I know, I know…it’s been so long…I’m a horrible blogger! :) But there are reasons why I’ve been out of touch. Things have been crazy around here, to say the least. In February, we went on a family trip to Disney World. Emily had a blast! Actually, we all did! Emily got to meet all of her favorite characters, including her favorite princess of all-time (Cinderella). All three of us had much-needed, quality, uninterrupted family time together…this was great…so great that it was really hard to come back to the real world. February/ March is the craziest time of my working year. I work in the school district (as an occupational therapist). I have to do standardized testing and write a huge annual review report on each of my kids one time per year. Unfortunately, all 30 something of my kids had these due between February 27th and next week, so things have been busy. So, pretty much the real world smacked me over the head with a hammer when we came home from vacation. But on a positive note...from April to June it will be smooth sailing, as all of the paperwork will be done. :) :) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the homefront, we are in the process of finishing our basement....to turn it into a playroom for Emily and daughter #2 (to be named…for now, we will call her “Mei Mei”, meaning “little sister” in Chinese). Mike, my dad and my brother-in-law, Dru worked for the past several days on finishing the basement and on adding a cupola to our roof, above the garage. My dad built the cupola and it came out beautifully. I know he put in a lot of time on this, and we are so grateful for this. Emily is doing great. :) She's growing up really fast. She really enjoyed Easter, and of course, all of the candy too...yikes! :) She also can't wait for her playroom to be done...she keeps pitching us her decorating ideas. :)
The adoption process is moving along at a snail's pace...we probably will be traveling to China sometime next summer as it is currently about a 16-18 month's wait. Of course, this means we may be traveling there right in the middle of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing!

WE ARE LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Thursday we received word from our agency that our paperwork was logged-in by the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on 2/9/07. So we are 1 week into our official wait, and China actually knows that we exist now! Yay!!! All that’s left to do is sit and wait until they match us with our baby. :) If the wait time sticks to around 15 or 16 months, we might even be in Beijing during the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

Last night was a momentous occasion. We went to our first FCC-LI (Families With Children From China- Long Island Chapter) Waiting Families meeting. It was great. First of all, this chapter serves all of Long Island and get this…..they hold their meetings at OUR church right here in Sayville! How convenient is that?!?! We were so excited when we first found that out. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I was really nervous at first, meeting all of these new people….especially when, after we got there, they asked everybody to stand up with a microphone and introduce ourselves. But we survived…and guess what- it was really nice. We got to hear stories from a few couples who just returned from China with their new babies. They were all so beautiful. We also met a lot of couples who are going through the process for the first time, like us. We also spent some time talking with a woman and her husband, who just received pictures of their daughter in China. When the woman (Carmen) got up to speak at the microphone, she started to cry, because she and her husband were so happy about receiving their referral. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when she was speaking. She showed everyone the baby’s pictures. Of course, the baby was absolutely gorgeous and perfect with these cute little chubby cheeks and big brown eyes. Mike and I also spent a good amount of time speaking with a woman who adopted two girls, one from Viet Nam and one from China. Emily got to meet a few new friends too. This one girl, Jillian, who is 3 and was adopted from China as an infant, invited Emily over to the table to color with her and her friends. It was really sweet. Now we really can’t wait to go to the FCC-LI Chinese New Year Party and see everyone again!

And so we wait. Not much news to report. Actually, there’s no news to report on the adoption homefront. It looks like we’ll be waiting for quite a while (1 ½ years or so), as this is how long it is currently taking China to match babies with prospective parents. The next step is for us to receive our LID, or Log-In Date. This usually takes about a month from DTC, so we should be logged in within the next week or so. In the meantime, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy- like that’s ever a problem with a 3 year old in the house :).Work’s been crazy lately (especially mine), so we’ve decided to take a much-needed break, and will be going on a Disney World vacation in February. Emily is so excited. She can’t wait to meet Cinderella. And Mike and I are excited to have some quality family time, just the three of us.

