An Amazing Update!

I can't even believe it...I am still in shock! A month ago when we submitted our dossier we were #14 on the waiting list. I emailed our agency to get our update for this month and I was so surprised and excited when she told me...we are now #7!!! Our wait was basically cut in half in a month! I guess they got 7 referrals in the last month so that means the we could actually have our referral in another month. Of course, I am not expecting that at all. I'm sure they won't get as many referrals this month but I am still very excited.

I guess now Vietnam is saying (although not "officially") that they will continue to process people's adoptions that have their dossier's submitted by September so that is all I care about:) Let's just hope they make it official. Of course now the rumor mill is working overtime that Vietnam is going to cancel agencies licenses that are not Hague accreditated by April 1st but others are saying that the US is trying to pressure them to do that but that Vietnam isn't going to do that. Who knows? Our agency has applied for their accreditation but with the overwhelming number of agencies applying it is taking longer. They say they should have it any day now so then we wouldn't have to worry either way.

We have been so busy with preperations to move and everything. We have actually purchased a new house in Ohio and after we close and do a little work on it we will be moving near the end of May. Unfortunately, that means we have to do an updated homestudy and redo some of our paperwork. I wasn't too worried about it but then I found out we will have to resubmit our homestudy to the USCIS in Ohio and get a new I-171H so hopefully it won't take to long. We are in the process of looking for a new homestudy agency in Ohio. One said we have to do a whole new homestudy and our agency and one of the new ones said we should just have to do an update so let's hope that's all. As stressful as all this is and frustrating to have to do new paperwork, God has been good to us so I can't complain! God has really blessed us and we have gotten so far that I know He will see us through and bring us to our sweet baby girl:)

The Lord is so Good!

I can't even believe it but on Friday, Feb. 15th we received our authenticated dossier back from California! They received it on Monday and on Friday of the same week we got it back so it was definately worth paying the extra money to get it expedited. I had to take everything to the UPS store and make photocopies and then mail it off to our agency. It was four pounds of paperwork! I shipped it to them on Friday and today they said they received it and everything looked good and we are #14 on the waiting list! I was floored when she told us that because last time I asked about a month ago there were 17 people in line so I figured by now the list would be even longer. I guess they had gotten more referrals since then and no more dossier's. It feels so good to actually know what number we are and know that no one else can get in front of us. God has really blessed us in this process and exactly 2.5 months to the day from our application to the agency we had our completed, authenticated dossier done! Thank you Lord!

This is all of our different stacks of authenticated papers

This is our stack of copies and originals that we sent our agency

Pictures

I'm finally adding some pictures from when we got our dossier "state certified".

We're paper-pregnant! This is the day we got our I-171H

Outside the State Capitol before getting dossier state certified.

Nic outside State Capitol.

Sitting in the Secretary of state office after getting dossier State Certified.

Since I was already on here adding pictures I wanted to go ahead and put a couple of pictures of my niece Kate on here from when she stayed with me.

This was Kate's first Sleepover with us.

This was the mess Kate made after her nap. She pulled all the stuff out of my gift wrap drawer.

A Poem about Adoption

This is a poem my social worker sent me. I read it today and cried...I thought it was so sweet.

"Legacy of an Adopted Child"

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other
One you do not remember
The other you call Mother.

Two different lives
Shaped to make yours one.
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun.

The first gave you life
And the second taught you to live in it.
The first gave you a need for love
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent
The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile
The other dried your tears.

One gave you up--
It was all that she could do.
The other prayed for a child
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me,
Through your tears,
The age-old questions
Through the years--

Heredity or environment--
Which are you the product of?
Neither, my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of love.

- Unknown

What a Relief!

We made it! It was as crazy a day as I thought it would be (I went to Scott county, Jessamine county, Fayette county and Franklin county getting documents cerfified) but it was also fun. The Secretary of State is in the Capitol building and Nic had never been there so we walked around a little bit and got some pictures. It was surprisingly a very simple process and it only took a few minutes and we were state certified. After that we went to FedEx and sent our documents overnight to the Consulate General of Vietnam in San Fransisco. As soon as I get a chance I am going to post some pictures.

