Email from Children's Hope

We are still on the Children's Hope email list. We received an email tonight from them that they just received Hague Accreditation! Congratulations Children's Hope!

Assignment Packet

I found out today that our Home Study Addendum is about done. Our caseworker called to verify some information.

When I got home, our Assignment Packet had arrived. It has... MORE FORMS! Forms that we need to fill out for the Placement Agreement, the invoice (and we found out over the weekend that the Orphange Donation went up for persons traveling after January 1--eek!), Foreign Travel Release, Visa information, and information about pre-travel, list of documents to take to China, instructions for the Consulate Paperwork, a suggested gift list for the orphange caretakers and the orphanage kids, and a few other prep info pages.

We also got an email last night that Holt recommends doing a little photo album to send to our child ahead of time so that we are not COMPLETE strangers when we meet her. We have to have any captions and the letter (if we write one) translated ourselves. I expect to be able to take pictures over Christmas and get it sent off in early January.

We've also asked for 1-2 more recent pictures of Beibei and her current height and weight. That way we will have a better idea of what size clothes to buy. They recommend only taking 2-3 outfits and then buying more there (they are cheaper there) when you know her size even better.

So... we have more work to do!

Announcement Day

We went to church today. My parents met us there and we had invited Tony's parents too. His mom came. The original plan was that my parents were going to come to church and then take us out for my birthday. So... we kind of changed things around and made it into our announcement day.

Church was good and then we all met at the Farmhouse. We got our orders put in and then we started our announcement. It sounded like Tony was going to tell them all about everything before last Sunday so I kind of pushed and we handed them envelopes with Beibei's pictures as we said, "We were wondering if you'd like to meet your new granddaughter".

Oh, both our moms started crying and we also almost cried. They are very excited and asked questions. We told them about the first referral that we turned down and we enjoyed a very good meal! We swore them to secrecy until they received the email. Then they can tell whoever they want!

Black Friday

So Thanksgiving Day wasn't too bad. No one asked about the adoption, although we each had our canned reponses just in case.

I actually went out shopping in the morning and was home before 10:30. I don't touch the malls on Black Friday but needed some more lights to do our flag pole Christmas tree so I went to Home Depot and while there, decided to get some Disney greeters for the inside (Mickey/Minnie and Tigger/Pooh). They are so cute! I figure that they are taller than Beibei right now. It might be fun to take her picture with them next year!

Tony also liked something in an ad I saw for World Market. So he went out EARLY to get a ROCKING PANDA! It's VERY cute!

I got the tree up and the NU-CU game was great (because we WON!) and they had 2 very memorable plays at the end--one of them a school record!

Just a little while longer...

When I got home last night I emailed the Chinese characters to Beibei's name to our Chinese teacher (who I'd spoken to earlier in the day) to have her tell us what they meant. I had found the "Bei" character online and she confirmed that it meant "flower's bud" and it stands for "beauty". The character used for "Qian" is the one used for "money" and is a common surname. So we will work her name now into the name we give her.

I was so glad to leave work today so there were no more chances of "slipping" to any of my co-workers! Now we just have to get through Thanksgiving Day at Tony's family's house tomorrow. Friday will be easy for me because I'll just stay home, lock the cats in the basement, put up the tree and then sit down and crochet on Beibei's afghan while I watch the NU-CU game! We're both rather "bursting" right now but have decided that our parents should know first. We keep discussing how to tell them--quickly or just lead into it.

We're Locked in to our Beibei!

Late last night we hadn't heard yet if we'd been locked in to Qian Beibei so I emailed Holt. Still today by noon I hadn't heard so I left a message for one of the China Team. She called later and said yes we are all locked in! Woo Hoo! Now.... we WAIT! AGAIN! What we are waiting for now is for the CCAA to send Holt their approval of us. This could take 1-3 months. After we receive our travel approval, we'll travel 1-2 months after that.

Another form

On the way to work today, I thought I'd better leave a message for our caseworker at NCHS explaining all the new emails he received over the weekend! Holt included him on the referral emails and actually called him before they called us on the first referral. I told him that the cleft palate of the first referral was beyond our comfort level but Holt called with another referral just yesterday and we'd included him when we sent our LOI.

He called back later in the morning and said that now is the time to decide if you can handle something like that or not instead of going for it and finding out later that you can't. It can affect your marriage and not be good for the child in the end. So, he's excited for us and he also has to do an addendum to our Home Study for this specific child.

Also this afternoon, another person from Holt called and said they needed another form filled out that they didn't seem to have yet. She emailed it to me and with Tony's and her help (looking at our dossier which it had to match) I got it filled out and emailed back. Once they have us locked in with Beibei, she'll let us know! We're almost there!

Tony mentioned on the way home today that he realized the wait for a special needs child was shorter (than the 3 years they are now saying it takes for a "healthy" child) but he figured it would be more like 6 MONTHS, not 6 DAYS!

Qian Beibei

We went to church this morning. I decided to sing in the choir this morning since I'd practiced the song with them. We did "All Good Gifts" from "Godspell". I love that show! The Lofte started with that show.

After church we made a couple stops--as usual-- to pick up some things. We drove home, planning to unload the wood, finish the laundry--have another normal day. UNTIL...we saw there was a message on the answering machine. We listened to the message from the China Program Director! She said she knew it was "off hours" and we probably weren't expecting a call but... they found another child--a girl, younger, with a cleft lip ONLY and it's already been repaired! Would we like to review another child? OF COURSE we would like to review another child! We left her a message (we figured she'd left her previous message as we were pulling into the garage). She called back and said we were very lucky! A second referral already!

