We are Bummed Out!

Well, tomorrow is 8/1 and we were praying our dossier would be done by then. We were on such a role, but our homestudy delay truly set us back. Now we are waiting for our fingerprinting appointment to arrive in the mail. At this pace, we will be done in September/October. We know God is in control of all of this and knows what he is doing. It is our prayer that we get a two for one deal and China speeds the process up and produces more "paper ready" kids. There are thousands of children in the orphanages that need families, but only a handful of them are tagged for adoption!

Adoption Bracelet

We had some dear friends give us this adoption bracelet, but of course, it is only worn by me, Amy. It is by Lisa Lehmann, of Studio Jewel. It came with this fabulous explanation:

Adoption Celebration was created to be reminder of all that your family has become, or is in the process of becoming.

Beginning with a prayer...a dream...a wish...placed inside the Prayer Box. A prayer for a child to be your very own, to love and cherish, to guide, to give a home and a future. While you are praying, wishing, dreaming you are Three Strands: a mother, a father and a child...each on your own personal journey...waiting to become something stronger together.

The dream becomes a reality, there is a child who will soon be your very own - that is represented by the Baby Feet and Heart charm. Once that child arrives she becomes your family. You are no longer separate buy you have been brought together. This is represented by the Family Tree charm as well as the three strands becoming a Solid Bangle on the bracelet.

There will be memories and milestones to come as you go through life together, no two days will ever be the same - thus the mixture of beads and twisted wire.

Celebrate! and never forget the journey of how you became a family!

Finally, Some Progress...

Troy and I have been gone for a week at a conference and came home to this great email:

Troy and Amy,

Good news!!!

Just wanted to let you know that I have completed the preliminary review of your China Home Study Report. Any recommendations for these areas have already been sent to your social worker. The final review of the home study will take place during the critical review of your dossier just before it is sent to China!

Now we are waiting to get the final draft from our adoption specialist before she sends it to immigration. We would still like to have our Dossier complete by August, but we do not have control over how long Immigration, Illinois Secretary of State and the Chinese Counsulate in Chicago will process our paperwork! It is nice to be going again after a waiting period!

Troy and I had to go to a mandatory conference this morning in Bloomington as part of our adoption and DCFS foster home certification. It was nice to meet other families in our situation and get some more information on important topics such as adoption myths, stages of grief for infertile couples, grief and loss for the adopted child, adjustment issues for the adoptee, attachment and bonding, maintaining birth culture ties (Troy recommends we eat Chinese food on the 4th of July!), talking to children about their orphanage background, talking to children about adoption, sibling relationships and the adoption tax credit! WHEW! It was a lot of information, but helpful. We have been doing a lot of reading, so much of this was a repeat, but it never hurts to hear it again! The best part was hearing from a lady from the Our Chinese Daughters Foundation (OCDF) www.ocdf.org . She was great! When our children get older, they can receive a magazine from them with Chinese specific content produced in China, but in the English language. We can also take our children back to China on one of their guided tours! The best part was the journal the children receive on this tour. There is info. about each city they visit, including a place for them to write their own memories. Each child also receives a gift after visiting each city. For example, they got a stuffed panda bear after visiting a panda bear rescue camp! It was so neat!

AAAGGGHHHH!

We are trying to be patient in this paperchase period, but it is getting really frustrating! We paid the second half of our homestudy a month ago and was told it would be finished in a week. Three weeks later, we still do not have anything! We were told the homestudy process would take 2-3 months and got excited when we received the 2nd bill in June. It looked like we would be on the 2 month track, but now we are at 2.5 months. We were told to be patient, but when you are so close to being done, you just want it to end! I think I am going to send our completed waiting papers on their round of certification so if feels like we are doing something and get our 171-H certified on its own. I emailed our adoption specialist on our status and continue to wait for her reply.

On the more exciting front, Troy's dad came to visit us for a week over the 4th of July and they put up a basketball hoop, Troy's Father's Day present. They had some good bonding time figuring out the plan! Troy had to get the measuring tape out and mark with chalk where the 3 point line would be if it was painted on our driveway. I thought this goal was for fun, but he is serious about it! Hopefully God has us here for enough years for our children to get to enjoy it too!