Great news for a friend!

The funniest and most amazing thing happened today. Last night I was thinking about a family that I have been in contact with because they are in the process of adopting a little girl that is with Quan in the same orphanage. I haven't emailed in months and thought I should today. Her adoption has been involved and they have been waiting a very long time. Her dad is the man that has met Quan and sent me the wonderful pictures of him smiling and happy. (The only pictures of him smiling and happy) I sent the email and to my surprise got a response that they were leaving for the airport on their way to China to bring their daughter home!!! I am so excited for them! What a wonderful surprise! And he told me that he will be sure to give Quan a hug and a kiss and assure him that he has a family and we will be coming for him too. In a few days he will be with his daughter, and also will see my son!!! I am beyond excited for them. It's a great day.

A letter

I just got to write a letter to my little boy. After we found out that Quan knows about us we immediately wanted to write a letter to him so that he could know that we are in fact real. It is so important to get photos to him so he gets to finally see who we are. It hasn't been fair that we have gotten to see him and he still has no idea who we are. Sure hope he likes us! :) It was such an emotional thing writing that letter. There was so much I wanted to tell him and yet I didn't want to over whelm him. I have to say, that little boy is definitely suppose to be my son. It may not be easy, but I know he is suppose to be with us. I so can't wait to have him home. What ever it takes. I want to be tucking this little guy in at night with his brother and sisters. He has spent too long without a mama.

So handsome!

We got an awesome surprise today. Betty sent us updated photos. He's so handsome. He's a skinny little guy. I wish this would move quicker and someone could just let us go and get him. The kids were excited to see what there new brother looks like right now. But we are all very ready to see him in person. I know no body is more ready than him.  I am working on getting pictures together to make a photo album of all of us so he can see what we look like. I hope so much that it puts a smile on that solemn face. I am hoping it will give him hope if he can see us and know we are real. I have to explain to him that we don't want this wait. That we are doing everything we can. And everyone is working very hard. As an adult I can say, it just takes too long! I can't imagine how this wait feels to a child. My little man, it will be worth the wait. We are going to love you so much. You will never be without a family again. Hold on and be brave. I promise we are coming to bring you home.

           SOMEONE'S MISSING....AND HE'S WAITING FOR US IN JIANGSU

GREAT NEWS!!!

Our dossier was able to be sent to China on Thursday after all!!!  Our home study agency director was out of the country busy working on adoption related things when we desperately needed her signature. Her internet was down, so she was not able to get it to us.  Not to mention a major time difference. It was stressful and went right up to the last moment. But everyone's hard work and God's provision came through. Our dossier made it out as planned. We have been very blessed to have wonderful people helping us and working with us. It can get very frustrating when things don't go smoothly because emotions are running high. We don't want him to spend one more day than he has to in the orphanage. We want him home. The wait is a very difficult thing. It is very hard to be patient. Knowing he is growing up while we wait is not a good feeling.  More big news. We also found out from our agency's Beijing office that they spoke to someone at the orphanage and they said they did tell him about us. So he knows! That's good and bad. I'm happy he does know he has a family. I'm sad because I don't know how long ago they told him and he is probably wondering where the heck we are. They had recommended that we not contact him yet. The wait is so long. For a child it is an eternity. They have found that when the kids have to wait so long they lose hope and get upset. I can understand that. It feels like forever for us too. We still have probably about 6 more months until we finally get our approval to bring him home. I am going to put together a photo album for him and write him a letter. Our agency has offered to translate the letter and get it to him.That is so great! I am very excited. So our boy knows about us!! He was told that he has a family, that he will be going to the U.S., but that he will have to wait several months to see his parents. Well, I am going to get going to write my son a letter!! That is awesome. Finally, I get to speak to him, sort of.

What to say

We got everything done on time. Spent $60 to overnight it....it got there on time. We were busy this morning doing more adoption related stuff. The anticipation of seeing that email that it was received..... and then the bad news. Someone from our agency had not signed a form that was needed for our dossier to be sent to China. I would like to say I stayed calm. But after many emails back and forth, and finding out that the girl that needs to sign the paper is out of the country....I lost it. I really did. I was crying, frustrated and upset. We really jumped through hoops the last 2 weeks. Three trips to the city, literally running through the city at times, staying up all night making copies with a challenging copier, being at the doors of offices before they were open. Over nighting everything to make it in time and then a form is missing that I didn't even know about! Uuuugggghhhh! Really. I'm sad. We have great people helping us. And great agencies. I have to step back and say maybe it is all God's timing. I have to think that. It's out of my hands, We have to give it to God. It's just hard feeling like we are losing weeks with every glitch that comes up. My little guy is growing up in an orphanage and I just want to get him home. He turned 9 last week while we were busy doing paperwork!  If you could see the stack of papers and all the official stamps on everything and saw what we have gone through, how hard we have worked....from classes to letters, to forms, trying to learn the whole process of how to apply for everything and what form is needed and goes where with what, running all over the place to collect everything. We've gotten every clearance, physical, reference,form that can possibly be needed. Just please someone let us come get our child now. I know I am being a complaining whiner. But it hurts. Enough already. We want him home.

