Troy's Birth Certificate is back...

from the Embassy in Washington, D.C. It arrived Express Mail this morning, on President's Day no less. I was very excited. The post guy said they always delivery Express Mail even on holidays. Who knew?

So, now, we're just waiting for the I-171H to come back from Chicago and we'll be ready to mail it all in!! YAY!!!!!!

The GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure I can even convey how excited we were this afternoon, but when I opened the mail out fell an envelope from USCIS and inside was our coveted I-171H!

We have been "Favorably Approved" to adopt and our application has been fowarded to Guangzhou, China! Wahoo!

This is a HUGE step in the adoption process and we're thrilled. We're hoping we can still be DTC by March. I literally cried when I opened the letter. Just ask my friend Jessica. I called her and she said, "Are you crying?" Yes I am!! LOL! :)

One more step toward Laney!

Guess what??????

I'm going to CHINA! I can't believe it. No, we don't have our referral yet (and won't for probably another 18-20 months, but I'll be going to China this July (July 22-Aug 2). I'm going with a team from Lakeland, to visit the area where our school will be built...and to help reach more of the unreached people.

I'm totally excited! The trip will be part tourist-fun (Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc) and part rigorous missions stuff (hiking up and over mountains, sleeping on floors in dirt huts, etc). I'm thrilled to see and experience any/all of it!

It will be so good to just be in my next baby's homeland. I'm going to miss Troy & the kids like crazy, but he is being so sweet in letting me go. I know he wants to go too. I'm going to take tons of pictures and try to remember everything I see so I can tell him all about it.

And then, of course, we'll be headed back TOGETHER in 2008 -- to get our baby! :)

Powerful...compelling song...

Esther by Sara Groves

Yes! One more piece of paper chased down and redirected...

Troy's birth certificate came back from the US State Dept in D.C. today. I spent half an hour frantically filling out another G-1 form, coping my passport photo page again, making photocopies of all the pages attached to his birth certificate so far, and then headed to the post office. I bought an USPS Express mail envelope and had it prepaid and addressed back to me, added in my $25 money order made out to the Consulate of the P.R. China and then...(whew!) took it all to the UPS Store and sent it BACK to Washington D.C. via Next Day service. Hopefully the Embassy in D.C. will move as quickly as the Embassy in Chicago and I'll have it back next week sometime.

Now, just gotta wait at the finish line for that I-171H.......

I was bopping around...

amongst my laptop sticky notes, and I ran across my "baby name brainstorm" list. (Sidenote on the aforementioned stickies: Troy makes fun of me because I have about 39 different sticky notes that are scattered ALL over my desktop. They are jumbled. They are disorganized. They make me smile. I love them and I know where everything is at all times.)

Anyway, I thought I'd jot that list in here, since this blog is becoming the first few chapters of Laney's baby book. And I have "baby name ideas" listed in all of my other children's baby books.

SO, the final list of names we liked and considered were:

Tessa
Violet
Stella
Sophie
Lucie

But we fell IN LOVE with Laney! Laney Kate is our girl ~ and we love her already. :)

So, where are we at?

Our agency, CCAI (have I mentioned how much I love these people!!), estimate the average family will take 5 months to complete their dossier.

I feel like we're months behind schedule, but I need to take a step back and really evaluate where we're at. We sent our 1st check to CCAI and downloaded the Dossier Manual PDF on 9/11/06. We completed our homestudy in 4 visits and were finished by Thanksgiving.

Today is February 7th and I'm chasing 2 last pieces of paper and we'll be ready to send in our paperwork. The downside? The last 2 papers I need are in people's hands I have no control over making move any faster! USCIS (have I mentioned how NOT rushable the USCIS is? These people will not be hurried), and the US State Dept in D.C.

So, the reality is, even though I feel like we're soo far behind schedule, I really have 4 more official days until we even make the 5 month average dossier timeline date. And then, if it takes me one extra month, that will only be 6 months and that really isn't so bad.