She gave us the same basic information on this child -- her name (Qian Beibei), her birth date (December 16, 2007--2 days before Tony's birthday--which makes her just over 11 months old), her province (Guangdong) and the name of her orphanage. She mentioned again that the lip surgery was already done but that doesn't mean we wouldn't do a little more "fixing" later on. We said we'd definitely love to see her information.

About 45 minutes later we received the email. Tony came in from the shop and we looked at all the documents--same as last time. Beibei is very small and very cute. The information says she laughs aloud but the pictures haven't captured a smile yet. She looks pretty sober!

I called the doctor again and asked him if he could look at her labs and said we were OK with just the cleft lip this time. He responded later on that her labs looked good and the only "problem" he saw was the cleft lip.

I left soon after we forwarded the documents to the doctor to go to a bell choir concert at church. My mom was meeting me. We had decided that if this was a "yes" this time that we would try to find a way to tell all of our parents at the same time. So... I had to not let on to Mom that something was up! It wasn't too difficult. The concert was good and then Mom had to get to a store before it closed. I just stayed at church because my Bible Study class was meeting in a fairly short time and it didn't pay to drive all the way home and back again. I read and had brought a sandwich for supper.

While I was reading in our Bible Study room, Pastor Nancy came in and was amazed at how early I was! She asked how the adoption was coming. Hmmmm...... what to say without giving something away? "Well, every day is progress" is what I came up with. It sounded great! Another person asked also and I said the same thing. He liked that way to put it! So, that's what I'll say for now!

When I got home from Bible Study we got to work on our LOI for Qian Beibei! Holt had sent a sample which I had already typed into a document and left space for our child's name, condition and other information. We attached it to an email and both clicked "send" at the same time (!) at approximately 6:30 pm on November 23, 2008.

WE HAVE FOUND OUR DAUGHTER!

Another normal day

Today we did some shopping and then went down to Murdock and Tony & my dad split LOTS of wood. We came home with both trucks FULL of firewood! We again mentioned to Mom & Dad that Holt has told us we could get a referral very soon. We're hoping before Christmas!

Today was just another normal day.

Referral?

So... We've been a little busy lately!

I'm backdating the next few posts so you can get an idea of how things happened!

Holt received our Minor/Correctable Medical Condition Checklist on November 18. I had spoken with the China Program Director last Friday (the 14th) and even though they didn't have our form yet she took down some of the conditions that we were willing to accept. Some of these were cleft lip & palate, club foot, and crossed/lazy eye -- ALL of which are very correctable. She told me that because we were willing to accept cleft lip/palate, we probably would get a referral "VERY SOON". Cleft lip/palate is the most-referred condition of special needs kids in China. Next is heart conditions (which we were not open to at this point).

The doctor I wanted to visit with about some of the conditions and also to check with when we do receive a referral was in China bringing home THEIR son until November 14! I was going to wait until today to call him after they got home and got settled.

Lo and behold, at 10:19 a.m. this morning, my cell phone rang while I was "talking business" with a co-worker. I recognized the area code and knew it was someone from Holt. I answered and the China Program Director said she had a referral! WOW! Three days after they received our checklist! We had also earlier in the week sent digital pictures to Holt that they would need when we receive a referral. So, they had everything they needed and said we were ready for our referral!

I'll say right now that it's a good thing to take action when something is requested by the agency 'cause YOU NEVER KNOW when the call might come! Holt told us that it could come anytime. We'll be living our regular lives and the phone will ring and that ring could change your lives forever!

So, I was at work when the call came! She told me a little about the child -- a girl, 17 months old, cleft lip and palate 2nd degree, her name, what province she's from, what orphanage she's in. Do we want to review her information, including pictures? I called Tony and said "Holt called." He said, "Do I need to sit down?" I said, "Yes." So I told him what she had told me about the child. He said, "Yes, let's get the information."

So I called Holt back and said we'd like to see the child. Within a half hour we had the email. It included the child's pictures (before and after the lip surgery), the hospital report, the little information about when and where she was found, lab work, current schedule and development notes, and the English translations of all of it. I looked for a while at it and then called the doctor that I was going to call anyway today. He was working but said he'd look at the information a little later and call me back. (I was hoping to just visit with him in general, rather than calling and saying "can you help me, please?") I emailed all the documents to him and waited.

I could not concentrate on work anymore! I don't think Tony could, either!

Eventually, the doctor called back and talked a little about her lab work and also about the cleft lip/palate. He said the left lip/palate was more 3rd degree and told me what may need to be done to fix it. This particular case is pretty severe and he basically brought me back down to earth.

I also talked to our casworker at NCHS and he was telling me about some of the cases he's seen. Wow! That all sounded like it could get really expensive!

So when we both got home we talked and we both were agreeing that this particular case was outside of our comfort zone. Holt needed to have our Letter of Intent (LOI) by the end of the work day today so we called. The director had left for the day so we got a hold of another China Program person. We explained our feelings and said we didn't want to take "cleft palate" off the list but now that we were more aware of our comfort level, if they ever had a child with a less severe condition, we'd be more open to that. We were told to "not worry" and that another family would "snatch her up." I hope she finds a home soon because she if VERY cute!

I truly feel that if I'd gotten to visit with the doctor before this referral we may have been able to let Holt know that we would prefer the less severe cases.

