Dossier Update!

Our dossier has safely reached its finally destination in China! What a huge sigh of relief!! Next we await a log-in-date then a letter of approval officially giving us permission to adopt Maya Grace.  Others are waiting from days in the 40s to 100s.  I am trusting God that we will be on the lower end!

DTC!!!

After starting this adoption journey in June, 2011 we are finally DTC!!! We are beyond excited!  We serve an amazing God!

Paperwork is Out of My Hands!!!

Today I made the drive to our state capital to have our final two papers certified by the Secretary of State.  They are now in the hands of FedEx and will be delivered to the courier in Houston tomorrow.  She will take them to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for authentication.  Unfortunately they are not doing expedited services right now so it will take four days instead of one.  Hopefully they will be in the hands of our agency by Friday.  I really wanted to have our dossier on the way to Beijing by next weekend!  I will not give up hope for that to happen.  I have to trust that everything is done in God's perfect timing.  

Coffee Fundraiser - Just Love Coffee

Just Love Coffee Fundraiser
Hey everyone! We have an exciting announcement. We have signed up with Just Loves Coffee to help us raise funds for our adoption! For anyone that loves coffee or knows someone who does, we now have fair-trade organic coffee that can be purchased from our store and a portion of the $$ goes to help us bring our daughter home! Each bag is $12.95 and we will receive $5 per bag. So, if you love coffee and you would be interested in helping us bring our daughter home….we would be so grateful for any purchase(s). You can visit our storefront here -  Coffee Store

Approval!!!!

Our USCIS approval came today!! Looks like we can be DTC (dossier to China) next week! Finally! There will be some celebrating going on at our house when that day comes!

PROGRESS FINALLY!

Yesterday I learned that we received pending approval once again from CCCWA. This was granted on July 13, 2012 - yes a very LUCKY Friday the 13th for us! Also yesterday we finally received our RFE letter from the USCIS. They requested less information than stated during my telephone conversation with them. I sent the documents overnight by FedEx. I am praying for approval this week! We are getting so close to being DTC (dossier to China)! We are breathing a little more easier! A Facebook friend posted this verse yesterday "The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. Psalm 37:23-24". It spoke to my heart. Yes, God does delight in every detail of my life. Yes, He is holding me by the hand. Yes, He will bring Maya Grace home in His perfect timing.

Whew......and Grumble............

I am going to share the details of yesterday so others will know the road in which we are now walking. We officially made the decision to change adoption agencies on June 28th. We contacted our adoption agency that day and asked that our dossier be sent to the new agency. It was not done until July 3rd but was sent and was complete upon arrival. Since we had obtained pending approval from CCCWA for our daughter we also had to ask that she be "unlocked" by the agency so that the new agency could lock her in for us. At the beginning of that following week I learned that due to the status of our daughter at the time of us receiving pending approval for her that she would have to be placed back on the "Shared List". The Shared List is a list updated at least once a month by China and contains around 1,600 special needs children waiting for homes. Any agency world-wide has access to this list and has the capability of "locking" a child's file for seventy-two hours to allow a family to review the file. This was extremely disconcerting! There was a risk of us losing her!! The possibility existed that when her file was placed back on the list that another agency could see it pop up and lock it in prior to our new one being able. Had she been a special focus child as we thought she was it would have just been an easy agency to agency transfer. Our new agency who is AWESOME contacted China on our behalf and advocated for us. After a week of our daughter's file being unlocked we learned last night that our agency was able to officially lock her back in for us!! When the email popped up with the subject line "Got Her" I started screaming! Literally screaming and crying with joy! Her little face is in my heart, soul, and mind. I have been staring at her face since February. The one week of uncertainty was one of the most difficult weeks in my entire life. The thought of losing her was more than I could fathom. Now today our agency will submit a new Letter of Intent for us to adopt. We will hopefully get pending approval in the next week! I am praising God that the process of re-locking her in for us proceeding so smoothly! Now for my grumble! When you adopt from China you must obtain approval from the United States Government USCIS division. The USCIS handles immigration matters. We overnighted our application to them and it was received on 5/18. A requirement is that you must be fingerprinted electronically at your local office. This was done on 6/4. As with most governmental functions the wheels turn slowly. We were not assigned an officer to review our case until 7/2. He contacted me on 7/3 to tell me that he needed further documentation in order to adjudicate our case. Evidently the one page certified certificates of divorce were not sufficient. He asked for actual divorce decrees. OK - easy fix in my mind. Just a visit to the courthouse. Then he said he needed more verbage in the summary and recommendation section of our home study. He said he would be sending out a letter detailing his requests. As of yesterday no letter had been received and I have been stalking the mailman daily. We called and sent an email. I received a message today that he will send the letter out in 3-5 days! Seriously????? My child is waiting. So now once we obtain the letter we have to submit it to the social worker who will have to do her part. We will have to send the documents back to USCIS. We then will have to wait on approval to come in the mail. A copy of that form will have to be notarized. I will have to get it certified on a county and state level. Then forward it overnight to the Houston courier who will take it to the Chinese Consulate for authentication. She will overnight it to our agency. Then and only then can our dossier be sent to China!! I wish that people could see the files as being a CHILD waiting on a family. A child with medical needs not being met. A child who is hungry. A child without a Mama or Baba. A child without the love and security of a family. NOT A STACK OF PAPER! Ending on a happy note! We were able to arrange a birthday party for our daughter at her orphanage. This is one of the photos we received afterwards! We want her home now! Oh, and she has icing smeared on her face in case you were wondering!

