Dossier has been authenticated.

Let's see what have we done....

• File pre-approval paperwork - check


• Receive pre-approval from China - check


• Collect documentation we were born and later married - check


• Collect documentation we are not or never have been criminals - check


• Collect documentation we work - check


• Record all our finances for the world to see - check


• Complete Homestudy without going crazy - check and check.... well, okay - check


• File pre-aproval with the USCIS - check


• Receive pre-approval from the USCIS and call it the I-171H to sound cool - check


• Take all this and more to the Secretary of State Office to verify notaries - check


• Send all this and more to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to put their stamp on it - check


• Send all this and more plus more to our Agency for translation and then send to China - check


• Do a happy dance and pull all my hair out - check

It makes me feel like we have accomplished something by listing all those steps instead of what is still ahead of us. The good news is we have done everything we can for now, it is out of our hands for now. Our paperwork is currently on an airplane headed for Portland, OR where our agency is located. They will have their hands on our 15 authenticated documents, passport copies, and photos tomorrow around 10:30. They will then get everything translated and wrapped in a neat little package to send to China. Then we wait, again. The waiting continues to get harder versus easier the closer we get. Our best guess (and again remember we can only guess at this point based on families that have recently traveled to China and how their wait went) is that we will be traveling the end of June and/or the beginning of July.

On another note we ordered the boys' new ladder bed and it will be delivered on 3/7. We've also begun a little shopping for Carter sized clothes. Of course I have saved some hand-me-downs, but he'll get some things that are all his too. Hunter talks of Carter often and has used this waiting time to plan out how to best use having a little brother to his advantage. I hope Carter likes to be bossed around because Hunter is good at that. That being said he seems excited on many levels. When we were shopping for clothes Hunter wanted to pick out clothes for Carter and not shop for himself. Hunter is very aware of the time difference between China and us, at bedtime he often makes the comment that his brother is now starting his day then in the mornings we tell Carter good-night. Hunter also can spot Chinese letters and likes to find things that are written in Chinese. We received a New Year card from our agency and Hunter took it and copied the letters on his drawing pad. Todd and I have been trying to learn Chinese from the new Nick Jr. show Ki-lan (an Chinese version of Dora) so far all I have learned is how to say hello and Yi-Yi is grandfather. Oh and there is a weird pink flying rhino I don't understand, hope we don't see any of those while in China.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

We received our approval from the USCIS today. That is the best Valentine I have received in the mailbox ever! I will be at the Secratary of State's office early tomorrow and then send everything to Chicago for more authenication. Hopefully we will get things back from Chicago by the end of next week. We may be only two weeks away from Dossier to China!

Homestudy Completed, now what?

I danced a happy jig yesterday when I got the call from our caseworker that our homestudy was complete. We had a minor set-back with it last week so this made the news even better. After all that waiting you would think it was a novel, but instead just a few pages all about us. It is weird to read about yourself in the third person.

So now what? We are headed to Kansas City to the United States Citizenship & Immigration office to turn in more paperwork and fingerprints. Then we are back to waiting. Hopefully we will only have to wait approximately 4 weeks to receive pre-approval from our government to bring Carter home, but it could take longer. When the approval is received we then can complete the authenication process, then finally we can send our dossier to our agency to send to China. Which will bring another round of waiting (can you pick up a pattern?).

There are two steps to authenicating our documents. First our Secretary of State office must verify that all the notaries that signed our document are in fact notaries. Then we must send everything to the Chinese Embassy to authenicate the documents so that they can be sent on to China. I have already made one trip to the Secretary of State office and have most of our documents authenicated. We'll wait to get our approval from the USCIS then make another trip before sending everything to Chicago.

New Pictures!

It is a small world....

Through an Internet group for those who have adopted or are adopting a child from the Hangzhou Children's Welfare Institute I have meet a family very similar to ours. Adriana and Craig Hutchings have a five year old biological son and are adopting a 2 year old son from Hangzhou. They are much farther in the process than we are, in fact they are currently in China. While in Hangzhou they were able to go to the Welfare Institute where Carter currently attends pre-school and meet him. She will be sending some pictures that she took once they make it back to the states. This is exciting news to hear, yet another update that sounds very promising that Carter is doing well and being cared for. Here is what Adriana had to say about her meeting with Carter:

I was at the orphanage the other day and saw Si En. I got a couple of pics, but won't be able to send them until I get home. He was at pre-school at the orphanage in a room with about 10-12 other kids and two nannys. I got 2-3 pics of him and he is soooo cute! You will just die when you meet him in person! So round faced and rosy-cheeked. He was very shy and obviously very attached to one of the nannys (I got a pic of them together). She kept setting him down and telling him to get his pic taken, and he would try to obey, but was so shy (not scared though). He would turn to her and she would pick him up and cuddle him. He looked happy and well-fed, and well cared for. He was dressed in ski-type clothes even though it was about 60 degrees. He looked like the little brother in the movie "A Christmas Story". Anyway, I told the adults (orphanage administrator and nannys that he was going to be named Carter. They asked when you were coming for him and I said a couple of months. They told him this, but I don't know what he understands as he is so young. He looks very smart and curious and developmentally on target as far as I could tell.

