Day #304 and counting

Today we began the paper chase for the home study update (for immigration). We sat in our Dr.'s office for 1-1/2 hours waiting to do another physical. We were told to arrive with fasting blood. However, once there we were told we would have to go down the street to LabCorp because our insurance does not allow the Dr. office to pull blood. Once at LabCorp we found out they close for lunch. With growling stomachs and attitudes of "why us" we waited...impatiently.

Also, today we spoke with our home study agency to confirm dates and expirations. We found out we can wait until November 07 to turn in the documents to CIS (immigration). Our current paperwork expires Feb 1, 2008. We are attempting to get as close to that date as possible~ in hopes of not having to re-do everything for a 3rd time.

Both our agencies are projecting a 24 month wait from LID (log in date) to referral (matching w/ child). According to our LID (9/18/06) we are looking at referral (9/18/08) and travel early 2009. Thus our paperwork needs to be good thru Summer 09~ for filing adoption paperwork when back in USA.

This is Matt. Today, I ran in my first 5K. The race was run at Tribble Mill Park in Grayson. It was called the 5-Alarm 5K and was run to benefit the Gwinnett County Fire Department Benevolent Association. I had been wanting to run a 5K for awhile and this sounded like a good one to start with in terms of the course description. Also, Fire/Rescue is a cause that is near and dear to our hearts.
I had heard about the race last week and told Julia about it. She heavily encouraged me to register for it, so I did. In order to get over the "mental" portion of it, last Sunday (7/8), I went to the gym with Julia and did the distance on a treadmill. For those of you who may not know, a 5K is 3.1 miles. Last Sunday, I did the distance in 38:41. This was doing a combination of slow-running and fast-walking. The couple of days after the "dry run", my right knee bothered me a little and the muscles in my legs were definitely sore. For several months, I have been going to the fitness center at the CDC a few mornings a week, walking on the treadmills there. In my walks there, I had been doing an average of 1.5 miles at a time. I had really not been doing any running, however. I was typically going at a 4mph pace on the treadmill.
This past week, I went to the fitness center on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and just did some light walking/running, mostly to try to work out any soreness or kinks before this morning. I came to the conclusion that my primary goal for this was to finish and not come in last.
Well, this morning, we got up at 5:45 and arrived at the park around 7:30, with Penny. It was really great conditions for the run. The skies were overcast, and it looked like rain. I got signed in and ran into James Mason, an old friend of mine from Gwinnett Fire, who I later introduced Julia to.
The start point for the race was marked by Gwinnett Engine 8 (out of Grayson), and Gwinnett Truck 12 (out of Snellville). In a nice touch of patriotism, a huge American flag was suspended from the extended aerial of Truck 12. The participants gathered by the apparati, and shortly after 8:30, both trucks hit their sirens, signaling the start of the race.
The course itself was along a paved path, around a large lake and in and out of the woods. The first mile was the toughest portion, in that it was quite hilly. I quickly formulated a strategy, which was to run the downhill and flat portions of the course and fast-walk the uphill portions. Along the way, I befriended another participant who was at approximately the same level I was. He's in the top picture with me. It felt like it took forever to get to the 1 mile marker. After that, the mile 2 marker felt like it came along a bit quicker. A good portion of the 3rd mile was rather flat, but by that point, we were fairly tired. On the approach to the finish line, FF Doug Kalmbach (24-B) was standing by the side of the path. He let me know that it appeared I would finish in under 37 minutes and high-fived me. This was energizing and pushed me to pick up the pace a little bit. As I crossed the finish line, I grabbed my time card to fill out from a race worker. My final time was 36:44, which I was very pleased with. I met both my goals and will definitely do more 5Ks in the future. I am also considering attempting next year's Peachtree Road Race, which is a 10K (6.2 miles). We'll see if that actually happens.
It was a great experience and something I enjoyed getting to share with Julia and Penny.

Today we finally had an opportunity to sit down and talk with our homestudy agency regarding our options. We discussed having a concurrent adoption~ having 2 adoptions in process at the same time. Apparently because of the long wait (with China) many families are choosing to move forward with other countries~ while they wait for their China adoption to finalize. Vietnam, Korea & Thailand are some of the other countries most looked at. However, because China requires any child be in a home for a minimum of 1 year before another child is brought into the home we need to consider the real possibility of overlapping and missing our chance to continue with China.