Today was a hard, emotional day. We hate to turn down a child after we've waited so long but all the adoption education we've had has made us think about what is best for the child and the fears we had about this case are valid and if we didn't think we could give her the best care possible, we should let someone else have the opportunity.

More reading material

We received 2 things from Holt today. One was a welcome letter and a reminder of the remaining fees we will need to pay. Also it reminded us that the wait time is long in the standard process and that if we are open to minor and correctable medical conditions that it would be a much shorter wait. We are looking at that right now.

The other thing was a packet with more forms/reminders to keep our paperwork up to date and a "booklet" with LOTS of reading to do while we wait (like I don't have a lot already!). It includes information about documents we will need when we travel to China, articles about adopting various ages of children, what you can expect while in China, how to prepare for travel and books, videos, magazines, web sites, etc all about adoption. It's really a LOT of information in a fairly small space but it looks like it will be good information.

LID 10/9/2008!!

WE ARE LOGGED IN! Ellen at Holt left a message at home today and let us know that they found out that our LID is October 9, 2008. The CCAA was delayed in updating their web site for a couple of reasons. First, they had a holiday on October 1 and then after that a lot of their staff was sick but we were logged in and they just had not had time to update their web site. Of course, they do the translating and logging in as fast as they can but the web site updating is secondary. It just makes us families a little crazy when we don't know what's going on!

Whew! Another milestone! Now the TRUE wait begins.

Chinese Meal

What a wonderful time we had at our Chinese teacher's house last night! We tried new foods that are only available in Chinese markets here in Omaha, we learned how to make dumplings (these had pork, Napa cabbage, soy sauce and other ingredients), we had tea and we had just a wonderful visit! One of the students was unable to stay because she didn't feel well but the other 2 of us got very full on ALL of the 10 or so different dishes she cooked for us. We also got to practice using chopsticks! It's getting easier (except for very slippery noodles!).

Their oldest son (15 years old) is a VERY accomplished pianist and I was privileged to get to hear 2 pieces while I was there. Of course, I appreciate hearing good piano. Their 3-year-old son was playing a game on the computer while we ate and visited.

Tony was racing last night but I hope that he gets to meet the family sometime because I think he would enjoy our teacher's husband.

To the family: Thank you so much for your hospitality and for helping me to learn even more about China and Chinese food & culture. Maybe we can get together again sometime and Tony can drink a beer with you!

Still Waiting for LID

I called Holt yesterday when I got home and spoke with Ellen. I told her I hated to be bothering her so much but we really do want to know our LID. She understands and she really didn't know why the CCAA had not posted it on their web site yet. All DTCs sent through the week before ours have been logged in. She asked a co-worker who also has a family anxious to know their LID and also checked the CCAA web site again and they just can't figure out what's taking so long. She said they will call their Beijing office and have them check on it. Maybe we'll find out something on Monday or Tuesday.

Ni hao!

For the last 6 Mondays we've been taking an introductory conversational Chinese class through Metro. The teacher is from China and she was fun to learn from. The very few of us who stuck it out to the end have been invited to her house Saturday evening for dumplings. Tony is racing if it's not raining but I and 2 others will be going. We might even get to learn how to MAKE dumplings!

Why did we take a Chinese class? Well, if we receive a child who is a little older and has started to develop language, we will want to be able to communicate with her. Also, if we can continue to learn until we go to China, we might even be able to catch some of the conversation on the street or in the markets or restaurants.

Still no word on a log-in date. I spoke to Ellen at Holt yesterday and she said we may already be logged in and they just haven't let Holt know yet. This really is taking quite a long time compared to the last few DTCs they sent. They did send several so maybe they are waiting till they get them all translated and then log them in all at once. I'm sure it will be soon!

No news yet

I called Ellen at Holt today to see if we had a log-in date yet. She called back a little after noon and said we didn't and was actually surprised that we didn't yet, a week and a half after sending it to Beijing. I asked if they recently had a holiday and she said that they did recently have 7 days off so I'm assuming that's what's holding us up. She did say their last dossiers submitted took 7 and 4 days to get logged in so I'm really sure that we should have a log-in date very soon.

I then told her that we were looking at the China's Child of Promise option. That is children with minor and correctable conditions. She told me that they are having a webinar on October 23 at 5 pm central time. I have registered us for that to learn more. If anyone reading this is interested in getting in on that, let us know and I'll let you know how to register. You call in and log in so you hear someone talking and you see the presentation on the screen and can ask questions via email or phone. Sounds kinda neat!

DTC 9/26/08!! (Dossier to China!)

I had decided that if I hadn't heard from Holt by noon today that I would call them. I called and spoke with Ellen and asked about our dossier and how it was coming. She pulled our file and said that our dossier "looks great" and she just had to make sure they had all the signed agreements they needed (and they did) and everything else looked fine so they are going to FedEx our dossier to China THIS AFTERNOON!

I then asked what happens next? She told me that they would receive it, translate it and log us in. She also said that they aren't getting very many dossiers right now so it probably wouldn't take very long -- she thought 1 week, 2 weeks MAX. I asked if she would email or call when we have a log-in date and she said they don't do that but I'm welcome to call or email to find out our log-in date (LID). She also said that we were on her list to call today.

Once we have our LID, THAT'S when our wait starts. The last report we heard was that people who are getting referrals now have waited 30 months. We'll see if we can shorten that in any way.

So, this was a very good day and another milestone in our China Journey.

And we continue to wait...