The next step is waiting to get our dossier back after they authenticate it. We paid the extra fee to have it expidited so we are praying we can get it back in a week. Once we get that back we just have to make four photocopies of ever page and then send it to our agency and they will ship it to Vietnam. From that point we will officially be on the waiting list and then the real wait begins.

We are "Paper Pregnant"!!!

I am in Shock. I still can't even believe it. I went out to the mailbox today hoping to have received our marriage certificate and not even thinking about anything else. I pulled out an envelope disappointed because it didn't look like it would be our marriage certificate because it didn't come from Kentucky. Well, I looked at the return address and it said it was from US Immigration. At first it didn't even register to me what it was. Then, all of a sudden it dawned on me that it might be something to do with our I-171H but I was still thinking it couldn't be true...it must be something just saying that they had received our homestudy or something...it couldn't be what I was starting to hope it was because it was just in a plain old white letter-sized envelope. Well, I got into the car where my niece Kate was waiting (I was watching her today) and was so excited I couldn't contain myself. I opened the envelope and quickly scanned the certificate and to my surprise and amazement it really was what I had prayed it was...our I-171H immigration approval to adopt an infant girl from Vietnam! I started screaming and jumping up and down in the car and Kate just sat in her carseat laughing at me and grinning. Tear of joy came to my eyes as this meant that we are officially doing this. Until you get that immigration approval you just can't imagine that it's real...but it is! I prayed and hoped we would get it by Valentines and expected to get it by March but God heard our prayers and answered them. We are so excited and grateful...praise the Lord!

Now for the fun stuff...we are going to be running around like chickens with our head's cut off tomorrow. Luckily, Nic is working from home in the morning and then taking the other half of the day off so he can help me. I really wanted him to get to do all this with me. First, I have to run to the bank Mom works at to have our I-171H notarized and then take it to the courthouse to have it certified, then I have to run to Jessamine county in Nicholasville to have our Physician letters county certified, when I get back I will check the mail and pray that our marriage certificate came, then Nic and I will drive to Frankfort to get a marriage certificate in person if it didn't come and to get our police background checks county certified and then all of our other documents along with those State certified. Once we do that then it is off to FedEx to have everything overnighted to the Vietnam Consulate in California along with a certified check. Needless to say we are going to be extremely busy but I love it and I can't wait until tomorrow:)

Alexa's Nursery Furniture

I can't believe that we already bought Alexa's nursery furniture when we haven't even turned our dossier in yet but I just couldn't stand it. I have been looking at this set since we first started trying to get pregnant and I loved it but it was too expensive so I never thought I would get it. Well, I just happened to go into Babies R Us one day just to look at it and it was on clearence. They were getting rid of this set so I knew that I had to act fast because there were not many left. I went home and talked to Nic about it and he found me a 15% off coupon so with that and the clearance price we got an amazing deal. I just couldn't pass it up. I'm glad that I acted fast too because there was only one hutch left anywhere so I got the last one:)

All of the pieces are finally in so now I just have to figure out when we can pick it up. Unfortunately, since we are moving I won't be able to set it up until we get into our new house. Plus, I don't know where we are going to put all the huge boxes while we are trying to sell our house. I need to see if we can use Grammy and Pawpa's garage:) I can't wait until I get to start decorating Alexa's nursery!

Dossier Update

Things are starting to move along with our dossier. We finally have all of our documents except for our certified marriage certificate. Everything is notarized and I went to the Scott County Courthouse yesterday to get our documents "county certified" that were notarized in Scott County. Of course we get to live in one of the few states that make you get everything county certified before you can get it state certified. It's really not too bad though since we can just take it in person and they certify it right then. I am going to the Fayette County Clerk either today or tomorrow to get our Fayette documents certified. I guess we'll wait to get our police background checks certified in Franklin county until we have everything and go to Frankfort to get everything state certified. However, we won't do that until we get our I-171h (which we just found out that in Kentucky it's actually called a I-797c so that is how I will refer to it from now on).

