Life Books

I am a long time believer in the importance of preserving family history through scrapbooking.  We have a huge bookshelf dedicated to our family scrapbooks.  All of our children have one, and there are multiple books that record the life of our family.

I feel that Jennifer and Abigail must each have a book when they arrive home so they can see that they are important to us.  Enter the LIFE BOOK.  Apparently these have been popular in the foster care and adoption movement since the 1970's.  It takes the scrapbook just a little bit further, in that it begins with a history that we were not a part of, so as to retrace (as much as possible) their past before coming to live with us.

Since 1999, the orphanages in China have been required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. These are referred to as "Finding Ads," and are a part of the process of making the child "paper ready" for adoption.  These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. Originally these were text-only ads, but most provinces now include photographs in their ads. These photographs are usually the earliest available pictures of the children.

Brian Stuy, a dad who himself has adopted children from China, has obtained the ads throughout the years and catalogs them for parents like us who are looking for answers for our children concerning their personal history.  I was able to get the finding ads for both Jennifer and Abigail through Research-China.  These ads were a great find as I now have an early baby photo of both girls as well as information as to how they came to be cared for at the orphanage!

I have been very pleasantly surprised at the amount of information and number of photos I have been able to collect for the life books.  I have them sorted and laid out by page, and am now collecting the scrapbook papers, stickers, etc. to do it up pretty.

I've also ordered a couple of books to give me ideas since these are a little different from the scrapbooks I would typically create. I'm using these as reference/idea books:

Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child by Beth O'Malley.  Description from Amazon: The lifebook process prepares you to talk about delicate subjects as well as adoption basics. Best of all, in the end, your child has an unique book that captures their often complicated life story. In this adoption classic, Beth ( who is both an adoptee and adoptive parent) guides you step-by-step and page-by-page just as if she were right there with you. It's all explained in full detail with a light touch of humor.

Would you rather see how someone else completed an entire lifebook before you get started? That's covered, too, with three full-length examples in the back section which include: Domestic/Infant , Foster-Adopt , and International.



 
and

  Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings  by Cindy Probst  Amazon's description " easy-to-read workbook for international adoptive parents and waiting parents who wish to document their children's early lives for them, in the form of a lifebook. Through exercises and text, readers become more comfortable telling children the truth about their beginnings while emphasizing their strengths and resilience. Adoption specialist Cindy Probst guides parents through such topics as talking with children about their birth parents and orphanage or foster care experience, answering "why was I adopted?" questions, and using empowering adoption language. 'Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings'is an invaluable resource for helping children feel good about who they are."

I purchased the three-ring binder type of scrapbooks that will allow for easily inserting extra pages as I come upon new discoveries.  I'm  looking forward to getting things glued down! 

We have DTC!!!

Yay! The agency called to tell me those words I've waited for nearly five months to hear, our dossier is on its way to China!  This is a big step!  A week or two after our dossier arrives in China, it will be logged into the CCCWA. (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption)  The day our paperwork is logged into the system is when we acquire our next set of acronyms, known as LID meaning Log In Date.

We will then begin waiting for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance).   This is our official approval  to adopt our girls.  It can take anywhere from 1-5 months, with 52 days being the average.  This is also the magic date that triggers being allowed by our agency to send care packages to the girls at the orphanage, and finally being allowed to put photos of them on our blog.

Some have asked, "What all is in the dossier, anyway?"  Well... if you really want to know, here is a list of what we needed to include:

Birth Certificates for Ethan and me.  His was complicated since he was born out of country to missionary parents.  These had to be certified copies which then had to be notarized, verified and authenticated.

Marriage Certificate, a certified copy - notarized, verified and authenticated.

Financial Statement with notarized signatures then verified and authenticated.

General Physical Examination forms.  Our physician had to complete the form, sign it, and have it notarized, then it was verified and authenticated.

Police Clearance Reports for Ethan and me.  This one had to be completed by our local sheriff department after doing a criminal history check.  Of course it too had to be notarized, verified and authenticated.

Letter of Employment for both of us. This is interesting because they want the employee to spell out "prospect of continuous employment" which in today's economy is tricky, huh?  I had to type a statement as to why I am NOT employed, and that I basically mooch off my husband!  LOL!  And...you guessed it  notarized, verified and authenticated.

