Fingerprints Done! Waiting for Our Initial Approval

Where are we at now with the adoption? We are getting closer to moving on to the next step!  We ended up getting our appointment on the 9^th. It was scheduled for this Thursday, the 19^th. It wasn’t the most convenient time for my mom to watch the kiddos. It would be up to her to get the kiddos on the bus in the morning. Other parents have attempted to walk in early, some offices allow this, while others give you a hard time, and some don’t seem to allow it at all. Mark and I decided to try it on Friday, the 13^th. We had to travel to Grand Rapids and pray that they would let us in.  My nerves grew as we got closer. By the time we finally arrived, I was almost nauseous. Then, we stepped in the door. This was our 5^th time and the busiest we had ever seen. I was so worried that they would turn us away. The clerk at the reception desk asked why we were early. We explained that it fit better into our schedule and took a deep breath. He told us that he couldn’t get us in ahead of those with actual appointments, but they should be able to work us in if we were willing to wait. We were! We ended up waiting 1.5 hours. It was finally our turn. The officer that took our biometrics (fingerprints) asked why we came in early. I explained that we would have had to bring all 8 kiddos if we came at the scheduled time. She said she understood, as she had 7 kids. She then gave me the customary “Next time, call this number to reschedule”. However, she took both of our biometrics and we were on our way!!

Now, we gather all of our dossier papers and send them to our agency for big fancy seals.  Then, as soon as our i800a (initial approval from US government to adopt internationally) comes we can send it to our agency and get our paperwork to China!!  Praying this happens quickly!

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of ladies and share my experiences and heart for adoption.  I loved going through our pictures and remembering those journeys.  Retelling the stories of each of our adoptions and reliving the joy of meeting our children for the first time.  The best part was explaining the blessings we experience: the sound of our kiddos echoing “I love you” back and forth throughout the rooms of our house, the increasing acceptance of hugs and cuddle time, and finally sitting in the Worship Center during practice on a Sunday morning while my sweet child belts out with all of her might “Jesus, He loves me, He loves me, He is for me; Jesus, how can it be, He loves me, He is for me”.  Yes, He is sweet girl!  Those amazing women took up a special offering and made the first donation towards our newest adoption journey!  Praise God!

Waiting on Our First US Approval

It has been awhile since I have blogged. I feel like there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the adoption front, but most of this process is “hurry up and wait”. We are currently waiting for the first US approval. They have received our application and will now send us a biometric appointment (electronic fingerprint scan) that can only be done at a USCIS office out of town. Most likely, it will be a few weeks before we have the appointment. The wait for approval after this step has been taking a very long time; however, there has recently been some shortening of time. I am hoping this trend continues.

In the meantime, our addition has been completed. We are still waiting on the grading to be done. We are fully moved in, however, and enjoying the extra space! Our kiddos seem quite happy with their new bedroom arrangements. We are all enjoying the family room. I love cooking in my new open kitchen. And having four full bathrooms is a dream. 

We were blessed to have a couple traveling to meet their first child from the same orphanage as our daughter take her an album and cuddle.  We were also blessed with some pics and a short video.  I love seeing pictures of her, but it makes the wait more difficult… I long to hold her. 

 

Connections Bring Blessings

One of my favorite things is finding other mamas that are journeying through the world of adoption.  I have been blessed to connect with some amazing families that have adopted kiddos from the same orphanages as our children.  This time is no different.  I quickly got plugged into a Facebook group of families adopting from our newest daughter's orphanage.  I was thrilled to find some pictures of our baby girl!  Two mamas contacted me and sent more pictures and even a video!  Another mother will be traveling shortly to get her son.  I am thrilled for her and looking forward to seeing if she gets a chance to give our sweetie a squeeze for us.  I thought I would share a few more pictures of the newest princess with you.

The Story to Sweet Child #9

Where to begin her story?  That is such a tough question!  As I wrestled with this, I began to see how God has woven the story of our family together and all the ends are tangled up into a beautiful work of art.  It is hard to define where one part ends and the next begins.  I will dive in and attempt to start somewhere between here and there (wherever those may be). 

This summer, when we had only been home with Greyson and Kristyn a few months, a beautiful face appeared on Lifeline’s (the agency we have used for the past 5 adoptions, including the present one) list.  This face captured me as I had fallen in love with this girl a year earlier.  Circumstances, having nothing to do with her, caused her family to have to stop pursuing her adoption.  My heart ached for this sweet soul and I immediately asked if Mark remembered her.  He did!  We were both smitten with this young lady.  She was almost 11 and would have fit right in with Brayden and Meilynn.  We asked for her file.  There were some pretty big unknowns and this would be taking on some medical conditions and needs that were far beyond my expertise, yet something continued to draw us to her.  We prayed and sought council.  During this time, another family decided to pursue her.  It was so tough to let her go, but we knew the timing wasn’t right for us.   