Dossier

I'm sitting here holding in my hands our completed dossier!! And I got really emotional. It's been a long time and a lot of work. A lot of writing and a lot of appointments. Michael went back into the city today and picked it up at the consulate. I spent tonight making all the needed copies, photos, checks etc. and put it all together. Months of working on this.  I'm looking at all the official stamps on top of stamps. It's all here. Tomorrow morning we will be at Fed ex when they open so we can overnight this whole package to FTIA. I'm praying that it is all good and it will get the final stamp of approval so it can be on it's way to China!!! We've worked so hard for this. For our little guy. It's been a very hard week. Friday was my dad's birthday. All the things I wanted to write this week, and I just couldn't. It was a hard week to do anything. We miss him so much.  Friday was also Quan's birthday. He turned 9. He turned 9 still not knowing he has a family.  Part of me wants him to know, but part of me hopes he doesn't because it takes so long. If our dossier is good it will be on it's way to China Thursday. Then we wait.  But this is one giant step closer and a big sigh of relief.

Paper Chasing

A lot has happened in the last few days. Our USCIS approval arrived Saturday. So first thing Monday morning Michael was at the county building before they opened while I got the kids ready to head into the city.We had filled out all the latest forms and got them and the power of attorney certified. With finally a COMPLETED DOSSIER we headed off to the city. The kids were very excited to be on this adventure with us. We made great timing and had our birth certificates certified in no time. Then off to the state. After a long wait we found out we had a problem with Michael's employment letter because we live in NY but his job is NJ. My poor honey ran all the way across town, got new paperwork. Then back to the county, then finally back to the state building where we met back after I found somewhere to get the kids lunch. Another long wait, finally everything done... off we all ran before finally realizing there was no way we were making it to the Chinese consulate in time. So we hung out in China town for a while. The kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed showing off the little bit of Mandarin they know, "Ni Hao" and "Shui".  It really worked out because I found out there were things missing that I still needed for the consulate. So I was up until around 2am getting everything in order and at 6:30am Michael headed back to the consulate where he waited on lines for 4 hours, fixed a few things they needed and then finally our dossier was accepted. It will be ready to be picked up on Monday. When we get it back I will work on it right away finishing up all final steps and adding photos that we will be getting ready in the next 2 days, over night it to FTIA, hoping all will be O.K.  If so, our dossier will be on it's way to China a week from tomorrow!! Teresa gave me a heads up to start working on our I800 now so when we get our referral we will be ready to go. I was so glad she did because when I looked it up, it's another book. I mention Teresa a lot. Our social worker introduced us. I am so glad she did! Teresa has been a life saver! She is adopting a little boy from China and we are about a week behind her and her husband in the process.  She is so wonderful and it is so awesome to be going through this at the same time. So that is my paper work saga. Winding down, I think. Oh just to hear....DTC. Can't wait. Of course every knew step comes with a bill. We are in the process of planning a second yard sale for September. So thank you again for all the good wishes. We are getting there. I wish I knew if our little guy knew about us.

USCIS Approval!!

Joshua went to check the mailbox this afternoon and there it was!!! Our approval. We were all very excited and immediately went into planning mode. Checking addresses and times. We are hoping to be able to get to the county, city, secretary of state, and Chinese consulate all on Monday (by 3:30). What are the chances? We are going to give it a good try. Here's hoping that it is a good traffic day in the city. If we are able to do all that, we pick our dossier up 3 or 4 days later, then off it goes! I'm so excited!! We are forever indebted to Teresa for making sense of all this for me. She once again went over our dossier and one last blast of information. With Quan's 9th birthday a week away if is a relief to finally be getting to this point. Also, we are getting near the date when things would start expiring. It's now looking like we might actually make it this time without having to redo everything. Wow. Thanks for everyone's prayers. It's prayer that is making this happen. Quan's birthday is the same date as my dad's. It will be a difficult day. But knowing we are taking a huge step toward getting him home is so good. All week I've been thinking about my dad saying to me, if you can do it, bring him home. We're bringing him home dad. I hope some how you are seeing this. Missing you every second of every day.

Eagerly went to the mailbox, knowing our USCIS approval would be there.....And it WASN'T!!!! I'm so sad. I truly hope this isn't going to mess up our plans of trying to do this Monday. We hoped to be in the city doing this today. "Let go and let God". I keep saying that. There's a reason for all this. Trying very hard to be patient. There's always tomorrow. If it's not here then, I just don't know. I guess we'll face that if it happens. For now, I'm going to really be hoping it will be in the mail tomorrow.

Paperwork update

Bad news....still waiting for USCIS approval. Good news......it is confirmed in the mail!!!! Yeah. Last piece of paper to complete our dossier! (I hope). Every time I think this is it, I find I am missing something else that I didn't know we needed. I really think this is it now. Thanks to Teresa and Caren our home study is fully complete. All needed documents there. Another "yeah". Tomorrow I am going to spend some time going over everything, dossier, budget, time line, and see where we are at. As soon as the form arrives we need to get it to the county, then we go into the city to certify last documents, then on to the state. Hopefully we get that done in one day so we can send everything off to the Chinese consulate. So close! I will keep you up to date.

Happy Birthday Hannah

We celebrated Hannah's birthday last week. She is so excited about being 6. She decided it was time to remove some of the "baby" things from her room, now that she is all grown up. :) So we are working on switching things up a little bit and giving her a big girl room. It was a bit emotional for me.... she'll always be my baby. But we had fun with it. Just by removing some things and moving things around made such a difference. We flipped her comforter over to the underside(which happened to be a bright fushia color), we found some really cool material at Walmart that I have a plan for. And my little designer girl is going to do some art work to display. Happy Birthday to my sweet little princess.xox