Our life is layed out in front of us! These are our dossier documents ready to be sent to our agency. We are still waiting on rescheduling our fingerprint appointments. Once we have our I800 approval, it will be photocopied, notarized, certified and then authenticated. Then it will be FedExed to our agency and then we wait to be DTC!!!Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Everything But The Kitchen Sink....
Our life is layed out in front of us! These are our dossier documents ready to be sent to our agency. We are still waiting on rescheduling our fingerprint appointments. Once we have our I800 approval, it will be photocopied, notarized, certified and then authenticated. Then it will be FedExed to our agency and then we wait to be DTC!!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
One Step Forward...One Step Back
FINGERPRINT APPOINTMENTS have arrived!! EEEEEKS! They are for July 3rd...right at the end of our vacation. I have called our local immigration office and left a message to see if we can reschedule them for next week, but I have not heard anything back. We may just have to send the papers back to be rescheduled for when we return! Pray for us that we might be able to drive to Orlando tomorrow!!!! I've even thought about just driving down there and taking a chance even though they say "no walkins". But still...our God is faithful and always in control!!!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
One Little Step
We received our I-797C today from USCIS. This document basically tells us that they have received our application. It also tells us that we should be looking for our fingerprinting appointments in the mail.
Waiting...
Yesterday Kurt's birth certificate arrived from the Chinese Consulate. I was a little nervous because the authentication wasn't what I was expecting. Instead of having another paper attached to the front of the documents, it was a light blue sticker attached to the back of the State Seal certification paper. After a couple of phone calls and then an email to our case manager at the agency, all is well. It is exactly as it should be.
Today I am praying that we get our fingerprint appointments. It isgetting so close to the time we leave for vacation and I was hoping that we could have it completed before we head out.
Tonight is our first fundraiser for our adoption. My mom has planned the Pampered Chef party to be themed "A Trip To China!" The food she is preparing is all Asian and from the Pampered Chef recipes. I am so greatful for her and her desire to help us bring our little Kuan Kuan home!
If you are following our blog and have your own adoption story or blog, we would love to know and follow along!
After following the last batch of referrals some are receiving TA's in as short as 3-4 weeks and then traveling 6-8 weeks later! That looks good!!!
Please remember to say a prayer for all of the babies still waiting for their forever families!
In Christ,
Stacy
Today I am praying that we get our fingerprint appointments. It isgetting so close to the time we leave for vacation and I was hoping that we could have it completed before we head out.
Tonight is our first fundraiser for our adoption. My mom has planned the Pampered Chef party to be themed "A Trip To China!" The food she is preparing is all Asian and from the Pampered Chef recipes. I am so greatful for her and her desire to help us bring our little Kuan Kuan home!
If you are following our blog and have your own adoption story or blog, we would love to know and follow along!
After following the last batch of referrals some are receiving TA's in as short as 3-4 weeks and then traveling 6-8 weeks later! That looks good!!!
Please remember to say a prayer for all of the babies still waiting for their forever families!
In Christ,
Stacy
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Updates
It's been busy since the last week of school. Our I800-A was mailed to USCIS on 6/2/09 and received on 6/5/09. We are currently awaiting notification of our fingerprinting appt. The kids and I drove to Tallahassee to the Secretary of State's office to have our documents certified on 6/10/09. Sydney celebrated her 8th birthday on 6/12/09 with a gorgeous handmade Victorian dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa! On 6/15/09 received my birth certificate back from SOS and mailed all of our dossier to Chinese Consulate-Houston on 6/15/09. They received it this morning and we are hoping to have it all back within 10 days. Kurt's birth certificate is intransit as we speak from Chinsese Consulate-Chicago. As soon as our dossier is in our hands it will be sent to our agency. Only wait for DTC will be I800-A approval to be certified by SOS and then authenticated by Consulate. Read a post today about a family who's LID was early April 09 and received their LOA today! (This was a SN referral) I hope ours will be as quick. The kids are off to Michigan for a couple of weeks...the house is already too quiet without them! They've already hit the Valdosta outlets! Tomorrow they will visit Ruby Falls! Hope to have more to post soon! Now that Kurt's parents were surprised with Jackson's room, I'll get Kurt to post pictures. OOOOOO.....OOOOOOO.......OOOOOOO I forgot to tell you that we found out that Jackson has been in foster care since September!!!! Off to catch up on laundry and start my list of things to accomplish while the kids are away!!!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
how big is HE?
