So confusing!!!

Thank God for Teresa and her very compassionate and giving ways. My friend (introduced through our very wonderful social worker) offered to look over my dossier before we took it to get certified/ authenticated through the county, state, and ultimately the Chinese consulate. Teresa use to own a dossier business and really knows her stuff. Well, long story short, she graciously gave up at least an hour of her day off to show me where things were missing, and where things had to go to different places than where I was taking them. So now I am back to trying to gather more papers to correctly complete our dossier before going to the county. Our fingerprint forms didn't come in the mail yet from the USCIS. Teresa had sent hers in the day before us and got them on the 3rd, so I am hoping this doesn't mean something is wrong. And the police still didn't do our letter of good conduct for clearance. She left a message that I would be picking it up on Monday (but said to call first, incase....). How angry can I get with them... it's the police. I did send Michael's employment letter to New Jersey for certification. Teresa had told me about that not needing to go to our county since Michael's company is out of NJ. That will take atleast a week and cost another $43. Also, our birth certificates need to go to the city not the county since we weren't born in Suffolk. I was just suppose to know this stuff. But didn't. Once again, thank you Teresa! She said that could take weeks! So we want to go in person while Michael is home.  I was so hoping to have everything ready to go to the state while he is home this time. He just got home yesterday, and the count down begins. I am so frustrated. It just should not be this difficult. Oh, and I forgot. As I was going through our dossier reviewing everything I realized on the back of our marriage certificate the clerk put the wrong year. She put 2013. So that has to be redone. All documents need to be under 6 months old when it goes to China. With all these hold ups, that count down is going quickly as well. If we don't have everything back and done, things start expiring and have to be redone. :(  It just should not be this hard. Just want him home!!!!

Pampered Chef

All the Pampered Chef is sorted and ready to deliver tomorrow. Thank you so much to everyone! Our fund raiser was a huge success! Everyone got such cool stuff. I absolutely love Pampered Chef. And we are a little closer to our goal of getting Frankie home!  Thanks guys.

The good & bad

I'm feeling sad. No matter how I figure it up, and let me tell you I go over the time table all the time, I can't see us getting our approval to bring Frankie home until about February. All the approvals and processes are just taking so much longer than I expected. I wrote for advice from the wonderful Waiting Children yahoo group I belong to and everyone said a year is pretty much the average time span. We would be one year if we bring him home in Feb. It felt good to know I'm not doing something wrong. I feel like I am trying so hard, but always wonder if there is something I could be doing better or different to make things go faster. Obviously I want to do the best I can for him. He's got another birthday coming up and it brings me to tears to think he is going to still be in the orphanage for it. I don't know for sure what he knows or doesn't know about someone wanting to adopt him. I agree it is too long of a wait to tell him yet. But knowing how it hurts him thinking he doesn't have a family and is another year older just breaks my heart. I just want him home. We want to start making up for all those years. It hurts. Then on a very good note, I was so happily surprised when Donna let us know that we made $550. toward his adoption through our Pampered Chef fundraiser! We need $2560. to send in at the time our dossier goes to China (which I pray will be soon). So $550 is a chunk of that! I'm so excited about that.  We've made it this far. After that stage we will be looking to get a loan. Then some of the financial pressure will be off. I think at that point we'll have a better understanding what we will still need and hopefully be able to get a loan we can handle better. Thank you so much to everyone that purchased something or donated toward helping us get this far. I can't wait to tell him how many people cared about him. That he was important. And everyone wanted to make such a difference for him. Thank you so much. We're blessed. And he is blessed. God has His hand on his life. He's got a plan for him. He was destined to not remain an orphan. And with that I have to remind myself, that it is in God's time. And we wouldn't want it any other way. But until then, I guess I'm going to shed a lot of tears. We love you Frankie.