Waiting for our I-797c is the part that is nerve-wracking. Everything hinges on that as it is our official "approval" saying we are allowed to adopt internationally. Our social worker told us that the current wait time that she's been seeing is 30-40 days but when Nic checked out the USCIS website it said that they on Jan. 15 they were just now processing Oct. 15 applications so we have no clue when ours will be ready. We are just praying for God to work a miracle for us and let us get it sooner. Our prayer is that we will get it by Valentines day but I guess that is a lofty goal. I'm just worried that it will come the day that we leave for our trip. We will be leaving the last week of Feb. and we'll be gone for about 10 days so it would be nice if we could get it all sent off to to the Vietnam Consulate in California before we leave. It's supposed to take about 2 weeks there so then it would almost be done when we get back. I just have to keep reminding myself though that everything is in God's plan and there is a reason if we have to wait a little longer.

Things have been very hectic around here lately since our house is officially on the market and we are trying to get all of our adoption paperwork ready on top of that. Two days after the house went up we had someone come and look at it and then she came back with her parents two days later. It was her favorite house but her parents think it may be too big for just her so we aren't any closer to selling. Which, I have to say that it kinda relieves me because I am just not ready to move. Hopefully we can have our dossier done and sent to Vietnam before we have to worry about moving.

Received Dossier Guidelines

We've been a little busy lately so it's been a while since I have updated our blog. In the last couple of weeks we went to Gatlinburg with some friends and then when we got back we went to Columbus to start looking for the area we would like to live. The day before we left we got our dossier guidelines which was pretty exciting! It was like getting a present at Christmas to go through it all and see what we needed to do. It just felt good knowing that we could start the next step to getting our baby.

Well, I suddenly realized after looking through everything that it was going to be a little more complicated that I realized. I know everyone said it would be a lot of work but I had seen a checklist and a lot of the stuff we already had from our homestudy. We have to compile all our documents and then get them all notarized in the state they originated from, after that we have to have them all certified by the Secretary of State but apparently, Kentucky is a little different from other states because before we can do that we have to get it county certified in the county that the document was notarized in. That should be fun because our documents have been notarized in at least 3 different counties. Luckily though, we can take it to the Secretary of State in Frankfort in person to be certified so we should be able to get it back right away instead of waiting two weeks. Once we get that done then we will send everything to the Vietnam Consulate in California to be authenticated which will take about two weeks. Once we get our I-171H we can get it certified and then send out dossier sent off. We are hoping to have it all done and sent off by the end of February. It's a lot to do, but it will be so worth it when we see our baby for the first time.

Things are a little stressful right now with the situation with the Vietnam adoptions. The agreement between Vietnam and the US expires on September 1, 2008 and the US is saying to be cautious because it might not be renewed. I am a little nervous about what that will mean and if we aren't going to get to complete our adoption but I just have to have faith that God will see it through because we truly feel that this is His will. Hopefully we will know something in March when the intent to renew is supposed to be signed. Our hope is that we can get our dossier in and have our referral before September...we are praying that even if they don't renew the agreement they will at least let families that are in the process complete their adoptions. We will just have to continue to pray that God will see us through and have faith. We are pressing forward with that in mind.

Our Home Study Is Finally Approved!

I am so excited...our home study has finally been approved by our agency and sent back to our social worker! Of course, when I say "our agency" I mean the first agency that we had originally started with. I know we are crazy:) but we switched back to them. This is our final switch but we just never felt comfortable with the new agency and then when we started having communication problems with them we just felt we should change. I had called and emailed the agency several times with no responses or I was told he would call me right back and he never did. Then I was told twice that he would contact our social worker "first thing in the morning" and another time "I will contact her tonight" and two days later she had still never heard from him. Needless to say, I was stressing out. Luckily, we had only sent our application and that is all so we did not lose out on any time. Well, after going back with the first agency, within about 2 hours we had the approval for our home study! I am so relieved and excited! Our social worker is having it notarized and then she is sending it to the USCIS on Monday so she said we can expect our I-171H approval in about 30-40 days. Once we get that then we will be sending our dossier off!

We also started our adoption education classes today. We have to each complete 10 hours of education for our adoption and it feels good to be able to do something while we are waiting. Of course, right now we should have plenty of things to keep us busy and hopefully make our waiting go quickly.