WE ARE PAPER PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to announce that we are DTC today (meaning that our dossier, or all of our documents, were sent to China today)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited that all of the paperwork is done and there is really nothing left to do but wait for the call that we’ve been matched with our baby. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be for another 15 months, but we are just so excited to finally have our file sent to China! Yay!!!!!!!!!

So on Thursday (the 11th), our baby girl turned 3 years old!!! It’s so hard to believe. It seems like just a day ago when Emily was 2….and 3 days ago when she first came into this world. And yet, so much has happened in the span of 3 years, so many major milestones and first moments (for all of us). So on Thursday, in between fighting back tears about the fact that our baby girl is no longer a baby, and finding ourselves in awe of the fact that she has almost instantaneously transformed from toddler into a beautiful little girl, we celebrated by going out to Chuck E. Cheese. Emily had a great time playing all of the games and riding on the rides. She even met Mr. Cheese himself! Earlier in the day, Emily also had a birthday celebration with her friends at preschool, complete with chocolate chip cupcakes and “My Little Pony” party hats, plates and napkins. Her teacher, Miss Dani was so nice that she even made Emily her very own purple birthday crown, knowing that purple is her favorite color! I’ve included some pictures of the days’ events (below).

DISPELLING THE ADOPTION MYTHS



As you may or may not know, China has changed some of the rules regarding adoption. I just listened to a National Public Radio show about the Chinese adoption process. It was a very good radio show. My only argument is actually not with the show itself. On the radio website they highlight Chinese adoption as a popular means of creating a family for New York's infertile couples. Don't get me wrong...many couples with infertility issues do adopt, which is wonderful. However, not all adoptive couples are infertile. Mike and I are fully able to have biological children, but have decided on Chinese adoption as a means of growing our family...For us, it IS NOT a second choice....quite the opposite. We look at Emily and see that she is a well-adjusted, happy almost-3-year-old with a family who loves her. We feel that all children deserve the same chance. We want another child, and there is a child out there who needs a family and who is meant to be ours. This is a perfect fit for us....and seems as natural as giving birth. We've wanted to adopt since before we were married. And I know that a lot of people feel the same way. A large percentage of the couples who adopt from China also have biological children.

Secondly, it's fairly common for the general public to use phrases such as "They are adopting, instead of having their OWN kids"...or "Do you also have children of your OWN?" or "What happened to her REAL mom and dad?", "Her REAL mom couldn't take care of her, so she was adopted.", etc., etc.... These comments are not made with malicious intent at all, but I know that I will be this child's REAL mom and she will be my OWN child. :) :) She will know that Mike and I love her with all our hearts, in the same way that we love Emily. A REAL mom or dad is someone who loves and raises a child, whether added to the family by birth or through adoption. I do not love Emily BECAUSE I was pregnant with her. I love her because over the past 3 years we have developed and nurtured our mother/daughter bond. We have shared in her first accomplishments, her first laughs, her first words....and I have been there to wipe tears and cover boo-boos with Band Aids. This is what being a parent is all about- not biology. :)

Sorry for my rant. :) But this is what having a blog is all about...right? :)

Today we received an email from the agency...pretty exciting (and overwhelming), huh? :) Everything sounds fine, except for the 15 month wait to be matched with a baby.... :(





Congratulations we have received your USCIS approval! You are approved to adopt internationally!


PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!


1. In about 10 weeks after receiving your USCIS approval, both the American Consulate Office in Guangzhou, China and the National Visa Center will send you a package that contains the following items: a cover letter containing a case number, forms I-600, I-604, I-864, 230, and a physical form for the child. If after 10 weeks you still have not received this package, don’t worry! We will be able to give you one at the time of your referral! These items are very important, so put them in a safe place. We will need the case number from you when you get your referral in order to make your appointment with the American Consulate. We will not ask you for this number until you are preparing to travel. Please put these packages in a safe place with your other important adoption documents. We will go through them again before you travel to China.