I left a message a couple days ago with the person at Holt who reviews the CHI dossiers. She hadn't called back yet today so I called again. She said she had "just" received it and hadn't gotten a chance to review it yet and probably won't this week. She expected to be able to review it next week and then would call me at that time.

No call from Holt yet

We were out in Denver for racing (ET Finals for Division 5) over the weekend and I was hoping someone from Holt would call but no message or email was received.

Racing was not very successful for our track this time. The weather (rain) and altitude played a BIG part in how well anyone did. Oh, well. Better luck next year. I think we're back to Topeka next year.

Dossier to Holt

I emailed CHI today and asked them to let me know when they receive the agreement from NCHS. We got a reply tonight saying that they received it today and sent it to Holt in Eugene, OR, today. She also said that they will call us when the dossier is being sent to China and that will probably be late next week. I hope they call our cell phones as we will be out of town next week.

Woohoo!

Paperwork is DONE!

I called NCHS again today to check the status of their contract. Dick called me back this afternoon and said they finally got the kink worked through in the contract and that he was going to send it to CHI today. Yippee!

We also received an email from our contact at CHI that she received our pictures that I had sent off last week.

Another email from her today said that CHI received 22 referrals today! Ages ranged from 5 months to 4 years 1 month and all were within what the families requested or were within the parents' age guidelines for toddlers.

The next post will probably be when we are notified that the dossier was sent to Holt.

Still One Document To Go...

The last couple of days I've been trying to find out the status of the agreement/contract that NCHS has to sign and apparently they've been very busy and haven't been able to call me back. So, we are still waiting on that. It is THE LAST document we need.

Dossier and CHI

We received an email from our contact at CHI today and she said that once they receive the form our caseworker has to sign, we are all ready to go! That felt SOOO GOOD to know that everything is OK and all perfect knowing how much I concentrated on getting this all done and went over everything multiple times before I sent it to DC and again before I sent it to St. Louis! Whew! I will keep checking with our caseworker to see how their approval of the agreement/contract is coming.

We also had to take and send some "family life" pictures to include with the dossier. These are pictures of us doing things at home, more casual pictures. We went out tonight and took a picture of me picking a couple of tomatoes and then a picture of Tony working on his race car (or at least pretending to). I'll get those sent tomorrow and then all we are waiting for is NCHS.

We are SOOO close to getting our dossier sent to China! I hope it can be sent by mid-September.

In another email, the China program was informed today by the Beijing office that CHI will not receive anymore multiple agency waiting children until they are Hague Accredited. This doesn't affect us but does affect those whose dossiers are in China and who were wanting to be matched with a waiting child. If they want a waiting child, they would have to start completely over with a new agency and create a brand new dossier. Any families who have already been matched to a waiting child can still proceed.

In the end for us, timing is such that transferring to Holt is our best option. We would have liked to complete our adoption through CHI but the Hague it not letting that happen.

Dossier is in St. Louis

Our package left Omaha last night at 9:52 p.m. and arrived at Children's Hope at 10:09 a.m. this morning.

Dossier to Children's Hope

I sent the entire dossier (13 "official" documents, pictures, passport pictures, copies of passports, additional forms, fees, etc.) next day air to Children's Hope in St. Louis. They have everything else except the document that our caseworker has to sign. He's waiting on more information from Holt because it is more than an "agreement", it's more a "contract". He said he didn't think there would be a problem but it has to go through administrative steps before they can sign it.

So... that's what's going to hold us up now. I hope not for very long, though.

Once CHI receives our Dossier, they will review it and make sure everything is correct. They will then forward it on to Holt. Holt will review it and send it to China and someone will call us and let us know all about Holt.

Our documents are here!

Our package arrived in Omaha at 2:51 a.m. this morning and were delivered to our house at 10:26 a.m.

What I will do now is copy EVERYTHING and I also want to scan everything into .pdf format and put it on a flash drive so we have it in several forms.

We also have all of the additional forms filled out and ready to sign.

Dossier is on its way back to us!

We received an email from the courier today that they picked up our documents on Friday and they are on their way back to us. They left Fredricksburg, VA, at 5:26 pm yesterday and are currently as I type this are in Louisville, KY. They are scheduled to arrive at our house on Monday! Wow! That took less time than I thought!

Visa Center Letter

We received a letter today from the National Visa Center letting us know that our approved petition has been forwarded to the visa-issuing post in Guangzhou, PRC. They also gave us our case number. Guangzhou is where the adoption will be finalized in China.

The thing is, we'll have to apply for an extention for this before we go due to the long wait time. As long as we apply before it expires, it is a free extension. Same with the fingerprints.

We are hoping the wait time will become shorter, although everything we hear says it will only get longer.

More Agreements

Today we received the last 2 agreements that will be needed for our transfer to Holt. One is for our homestudy caseworker to fill out and I forwarded it to him. The other one we have to read (all "legaleze") and sign in front of a notary. Wow! Does it ever stop?

Documents Delivered to Courier

Per UPS tracking, our documents were delivered to our courier at 11:08 a.m. this morning.

I am assuming that when they go to DC tomorrow, they will take our documents and anyone else's documents to the US Department of State to be authenticated. They will add a sheet on top of each of our documents with the seal of the US Department of State.

Then, I believe they will take them on over to the Chinese Embassy tomorrow afternoon and leave them there. This process will take about 4 business days. Once they pick them up, the courier will then send them all back to us in our prepaid overnight package.