We've had so much happening lately and with school finishing on Friday, I've been on overload.
We finally were able to pick up our notarized medical forms! What a relief that has been. We are waiting for my birth certificate to come back from FL Secretary of State. We had to request my birth certificate from the Vital Statistics office in Jacksonville and then they send it off to Tallahassee. I'm curious to see if it is any different from the birth certificate we got from the vital statistics office here in town. My plan is to drive all of our dossier documents up to Tally on Wednesday and then have them off to the Chinese Consulate in Houston on Thursday. The Chinese Consulate in Chicago received Kurt's birth certificate...hope to have that by Friday. That is our one stray document. Our goal is to be able to have our dossier sent to WACAP by the end of June.
We are waiting on our fingerprint appointments for USCIS...the last piece of the puzzle.
It's Stanley Cup Playoffs...need I say more?? GO REDWINGS! We have a pair of Redwings jammies waiting for Jackson! They are the same pair that Sydney and Jadon wore.
Jackson's room is coming along quickly. Kurt is finishing up the dry wall tonight. We should be able to have drywall inspection on Monday. We want to have as much completed as we can because Kurt's parents will be here on Thursday and we want to be able to surprise them.
I was able to speak with our case manager from our agency for about 40 minutes on Friday. She doesn't think that we would be able to travel by December. We will continue to pray though. She is sending off a few more questions about Jackson. It is possible that he is in a foster home now. We will be able to send him a care package as soon as we have a LID. Hopefully we will have this so that we can send him a birthday care package.
FUNDRAISING!!!! We have started our fundraising. My mom who has only been retired for a year (and my dad for 8 months) has signed up to be a Pampered Chef consultant and is helping us raise money for Jackson. I had all of my things to put in the teacher's lounge and struggled with whether to put a note on there about raising money for the adoption. I spent a few hours contemplating it and knew that God was speaking to me. Have you ever heard God speak to YOU?? What an amazing feeling it is to know when you are hearing God's voice. How freeing it is to be obedient to His voice and His call. God continued to tell me and ask me, "Let me show you how BIG I am!" "If you don't let them know that this is for Jackson and what I've called your family to, how can I show you MY greatness?" An hour later a very special lady came to my classroom and gave us money for Jackson! She didn't want to buy anything, just wanted to give! I cried!!! What a blessing it is to see Jesus in others! GO GOD!!!
In two weeks my mom is having her first kitchen show and she's calling it A Trip to China! All of the food will be Chinese...how cool! I can't wait! Her website is www.pamperedchef.biz/barbarafraine
Amazing Books: Somehow I have managed to read two books and am on my third. I believe they are "must reads" if you are adopting from China. I think they have been able to prepare my heart for the journey God has put us on. The first book I read was "The Lost Daughters of China". The second was "Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage". And now I am reading "The Connected Child".
Soon I will blog about how God called us to adoption. As I try to trace back when God started preparing our hearts, it's surprising to see how FAR back God began His work in us! Soon we will post photos of our family. I love reading other blogs and seeing pictures of their families. It makes me feel so connected to other families that have been called by HIM!
In Christ,
Stacy
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him-but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit." 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
We finally were able to pick up our notarized medical forms! What a relief that has been. We are waiting for my birth certificate to come back from FL Secretary of State. We had to request my birth certificate from the Vital Statistics office in Jacksonville and then they send it off to Tallahassee. I'm curious to see if it is any different from the birth certificate we got from the vital statistics office here in town. My plan is to drive all of our dossier documents up to Tally on Wednesday and then have them off to the Chinese Consulate in Houston on Thursday. The Chinese Consulate in Chicago received Kurt's birth certificate...hope to have that by Friday. That is our one stray document. Our goal is to be able to have our dossier sent to WACAP by the end of June.
