New Info on "Faith"

So we received some updated info on our new daughter "Faith".  Apparently she is doing well and has a little trouble speaking but because she was diagnosed as malnourished at the time of admission, with nutrition and rehabilitation she can now walk steadily.  She had a CT scan in Sept. and nothing abnormal was found.  So in a nutshell, she is a little behind verbally but hopefully spending time with Paige will help that.  All in all we are pleased with the new information.  She's a little small but my family's not very big so she'll fit in just fine.  We are starting to get excited for it's a few short months away.

Getting Ready

So I believe this is our last Thanksgiving as a family of five.  By this time next year we will be six.  It's both exciting and nerve racking at the same time.  We have to read up on adopting an older child and all the problems that may or may not befall us.  That is what is problematic, the not knowing.  But God knows, and I believe he will not give us anything we can not handle.  I have to remember that.

Our Application

Yesterday I received a letter from our case worker from our agency.  It says basically the application was received and our file has been moved into the procedure for adoption of special-needs child.  Signed, the China Centre of Adoption Affairs.  Yay, things are moving along.

Exciting News

Well the day after I wrote this "Bummer" post we received some information on another girl.  Steve and I prayed about it and felt a peace about adopting her.  So we stepped out in faith and agreed to adopt her.  Because this blog is not password protected I can't reveal her name or a picture.  I do understand  that she will have difficulties with attachment and learning difficulties but again we are stepping out in faith with all the problems she may have. Nothing is too big for the Lord.  That is why Faith is a possibilty for a name.

Bummer

Okay we were sent a list of available SN children and we got info on two girls.  After prayerfully considering between two we thought we had found our new daughter.  Then I just got an email saying she is already being adopted.  I know the Lord shut this door to provide us with another child but I'm still mourning the loss.  I thought she would be a perfect fit for our family but I have to let that go.  It's hard for me to say, but Praise God she has found a family.

Waiting ....

Well there's nothing new to report.  Right now we are waiting on a new SN list out.  They are supposed to be monthly but they haven't had one since August.  So we continue to wait. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."  Hebrews 10:23

A Child for Someone Else's Family

It is with the upmost gratitude that we were able to look at and consider a 4 yr old girl for adoption. With much prayer and consideration, we felt no peace or burden to adopt her - that's someone else's child. While we do pray she would find a forever family, for some reason God has another child out there who belongs in our family. We just have to find her.

08/22/09

Time to start praying

A lot has happened since my last post and I am just now updating. We have gotten all our paperwork in and it has been submitted to China for translation. Our LID (log in date) is August 12th. So we have about 4yrs to find a special needs child or a healthy baby will be referred to us. The first child we asked for info on and the second child were already adopted into other families. We did get info on a third child. She is healthy and smart, but the only thing wrong with her is her skin - cosmetic issue. She has what is called "congenital nevus" over most of her body which is basically like a huge black birthmark over her chest and one arm with spots on her face and legs. It was kind of frightening to look at at first because I didn't know what to expect. But pray if she is the right person for our family. She's apparently extroverted like Paige. We got an email from our adoption counselor- not just to us but to everyone -that don't choose a child because you feel like you have to "save" them. Pick them because they are the right fit for your family. So this is what I have to chew on. We have a week to decide. To be honest, the black marks scare me but she was made in the image of God and don't we all have imperfections?

08/19/09

Nearing the end of the paperwork

Well I got back the paperwork that I sent to the Secretary of State to be "authenticated" and this morning I sent that paperwork to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. After ten working days, they should send it back to me and then I will have our dossier complete. We just have to mount 6-8 pictures on 8 X 10 sheets with captions and send those along with it. The great news is I'm done with the post office. There are three workers there and every time I managed to get the clueless guy - same guy. You'd think by about the sixth time I visited him he would have gotten it by now. Duh. Oh well. It's almost done !!

Super excited

Just a quick note. Our I-800 approval for the adoption came in the mail today. That's what we were waiting on. Now we need to get everything notarized, sent to the Secretary of State and then to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated. But by next month (hopefullly) we should have all the paperwork in and then we wait for a few years. Then I will have to blog about other stuff in the meantime. Gotta go have my gluten-free lunch - but that's another blog.