All of this costs money. Each document getting certified costs a certain amount per document. Each document getting authenticated by the US Dept of State costs a certain amount per document. AND each document getting authenticated by the Chinese Embassy costs a certain amount per document. The Chinese Embassy is the most expensive of all of these. Using a courier also costs money but I think it is worth it because they do it all the time and look over the documents and make sure all is well before moving on to the next step. And, Tammy and Brad used this courier, The Assistant Stork, before and were very happy with them. Their web site tells in detail what is needed and I felt very comfortable using them.

Once the documents are authenticated by the Chinese Embassy and sent back to us, THAT'S IT! We're done! I expect that we will have our completed documents by next Wednesday or Thursday. Then we can copy them for ourselves and send them off to CHI (who will then forward them on to Holt, etc.)

Documents are in Virginia

Per UPS tracking, our documents are in Richmond, VA, as of 8:28 a.m. this morning. They will be delivered to Stafford, VA, on Monday.

Documents off to DC

I took the documents to work today and UPS picked them up from there. Tracking them tonight they are ON THEIR WAY! They are scheduled to arrive at the courier on Monday.

I watched the Olympics Opening Ceremonies tonight. I was very impressed with the precision and perfection that they displayed.

13 Documents State Certified!

Today I picked up my mom and we went to Lincoln to get all 13 of the documents that need certification State Certified. All that means is that they verify that the notary that notarized each one was authorized to do so. They put a paper on top of each document that officially makes that known. We arrived at about 10:30 a.m. and were completely done by 11:00 a.m.

The documents that had to be certified were:

Our Letter of Petition
Notarized copy of the I-171H form
Our Marriage Certificate
Tony's Birth Certificate
Sue's Birth Certificate
Tony's Medical Report
Sue's Medical Report
Our Financial Declaration for Adoption
Tony's letter of self-employment
Sue's letter of employment
Tony's Police Report
Sue's Police Report
Our Home Study

We then went up the stairs and walked around in the rotunda of the capitol and looked at all the paintings, tiled pictures and sculptures since neither one of us had been there for quite some time. We then walked back to the car and the business for the day was done!

We did a little shopping at Gateway Mall (that's what I still call it anyway!), I dropped off a picture to be framed at Deck the Walls (owned by some relatives and they do VERY GOOD work if you ever need anything framed!) (that's your plug Patty and Bob!), we ate lunch, stopped and got some groceries and went back to Murdock. I stopped at the post office there and got the 3 money orders that we need to send everything to DC to get everything authenticated--more on authentication later.

I dropped Mom and the groceries off and came back home. One more step completed!

CHI to Holt Transfer

I got the I-171H form copied and notarized today. We have to take the original to China with us.

We also received an email from CHI today explaining the details of our tranfer to Holt International. When our dossier is ready to be submitted, we will send it along with the fees required plus the small additional amount for the transfer to Holt. We also have to fill out a Holt application and a release for CHI. We will also receive next week a form for our caseworker to fill out and another agreement for Holt that we have to sign.

Otherwise, that's it. Our fees that we have to pay won't increase (unless the CCAA increases their in-China fees which would obviously be passed on to us).

Once our dossier is submitted to China by Holt, we will be a Holt family and complete our adoption through Holt. Holt International is a well-established international agency and I have no qualms about completing our adoption through them. It will be nice to get acquainted with them as we wait for our referral.

I also had a talk with another CHI person today and she explained in detail all they are going through. They are frustrated and disappointed in the whole thing as much as the families are. They are getting very little information from the Hague and the US government so they are trying to figure things out on their own and get them corrected. CHI is not giving up on trying to get Hague accredited. They will even try in a few weeks to request another review and see if they get one or have to wait a year to request again. I asked about possibly waiting till then to see if they might get approved but she said that we are SO CLOSE that waiting might not be in our best interest. We might be waiting for nothing if they don't get the review and would have to tranfer anyway.

More tomorrow...

I-171H Form RECEIVED!

We received our I-171H form today--the last form we need before we get everything certified and authenticated! Interesting thing about it -- it has Holt International as our agency on it. They are the ones that will be submitting dossiers for CHI until CHI gets accredited. But interesting that it happened kind of automatically.

So, I will go to the State Capitol on Thursday after getting this copied/notarized tomorrow.

Another interesting thing -- The I-600A approval expires 1/30/2010 (18 months from now) and the Fingerprints expire 10/1/09 (14 months from now). They can't possibly make them expire at the same time....but that's the government for you! We can (and will) apply for a free extension on each before they each expire so it's not a big deal.

More later...

No Form Yet

Well, we didn't receive our form on Saturday or today so I guess that's OK. We'll get it when we get it. I've actually heard that it takes a week to get it.

I did receive a call today from Tina at CHI. They do have an agreement worked out with Holt and it sounds like it will be fairly simple. We'll have to sign a couple forms for Holt, our caseworker will have to sign and notarize a form for Holt and we will send our dossier to CHI along with the dossier fee, the CCAA fee, as well as a tranfer fee for Holt. The transfer fee is extra over what we would have had to pay if CHI was able to submit dossiers but it's not much in the grand scheme of things and we have it already. So, it sounds like God's perfect timing is working for us right now.

All along I was thinking that if everything worked out, our dossier should be in China sometime in August and as long as everything KEEPS working out, that can still happen. Once we get our Log In Date (LID), that officially begins our wait. People who are getting their referrals now have waited 30 months -- just to give you an idea.....

Fingerprints Approved! Woo hoo!