I was so worried that Mark wouldn't be ready to adopt again, that this was a fleeting dream.  We had a big heart to heart and realized we would be open to God's stirring.  Meanwhile, another young lady became available.  I advocated for her some.  She was on the verge of aging out and losing her chance to be adopted.  There was a family reviewing her file, but we let our agency know that if they didn’t pursue her, we would.  They ended up moving forward and that was that.

Mark began to see the glimmer in my eyes and could read the writing on the wall.  I saw a potential that he was open to another child.  He agreed to think about it, even agreed to pursue it, BUT thought it best to wait until after the remodel/addition was done.  I agreed, but well, we all know me too well.  He did say his parameter was AT LEAST 5 years old!  He could taste freedom as the Littles will be in kindergarten next year!

Then, in December the most beautiful baby popped up on Lifeline’s advocacy site.  I made Mark look at all of her photos.  She was so stinking sweet, he caved and said I could request the file.  But this broke all of his rules.  She was YOUNG (under 2) and our remodel hadn’t even really started.  There was a LONG line of families interested in her.  We never even got close to her.  But, it gave us the opportunity to discuss why we might want to go young again.  Kristyn and Greyson are amazing blessings, but older child adoption is a lot of WORK!  Every kiddo comes with history and takes effort to bond and attach, but throwing school in the mix and 7+ years of being raised by ever-changing adults in an institutional setting and you are dealing with a whole new ball of wax.  We both decided going younger might be better for our family in the long run.  However, we agreed best to wait until the addition was done, maybe begin the process in the Spring.

Then came the end of December and another beautiful little girl popped up on the advocacy site.  I asked Mark and he agreed (she was a cutie).  Once again we were in line.  Again, she was chosen before they worked their way down the line to us.

On the evening of January 11^th, I saw a new beautiful face appear on a partnership list with Lifeline.  I showed her to Mark and said she reminded me so much of Addi’s description.  January 12^th ended up being a snow day for the kiddos, but I needed to head into work.  When I got there (extra early due to the weather and allowing driving time), I opened up Lifeline’s site to see her again.  I emailed Mark and let him know I think we needed to get a jump on this file, we were always too late.  He replied I could if I wanted to.  I am sure he assumed that we would be in a long line again.  I quickly wrote the following email before school, “Here we go again... I am sure there is a huge list in front of us… This little one reminds me so much of our Addi (our first referral from Lifeline).  She was premature and had cerebral palsy (brain damage) due to this.  She is thriving now.  I would love to see her file if possible!”

I kept refreshing my email and checking when I had a chance.  Here was the response I received three hours later. “I’m so excited to share a file with you guys. :)  See her file attached.  Let me know if you have any questions.”  My jaw dropped, we actually had a file.  Were there other families ahead of us and I wasn’t aware??  I quickly emailed back, “Can you please confirm that she is NOT on hold at this time?”  To which I received an immediate response, “Not at this time.  I will let you know if this changes.”  Let the flurry of emails between Mark and I begin.  I think he was just caught completely off guard, assuming this little one would surely have been on hold as the others were.  Literally within 3 minutes I had convinced Mark and shot an email off to put the file on hold!!  I still stand amazed at timing!

Now, we had to get our pediatrician’s opinion. We emailed our pediatrician and asked for her recommendation.  She let us know that she would get back with us within 24 hours.  It took longer than that. We were getting extremely nervous.  She finally called back and gave some serious concerns.  Her extremely low birth weight and diagnosis of premature brain damage gave reason to worry about severe damage that could impede her development.  She gave ideas of things to ask about IF we decided to continue.  We were very discouraged.  Determined that this little one was still very special, I plotted her head growth and compared it to Addi’s at the same age.  They were identical! We decided to ask for an update and pray for wisdom and useful information. 

We waited and waited and waited and asked for an extension on the hold.  EIGHT days later we finally received an update. It still left a lot of questions, but we were thankful to see head growth.  There was a video included, but we had to wait for it to be uploaded.  The anticipation was awful.  It took another whole day to get the video.  I was at school but had to open it and watch it, there was no way I could wait until I got home to see it with Mark.  That was it!  I was in LOVE!!  We sent it off to our pediatrician along with the update and prayed some more.  Again, we waited and waited for a response.  Finally, she called.  She gave a much more positive review this time.  There were still concerns of delays, but most likely normal delays experienced by kiddos in an institution.

We were now into February and began the application process to Lifeline.  We were also scheduling medicals and working to get around the paperwork required to file a (LOI) Letter of Intent, requesting to adopt her.  It was a LONG process.  It included THREE urine samples for me!  More than you needed to know, but let’s just say I was trying “not to cry over spilled pee” (literally)!  Everything was ready to file, except for our medical forms.  We had a snow day Friday, February 26^th.  The roads had cleared enough for Kaitlyn and I to do some errands in the afternoon. I realized that the doctor’s office was going to close in 40 minutes and pulled over to call and see if the forms were done, not wanting to go another weekend waiting.  They let me know that they weren’t and I asked if I could at least have a copy of what was done so far.  Maybe by some miracle it would be accepted as is, without the last test we were waiting on.  I was on hold for 13 minutes.  I gave up and decided to just drive over there.  I headed all the way over to East Lansing and arrived just 5 minutes before they closed.  I had to talk to three different people.  Finally, one of the nurses went and checked on the doctor's desk and hesitantly agreed to make copies.  I was shocked when she brought me the forms with no copies.  She said these forms were finished!  The forms we were waiting on were the ones from our homestudy agency, not the ones from Lifeline needed to submit LOI!  We could have submitted LOI a week earlier!!