USCIS

Well, I received our confirmation that our I-800A was received June 21. But no sign of when we will get our notice to go get fingerprinted. It just states it was received and forwarded to the Hague adoption unit. So as far as a time line, I have no idea what this means. I just know it is not quick enough. I heard that once we get it we can try to walk in instead of waiting for the appointment. If they aren't busy they may take us. I'm nervous that our appt. may be for when Michael is at work. We are also still waiting for our clearance from the police dept. I thought that would have been here already. As soon as that comes I think we'll start getting everything certified instead of waiting on CIS. I just want him home now! Or to at least feel like it was getting closer. I thought we'd be going in the fall, maybe Nov. Now it is starting to look like it won't be until Feb. of next year. That would mean it took a full year of paper chasing and waiting. I feel like we are working so hard. It seems like it should be quicker. He's continuing to grow up. And he can't even know we are here, desperately wanting him home with us. They had said awhile back that he was getting discouraged because he wanted a family and didn't have one. I just hope he can some day understand that we have wanted him from the moment we saw him. And we are working so hard. My patience can't run out now. It's been very difficult trying to figure it all out. So far it seems we have done well with the paperwork. We did get our application for a grant in on time. Please keep us in prayer that they will help us. I'm trying really hard to not let the stresses get to me. I know God is in control. I find lately I have to remind myself, sometimes several times a day, "God's got this".

Yesterday was a very full day. We have been going full steam. We went to the police station to get our clearances. Turns out you have to wait a couple of weeks to get it, so we couldn't follow up with the county. But on the bright side, that is the last piece of paper we need for our dossier. Our CIS paper work is in. They should be receiving it tomorrow. So we began trying to apply for grants. Seems simple enough right? I don't know if it is just because it has been so busy or what, but my brain was having a tough time keeping up. It is quite the process and the numbers weren't adding up.  I don't know if all the school districts are the same but the past 3 weeks have been a marathon to see how much we can fit into the last days of school! My brain is gone. And then even though Michael is the cooler parent, yesterday, they wanted to be with Mommy. I kept trying to explain to them about dead lines. We are trying to make the June cut off date. But I was not getting through their end of the year craziness excitement. O.K., like right now. I am sitting here, taking a moment to write, and the phone rings. I have to say, it was the sweetest little voice on the other end of the phone "mom, can you bring my bathing suit to school? I didn't know I needed it today". Well, I didn't either, so off I ran. I ran upstairs, got the bathing suit, towel, bag, and shoes, got the dogs in, shut the doors, grabbed my bag and ran out the door, jumped in the car....for the second I stared at the dashboard. Something is suppose to happen. Oh yeah, you need keys to run this thing. Back out, in the house, dogs going crazy, false alarm, I am not home yet, save the kisses, got the keys, out the door, in the car......Then a very pleasant surprise. My honey put gas in the car!! That was so appreciated. He's a good guy! Made it on time, and my kiddos are having fun. We will get rest one day. It's all good and I'll take it. I am just really hoping all the paperwork is done correctly.  A bus with very loud, excited children just passed. Got to go. First child home from school.

CIS

SENT OUR US.CIS PAPER WORK IN TODAY!!!! YEAH!!! Praying it will go through quickly. Tomorrow back to the police station for our letter of good conduct, to complete our dossier. Then hopefully we can get everything notarized and certified through the county before Michael heads off to work.

Our yard sale was a success, with everyone's contributions and the kids' lemonade stand we made $481!!! And it was a lot of fun. We have established I would definitely prefer to give things away than make a sale, as Michael happily sent me away to take Allie to her last soccor game for the season. And I was really trying to be good, knowing what we are doing here! We had some things left. So now we will send things over to a friend that is doing a yard sale fundraiser next weekend to help get her son home that is also waiting for her in China! So exciting! Our home study is officially done and approved. Michael picked it up Friday on his way home from work! We have an awesome social worker! So our paper chase schedule for the week includes: completing and sending off our paperwork for CIS with the $890. that we now have! Getting our last item we need from the police station to complete our dossier! (also very exciting), getting everything notarized and certified through the county, and hopefully we will also send everything to the state for the same. We are also to the point that we can now apply for grants, which I will  be doing this week to make the end of June deadlines! Yeah!  Please pray for us for the grant process. We have donated in the past to some of these agencies and I am hoping and praying so much that they will help us a little. Then we will have a better understanding of the amount we will need for a loan. It is so awesome that we have not had to stop for a moment due to lack of funds. When the next payment has been due we have had it. Sometimes with in days, but we've had it.  I realize we are just beginning, but it's been a miracle the way everything has been going. God is definitely leading the destiny of our little guy. Thank you so much to everyone for all your help and support.