princess canopy beds - yeah girls live here - girly girls.  I don't think he was super impressed, and quickly moved on to better things.  Things such as the beginnings of Wonder World in our back yard.

The three kids played happily while Beth and I visited.  They didn't really seem to play together,  but parallel played for quite some time.  They preferred to play on the back patio and outdoors, so we mostly stayed out there.

Bobby seemed to remember Jennifer more than Abigail - it is likely they may have slept in the same room whereas Abigail slept in a foster family's apartment.  Also, since Bobby and Jen are big kids (age 7) and Abigial is only six, it may be that they were in different classrooms at times.  Beth said that Bobby asked about Sha Mei (Jen), so it seems they knew each other fairly well.  It was sweet to see the three friends reunited in America.  It made the world seem pretty small to me!

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and hope we can do it again very soon.

USCIS in Progress

We got the notification on Wednesday that our Supplement 3 - Request for Action on Approved Form I-800A has been received at the USCIS.  This document amends our "Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country."   That is a lot of words.  What does it mean?

Let's break this down.  The i800a requests approval to adopt from a Hague Adoption Convention country.  This is an international agreement to safeguard intercountry adoptions which took effect for the United States in April of 2008.  Basically it aims to prevent the abduction, sale of, or traffic in children, and it works to ensure that intercountry adoptions are in the best interests of children. It also recognizes intercountry adoption as a means of offering the advantage of a permanent home to a child when a suitable family has not been found in the child's country of origin.

We got our approval as "suitable" when we adopted the girls.  That means we met the requirements of adoption education, income, etc. etc. etc.  The Supplement 3 updates our family status to include Abigail and Jennifer, and asks that they find us suitable to add an additional child.  We were able to file just the supplement since our fingerprints had not yet expired from the time of our last approval.

If all goes according to plan (and our agency spent no small amount of time hashing this out with USCIS to determine the correct way to file) we should be assigned to the same officer we had with the girls, and be processed fairly quickly.  If the supplement attempt fails for whatever procedural reason, we will have to start over with a brand new i800a, likely meaning two additional months of waiting time.  So....we are hoping for the best!

Once our approval arrives in the mail, we'll immediately send it to our agency who will oversee its authentication for our dossier. If you followed the process with the girls you may remember that 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 is totally a guessing game when predicting travel dates on an adoption, but our past experience was almost five months from the time we sent our dossier until the time we adopted our girls.  At this point traveling in March seems to be the best guess.

Due to our income level and Isaac's particular needs, we were able to qualify for a grant with our agency towards a good piece of the fees that are due within the next month.  There are still very significant agency and international fees remaining however, so we need to begin some serious fundraising and applying for grants.  It is difficult to see how any family can possibly come up with the amount needed for an international adoption.  But I learned with the girls that God is bigger than the balances due.  He has clearly led us to this point, so we are doing all we possibly can, and attempting to trust Him (and not our checkbook) for the rest.  We know that where He guides, He provides.