I drove home, forgetting the rest of the errands, desperate to scan in and email these to get to LOI submission before the weekend.  I emailed our social worker these last two forms at 4:00.  TEN minutes later she emailed that LOI had been submitted!!  She prepared us that we may need to wait 3-4 weeks for PA (pre-approval) since we were submitting LOI before our big pack of paperwork (dossier) had made it to China.  

Imagine our surprise when we got the call on Wednesday (March3^rd), only 5 days later, that we had received PA (even amidst an audit of the CCCWA, which has slowed paperwork)!!  China gave us permission to work towards adopting sweet Child #9!!   

We have a long way to go, but her story is already so full of love, faith, and blessing!  I can’t wait until the rest of it unfolds!!

Timeline For #7

As most of you know, I am the QUEEN of timelines.  I plan, create spreadsheets, stalk sites, and chart every date I can get my hands on.  I can not begin to tell you how extremely disappointed I was when the site that I followed and got most of my info from for our last 6 adoptions disappeared last year (the founder stopped funding it).  Fast forward to earlier this week, I mentioned my disappointment on a facebook group and the last keeper of the chart agreed to start the chart up again!!  That's what I'm talking about!!  I get my chart!  How else would I survive this process??  So, here we go again.  I will try and update this timeline and see how I do at estimating.  We are at the VERY beginning of the process.  All of our adoptions have taken about 9 months, so I would guess this one will be very close (though I am always hoping to make up time somewhere)! ;)

LOI (Letter of Interest to China requesting to adopt our daughter) – 2/26

PA (Pre-Approval from China agreeing to let us pursue our daughter) – 3/3

Homestudy Complete - 4/20 

i800a (US approval) application sent - 4/22

Approved i800a - 5/19
 
DTC (Dossier to China, official paperwork sent to China) - 6/10

LID (Logged In Date, China officially records receiving our paperwork, we're "in line") - 6/30

LOA (Letter of Acceptance, China approved us to bring home our daughter)!! - 8/9

i800 Approved (US approves us to bring Emilyn home) - 8/24 

NVC (Visa center sends the US Consulate notice that we will be bringing home another citizen) - 8/30

Article 5 (US Consulate in China informs Chinese government that they will issue a visa for our daughter) Drop Off - 9/6

Article 5 Pick Up (2 weeks after drop off) - 9/22

TA (Travel Approval, China says we can come get our daughter) - 9/28

CA (Consulate Appointment, all travel revolves around this date which is set after TA and determines the end of your stay.  Everything else is scheduled backwards from this appointment, our daughter becomes a US citizen and we get to travel home.) - 10/25

Made up some time!!  WILL make it in October!

Stepping Out on Faith to Help

I know so many amazing families that allow the financial boulder to keep them from abundant blessings.  What I do know, from our experience and the stories of so very many other adoptive families, is that God wants these precious children home and He provides in the most unique and humbling ways.  This experience has taught me so much about trust.  This is the one place that I had the most difficulty trusting Him.  Our journey has allowed us a front row seat to the most miraculous acts of providing through opportunities and others.  Our hope and prayer is that those who have helped us, financially and through prayer, have also been blessed.  Not a day goes by that I don’t look at these cherubs that dance and play around the house and am reminded of God’s people stepping up and supporting us.  They are the reason that these children are no longer orphans!

There are avenues to help the financial burdens.  It takes a lot of work and a whole lot of faith.  There are grants that can be applied for.  There are service projects, such as Both Hands.  There are many different avenues for fundraisers.  There are financial institutions that offer adoption loans and work with you to set up terms and rates that work for you.

I also do not, by any means, want to imply that adoption is the only way to help!  Fostering is a great need, even respite care for a weekend or short term.  Supporting financially is a GREAT help to adoptive families.  Please do not feel that it has to be a huge amount!  Even $5 or $10 adds up quickly if people just give something.  Do not underestimate the impact this has on the adoptive family.  Nothing made our hearts leap more than to watch our support network grow as the names of cherished friends and families appeared on our grant list.  And finally, the most important avenue of involvement is prayer!  I advocate for kiddos and have heard from family after family that felt God laid a child on their heart after the prayers of God’s people pleaded on a little one’s behalf.  Prayer for the children that wait for families, the families that are struggling to adapt to a new little one in their homes, and those children that will never have a chance at a family of their own.

I love this quote… “I always questioned if I was ready to adopt and then realized no child is ready to be an orphan.”  It definitely takes a leap of faith, but the rewards are endless.