Keeping my head on straight

This process is seriously so wild! We wait and wait and WAIT... and then frantically hurry hurry HURRY... and then wait again! This has been a crazy week as we've been talking back and forth with our home study agency and our placing agency by email and phone, stay up late making corrections and then even up to the last minute we were making changes/additions in order to get it approved.

We have a few little things to get done now that our home study is approved (I won't bore you with our list - what I'm about to explain I'm sure is boring enough!), but the main thing is that Friday, once we get the notarized copies we can send out our I-800a (the form from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - our "Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country"). The process of getting our I-800a approved can easily take four months. We have to have it back in three months and three weeks - by October 16th to be exact - in order to ensure that our medical paperwork doesn't expire. If it does, we will need to get it redone, which means arranging a notary to be at our doctor's office again, getting them county certified at the county courthouse again, sending them off to the state again, and then off again (through the courier which costs $90 plus $20 per document) to the consulate. All of which just equals delays, which no one adopting is a big fan of!

So the bottom line is - please pray that we get our approval before October 16th! :)

It's so hard to explain a process that I only understand myself one step at a time. There are times when it can feel overwhelming because there are SO many details and everything must be done very precisely and is it's all time sensitive. That's why I've been SO thankful to finally find a (private) online community that we can connect with - where everyone in the group is adopting from China and are at the same stage as us. They get it... and they are like a group of informed adoption cheerleaders. We all have one goal and that's getting kids into families, no matter what we have to go through (but it certainly helps to go through it together)!

Home Study Approved!

We still need to get our notarized copies so that we can send out our 1-800a application ASAP, but for now I'm just thrilled that we have our home study approval! One big step closer to our waiting little one!!




Canaan has become so used to our regular trips to UPS to send out documents to various state departments and consulates, that he drives around his toy car at home saying, "I'm going' to da UPS store".

I Agree with Canaan ;)

Canaan's been a little extra whiny lately, which is a JOY. Haha. But I can't help but love this. I love the love he already has for her.

Home Study Update

Our draft is complete! I'm so thrilled to see an end (at least with this small part) in sight!!! :)

Aside from checking documents and sending emails, today I've been caring for a teething/feverish boy (Ezra) and enjoying the nice weather with both outside, including Canaan's first swim lesson!

Crickets...

Over two months after our final home study visit, we are still waiting. Every week is a new promise that our home study report will be wrapped up in days. And every week is another unresponded to phone call or email, or another timeline for NEXT week. It's sooo frustrating, but I know that waiting is something we will need to just get used to over the course of the next year... and remember that the wait we experience is nothing compared to hers.

We know our daughter waits for us. It's so hard to face these delays knowing that it in the end it will mean more time for her to be in an institution instead of a family where she belongs.

"When you say YES to adoption, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will." - Jen Hatmaker