I-797C Notice of Action: Approval Notice.  This is what we received back after being fingerprinted for immigrations and asking for approval to adopt foreign children on the I800-A.  Of course it was  notarized, verified and authenticated.

Adoption Application Letter (with several required points), notarized, verified and authenticated.

A copy of our Homestudy - it ended up being a summary of 15 pages.  (The list of requirements for completing the homestudy was even LONGER than this list!  It was the one that reduced me to tears reading it last summer.)  Again,  notarized, verified and authenticated.

Homestudy Agency form

Copies of Passports

Additional copies of passport photos

Six photos of our home and family

Whew!  As I looked at that list, and the list of things we submitted for our homestudy, I remembered those days, just a few months ago, when the paperchase dominated my days.  Let's hope now that we are on the waiting end that it is a little bit easier.  There are still a few key, REALLY important documents to file as we near travel, but the bulk of our paperchase is done.

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at the home of one of our daughters in the Indianapolis area.  Most of our "kids" were able to come, and all of the grandchildren.  Add in Ethan's mom and a nephew with his wife, and it was a house full!  It was great to be together, if even for just a few hours.

I will admit to holidays being just a little "off" for me right now.  Don't get me wrong, I am engaged and enjoying the here and now with my family, but my thoughts are never far from our two little girls who live a half a world away.  As we celebrate our traditions, and as we go about our normal, every day lives I wonder what they are doing and experiencing. How strange will our life here seem to them?   Next Thanksgiving we will make room for a couple more little princesses at the kids' table.  I can't wait to share our fun times with them!

Princess Dormitory!

We are working on transforming the big bedroom into a dormitory for three princesses!

 Of course, a princess must have a canopy bed.  Let me tell you that three canopies in one room, and all in a row is a LOT of bed AND a LOT of curtain! It is pretty adorable though!

 I cannot wait until the other two little princesses are home!

DTC is just around the corner!

I got an update from our agency today.  All of our documents went to the Chinese embassy in DC last Friday  (November 9) for the last authentication step. They say it typically it takes 6-7 business days for them to turn around documents, plus shipping time on each end.

Our case manager said that theoretically our documents should be back at the agency by Wednesday, and they'll be able to mail them to China before they close for Thanksgiving.  That all sounds good,  but she also added that the Department of State has been a little more variable on processing time recently, so it might not get there in time. They are closed both Thursday and Friday for the holiday.

Hopefully the "usual" will happen and our documents will be back at the agency on Wednesday.  I'm told they are typically able to send the dossier the same day it arrives back from authentication, so whether it is Wednesday or the following Monday, we are really close.  Once the dossier goes out we are looking at anywhere from 4-8 months until we travel.  In looking at the timelines of others online, China seems to be moving fairly quickly right now.  Here's hoping for the shorter side of waiting!

Blankets for Plane Travel

I've been carefully evaluating what we actually need (and want) for the China trip.  While we don't want to take lots of baggage (I'm thinking backpacks would be ideal!) we do want to have some amount of comfort.  Tikvah it seems is always cold.  Let's face it, there isn't a lot of meat on her body to keep her warm!  One thing she requested was a blanket to take on the plane.  So, she and I have been looking at blankets for weeks.  Some have been too big, some too flimsy, some not pretty enough....  It has to give a decent amount of warmth, but it must be small enough to stuff into her carry-on.

At the same time we have been contemplating what to send in our "care packages" to the girls at the orphanage.  While many agencies allow sending packages on their birthday, or really any time after pre-approval, ours forbids any contact until we receive LOA. (Letter of Approval - shortly before travel)  One thing that has consistently been suggested (from various sources) to include in a care package is a soft blanket.

So, you can believe I was pretty excited last night to find fleece princess blankets from the Disney Store on sale for half price.  Want to make a sweet deal even better?  They also offered FREE personalization and FREE shipping!  Wow!  Yes.  I ordered three.

 The purple one will say "Tikvah" on it.

The blue one "Abigail Dawn"

AND.... Jennifer Lin will complete the set with the pink one!

Jennifer is "MeiMei's" name in her English speaking preschool, and Lin is Chinese for beautiful jade.  She will also have her Chinese name from the orphanage on her birth certificate as a second middle name.  I like that name pretty well, so you may hear it as often as you hear Jennifer!

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.