I'm still stressed. :) I still want to see our referral TOMORROW. :) But I feel better. :)

We need to start the campaign -- "Laney Kate in 2008!!"

Several steps forward, a couple back...

So today was filled with ups and downs.

The good points? We received all the documents back from the Consulate General in Chicago today. Yay! That was very quick. Everything looked great. It was exciting to see all the writing in Chinese and the beautiful Chinese chop marks on each piece of paper.

Unfortunately, I goofed and sent Troy's birth certificate to be authenticated in the Chicago zone and it was actually supposed to go to the Washington D.C. zone. Doh! So I got that off today the correct zone and we'll go from there.

We're off to the Consulate General....

Well, we're not, but 12 of our 13 documents are! We're still waiting on the I-171H, but in the meantime I sent off 12 of our documents (the bulk of our dossier) to the Conuslate General of the People's Republic of China in Chicago for authentication. We getting close!!

Homestudy is back...

Our home study came back today from Topeka, with the Secretary of State's certification attached. Now, ALL we're waiting on is that I-171H. Come on USCIS, be nice and get it in the mail! :)

Friday update

We're getting there!

Yesterday I answerd the doorbell ring, and it was the mail lady. I signed for Troy's birth certificate -- back from the Secretary of State's office -- neatly certified.

I also went to the post office yesterday and mailed (overnight-express) our homestudy to the Secretary of State's office in Topeka for certification. I also included a self-addressed overnight-express envelope for return, so hopefully it will come back promptly this week.

SO, that means, all we're waiting on is our I-171H. When that comes, I can have our sweet friend/church secretary (and NOTARY!!) Liz Trotta, notarize it and then I'm off to Chicago for aunthentication for all the documents.

Praying that I-171H comes fast!!

Updates....

It's been awhile since I posted an update. I got so overwhelmed by the dossier paper work before Christmas, that I realized I really needed a break. Holiday vacation in Ludington was wonderful and when I got back I started looking through all of my folders/files and realized I needed to streamline where I am and what's next.

I spent about three hours (night before last) with every single form, paper, certificatie, document, guideline sheet and flow chart spread out on the table. I finally feel like I'm on top of things and I know where we're out.

In reality, we're just waiting for the "Golden Ticket.' The I-171H. However, I still have a few things to finish up and mail off while we're waiting for that to arrive.

First off, I sent Troy's certified birth certificate off the Nebraska Secretary of State's office (the Honorable John Gale - ahem, sir!) to be (get this) "Certified." That's right folks. Apparently an official $15 certified birth certificate ordered from Nebraska's Vital Statistics bureau is not actually certified! Or, at least not certified enough for the CCAA. Sigh... so after another $40 (processing/mailing fees) it's been sent in to NE for certification.

We also have to do this my birth certificate and our marriage license, but thankfully there is a KC branch office of the MO Secretary of State (the Honorable Robin Carnahan - ahem, Ma'am!) so we'll driving down there on Monday.

Next up, I have the stack of dossier papers to be notarized next week as well. 2 physical exam reports, a financial statement, an adoption petition, two employment verification letters, etc.

And finally we need PICTURES. Lots & lots of pictures. My sister is in town this week (YAY!) so she is helping me with that. We have to have 10 family life pictures taken and 3 couple shots.

More later....Landry just found my box of bulk staples for the stapler. Lovely...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is around the corner. We're enjoying our time in Ludington, but I'm also anxious to get home and finalize our dossier paperwork. I have one more piece of paper to collect, and then we'll head to Topeka to have our dossier certified. Then, we'll send the paperwork to be authenticated and pray that I-171H arrives quickly!

We're off to see the wizard...er, I mean USCIS...

