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

Sweetest thing...

Colby said the most adorable thing a few days ago. We were sitting together, talking about our adoption and he said, "Mommy, we don't know what Laney is going to look like yet, do we?"

I answered, "No, we don't."

He sat for a minute and thought about that and then he looked up, grinning and said, "But we do know one thing! We know Laney will be the best baby in China!"

How sweet is that? I love my children. :)

Chasing those darn papers...

The paper chase is surely that -- truly a fast-paced, wacky, frustrating, detail-driven ride that the Chinese government seems determined to keep you on before they'll let you in. But we're chasing just as fast as we can!

Tonight I'm working on typing up our adoption petition and our financial statements. I'm hoping to finish these up tomorrow and then fax them to CCAI for approval. I don't want to waste any time getting papers notarized that are incorrect.

The adoption petition is a one-page, typed document that introduces us as adoptive parents, states our adoption motivations (we want another kid!!), expresses our specific desire for the child we're wishing to adopt, and promises to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) that we will love and care for our adopted daughter. Whew!

The financial statement is just a one-page typed statement that lists all of our income, assets, liabilities, etc.

I was getting so frustrated and down today, with all of the hiccups with our home address (house sale, etc), I ordered my new daughter a little gift. It's an adorable onsie/hat set (size 9-12mos) and it reads: "I was worth the wait." Truly she is!

We had our first meeting!

I'm going to write more later. I have so much information spinning through my head right now, but the most important thing is ~ we had our first interview with our Social Worker (Nancy Bean) and it went blazingly well! She is wonderful and we both (Troy said this, it isn't me putting words in his mouth ) really enjoyed it!

Guess who called?

Our SW ~ Miss Nancy Bean. We're so anxious to get the homestudy underway. She seemed great on the phone and we already have all four of our interviews scheduled. The first is set for October 11th. I'm sure I'll have a lot to debrief about when it's over. :)

Whew! Two autobiographies finished!

Today Troy and I cranked out the rest of our autobiographies. His was 6 pages and mine was 8 -- all single spaced. I doubt it comes as a surprise to any of you that mine was longer -- Miss Chatty!

Anyway, they're finished and we'll mail them off to our SW on Monday. Hopefully, we'll be able to start our interviews with her soon. Homestudy completion, here we come!

1st round of fingerprints....

Yesterday Troy and I went to Identix and had our electronic fingerprints done for the State Criminal Record clearances. It took awhile, but the gal said the prints looked good and we should have them back in 5-7 days. Not bad! We have to do another set of fingerprints for the FBI clearance later on.

I'm still about 3 pages away from being finished with my autobiography and Troy hasn't started his yet. He has to finish it next week though, because we have to forward it to our SW. So far, the autobiographies have been the biggest pains in the process. I haven't enjoyed it and I like to write!

Plodding ahead, though, because each piece of paper, appointment and little "hoop" we jump through is bringing us closer to our daughter. :)

Busy with the details...

Troy and I...Let me rephrase that, *I* have been (with lots of hugs from Troy) crazy busy with all of the various writing, gathering and appointment-making for our homestudy. Here are a few things I've been doing:


*Sent off for Child Abuse/Neglect Clearance reports for Mom, Dad, Myself & Troy

*Scheduled Criminal Record Clearance/Fingerprints appointments for Troy & I

*Scheduled our brief physcials + lab work with our doctor for the physcian reference forms

*Ordered new raised-seal copies of our children's birth certificates

*Working on writing my autobiography. Troy needs to start his this week. *hint, hint*

*Filled out employment verification request letters for Troy's work


The autobiography is hard to write! 6-12 pages, single spaced (I'm at page 4), describing your life from birth to the current time. There are so many questions I can't believe it, but I'm just following the guided outline and hoping to finish it up today. Adoption requires so much, but even in the midst of it, I'm feeling a continued sense of peace and excitement. All this stuff WILL get finished, and then the wait will be the hard part.