So apparently I need to re-read the directions.
The directions that say:
"we often are not notified of LID for several weeks afterwards.
Please do not worry if you are not notified of your LID right away."
Ohhh. I feel stupid.
But much better!
Here's hoping we have LID, but just don't know about it yet!
On the bright side, my good friend Jennifer had some encouraging works for my impatience:
Someday, Miss Sophie will love to hear you retell of how you longed for her this deeply. She will cherish knowing your heart was that connected to hers already and that You. Wanted. Her. It will help her healing journey.
I pray that this is true. Sophie has a lot of prayer warriors praying for The Great Physician to heal her heart! (And some of them are only 5, 8 and 10 years old!)
Please help us pray for her heart and to get her home!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Disappointed
I have to admit, I am disappointed.
You see,
I woke up this morning,
KNOWING
that when I went to the computer
I would download my mail today to receive LID.
But.
that
didn't
happen.
Drat.
You should never, never get your hopes set on something with adoption.
And I KNOW that.
Guess I just needed a little reminder.
Got it!
Maybe tomorrow?
BUT I won't expect it!
You see,
I woke up this morning,
KNOWING
that when I went to the computer
I would download my mail today to receive LID.
But.
that
didn't
happen.
Drat.
You should never, never get your hopes set on something with adoption.
And I KNOW that.
Guess I just needed a little reminder.
Got it!
Maybe tomorrow?
BUT I won't expect it!
Scooter Girl!
This girl loves her new scooter!
She has been learning so many new things lately! I am so proud of her!
She can now ride her bike without training wheels. At the end of the summer she started putting her head in the water at the pool and now she is learning how to swim! She is learning how to read and write!
What a blessing this little girl has been to me and our whole family! Thank you, God! We are so blessed!
She has been learning so many new things lately! I am so proud of her!
She can now ride her bike without training wheels. At the end of the summer she started putting her head in the water at the pool and now she is learning how to swim! She is learning how to read and write!
What a blessing this little girl has been to me and our whole family! Thank you, God! We are so blessed!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Happy Birthday, Katie!
I can't believe my baby is 5!
It was a big birthday weekend for her, with a party for her friends on Saturday
and family over for lunch today. (Wish all of the family could have been here!)
Hoping for LID...
Was hoping for LID last week and it just didn't come. SO hoping and praying that TOMORROW it will come!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
DHL
Been tracking DHL all weekend! During the weekend and often while we were sleeping, our dossier went from Delaware to Philadelphia to Cincinnati to Hong Kong to Shanghai and is now DELIVERED! (It's Monday morning in China while it's still Sunday evening here) Would love to see our LID (logged in date) come through this week! Baby steps!
Friday, September 16, 2011
DTC!
We are DTC!!!!! (Dossier to China) See blog below about all the acronyms!!
WOOOOOOOOOOO! We have waited a LONG time for this! (8 months)
WOOOOOOOOOOO! We have waited a LONG time for this! (8 months)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
To Delaware
I just returned from shipping our dossier to our agency, Madison Adoption Associates, in Delaware! I hope they are able to send them right on to China this week!! Woo Hoo
DTC LID LOA TA What does it all mean?
Lots of you are asking, "Now that you're matched, what's next?" Here's a peek into all the acronyms that make up the journey of adopting a child from China. (Every country has their own set of papers and "letters".)
From February to today we have been working on the dossier. The dossier consists of paperwork that China will review to approve us as people they will allow to adopt a child from their country. It includes:
birth and marriage certificates
physician reports (about our health)
social worker's home study
police reports
employment letters
Homeland Security's fingerprint approval
Here are all the remaining steps:
DTC (Dossier To China)
LID (Logged In Date: the date China logs our dossier into their system)
LOA (Letter Of Approval) Letter from China approving us to adopt Sophie
NVC (National Visa Center) sends a letter to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China
Article 5 - US Consulate reviews Sophie's travel visa and gives TA
TA (Travel Approval) buy tickets to China! leave in appox. 2 weeks
Whew!
THEN....
Once we arrive in China we have a pretty busy 2 weeks with Civil Affairs, Consulate appointments, etc before we arrive HOME WITH SOPHIE!!
At this point we think travel may happen in February/March, 2012. As you can see it's a guess with all these steps that have to happen and not all of them happen in a standard 2 weeks! For example, LOA can take 6 weeks to 4 months.
Thanks for joining us for the ride. Please pray with us to be willing to accept God's timing, whatever it is. And pray for our daughter's heart to be open to us and to bond and attach quickly with her new family.
From February to today we have been working on the dossier. The dossier consists of paperwork that China will review to approve us as people they will allow to adopt a child from their country. It includes:
birth and marriage certificates
physician reports (about our health)
social worker's home study
police reports
employment letters
Homeland Security's fingerprint approval
Here are all the remaining steps:
DTC (Dossier To China)
LID (Logged In Date: the date China logs our dossier into their system)
LOA (Letter Of Approval) Letter from China approving us to adopt Sophie
NVC (National Visa Center) sends a letter to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China
Article 5 - US Consulate reviews Sophie's travel visa and gives TA
TA (Travel Approval) buy tickets to China! leave in appox. 2 weeks
Whew!
THEN....
Once we arrive in China we have a pretty busy 2 weeks with Civil Affairs, Consulate appointments, etc before we arrive HOME WITH SOPHIE!!
At this point we think travel may happen in February/March, 2012. As you can see it's a guess with all these steps that have to happen and not all of them happen in a standard 2 weeks! For example, LOA can take 6 weeks to 4 months.
Thanks for joining us for the ride. Please pray with us to be willing to accept God's timing, whatever it is. And pray for our daughter's heart to be open to us and to bond and attach quickly with her new family.
Thank you, God!