07/03/09

Off to the Chinese Consulate

Some of our paperwork, which we've already had apostilled by the Secretary of State, has now as of today been sent to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago and Steve's birth certificate has been sent to the New York consulate because he was born in Ohio. We have already gotten our fingerprint appointment so our I-800 is moving right along. Once we get that, then we can finish our paperwork. I am still waiting for the California one to come back. I was born in CA so my birth certificated has to be authenticated there. I didn't know all this mailing was going to be so expensive. We have to send it express mail plus pay $20 plus $5 handling fee for each document. This round we had 7 documents so you do the math. I can't wait to get all this stuff done.

06/13/09

New Update

Okay so we had a small glitch in the home study - nothing that can't be fixed. So we have to wait until we get the amended papers and then send in our I-800. Once we get approved through that, then we can finish the process. Yay I see the light at the end of tunnel although it's still dim.

05/26/09

Home Study - Check

Sorry, I haven't blogged in a long time to whoever reads this. I've been preoccupied with my own medical scares. Anyhoo,

Home Study - check
Letter we have to send with the Home Study to the USCIS - check
Both birth certificates - check
Marriage license - check
Physicals - check
Background checks - check
Employment letters - check
Personal statement - check
Certificate of Financial Status - check
All the stuff we had to do for Home Study - check

So I guess now all we have to do is get our I-800 certified, get our fingerprints, get everything notarized and apostilled and then our dossier will be complete. That's all for now, I gotta go to bed.

05/21/09

Twins - 3 yrs apart

So we were looking through old photos of when Aaron turned One and Aaron kept saying that is a picture of Zane. The resemblance is uncanny.

Zane - 11 Mo.

Aaron - 1 Yrs.

04/17/09

Panic !!

Okay, so not much is going on with the adoption. The home study is in progress. Everything else is done. So I thought I would write this little tidbit of what happened to us today.

It was 12:20 pm and we were getting ready to take Paige to school. I had made the mistake of getting Aaron's shoes on too early because when the shoes go on he is out the door. Well Paige, Zane and I were in the house watching the end of a show and unbeknownst to me, Aaron had already gotten in the car. Usually, he just gets in his seat and patiently waits for us. Not this time.

Then we hear BEEP, BEEP, BEEP ... Panic Alarm. So we open the garage door and Aaron is sitting in the driver's seat with his hands on his ears and crying. Well, Aaron has also locked all the doors and had the keys inside of the car with him. So I'm screaming for him to unlock the door and the beeps are still going off. I've never taught him to unlock the doors on the panel but I told him to lift up the lock. Poor little guy tried and finally opened the door on the third try.

So I'm screaming at Aaron how did you set the alarm off and trying to turn it off. I tried everything, pushing the panic button, putting the key in the ignition, and it wasn't until I put the key in the lock that it finally turned off. I looked over at the door and Zane is screaming from all the craziness. So after the adrenalin subsided, I showed Aaron how to unlock the doors from the door panel. But Aaron is no longer allowed in the car by himself. I still don't know how he set off the panic alarm. He was in the front and the keys were in the back. Aaron doesn't remember what he pushed. Hmmmm......

I did remember after the fact that I had an extra key, but my brain wasn't working that fast.

04/14/09

Adoption Update Numero Dos

Okay the home study social worker finally called me today and she will be coming over Thursday morning to meet with me. Then after our vacation she will meet with Steve and then we will have a final meeting together. She will also be touring the house. I hope we can keep it clean. I just spent this evening cleaning out old school papers from Paige and cleaning out her closet. I ended up with a full trash bag.

Anyway, our home improvements will be to install track lighting in the family room. Each kid has broken at least one lamp by knocking it over. We also plan to add a bedroom in the large bonus room. There's going to be quite a large distance in ages from Paige to our newly adopted child so we think it's best to let Paige have her own room. When she's older she'll probably move down to the basement bedroom. Right now Paige and Aaron are sleeping in the same room but Aaron's clothes are in Zane's room. We plan on moving Aaron back to the "boys" room this summer. Paige is going to all day 1st grade next year and since Aaron was born in June, I'm waiting a year before he goes to preschool. So it makes sense for Aaron to move in with Zane.

I hope my ramblings weren't too painful.

03/30/09

Adoption Update

Well we've almost gotten all of our paperwork done. My local background check is done and I went to pick it up at the Hamilton County jail. After looking at it, I noticed the notary's commission expired in April. Well, for China the notary's commission can't expire less than one year from the date on the document. So they have to redo them, but no biggie.

The main thing we are waiting on is the home study. The social worker was supposed to call us last week. Then her mother apparently passed away suddenly last weekend. I found out about this when I finally called because someone was supposed to be in touch with us last week. Then I got a call from my contact telling me the same social worker was supposed to do our home study and we were to hear from her this past week. Well the week has gone and still no phone call. Needless to say I am getting very frustrated and hope they assign us a different social worker.