Also, we inquired more about domestic adoptions. Our agency gave us some contact names and phone numbers and will be mailing us a reference list to review. The homestudy for domestic adoptions and international adoptions are completely different. Therefor, should we decide to continue with a domestic adoption we would have to do a homestudy all over again. Should we be interested in pursing a domestic adoption we were encouraged to look into open adoptions thru an attorney. However, a major concern with this type of adoption would be that if the birth Mother changed her mind at any point we would lose the money we put forward.

Our thoughts go back to China... Worse case "At this point" we will receive referral January-February 2009. Best Case "at this point" we will receive referral news June-July 2008. Most likely, we are expecting referral to arrive September-December 08.

We find comfort in God's promise in Isaiah 40: 31. A few days ago Matt, myself and Penny went on a short Geo-Caching jaunt- which are what the pics are of up top. Of course I played around a little with the bricks on my pic, lol... having a little fun.

Sierra "THE Incredible" Chihuahua Avenger!! She is able to make giant leaps in one bound when she hears her nightly "Vitamin B" call for bed time - BACON!!!!!!!!

As we approach late summer (hard to believe) we ponder our next step with the adoption process. Yesterday we spoke with our agency to confirm expiration dates of our immigration paperwork and to discuss time lines to update paperwork.

Our agency said there is a high possibility that the wait time for referral will reach 24 months from LID (Ours is Sept. 06). With this in mind we do not want to start too soon on updating our paperwork due to the possibility we will have to do it a THIRD time! The thought of this just sends us both into a mental breakdown!

Recently we received the necessary papers from our Homestudy agency to update our homestudy (which is nec for immigration). We plan to begin completing these and have them finished by the middle of July.

The USGovt did give a bit of "win" to all "waiting parents". As of July 31st the renewal fee (for the immigration paperwork) will be waived! Yea!!! However, should we have to re-new a 3rd time the fee will be re-instated. The only caveat here is that we have to re-new before our current paperwork expires (Sept 07). Thus we plan on waiting until August 01 to mail in our renewal paperwork (but no later than late August). Again, we find ourselves with our fingers crossed that this process will be over sooner rather than later.

Also, we asked our adoption agency what would happen if we received a referral before our paperwork was received from USGot.... luckily she said the agency would make calls for us in hopes of rushing the paperwork and if need be push back our travel dates until the paperwork arrived.

Another concern is what happens if we travel around the time of the Olympics (summer 08). She said the agency is already making plans to bypass Beijing and send adoptive families directly to their children's Provence's.

In the meantime we are starting to research other possibly quicker options. We are in the early stages of discussing ideas with our homestudy group. Likely at this point it may be just as well that we stick with the Chinesse adoption. We shall see and keep everyone posted.

Please keep us in your prayers as our journey to having our own family continues.

I have to share this quote, it pretty much sums it up...

"No, still waiting.
No, no news.
YES, make it a double!"

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share this information for anyone interested...

"China From The Inside" -- New PBS Documentary
Public television (PBS) will air a 4-part documentary beginning on
Wednesday, January 10, entitled "China from the Inside."

For details, see
http://www.pbs. org/kqed/ chinainside/

The preview notes said the documentary will delve into both China's
history and its current political landscape. It will, among other
things, examine China's treatment of women, its problems with air and
water pollution, religion in China, and the government's slow response
to the AIDS epidemic.

The documentary' s 4 parts will consist of the following:
* "Power and the People"
* "Women of the Country"
* "Shifting Nature"
* "Freedom and Justice"

www.wesselsworld.nl/ccaa.htm

I came across the link above from one of the yahoo groups we particpate with. It shows the actual matching room in the CCAA in China. It is pretty interesting to see the pictures.

Julia

Matt here...We found out that the timespan from LID to referral is currently running at 14 months and may conceivably lengthen further. Referral to travel typically runs around 8 weeks. This means that portions of our paperwork are likely going to expire. Who knew that certain paperwork actually has a "shelf life". So, we are likely going to have to have some of our paperwork redone and repay certain fees as we move along through the waiting period. This development stressed both of us out this weekend and Julia's back went out. She was pretty much bedbound yesterday. She is feeling a bit better today. To get out of the house, we went to Pottery Barn Kids store to see the nursery set we had picked out on the internet in person. We ended up buying several pieces today and have them in what will be Emma's room. Some pictures of the "store vision" of the room are below:





The link to look at the information on the set we have picked out is: Twinkle Twinkle

The weekend before Halloween we had our friends Connie and Daniel over. We went to several Fall Festivals in our area. After our day in Dahlogena Connie taught us how to carve fancy pumpkins. We spent the evening carving and roasting pumpkin seeds.