Tomorrow we head to USCIS for our fingerprint appointment and to file the very important I-600A form. The I-600A is an application for the advance placement of an orphan. In other words, "We want to adopt a baby. We don't know who she is yet, but as soon as we do, we want to be able to bring her home and make her our daughter." When they approve us, they'll send us the approval in the form of the I-171H. This form will go into our dossier for China. It is the single most important document in our dossier -- 2nd only to the homestudy.

We have an appointment time (10AM), but everyone keeps warning me to take books, an iPod, etc. Apparently, the wheels of immigration can move fairly slowly. We shall see.......

Guess what I'm holding in my hands? The Home Study!!

Bless God, we're finished with our home study!!! I picked up two copies this morning from our social worker's office. One will go in our files (to take with us to China). One will go with us next week to INS for our fingerprint appiontment and our filing of the I-600A.

Next week, we'll hear back from Nancy Bean when she gets the final Dossier copy notarized and then she'll fed-ex it to us. Yay!!! When we get back from Ludington at the end of December, we'll be ready to go to Topeka for a little "Certification" trip. We'll take all of our dossier documents that have been notarized (which is all of them!) and we'll have the KS Secretary of State certify each. Then we're just one step away from having our dossier finished.

Right now, the job at hand is to take pictures ~ and I mean LOTS of pictures! We need 4 of our house, 8 family life photos (all of us, in different locales) and 6 couple shots (again, different locales). Ever see the movie "Green Card?" Well, then, you know just what we'll be doing for the next few weeks. LOL!

Home Study is COMPLETE!!!

Woo hoo! After weeks and moving and a round of the flu for everyone...our 4th and final home study visit (the one that is actually "in the home") was today ~ and it went well! Yay! Our report should be finished by the end of the week and we'll be able to file our 1-600A form with USCIS and wait for our fingerprint appointments.

The homestudy is the biggest piece of our dossier for China so this is a big day. :) We still won't be on the official "Waiting" list for Laney until that dossier gets to China we have our LID, but this is one huge step.

Feeling very happy, very relieved.... :)

P.S. We've officially decided...Laney Kate (with a K). :)

We've changed her middle name! :) We've decided we love the name Kate too much to let it go. We're going with either:

Laney Cate

or

Laney Kate


We can't decide on spelling yet, but we know we love the name. Now, if we could just go and get her!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

We have received so many kind words and excited smiles as we've told people about our adoption plans. But we've also had a few ask, "Why China?" "Doesn't it seem weird to think of raising someone else's kid?" "Why adopt when you can have your own?" and perhaps our least favorite, "How much is she going to cost you?"

Take 3 minutes and watch this movie. Every time I see it my heart leaps, and I just want to look at each questioning person and say, "We are the blessed ones! We feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to bring home a precious daughter ~ our daughter ~ and to be her forever family!"

Where we're at today...

Good morning! Popping in for a minute to update our blog.

Today we're visiting with with our social worker for the 3rd time. The next (and final) visit will be at our home with the children. *scary* LOL! So far, I have completely enjoyed our home study. I'm not sure I've enjoyed it to the tune of $1400, but it has truly been beneficial and interesting. Nancy has been incredible to work with. She is very current on China affairs, as well as adoption issues. She has helped us sort through and think about our own desires to adopt, and she has educated us on so many things to expect. Laney's needs, attachment issues, how to incorporate her history into her present, etc. It's been excellent!

One of the things I loved the most was when Nancy talked us through how to create Laney's "Lifebook." It's a picture book of her life -- beginning at birth, not beginning at adoption. To learn more about Lifebooks, and to see examples click on the link I've posted in the bar to the right. Pretty powerful, cool stuff.

In other news, completely adoption un-related, I found a great new blog. It's

http://chocolateandzucchini.com

. Love the foodie discussions and topics. Lots of calorie-laden fun! :) (Good thing I'm back to running... LOL!)

Read this quote and loved it...

It certainly touches my heart as we near the beginning of the long wait.....


"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now, it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing." ~ Elisabeth Elliot