Oh and Zane took his first steps today ! Yay!!!

03/27/09

My New "Do"

So I went today to Bushwackers, yes that's the name, to get my hair cut from Lori. I love the new cut and hope I can duplicate it tomorrow. I needed something new as I have been pulling it back in a ponytail for the last couple of weeks. Here is a picture, now keep in mind it is the end of the day and my face is rather shiny:

On the adoption front we are currently doing online training and have 8 weeks to complete it. We've almost got all of our paperwork done surprisingly. Just a few more little stuff. I've had my physical and I am normal and healthy. And Zane is feeling back to normal again. That was a long 5 days.

3/14/09

My 4 HOURS in the ER with Zane

Well, Zane had not had any wet diapers for the last couple days and he threw up again this afternoon so I had decided to take him to MedCheck. They have call ahead service so I called at about 1:30 and they said they were running 2 hours behind so I put his name on the list and arrived there about 3:15. I had written on the sheet that I was worried about dehydration. Well apparently at the MedCheck, they don't deal with dehydrated babies so they sent me over to the ER. I went to the MedCheck right by the hospital so it wasn't very far.
Anyway, there was no waiting at the ER. I was shocked. I got right in to the room about 4:15 where I waited, and waited.. Finally a doctor or a doctor-like person comes in and checks him out. Turns out he has an ear infection, but the doctor wasn't too worried about the dehydration. We had decided to give him fluids anyway and then through the same IV we could give a 24 hr antibiotic. Sounds good right. Ugh! Well a set of nurses comes in and they can't find a vein. More waiting. They go get a pediatric nurse. She can barely find a vein either but she tries. Twice in Zane's foot. No luck and Zane's foot is bleeding a lot. Apparently they have this try 2 times and you're done rule so they bring in a second pediatric nurse who gets a line in but it's very sensitive about the positioning of the IV. Zane's arm was wrapped so tight that fluid began building in his arm. Zane was so upset and kept fighting me so I had to strap him in the stroller. Little did I know his arm hurt so bad. A nurse came in and realized his arm was puffing up so she ended up taking out the IV. They had to get the doctor again. More waiting.

So the doctor comes in and tells me that someone from the neonatal ICU can come down and put a line in at 7:00 or we can just give Zane 2 shots of antibiotic and be on our way this is about 6:40. So I decide Zane had enough poking for one day so let's just do the shots. So I wait. At about 7:30 yes that's right 7:30 the nurses finally come in to give Zane his two shots. At this time I was watching the Women's Big Ten BB tournament but I don't know how it ends. Then after one last round of taking Zane's vitals and a prescription for his ear we left by 8:00 ish.

Did you know that pharmacists don't work on Sunday evening? I couldn't find an open pharmacy within a 20 mile radius. Well I'm glad that it is a 24 hr shot. But it's back our regular doctor tomorrow.

3/8/09

Is the Paperwork Done?

Just a quick note to anyone who reads this that our paperwork is amost done. We still need to get a social worker who will do our home study but we should be getting one soon. Today I sat down and listed the things we needed to do. Surprisingly, okay not surprisingly they were mostly things Steve had to do. Today he went and got passport photos taken for his new passport. He got two. He hasn't been studying the paperwork that I have been. We have to send two extra passport photos to China - don't know why we just do. Here are our passport photos:

Okay according the the passport website it's okay to smile. But I look extremely pale (they had to lighten the picture) so I'm not sure they are going to accept my picture. Only time will tell.

3/7/09

Our Friends are Adopting Too

One of Steve's friends from high school is adopting as well. Here is a blurb from her story:

The second family, Matt and Laura will be adopting a sibling group from Asia. Matt and I are adopting a sibling group from Southeast Asia. "Adoption is our first choice for starting our family. Orphan care has always been a passion of mine and God began to change Matt's heart towards adoption shortly after we began volunteering with our church youth group. Through that experience we both realized that God had given us hearts that overflowed with love for other people's children. Adoption, for us, is not rooted in pity or charity but in equity and justice and love." They are also trying to raise funds by selling hats Laura knits herself. The hats are absolutely ADORABLE. Check out the link at http://www.uproar.etsy.com/

These are some of her hats. Aren't they cute?

3/7/09

Happy 6th Birthday to my Princess

Paige turns 6 years old today. Six years ago, 6 inches of snow covered the ground and a beautiful baby girl was born. Happy Birthday! Where did the time go?

