We Got Them!

Our set of documents we sent to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be authenticated arrived of Friday! All we are waiting for is the 171-H! Troy (not knowing the difference between DCFS and USCIS) said, "I think it came in today!" I got super excited only to find it was our DCFS license from the state of Illinois stating we are a certified foster home! Oh well! Checking the mail is the most exciting, but so far most disappointing part of the day! We are going to send what we have so far to CCAI to have them look over it. Once the 171-H arrives, I am going to drive to Springfield and have it certified in a day and then probably drive to Chicago the next day to have it authenticated! It costs a little bit more $$$, but when you are this close, you just want it DONE!!!

On a happier note, many families got their referrels on Friday for their children! We cannot wait to get there! Please pray that China speeds up the process! As I stated earlier, when we started our paperwork, we had a 6-9 month wait after our dossier was sent to China. Now they are saying our wait will be 12-14 months! We continue to pray for twins and find our selves saying, "When we get our kids...."!

FBI Fingerprinting...DONE!

Troy and I went to St. Louis today to get fingerprinted for our 171-H. I am going to call USCIS on Thursday to see if my fingerprints turned out OK. The examiner had to roll each finger 2-5 times to get a good print. I learned that I have very large fingerprints and my hands are extremely dry despite the lotion I use daily! It must be the chlorine at the Y...that is my thought! I have heard people have to have them done twice and I don't really want to drive 2 1/2 hours again! In addition to our fingerprints, we got our passport photos taken that are part of our Dossier. We have to submit 3 pictures which means we have an extra since passport photos come as 2. To end our morning in STL, we had lunch at Seamus McDaniels in our old neighborhood, Dogtown. They have the best hamburgers, so of course, we each got one! Being back in STL really made us homesick for the city and where we began our marriage! I almost forgot, the rest of our documents were sent to Chicago for authentication! We are going to send everything in to CCAI minus the 171-H. They will receive it once we get it in, but we want CCAI to look over our paperwork just in case their our errors. Slowly, but surely!

Congrats to my friend and college roommate, Lisa, on their referral! She is precious!

SOS Materials Arrived!

I just checked online to see the status of our documents that need the Illinois Secretary of State certification and got this message:

Your item was delivered at 10:05 am on August 04, 2006 in SPRINGFIELD, IL 62756 to SOS 56 . The item was signed for by M KUNTZI.

Praise God! I had checked my email this morning and saw that a family who is also adopting from China had their Express Mail documents that were needing certification stolen. USPS said that criminals look for Express Mail envelopes since they often have important information in them. In this case, they had to act as if they experienced identity theft since ALL of their information was included! I never thought about all of this! We will be using FedEx for the rest of our mailing needs in this adoption process!

Homestudy Original Arrived!

YEAH! We got the original copy of the homestudy in the mail today! I am going to take the rest of our documents, minus the 171-H and get them notarized on Thursday afternoon. I will then make a trip to the post office to send them to the Illinois Secretary of State! Please pray that China speeds up the adoption process. They are processing dossier's at a slower rate. At one point, families had to wait 6 months to get their referral after their dossier arrived in China. Now they are telling us 12-14 months!

OK...I Know We Were A Little Emotional...

I know we were a little emotional yesterday, but you can't help but cry when you watch Sophie at www.waitingforsophie.blogspot.com give us all kisses (July 30th post)! I don't know how we came across this blog, but this has been one of our favorites we read daily. Shana always has the best pictures and videos!

Yesterday was also an emotional day for me (Amy) due to my job. I have been working at the prenatal clinic (we build relationships and the families get to make toys for their miracle(s) )on Monday and Wednesday mornings and absolutely LOVE IT! We build such great relationships with our moms/families and it is so neat to follow them through their pregnancy and then get to experience their miracles in the end. Well, while reading the paper Monday morning, I saw one of my previous student's nephew died during labor. I shared this with my co-workers and then found out one of our moms who was in the clinic last Monday with her one month old twin boys, lost one the following day. The funeral was this past Saturday! I was shocked! I watched these two boys last Monday and helped their mom carry them down to the car and snap them in! After learning of these two deaths, I then got to visit 3 families in the hospital who just delivered and share in their joys! I love my job and all that BabyTALK does....it has such incredible highs and lows!