God has done a miracle with our paperwork! ALL our papers were processed by the Chinese Consulate yesterday! HURRAY! I should get them all back via FedEx today and will copy them and send them to Madison Adoption Associates and they will send them to China!!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Waiting...
for my courier to contact me via email to tell me what documents need to be resent to the Consulate. (and also be authenticated by Secretary of State). I already have a new marriage license ready to go! (They forgot to stamp the date it was printed on it.)
I am so ready to be DONE with this part of paperwork and to be DTC!
Refresh...refresh...refresh....
I am so ready to be DONE with this part of paperwork and to be DTC!
Refresh...refresh...refresh....
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sophia Faith
Here is our girl! LOVE that smile!
Cen Li Zhen is 6 years old. Her birthday is 5/23/05.
She 2 years younger than Zack and 1 year, 4 months older than Katie.
Her name will be Sophia Faith Li Zhen!
PA!
We have PA! That means pre-approval from China to adopt Sophie and it means I can post a picture! (When my tech support gets home from work!)
It's so hard to focus on anything (including teaching school) when you are so excited!!
It's so hard to focus on anything (including teaching school) when you are so excited!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
To the Chinese Consulate
Friday the youngest 3 homeschooled kids and I hopped in the van for "car school" and drove to Springfield. They authenticated ALL our documents at the Secretary of State's office! YAY!
The last 2 days I have been back and forth about what method to use (courier or myself) to take these dossier documents to the Chinese Consulate and which method to use (same day, one week) It was a difference of almost $300. We decided that I could drive the docs to the couriers home today so she could take them on Tuesday and we'd save time and money that way and get our documents back a week from Tuesday. She looked them over and was concerned with a couple of them getting through. For some reason our marriage certificate had no "date" on it. They have to be less than 6 months old. I got it on 4/4/2011, same day I got my birth certificate, which was dated. Go figure! Praying for grace there. Otherwise we'll have to order and new marriage certificate and re-do the Consulate!
I am so excited to be DTC! We have had so many "paper-pregnancy complications"!
The last 2 days I have been back and forth about what method to use (courier or myself) to take these dossier documents to the Chinese Consulate and which method to use (same day, one week) It was a difference of almost $300. We decided that I could drive the docs to the couriers home today so she could take them on Tuesday and we'd save time and money that way and get our documents back a week from Tuesday. She looked them over and was concerned with a couple of them getting through. For some reason our marriage certificate had no "date" on it. They have to be less than 6 months old. I got it on 4/4/2011, same day I got my birth certificate, which was dated. Go figure! Praying for grace there. Otherwise we'll have to order and new marriage certificate and re-do the Consulate!
I am so excited to be DTC! We have had so many "paper-pregnancy complications"!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
We said....YES!
It's been a whirlwind of a couple of days. I got up at 4am on Tuesday to drive some friends to the airport to go to Taiwan to pick up their adorable 10 month old daughter! I returned home to "Possible Referral" in my inbox! I opened it up to see a little Chinese cutie smiling at me!
We searched the internet to try to understand her medical condition. It wasn't one of the ones that we listed on our home study! That afternoon we went to our son's cross country meet and I told an acquaintance about her and her special need, and she said, "My neighbors' daughter had that surgery." What are the chances of that? God is amazing!
And get this, I KNOW the mom of the daughter who has the same medical condition! I called her up and she invited me over to learn more. Wow, God. Someone who has lived this and could give me an idea about what it's REALLY like. Not just a textbook, or an internet page. Real life.
I sent her picture and info to our older boys at college. The younger ones at home had already said yes to this little girl :)
I got a one word response from one of the boys via email: Yes.
The other one said, "she looks like an E-----" (our family name)!
So, there is a leap of faith here, we thought we'd be adopting someone who needed a cleft repair, or maybe had some fingers missing. But God has put this little one in our lives and we are so excited. She will need surgery for some digestive tract problems. And we are praying that the surgery will "cure" her condition. And if not, we will be there to help her deal with whatever we are given. We trust that the Lord will be with us just as He has shown Himself this week!
There is more about our paperwork chase...but that will have to be for another post. I have to go get everything ready to be authenticated tomorrow! :)
Best guess for travel: we were told 4-6 months once we are LID (when our dossier gets to China-which will hopefully happen in about 3 weeks). So really 5-7 months from now. Then add a month or 2, it is adoption, and we've done this before. It never happens when you wish it would! It's always later!
We searched the internet to try to understand her medical condition. It wasn't one of the ones that we listed on our home study! That afternoon we went to our son's cross country meet and I told an acquaintance about her and her special need, and she said, "My neighbors' daughter had that surgery." What are the chances of that? God is amazing!
And get this, I KNOW the mom of the daughter who has the same medical condition! I called her up and she invited me over to learn more. Wow, God. Someone who has lived this and could give me an idea about what it's REALLY like. Not just a textbook, or an internet page. Real life.
I sent her picture and info to our older boys at college. The younger ones at home had already said yes to this little girl :)
I got a one word response from one of the boys via email: Yes.
The other one said, "she looks like an E-----" (our family name)!
So, there is a leap of faith here, we thought we'd be adopting someone who needed a cleft repair, or maybe had some fingers missing. But God has put this little one in our lives and we are so excited. She will need surgery for some digestive tract problems. And we are praying that the surgery will "cure" her condition. And if not, we will be there to help her deal with whatever we are given. We trust that the Lord will be with us just as He has shown Himself this week!
There is more about our paperwork chase...but that will have to be for another post. I have to go get everything ready to be authenticated tomorrow! :)
Best guess for travel: we were told 4-6 months once we are LID (when our dossier gets to China-which will hopefully happen in about 3 weeks). So really 5-7 months from now. Then add a month or 2, it is adoption, and we've done this before. It never happens when you wish it would! It's always later!
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