2/28/09

Sunrise, Sunset.. Sunrise, Sunset

So Paige and Steve had a Daddy Daughter dance this past Saturday. It was through the Girl Scouts. Here are some cute pictures before they left. Paige didn't want curls in her hair, she wanted it straight. We used a straightener on it because it's naturally wavy. My little girl is growing up.

This is the I'm not really going to smile face but I will pretend. I mastered that as a child.

And of course Aaron wanted a picture with Dad too.

I had to add some Zane pictures also. He is growing up too fast. I finally got one of him standing and smiling at the same time. Usually when the camera goes up, the smile goes off.

In this next picture we have been experimenting with nap time. He was having a snack, I was unloading the dishwasher and I turned around and Zane was out.

02/23/09

Test passed and TB tests for the kids

Steve and I have passed the first test on the book "Adoption Parenting". We missed a few questions that seemed "relative" and I was rather shocked at that because the questions seemed rather easy. We got a 94%. We are slowly chipping away at the paperwork.

Today I took Paige and Zane for their 6 yr. and 9 month well child check ups. Apparently the state of Indiana requires all people living in the household that will be adopting take a tuberculosis test. So I put them through that today. Zane had to get some other shots so to him it was just another shot. Paige is always a trooper and barely flinches. Aaron on the other hand was crying hysterically before the shot. He had to be manually put on the table for his shot. It's going to be rough for him when he has to get his booster shots for Kindergarten. Here is a picture I took of Paige's arm although by the afternoon, it had just turned into a bruise.

So afterwards, I took the kids to McDonald's. We hope to be done with the paperwork sometime in the near future.

2/16/09

MORE PAPERWORK!!!

Okay so we met with the homestudy person, Alice, from St. Elizabeth Coleman Preg. and Adoption Services. She brought over more paperwork for us. We basically have to write down our entire life story. The kids will have to be subjected to a TB test as will we. We have to get a CPS okay from every state we've lived in since age 18. It just never ends.

I'm so overwhelmed right now. I think I'll just go to bed.

Oh yeah on top of everything else, our garage door opener died, and our hot tub froze.

But on the funny side, during dinner we were trying to teach Paige what an "average" is and other math problems and Aaron piped up and said "I wish I could fly". Out of the mouths of babes.

02/09/09

My Kids and Their Weird Idiosyncrasies (wierd - weird better Lisa?)

For some reason Paige always likes to sit in boxes.

Then:

Now:

** Note it's the same box

Now Aaron always likes to crane his head back especially when he sleeps. Here he is as an infant. It started in infancy and it continues to this day.

I always find that Aaron falls asleep in weird positions. Here are a couple pics of Aaron sleeping

Aaron got "tired" of waiting to use the computer.

Zane is just coming into his own right now, he had one but he doesn't do it anymore. He used to open and close his hand when he wanted a bottle. I miss that, it was cute.

2/4/09

January Pictures

Alright since nothing is going on with the adoption right now, I thought I would post a few pictures from January.

Cutie pie Zane

Zane trying to climb the stairs

Paige got a hold of the camera

Aaron got a hold of the camera

2/2/09

How long will the process be?

Well, it is a 3 year waiting list to adopt a healthy child from China. But we are open to a special needs child such as a cleft lip, or deformed hand ect. So that cuts the wait down to a year. Now this is from the time that China gets our paperwork and that will take us several months. But the wait doesn't bother us. We still have 3 healthy children at home to take care of.

Satisfied with my template

Okay, I have found a template I am satisfied with. Now I can tell other people besides Amber that I have a new blog. This is all new to me so bear with me. I don't have much to say as far as the adoption process goes. Not much has happened in the last 24 hrs that I posted. I have literally spent the last two afternoons on this blog. And it's still not finished. But then again, everything is a journey.

My first Real blog

Okay this is for you Amber.

It has taken me many hours to get a template I liked for this blog. Then once I got one, the top bar was missing. Ugh. So I may try some more later. Anyhoo, the real reason for this blog was to document the adoption process. Okay so far we are reading a Parenting Adoption book and have to answer 78 questions about the book. This book is thicker than I normally would read but when you have to, you have to. We are on question 28. We also have our home study scheduled for next Saturday. I don't know exactly what they are going to do, but it's a requirement. More $$$.

So that is where we are right now. Apparently, parenting 3 kids is not enough. Well I will keep experimenting with templates until I'm satisfied.