We received a reply today from our contact at CIS regarding our Fingerprints Status. She approved our case today and we'll get the approval in the mail.

I suspect we will receive it on Saturday because when we got the fingerprint appointment email, it was 2 days later that we received the official notification in the mail.

If we receive it on Saturday, I'll get it copied and notarized on Monday and go to Lincoln on Tuesday.

Yippee!

CHI & Hague Update

We heard today from CHI in 2 emails. The first one was a fairly detailed explanation of why they were denied and what they know NOW about the action they are going to take to resolve it. I'll spare you the details because they would just confuse you anyway, but ... long story short: it has to do with a very minor detail that doesn't even apply to them as an international agency.

The 2nd email was from our program director and she gave various paths to take based on where we are in the process. We are still waiting for the fingerprints to come back and the I-171H form to be issued so our dossier is not yet in China. This gives us 2 options: 1) find another Hague Accredited agency to work with or 2) remain with Children's Hope--they are working on a plan to work with/through Holt International to get dossiers submitted. They don't have the details worked out yet but hope to by the end of this week.

How does this affect us? It doesn't -- YET. Again, because our dossier is not ready to be sent to China yet we are so far not affected.

Obviously, the ABSOLUTE BEST thing that could happen is that they get another review soon (rather than having to wait a year to re-apply but that is up to the review board) and they get approved and then our dossier is ready to send and all is good. Plan B for us is option 2 above. Once they have details worked out with Holt, that will PROBABLY be our best option and path of least resistance. It sounds like we would still contact CHI as we have been doing but they would be working with Holt on other things like getting dossiers submitted, etc.

So, that's the latest. Our contact at CIS has been out the last week but will be back in the office tomorrow so maybe I'll get an answer soon to my email about fingerprints status.

Stay tuned......

CHI & Hague Accreditation

We received an email from CHI today letting us (and all CHI families) know that they were reviewed on July 9 and received word on July 17 that their accreditation was denied due to a problem in one state where they are licensed. Groan.....

They will let us know how it affects us in a later email from our program.

Still waiting on word of the fingerprints.....

China Program Update - 7/11/08

Today we received an email from CHI saying they recently received 3 referrals: 2 girls and 1 boy ages 11 months, 14 months and 20 months. They also received 13 seeking confirmations for waiting children. So far this year, CHI has placed 82 children from China: 30 healthy and 52 waiting children.

They also said that the wait time is currently 30 months, 18 months for Chinese expedited.

Wow!

CCAA, CHI and Hague

Ah, today was an interesting day for emails. This morning we received an email from CHI that they were notified yesterday that as of July 15, 2008, the CCAA would no longer accept dossiers from non-Hague accredited agencies. At this moment, CHI is not yet Hague accredited. Families whose dossiers are in China are not affected. They were advised in June that their review for accreditation would in July or August. What is means to us right now is basically nothing. Our dossier is not ready to be submitted yet. But, if our dossier were to get ready to be submitted and they were not yet accredited, we would have to wait. CHI would continue to accept dossiers and review and send them to their office in Beijing so that they would be ready when they do become accredited.

Then, this afternoon we received another email from CHI that they have now been scheduled for their review for Hague Accreditation on July 9, 2008. They think it will be at least a couple days after that before they hear the outcome of the review.

So, maybe we won't have to worry about that part of it at all!

FINGERPRINTS!

Well, today we FINALLY had our fingerprints taken by CIS. It went very smoothly and everyone at CIS was very nice. They take the fingerprints electronically so it was fun to watch the screen while they took the prints.

I asked if they knew how long it would be till we get our approval form (I-171H form). They didn't know but said I could email our contact. So, to get an idea I asked about emailing in about 3 weeks. They said, "No, with the holiday, I could email in about 5 business DAYS." Oh! OK! I like days rather than weeks! So I suppose I will wait about a week and a half before I email to find out how things are coming.

The I-171H form is the LAST form we need before I can have control over when things happen again.

China Program Update - 6/9/08

An email from CHI today said that they received 15 referrals today. 10 were regular referrals and 5 were for Chinese expedited referrals. If a couple has Chinese ancestry, their wait time is (A LOT) shorter than for those of us who have no Chinese ancestry. There were 2 boys and 13 girls in this group of referrals, aged 8-22 months.

Official Fingerprint Notification

We received our OFFICIAL notification of our fingerprint appointment today by mail.

Four weeks seems like a LONG time right now.

We received an email today that, among other things, informed us that CCAA has increased their processing fee to $950 (up $90). They are still saying that the wait time is 29 months.

We have our Fingerprint Appointment!

I KNEW as soon as I typed the last entry we would get our fingerprint appointment! Low and behold we got an email this afternoon from our contact saying that our appointment is July 2, 2008, at 11 a.m. I should have typed that in 2 weeks ago!

No Fingerprint Appointment Yet!

Still no fingerprint appointment and I'm getting frustrated! I wanted to be waiting for the fingerprints to COME BACK by now! At this point I'm not sure if the dossier will be in China by August (like I was thinking it might be earlier) or not, if we don't get our appointment soon.

Time to Nudge (Push) a Little Bit

Today I emailed our contact at CIS saying I understand that our home study had been sent to the CIS office and to make sure she has all the needed information to set up the fingerprint appointment. This is my way of "pushing" just a little to get things moving along. We'll see if it helps.

Home Study is DONE and Sent

Today we received the notarized home study with a letter saying that he had also sent a copy to CIS. Every little step counts!