Not so pleasant .....Chapter 2

Our home study process went extremely well! Can I say we had the best home study social worker in the entire world??  Both agencies that we were working with seemed awesome.  Each step of paperwork completion was taking us one step closer to our daughter. I have a friend who has walked this adoption journey with me.  She is using the same agencies.  On 6/18 my friend's dossier was fully complete and ready to be sent to China.  On 6/19 we learned via email that due to our agency's suspension that our dossiers could NOT be sent to China.  The suspension is to be lifted on September 10th.  We were told that the dossiers had to be held until then.  I honestly became physically ill when I read the email.  After everything negative that had occurred in the beginning of our adoption planning to then learn this news caused me to be emotionally devastated.  Waiting two to three months in the whole scheme of life was not the issue.  It was the fact that the agency had given us false information.  Could I trust them?  What if 9/10 came and the suspension was lengthened?  What if they were giving us incorrect information again?  This was MY child - not a business transaction.  I began to explore and contact others.  I learned that many people had experiences with this agency that they deemed unethical.  After gathering information, prayer, and soul-searching we decided that it was in our best interest to change agencies.  Doing this we knew it was a likely possibility that we would lose the $3850 that we had paid to them coupled with the $5000 we lost in the beginning of this journey. This horrendous fact was very difficult for us to even process in our minds.  This sweet little face gave us the motivation to keep going! 

The Beginning of the Story

In the Spring of 2011 God spoke to our hearts in numerous ways.  He let us know that our family was not complete.  He let our spirits know without a shadow of doubt that we had another daughter in China.  Our road on this adoption journey has been rocky and filled with obstacles. One journey started in May of 2011 and ended in January 2012. Those of you close to me know the details.  We regrouped and moved on as were are not ones to be defeated. In February of 2012 as I viewed a list of waiting children from an agency specific list one of the little one's faces drew me to them.  I asked to see her file.  We had previously filled out a check list of conditions we were willing to accept.  I was emailed back that this particular child had been found to have more developmental delays than previously thought.  It was also believed that she was autistic.  I was told that she did not appear to be the child that we were seeking to add to our family.  I was saddened as I read the news.  In this same email it was written that another child's file had just come across their desk.  The file was attached. Before I even opened the file I knew she was our daughter.  Her birth date was listed and it happened to be the day after mine.  Our other girls' birth dates also correspond to other important events in our lives.  I was shaking as I opened the file. When I saw her my hands flew to my mouth as I gasped in air.  Her little face became seared in my heart.  I knew she was the ONE that GOD had perfectly planned for us. 

Within days we submitted a LOI for those outside the adoption world this is a Letter of Intent to adopt.  In this letter you detail that you are aware of the child's special needs and how you plan to provide medical care for those needs. The agency sends this letter to China to the CCCWA (China Center for Adoption Affairs).  The CCCWA then decides if you can meet the child's needs.  If so then you are sent PA which is pending approval.  We received on PA on 2/15 about a week after our LOI was submitted.  We were ecstatic! Our paperchase was on hot and heavy.  We found an agency in our state to perform a home study. On 2/23 we learned that our placing agency had been suspended by CCCWA.  It was later learned that this was due to an issue with a facilitator.  I immediately contacted them and was told that since we had PA that we would not be affected. I believed them. Yes I believed them. 

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place, or circumstance.  The thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break" - Chinese Proverb