We meet at last!

As the Disney song goes, "It's a small world after all...." and the Internet has made the world even smaller!  As I've walked the international adoption path I've met many wonderful people.  A few of them contacted me when we were in the early stages of process with The Little Princesses to say they had been praying for our Abigail to find her family.  From my experience, sometimes we read the story of a child, and even though we cannot adopt them ourselves, the child still holds a piece of our heart.  (I pray for a couple of those "other people's kids" myself!)  Our Miss A was one of those children for Janice.

Janice was my cheerleader during the process, and has been a great encouragement to me.  She has so enthusiastically supported our fundraisers that I've jokingly asked her how she will get her Christmas shopping done in 2014 without us having fundraisers!

A couple of weeks ago Janice, her husband John, and their sweet little Emily traveled to Cincinnati for medical tests. It was so sweet to meet them in person, and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit!  Thanks, Janice for taking time out of your busy day to stop in for a couple of hours.  I hope we can do it again soon.

Talking about eye rolling, head scratching, and ramps

Our announcement that we are adopting again was met with some eye raising from acquaintances. When it was discovered that our son is totally dependent on his wheelchair there was some head scratching.  Yes, I saw it and really, it is ok.  We have been scratching our heads a bit too!  I will be honest that I fought against the idea at first.  I mean, it is totally impractical, right?  We have three little girls at home, and have hit our groove with a good household rhythm going. Why add a boy (and one with significant needs at that) and complicate matters?

 When we visited the orphanage where The Little Princesses lived we were struck by the number of boys. It may surprise you to know that the orphans in China are no longer primarily girls. The number of  boys waiting for a family far outnumber the girls.   

Since we visited the orphanage at naptime, we were able to see the children that Jen had roomed with.  In the room for her age there was a small row of beds against one wall with just a couple of little girls, and what appeared to be at least a dozen beds on the other side of the room with little boys.  The nanny in the room told us that most of their girls had been adopted.  I believe we realized right then and there that we would eventually return for a boy.

 No one was more surprised than I was when “eventually” ended up being VERY SOON.  We had been home perhaps a month when a boy’s photo showed up on the Facebook feed of an organization that helps orphans in China.  I had been aware of “Peter” while in process with the Little Princesses, and it saddened me that his family had not found him yet. 

 A few days later a dear friend asked me how things were going.  Since I knew she would "get it" I mentioned Peter to her and the fact that I couldn’t get him out of my head or my heart.  I believe after she stopped laughing (the usual reaction from those who  know us well) she said, “Very interesting!”  Yes, indeed.

I confess I tried to dismiss the idea.  Our house is not handicap accessible.  Certainly we couldn’t be the right family for him.  I can’t share everything that went on in the background, but as quickly as we attempted to dismiss the idea, evidence presented itself to suggest we do otherwise.  Ethan finally said to make the call to see if our agency would even approve us to adopt again so soon.  The short to this story is they did, and we are. 

There is much to be done before Isaac arrives home, and our budget is stretched to the max.  International adoptions are expensive -  very expensive.  We just did it - times two!  Modifications to a home are expensive also. One of the major things on our to-do list is a ramp so Isaac can get into our house independently.  I just have to share how this is to come about.

A local church (one that we are not members of) gave us a grant towards the adoption expenses of The Little Princesses.  At that time they also offered to help with home modifications if needed.  Jen can walk short distances without her walker, and hold a rail or sit down to do stairs.  We have actually done fine with our current arrangement, so I never followed up on that offer – until this week.

As our dossier gets closer to its submission to China, the practical aspects of “Peter” (our Isaac) joining our family become more urgent.  I contacted the church this week to find out if their offer of help was still good.  I am still amazed that about forty-eight hours later two men were at our house to do measurements and plan the ramp!  They are very informed as to building code requirements and know what they are doing. 

 It will be a substantial change to the landscape of our house.  The ramp will come out ten feet from our front porch, land on a 5’ by 5’ deck platform, then turn and go out six feet to the driveway.  They estimated three to four days to build it.  Amazingly they are offering their labor free-of-charge, so we have only to purchase the supplies!  I am very encouraged by this practical outpouring of love for our boy, and cannot wait to share with him the excitement that others in our community have concerning his homecoming.

 

More news about our Supplement 3

I keep hearing from online friends how their Supplement 3 has been approved within a few days of landing on their agent's desk.  Ours has been there over two weeks.  At the risk of appearing impatient (me?) and at the risk of possibly upsetting our agent, I called today.  She wasn't at her desk but did call me back a few hours later.  She was very nice.

After explaining the situation she agreed that our case should have been approved by now.  She looked up the details on her computer while I was on the line.  No, we don't have our approval yet, but at least we have some idea of why not.

Our original adoption file from The Little Princesses has to be joined up with the Supplement 3 in order to approve the change to allow us to adopt another child.  Our agent did her job and requested our original file.  Usually it arrives within a few days, she approves it and everyone is happy.  What she discovered is that for some unknown reason someone cancelled her request for our original file.  What?  That is just the way we roll, folks.  Our history with USCIS, in their words from last time around is one of  "not typical"  in the way they normally do things. 

She has requested the original file AGAIN, this time with the request to expedite it.  She promised to involved a supervisor if the file doesn't arrive quickly.  So.... hopefully this means we are back on track and moving again. 

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!