Chicago trip #2

We had to leave our paperwork at the Consulate in Chicago.  Then we also had to make another trip to pick it up in person.  The kids and I headed up after gymnastics (10:30) and drove straight there with no problems.

 

Here are the kids with our authenticated paperwork! 

We picked up the papers, had ice cream at McDonalds and got right back on the road home. 

 

 

We are now ready to send our dossier to our agency in CO for critical review and translation.  We are thrilled to have another step done!!

It was like we were in the movies!

One of the last steps of preparing our dossier is to get all of the paperwork certified and authenticated.  We could get both done by roadtripping to Chicago to the Secretary of State's office and then the Chinese Consulate.  We left early this morning (5:10)!!  Whaat we thought would be a fun day in Chicago turned out to be a bit crazy! To save a lot of time and typing I will do the rest of this post in a timeline of events....

4:21 Max up
5:10 Leave Morton
8:45 parked and walked to Sec of State office.
9:47 we find out 1 paper had an error - It was Adam's job verification that his boss had to sign and notorize.  Adam calls his boss, asks him to get another one made and notorized.
10:45 - new paper is ready at CAT
Adam's dad was in Morton while his car was in the shop.  Adam called his dad, who borrowed my grandmas car, picked up the paper from CAT and headed to meet Adam half way to Chicago. The kids and I stay in downtown Chicago for lunch and some shopping.
12:20 - Adam meets his dad at exit 217. His dad hands the paper to Adam and Adam gets right back on the interstate.
1:35 - Adam hands me the paper out of the window, our 2 youngest hop in the van and Mitchell & I run the paper back up to Sec of State office.
2:07 - We have the paper certified from Sec of State. Adam takes paper and takes off running to the Chinese Consulate. (Leaving me to drive the van, with the kids, in downtown Chicago :)
2:16 - Adam gets a ticket in line at Embassy....they close at 2:30!!!!
2:30 - Consulate closes
3:05 - All paperwork is successfully turned into Consulate for authorization
3:06 - we are ready to enjoy Chicago!!

Having lunch at Subway, overlooking the river!



Max & I on the bridge.



The kids at Buckingham fountain.

 

 

Elsa & I at Lake Michigan.

Home Study Approvals

Our homestudy was completed back in March (March 8th to be exact)  On that day it was sent to our agency in CO to be approved.  Our social worker thought it would take about a week.  Fast forward 4 weeks to April 8th and we received notice that our homestudy was approved.  On that same day it was sent to DCFS for approval as well.  This process was to take 2 to 3 weeks and "yay for us" it was approved in 1 week!!  Adam and I completed all the paperwork involved to file our I800A with Immigration and overnighted it today.  This next step could take 6 to 10 weeks.  During this time we will be given an appointment to get our fingerprints taken.  Once we receive approval from them we get to take ALL the paperwork to get notorized, certified and authenticated and then our dossier will be ready to send to our agency and then to CHINA!!!   We are coming sweet Emme, a step closer each day!!

It's A Girl!

As most of you know, on March 8, 2013 we said "Yes" to a beautiful little GIRL!! 

Here is how it all happened.........let me start by saying we were starting to adjust to the idea that we would most likely get a boy as they really out number the girls right now.  Periodically, I would check the waiting list profiles on our agencies website.  One day I saw a little girl named Mei and thought I would ask about her, couldn't hurt right??  They responded saying that another family was looking at her file and she would add us to her "lenghty list of waiting potential parents" I took that as code for slim chance that will work out :)  A couple of days later she was listed as a matched child, but it was then that I saw Pei.  I asked if we could be added to her list and they said again a family was looking at her file and they added us to her list.  A few days after that I checked to see if she had been matched and I SAW TONG!  Other adoptive moms had told me that you would just know when you saw him or her and they were right for you.  Well, I had that moment as I looked into her sweet face.  I have been praying ever since we started our adoption that God would clearly show us the child we should bring into our family.  I emailed our agency asking if we could be added to the list to see Tong's file.  Within a few minutes her whole file was emailed to us!  I get chills and tears every time I think or talk about it.  This all happened on Thursday Feb 28th.  We had 1 week to talk to medical specialists and make our decision.  After all three of the physicians saying that they didn't see anything that concerned them, we said yes!!!  Emmeline "Emme"  MeiTong Dean is currently 15 months old.  We cannot wait to get our hands on her and welcome her into our family.  Our whole family of 5 will be traveling to China for 2 weeks when the time comes.

 Here is where we ask for prayer.  Plese pray for patience for us as we wait and pray for safety and comfort for Emme as she waits.  She will be 2 on Nov 2nd and we would love to have her by then.  God has been with us each step of the way and we know His timing is perfect. 

*Due to legal reasons, we cannot post any pictures at this time, but once we have her we will make up for that!

Homestudy and Physicals

I know it has been awhile, but there hasn't been too much excitement on the adoption front.  We had our 5th and final homestudy meeting last Friday.  The last meeting is a family meeting where she "interviews" the kids, tours our home, and has us fill out even more paperwork.  It all went great.  We love our social worker and things continue to run smoothly.

We all have to get a physical for the homestudy.  Mitchell is the only of our kids that had to get one due to the fact the the other two have been recently.  They did the normal routine check up and asked if I wanted him to get his shot :)  Oops, didn't see that one coming.  He got it and said "that was it" when she was done.  They wrapped his 6th grade physical and adoption physical into one.....the only problem I had with this is HOW IN THE WORLD IS HE GOING INTO 6TH GRADE??!!

Adam and I have 12 hours of International Adoption training this month and our homestudy will be complete.  Once we get the homestudy approved we are ready to move on to the next step!

The Paper Chase

We are now fully submerged in the great paper chase!  We are waiting on some paperwork (in the mail) so we can take all the paper work to get notorized and then send it off to be certified and authenticated.  All of this before we send it to our agency to be approved. 

So far we have been incredibly blessed as everything has gone smoothly. 

Adam is (as I type) at our 3rd Homestudy meeting.  The 3rd and 4th are individual meetings so I didn't skip out :)   We have 5 meetings total, with the 5th being a home visit/chat with the kids. 

We then have 12 hours of International Adoption Training, physicals, more paperwork and lots of waiting. 

With each step we are getting more and more anxious to find out if we are adding a girl or boy to our family and see his/her precious face! 

Please pray with us as we work through this paper phase and for patience as we wait!!

 

 

 

Where Do We Begin?

Adoption is something that wasn't in the plan all along.  I have always thought it would be great to adopt but Adam never really gave it much thought.  Fast forward to Sept 2012 and Adam sends me an email from work.  It says that starting in 2013 CAT is starting a new adoption benefit and he thought I would want to know.  I couldn't believe that he even paid attention to that :)

A couple of days later we had "the talk".  Adoption is not a decision to take lightly so we commited to strongly pray for a few weeks.  We looked into Haiti, Honduras and Brazil.  All of them didn't work out for one reason or another..one country had adoptions on freeze, a couple of them required lengthy stays in their country etc.  It was then we came across the waiting children program in China. 

There are many children awaiting their forever families and are having a hard time finding homes due to their (for the most part) minor special need.   Seeing some of the faces of these children captured our hearts and we knew we were heading to China!  We applied to CCAI (referral from some friends) and heard the next week that they approved our application. 

We requested a boy or girl between the ages of 1 and 4! The current wait time for a waiting child is 6 to 12 months.  China requires a trip of 14 to 17 days to pick up your child.  We are taking our kids with us and we all look forward to that! We would appreciate your prayers as we embark on this amazing journey and will keep you posted along the way.