Waiting Children

Today we received an email from CHI about the new Waiting Children procedures. Our dossier must be in China before we can get on the list for a waiting child.

Home Study OK

I called Dick today to ask him a question and I also asked if he'd heard from CHI yet about the home study. He said he had just gotten it faxed back from them with only a couple of changes and he should be able to finalize it tomorrow. Yippee!

China Program Update - 5/9/08

The China Program Update email for today said that they are estimating a 29 month wait at this time.

Everytime we get one of these emails I think "if we could just get our dossier to China NOW, our wait will already be started." Our wait won't start until our dossier gets to China and the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) gives us a Log In Date (LID). When our dossier goes to China, that's one date (DTC = Dossier To China). Then about a week or so later we will get our LID. But getting our paperwork completed is the thing to do right now and the sooner we get that all done, the better.

Home Study to CHI

Got a call from Dick saying that he has faxed the home study to CHI/KC for them to look over and he expects their OK on it soon.

Home Study corrections

Tony dropped off the home study envelope to NCHS at noon.

Picked up the Home Study

May 2, 2008: I still have NO voice but I picked up the Home Study to review it over the weekend for accuracy.

We looked it over and I made grammar/spelling/punctuation and fact corrections and then printed it out again and put other notes on it for him to correct as he needs to. I had this all done by Saturday afternoon.

New Tree

I have NO voice today but went to pick out a new tree for our yard with the money and gift certificates we received for Christmas. I picked out an Autumn Blaze Maple and was able to get through it all with a whisper! He was very nice and even gave us a deal on the tree and the planting.

Home Study

I got a call from Dick today saying we didn't put down how much we had left on our mortgage when we updated in January. Hmm, I thought we had filled out everything. He's working on the home study and will hopefully have it ready for me to pick up tomorrow.

Elegance of the Qing Court

Brad, Tammy and Mia came to church with us on April 27, 2008. We went to eat Val's buffet and then they and I went to the Joslyn Museum's exhibit of The Elegance of the Qing Court. It was family fun day and everything was FREE! We like FREE! We had a good time and learned a lot!

We saw the end of the Tai Chi demonstration and then the Lion Dancers from Lincoln performed. They were the same group that performed at the Chinese New Year Celebration in February. We also heard a girl playing the Chinese harp. Very pretty music. The exhibit itself was very interesting, especially the explanation of how they did lacquer. They had a multi-paneled room divider that was lacquered and VERY ornately carved. Of course, they had the vases and clothes and a display of belt buckles! A Chinese children's group performed music and poetry which we did not get in on. I had my name written in Chinese characters and Mia made a hat.

China Program Update - 4/25/08

We received another China Program Update today. CHI received travel approvals for 8 Waiting Children families. Waiting Children are essentially "special needs" children which can include children with minor (or major) medical needs (most of which are easily corrected in the US), or older children that have not found a forever family yet.

Home Study

Talked to Dick today and among other things asked about how long it takes to write the home study because I just don't know and I want to know about how long it will be until it gets to USCIS. We can't get our fingerprint appointment until they have the home study. He said that he was quite busy and once he can get to it and not have any interruptions, it will only take about a day since he has our previous home studies to copy and paste from. He has to follow the format that is layed out by CHI, too.

So, that gives me an idea of how long we have to wait for the next step.

USCIS Form

We received a reply from USCIS on April 7, 2008, that we can fill out the form noted in their letter when we come for the fingerprint appointment.

On April 10, 2008, we met with Dick for our last face-to-face meeting to complete the Home Study. Now we are waiting for it to be completed and be sent to USCIS so we can get our fingerprint appointment.

More USCIS and Medical Reports

On April 2, 2008, we received an email from USCIS asking us to complete a survey about our experience at the USCIS office.

I picked up our medical reports and the doctors' statements on April 4, 2008. I was going to go after work but they close at 4 pm so I ran up there over lunch time. It was a good thing I did that because the person doing the notarizing wanted me to look over everything to make sure it was all filled in and correct. There were some measurements missing so she had the doctor fill it all in and then we were good to go. I made copies to give to Dick because the Home Study has to match all the other paperwork.

China Program Update - 4/4/08

We received the CHI China Program Update email today. They received 7 China referrals, all little girls. These families waited 27 months for their referrals.

China Program Update - 3/28/08

We received the China Program Update email today. They are saying now that they current wait time is 26-27 months. They still expect the wait to grow to 4 years. Wow.

Medical Reports

Tony had his medical tests on March 26, 2008. We also got a reply from Dick offering several dates for the home visit. We chose April 7 at 5:15 p.m. or so. Once the home study is done and sent to CIS, we are VERY close to having all of our paperwork gathered.

On March 28, 2008, we received a letter from USCIS informing us that they "received" our I-600A form on March 26, 2008. They will also need the originals of our birth certificates and marriage license when we come for the fingerprint appointment. No problem--it's all in a file together already!

I emailed USCIS on March 30, 2008, asking about the form "Authorization to Release Information to another person" that they say is optional to fill out. I can't find it online.

Medical Tests & CIS

I received a reply from Tina on March 23, 2008, that maybe the county considered the certified copy as notarized and to call the Secretary of State to make sure.