Halloween afternoon we FINALLY received our "Log in Date" from our agency (affectionately known as LID). China registered our paperwork on September 18, 2006!! Yea us!! We are part of the September 2006 families.

For those unfamiliar with the term and its meaning... as mentioned above, LID is the actual date that China registered our dossier in their system. By the LID China will keep us updated on the location of our dossier. Monthly our agency will forward this information to us in an email. Families anxiously await the "places everyone" email which will tell us if our dossier has moved from one step to the next. The process looks something like this: LID to Translation to Review to Matching.

The bad news is that China is reporting a 14 month turn around to referrals. This could possibly mean that we will have to re-do the much dreaded immigration paperwork (which have an expiration). To re-do the immigration paperwork we will be required to re-do: homestudy, medical, financial, fingerprints and more. Needless to say we are discouraged by the daunting tasks but greatful for being so close (yet so far) to the end.

For those of you attempting to do the math... assuming the time span of 14 months does not lengthen- we should be receiving our referral on or around November 18th 2007-- possible travel to China would be December 07/January 08.

Please keep us in your prayers. We both feel we need strength to make it through this stage of the process. We trust that God has "it all" under control.

Julia

We are "DTC" (Dossier to China)! This is part of the email letter we received from our agency describing what we are to expect next...

"Dear Families,


Your dossier was mailed to China today! It was truly a pleasure working with you during the Dossier phase of the adoption process. As you are moving into the next phase of the Adoption (the waiting time between completion of dossier/DTC log-in date at CCAA to referral time)... Your assigned Referral Counselor will be in touch with you in the near future to introduce herself and to guide you along during the wait.

While you are waiting, we’d like to make you aware of some final “touches” after the completion of your dossier. First, please watch your mail for a package, sometimes called the Brown Envelope, from the American Consulate in Guangzhou , China . The package will usually arrive to you about 3 to 5 months after the completion date of your I-171-H. After you receive this package, please make sure to safely store it away. You will not need to do anything with it until after you have gotten your referral and are getting ready to travel to China . Our Travel advisors will go over the contents of the package with you; most of the documents will not need to be completed until after you are in China . If you do not receive the Brown Envelope in the above-stated amount of time, please contact us and we will check with the American Consulate to see if they have received your information from BCIS.

Finally, the Referral Education Team will notify you when your dossier has been logged in or registered at the CCAA. Please note that while CCAA may log-in your dossier after receipt, it may take up to 6 weeks for us to receive the log-in date (also known as your Dossier To China or DTC date). Again, we will notify you as soon as we have the information. "

Yea! We are officially parents in waiting!!!

I have to let 'yall know how unlucky we are feeling.

As you know, we have been waiting for the past 90 days for the CIS to send us immigration paperwork. (This is the last stage of the dossier. Once it arrives we can complete the dossier and turn it in to China) Well, it arrived today! With a note attached that says they are unable to process our application because our homestudy agency did NOT sign the document! What?!?!?!?

After speaking with our agecny they assure us they will over night a revised document and have it expadited for us. (We are not sure how they are able to do that!)

Add insult to injury... Matt goes out to blow off some steam by mowing the grass. He runs over a yellow jacket nest and is stung on his pointer finger (where it bends).

Is this supposed to be a day full of tests?!

June 6, 2006. A day of infamy. Today in history, June 6 1944 was D-Day. How appropriate.

Our 1st packet of paperwork has been FedExed to The Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Houston, TX.

We spent the morning at our local Kinkos making 160 photo copies. Also, we opened our very own FedEx Account! Which we found out is necessary for mailing back and forth to all the organizations involved. Of course, we get to foot the bills.

We remain in a state of confusion...not knowing if our paperwork is accurate enough to sail through to the next stage.

Friday, the beginning of our highly anticipated 3 day weekend. The day started quiet with our internet service knocked out last night with the storms. Expecting a crazy day full of court house tirades and waiting around for MaBell to show up at our home I baked the morning tension away by making my favorite bannana bread! Yummy! This time with a crust topping of brown sugar and cinnamon...can't wait to eat it tomorrow. Obviously, the internet is up and running. Dude man showed up at our home right on schedule and finished w/in 30 minutes. During the wait I made some lemon bar cookies. For some reason I am in the mood to cook.

We were off to the closest BOA by 2pm to have our final 2 documents notarized. Not realizing it we walked in to the banks busiest time of the week...and a holiday weekend approaching made it even busier than expected. We were out of there by 2:45 and on our way down to the Gwinnett Justice and Administrative Center, or "GJAC" as Matt lovingly calls it.

