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....
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
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!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
USCIS Fingerprints
Last Friday we got our fingerprint appointment from USCIS. The appointment day was for the day we are supposed to leave to take Ryan to school. So we decided to try to "walk in" without an appointment to Naperville and "wait" until they could fit us in.
Today was the big day! We made the boys get up and be ready to leave by 6am. (Matt and Ryan both have to be fingerprinted too since they are over 17) We arrived right at 8 am when they opened and we were told by the receptionist that we'd have to wait for the immigration officer to talk to us, but that he wasn't in yet. There were about 15-20 people ahead of us and more coming in behind us. It wasn't looking good. When the officer got in he came over to talk to us and told us it wouldn't be possible to be printed today because they had 100 people scheduled and only 3 workers. I politely asked if it was ok if we just sat and waited, even for several hours to see if there was time for us to be printed. He said we could wait but we had to understand that we might not get seen all day.
So we sat and read and watched "UP" on the tv. We continued to pray as the time ticked away, 9:00, 10:00, people going, new people coming. At 10:30 I looked around and for the first time there were only 5 people waiting instead of 15-20 like there had been all morning.
At about 10:40 the receptionist called our name and then stamped our papers! We were all going to be printed TODAY! The worker who printed Shawn said, "I thought it was supposed to be packed all day. I'm surprised to see it so slow right now." THANKS GOD!
We were out by 11am and on our way to treat our 2 oldest to Portillos for lunch!
Please pray that my prints were good enough quality. They were much better today since it isn't winter, but every other time I've had them done they have rejected and have to be re-done! I am so hoping that I don't have to go back there again!
Today was the big day! We made the boys get up and be ready to leave by 6am. (Matt and Ryan both have to be fingerprinted too since they are over 17) We arrived right at 8 am when they opened and we were told by the receptionist that we'd have to wait for the immigration officer to talk to us, but that he wasn't in yet. There were about 15-20 people ahead of us and more coming in behind us. It wasn't looking good. When the officer got in he came over to talk to us and told us it wouldn't be possible to be printed today because they had 100 people scheduled and only 3 workers. I politely asked if it was ok if we just sat and waited, even for several hours to see if there was time for us to be printed. He said we could wait but we had to understand that we might not get seen all day.
So we sat and read and watched "UP" on the tv. We continued to pray as the time ticked away, 9:00, 10:00, people going, new people coming. At 10:30 I looked around and for the first time there were only 5 people waiting instead of 15-20 like there had been all morning.
At about 10:40 the receptionist called our name and then stamped our papers! We were all going to be printed TODAY! The worker who printed Shawn said, "I thought it was supposed to be packed all day. I'm surprised to see it so slow right now." THANKS GOD!
We were out by 11am and on our way to treat our 2 oldest to Portillos for lunch!
Please pray that my prints were good enough quality. They were much better today since it isn't winter, but every other time I've had them done they have rejected and have to be re-done! I am so hoping that I don't have to go back there again!
Another (Successful) Garage Sale!
Woo hoo! We made it through the heat and the stuff is gone and the garage is back to being a garage again! (Complete with parked vehicles, bikes, mower, etc!) I don't think I've ever sweat so much in all my life, ok, at least not in a lot of years! But it was worth it! We made $1600!! Praising God!
THANKS to all who helped, by donation of stuff, time and purchasing! :)
THANKS to all who helped, by donation of stuff, time and purchasing! :)
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