March 24, 2008: Had my medical tests done. Then I took the I-600A form to the CIS. They don't allow cameras or cell phones that take pictures. When I took my cell phone out to the car, I just removed almost everything and only took bare essentials. I went back in and checked in. I found out when I got to the window that they ONLY take money orders and not checks or cash! They made another appointment for tomorrow at 8:00 am for me (they don't normally do that for people). I went home and got Tony's checkbook and took it to him to go get a money order. I also stopped at the Douglas County Sheriff's office to get our background checks on police letterhead and notarized. That only took 10 minutes (and $20).

March 25, 2008: I went to CIS by 7:30 a.m. The doors don't open until 7:45. I was the first one in the doors when they unlocked them. I got through security just fine (left my purse in the car this time!) and submitted the form and money order. I was out of there by 7:50 a.m.--10 minutes before my actual appointment time! I emailed Dick and told him he could pass along the money order information to anyone. I also wondered when he wanted to come up to the house for the final home visit.

Marriage License & USCIS

On March 18, 2008, I sent a letter with a request for another certified and NOTARIZED copy of our marriage license because the instructions said to "make sure it was notarized."

We received an email on March 19, 2008, informing us (and all China program families) that if we haven't already submitted our I-600A form to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services aka The Department of Homeland Security) that we need to get it submitted on or before March 31, 2008, or we might not be able to submit anything to USCIS till the fall, if even then, due to Hague Accreditation problems for CHI. They are working diligently on this.

On March 20, 2008, I made a USCIS appointment for March 24, 2008. We had our 2nd meeting with Dick over the noon hour.

We received a copy of our marriage license on March 21, 2008, but it was not notarized. I emailed Tina about what to do about that.

We finished our DVD and 4th test on March 22, 2008. Since part of the last test is hand scored (because there are some free-form short answer questions) we have to wait for the results. We have to each score 80% or more on each test in order to pass. So far Tony has scored 100% on the first 3 and I have missed some but scored high enough to pass. We do help each other on all the questions so we'll see.....

Education Package

March 10, 2008: We received our education package today. It includes 10 hours of DVD (4 sessions) that we have to watch and be tested online, as well as a book to read at our leisure. Ha! We have to have this all done (the DVD and testing part) before our dossier can be sent to China. Once we finish the 4th test, the first full week of the following month, CHI will receive notification that we have completed this part. We will work hard to get this done and out of the way as soon as possible! This is part of the new Hague Adoption Convention requirements. Everyone adopting internationally is required to do this.

On March 11, 2008, we received our "China Program Service Plan" explaining who will do what parts of the adoption. This is just something to file.

Notaries

On March 5, 2008, I had Janet at work do my employment letter and had Brian notarize it. Brian gets to notarize a lot of our paperwork.

We mailed the reference letter information to Earl on March 6, 2008. Also, this day we received Tony's verification of self-employment letter from Glenn.

March 7, 2008, we received a letter from CHI that they received our money and we should receive our education package soon.

References and More Forms!

I delivered all the materials to Dick at NCHS on February 25, 2008.

On February 29, 2008, I picked up the signed forms, agency license copy and other forms from Dick.

March 1, 2008, we mailed the adoption agreement and other forms to CHI/KC along with the next payment which includes the cost of some required educational materials. We also mailed reference letter information to Don, Ken, Tim and Kathy.

Approval Packet

February 18, 2008, we received an email from CHI that we are approved and our approval packet is on its way. I also spoke to Tina Qualls about the process.

We received our approval packet on February 22, 2008, with all instructions for the home study and dossier. We also received our first China Program Update email from CHI. They are saying that the current wait time is 25-26 months and expect it to grow over 2 years in 2008 and climb to possibly 4 years. That's quite daunting.

Tony left today for the Matco Tools Expo in Orlando so this morning we got our signatures notarized (for FREE!) at Pinnacle Bank downtown in the Home Study/Post Adoption booklet so that I can get it to Dick on Monday.

Children's Hope International

On February 13, 2008, I emailed CHI about our application and received a reply that it had been received at CHI in Kansas City (our regional office) and it was being mailed to St. Louis (the main office).

We received a voice mail at home from Diane at CHI/KC that Tina Qualls would be our contact for questions and any help with paperwork. Tina is in St. Louis.

After supper on February 17, 2008, we told all of Tony's siblings and spouses about our new direction. They are quite excited. They have questions and we hope we'll be able to answer them over time. Adoption (and specifically International Adoption) questions can't all be answered at one time. All of the information would be too overwhelming. We hope they will all be open-minded about all that our journey has to offer.

Chinese New Year 2008

Yesterday we attended the Chinese New Year celebration with the Families with Children from China (FCC) group in the Omaha/Lincoln area. Our friends, Tammy and Brad, had invited us. Their daughter, Mia, was adopted from China in 2006. We enjoyed meeting some new people and we actually found out that we could survive on Chinese food for a while! The lion dancers were fun to watch, too!

Afterwards, Brad, Tammy and Mia, came to our house and we visited quite a while. We had lots of questions. They also used Children's Hope (CHI) when they adopted Mia. We also got to see their pictures of their trip to China. Here's a picture of Mia and her friends at our house:

Today, we had dinner with Tony's parents and told them of our new direction. They seem excited.

Starting out

On February 8, 2008, we sent in our application and application fee to Children's Hope International to start the process to adopt a little girl from China. We prepared for this by attending an International Information Sharing Meeting at the Nebraska Children's Home (NCHS) in November of 2007. We heard a lady speak who had adopted two brothers at different times from Romania and earlier that year had adopted a little boy from China.

We had also sent the form and check in to get 3 copies of Sue's birth certificate as we knew we'd need them. We already had a couple copies of Tony's.