Our experience with Gwinnett County's Superior Court Clerk's office was pretty awesome. FINALLY a good experience at one of those places! We were walking to our car by 3:30PM! Happy as could be!! The only snare was one of the notary signatures was hard to make out...called around to find the correct spelling. Not too bad considering!

One more thing off our To Do List! Yipee! 3 day weekend here we come!

Yesterday Matt traveled into Decatur to have our home study notary certified/verified or what ever. His trip was not as stressful as the one a few weeks ago at the vital statistics office.

Update on our status:
1.) ALL Gwinnett County notarys need to be certified- planned completion date:Friday, May 26th

2.) ALL GA documents need to be verified- planned completion date: Friday, June 2nd

3.) Then we are able to send everything to the Chinnese Consulate in Houston TX!

4.) Dossier hopeful completion date: end of June


The RED Thread
There is an ancient belief in China that when a child is born, invisible red threads reach out from the child's spirit to all of the important people who will be part of the child's life. The threads may tangle but they will never break.

Today is Mother's Day! In honor of this I am posting a poem that I ran across. Through this process I have frequently felt that it is a dream and not reality. I am finding it hard to visualize that all our struggles will actually have a happy ending. Matt and I have been trying for over 5 years to start our family and now that we are actively pursuing adoption it still doesn't feel real. Today is a hard day of coping for me. I anxiously await the arival of our precious gift and answer to our years of prayer... this I dedicate to our precious "China Doll"



Dear Sweet Daughter

Author: Gayle Leubecker

Dear Sweet Daughter,

As a girl I had a common dream, to be a mom someday.
My baby would have eyes of blue and hair the hue of hay.
But now my dreams have been transformed. New visions fill my head.
Now the tresses that I long to stroke are raven black instead.

And in my dreams those eyes are not so big or blue or round.
Now in my dreams they're almond shaped and colored cocoa brown.
And in my dreams my arms can stretch across enormous seas.
They reach half-way around the world and hold you close to me.

As you grow in your mother's womb, carefully knit together,
you're also growing in my heart, where you will stay forever.
And in my dreams the moment that your mother says good-bye,
I'll be right there to comfort you and hold you as you cry.

Our features may not look alike; we're different as can be.
But still I know the Father has created you for me.
And though I've not yet seen your face, or held your tiny hands,
and though we're half a world apart in very different lands.

I'll be right there to get you just as soon as God allows.
But til He says the time is right I give to you this vow.
I'll pray for your protection every night on bended knee.
For God will hold you in His arms, until you're here with me.

2/2/6 12:45PM

Our applicaiton has been approved! OMG! How exciting!

I just got a phone call on our home phone from Alicia with Great Wall. She is the application specialist with GW. Alicia will email us a contract to complete and mail back with our first installment $$. Once the contract is received we will be assigned a caseworker who will help us through the paper chase.

While we wait for our caseworker we are encouraged to call and choose our home study company. We will call Allison, GW regional volunteer and our friends Mike & Sandy to find out who they both used. Also, Alicia gave me the following names and numbers to call:

1. Atlanta, Adoption Planning, Inc. 770-437-1907
2. Atlanta, Families First 404-853-2800
3. Alpharetta, AAA 770-844-2080
4. Marietta, Cradle of Love 770-955-8550

The only stipulation is making sure that we will have a "Masters License Social Woker".

Currently the CG states that the wait for referal (once the dosier is completed and received) is 8-10 months. Alicia anticipates the wait will increase as the year progresses. -- need to get our dossier done as quick as possible! So, we can hurry up and wait! Some of the items that we are required to obtain are time sensitive- expiring after 1 year (home study, finger prints, etc.)!

We received an email today from Great Wall, letting us know that they have received our application and are reviewing it. And so the saga continues...

Big update to the blog.

We realize that we haven't been updating the blog like we should. Life has been busy and is about to get a lot busier. We have taken further concrete steps toward adopting from China. This past Saturday (1/22/06), Matt sent off his passport application. We should have the passport back in 4-6 weeks. Over the weekend, we also made our adoption agency choice and have decided to adopt through Great Wall China Adoption. We put the finishing touches on the application late this afternoon after Matt got home from work. Julia is going to drop it at the post office this evening on her way to a Southern Living party at a friend's house. This is a really exciting day for us. The thought that within the next year we might be parents is both exhilarating and terrifying.
On the hobbies front, Julia has been doing a lot of scrapbooking and Matt has been doing a good bit of geocaching. We will add some new pictures of our doings in the coming days. We promise to do better about updating much more frequently.