We are waiting on our fingerprint appointments for USCIS...the last piece of the puzzle.
It's Stanley Cup Playoffs...need I say more?? GO REDWINGS! We have a pair of Redwings jammies waiting for Jackson! They are the same pair that Sydney and Jadon wore.
Jackson's room is coming along quickly. Kurt is finishing up the dry wall tonight. We should be able to have drywall inspection on Monday. We want to have as much completed as we can because Kurt's parents will be here on Thursday and we want to be able to surprise them.
I was able to speak with our case manager from our agency for about 40 minutes on Friday. She doesn't think that we would be able to travel by December. We will continue to pray though. She is sending off a few more questions about Jackson. It is possible that he is in a foster home now. We will be able to send him a care package as soon as we have a LID. Hopefully we will have this so that we can send him a birthday care package.
FUNDRAISING!!!! We have started our fundraising. My mom who has only been retired for a year (and my dad for 8 months) has signed up to be a Pampered Chef consultant and is helping us raise money for Jackson. I had all of my things to put in the teacher's lounge and struggled with whether to put a note on there about raising money for the adoption. I spent a few hours contemplating it and knew that God was speaking to me. Have you ever heard God speak to YOU?? What an amazing feeling it is to know when you are hearing God's voice. How freeing it is to be obedient to His voice and His call. God continued to tell me and ask me, "Let me show you how BIG I am!" "If you don't let them know that this is for Jackson and what I've called your family to, how can I show you MY greatness?" An hour later a very special lady came to my classroom and gave us money for Jackson! She didn't want to buy anything, just wanted to give! I cried!!! What a blessing it is to see Jesus in others! GO GOD!!!
In two weeks my mom is having her first kitchen show and she's calling it A Trip to China! All of the food will be Chinese...how cool! I can't wait! Her website is www.pamperedchef.biz/barbarafraine
Amazing Books: Somehow I have managed to read two books and am on my third. I believe they are "must reads" if you are adopting from China. I think they have been able to prepare my heart for the journey God has put us on. The first book I read was "The Lost Daughters of China". The second was "Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage". And now I am reading "The Connected Child".
Soon I will blog about how God called us to adoption. As I try to trace back when God started preparing our hearts, it's surprising to see how FAR back God began His work in us! Soon we will post photos of our family. I love reading other blogs and seeing pictures of their families. It makes me feel so connected to other families that have been called by HIM!
In Christ,
Stacy
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him-but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit." 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
Monday, June 1, 2009
You've Got To Be Kidding Me!!!!
Admist the floods we had for a week, I dropped off our medical dossier paperwork, AGAIN, to be filled out and notarized. On Friday, Sydney and I went to the dr. office praying that the paperwork would be ready. It wasn't, and no one was quite sure where it was. This morning I get a phone call from the nurse letting me know that they can't find it ANYWHERE!!!! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! They asked if I could bring in another copy and only give it to a particular nurse!!! The medical paperwork is going to be the death of me!
I will be calling our agency today to find out if our I-800A paperwork has been sent off. Our homestudy paperwork took a little longer than expected to be completed. Does anyone have any current reports of how long it is taking the I-800A to be approved? Can we mail our dossier to the China Consulate in Houston without it??? And then send it when it arrives? December isn't looking too promising today!
I'll leave you with a quote from my sister-in-law that has been through the international adoption process twice..."Expect something to go wrong or get delayed!"
In Christ, Stacy
I will be calling our agency today to find out if our I-800A paperwork has been sent off. Our homestudy paperwork took a little longer than expected to be completed. Does anyone have any current reports of how long it is taking the I-800A to be approved? Can we mail our dossier to the China Consulate in Houston without it??? And then send it when it arrives? December isn't looking too promising today!
I'll leave you with a quote from my sister-in-law that has been through the international adoption process twice..."Expect something to go wrong or get delayed!"
In Christ, Stacy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)