Thank you so much Adriana, and congratulations to the Hutchings family! Hopefully some day soon we will be able to return the favor to another family waiting anxiously.

As far as how the process is going for us, frustratingly slow. The rough draft of our home study has been completed. Now we have to wait on the final draft to be approved by our adoption agency and the home study agency officials to sign off on it. Once we get our home study we can apply with our government to bring an orphan to the country. That process will take approximately 4-8 weeks. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we can meet Carter for ourselves soon.

Early Christmas Gift Delivered Today, An Update!

We get to request one update during a special needs adoption which we decided to ask for as a Christmas gift of sorts. We sent an email on Thursday afternoon and received our update Monday afternoon.

Todd was the first to see it and called me, I was so excited that it was hard to type and sit still while I was trying to open my email and the attachments. We received these three pictures which I have to say are absolutely adorable! I do think we have some fashion concerns to work on when we get him, but he looks to be growing well and healthy(the important stuff). I thought the first pictures we had of him were cute, but these are even cuter!

Along with the picture we were given the following information from the orphanage: He is 34.6 inches tall and weighs 28.6 pounds currently. Si En is outgoing. He goes to the orphanage school and his foster parents pick him up and take him home everyday. In the school, he has good relationships with other kids; likes to play group activities. He likes to play with building blocks. He has a good appetite; he is not a picky eater and he loves meat, especially chicken. When he meets strangers he appears to be shy at the beginning but warms up quickly.

This such a great update. I wish we were closer to being able to go get him!

Pre-Approval Received

We received a fabulous email today that our Pre-approval has been received! Okay, I guess I should let everyone know what that means. We sent our pre-approval request last month to China letting them know that we want to adopt SiEn. They have received that letter and have pre-approved us for the adoption. Now we have to send them our dossier so that they can officially match us with SiEn. We would have even better news if we could say that our dossier is ready to go, but unfortunately it is not.

The dossier consists of a letter of intent (a letter promising that we will provide for SiEn and not abuse or abandon him), certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license, a financial statement, letters from our physician stating we are in good health, letters from our employers saying that we really do work and get paid, letters from our local police department stating we have no criminal record (I know that is pretty humorous), pictures of us and our home, our home study, and approval from our government to bring an orphan into the country. Piece of cake, right? We are now on first name basis with our doctor's nurse (Debbie) and have every shot we could imagine asking for (some more than once). Dr. Lilly got our forms filled out (one for each of us for the home study agency and then another for China) and I had them in my hand on Monday, but then I had to point out that we needed a letter too (for each of us) because we have had the pleasure of having surgeries in our lifetimes. So now we are waiting for the doctor to give us a letter that says that missing tonsils, one missing appendix, and a crooked finger will not hinder us from parenting. That is the last form that we have control of, once we get that completed we are only waiting on our home study to be completed before the next step.

Our home study consists of four visits with our case worker Marilyn. Marilyn is a sweet lady who we have completed 3 visits with at her office. Tuesday 11/20 is when our final home study visit is scheduled for. Marilyn will be coming to our home for that visit. She then will compile her report to send to our adoption agency to review and make any revision recommendations. Once our adoption agency gives the home study their blessing it gets finalized. When we recieve the finalized home study we can apply with the government to get pre-approval to bring an orphan into the country. That process can take anywhere from 5-8 weeks and includes a trip to Kansas City to get fingerprinted. Once we recieve that approval our dossier is complete and can go to China!!!! We are hoping to get this completed before the end of January, but we are depending on things to go smoothly and swiftly.

We have been watching the time frame that other adoptions are running with our agency. For the past year it seems that from the time the dossier goes to China (DTC in adoption lingo) until travel occurs is running approximately 4 months. So if we can get our DTC the end of January or beginning of February we could be traveling in May. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we can make this happen.

We both appreciate all the support we have received from family and friends. It is amazing that everyone seems as excited as we are. We are currently working on names. The first name has been decided, but we are still negoiating a middle name. Carter King will be our newest addition's name.