2. Your dossier for the China Center of Adoption Affairs should be complete. I will be in touch if we are missing any of the documents required for your dossier. Otherwise we will begin the authentication process of your documents. It takes us about three to four weeks to finish the certification and authentication process and another 7-10 days to express mail the dossier to CCAA. The arrival of the package from the American Consulate in Guangzhou does not mean your dossier has arrived in China. Someone from our agency will contact you when your dossier has been sent. The date we express mail your dossier is called DTC date(Dossier to China). We will inform you of this date. We appreciate that you mention your DTC date and your last name when you call the office with any questions and concerns.

3. The date the Chinese government register your dossier is called Login Date. We will let you know of this date as soon as we get them. CCAA does assignments according to the login date. At this time, it’s taking approximately 15 months from the time your dossier arrives in China until you receive a referral, and another 6-8 weeks from referral to travel. There are many factors that determine how quickly you travel after your assignment is accepted. These include visa appointments at the American Consulate, CCAA Official Notification, flight availability, etc. Please know that referral time is always subject to change. We will keep you updated on any and all changes!!

4. It is our recommendation that you start the Hepatitis A and B immunization series NOW, since they take a few months to complete. There are no required immunizations when traveling to China; however, the agency recommends the Hepatitis vaccinations. Please consult your doctor!

We will contact you regularly from now on to update you. Please feel free to call us at any time during the wait!

Best wishes,
CAWLI

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Mike and I are pleased to announce that Christmas came early for us this year. Yesterday we received in the mail our I171-H and today we sent it to our agency via Priority mail (with tracking, OF COURSE!). We are DONE. Now we just wait for CAWLI to review our documents and send them to China. Within about 4 weeks, China should have all of our documents, and we will be able to officially call ourselves “paper pregnant”. On Tuesday, Mike and I will go to the police station to get new letters of good standing (background checks). We’ve already had this done, but they will be close to expiration by the time our stuff goes to China, so we will get new ones just in case we need them. Nothing else is even close to expiration (thank God), so there really is NOTHING left to do except wait, wait and wait. I can’t even tell you how excited and relieved we are to have this paperchase over with and to finally be “in process”!

Hope all of you reading this have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Here is a picture of Emily giving Santa a Christmas card that she made. As you can see, she was very excited!

No word from immigration yet…. We are still waiting for our I171-H (the document that gives us permission from the US government to adopt an orphan from abroad). Without this document, we can’t send our dossier (all of our documents) to China, in order to be matched with a baby. This is the only thing we are waiting for. Everything else is done. Mike and I are going to go back to the police department this upcoming week to get new letters of good standing (background checks). We’re doing this, because the letters can’t be more than 6 months old when sent to China. Our last ones were done on 8/1/06, so we are cutting things close (as it looks like it will be at least another month before our dossier is sent to China, since it takes the agency 3 weeks or so to review everything and send it over after we get the I171-H). This is a bit frustrating, as this will be our 3rd time getting letters of good standing from the police department (since our paperwork stage of this adoption has taken so long). Oh well. Every day I come rushing home from work to see if we’ve received our I171-H yet. Maybe we’ll get it for Christmas….? This would be a great Christmas gift. What’s sad is that even once everything is sent to China, we still have about a 14 month wait.
I would be feeling really down right now if it weren’t for the fact that Emily keeps us both so busy, and keeps us smiling a lot. She is so looking forward to Christmas. She met Santa Claus last night and LOVED him! She even drew a card for him. Emily is so excited for Christmas that her teacher, Miss Danni told me that she woke up suddenly from nap time the other day, ran over to Miss Danni and exclaimed “Miss Danni!...Miss Danni! It’s Christmas! It’s Jesus’ birthday!”
Emily is also so excited about the idea of dressing up for Christmas. She’s turned into quite the girly girl. She’s already told me (and Santa) that all she wants for Christmas is a purple necklace and a purple bracelet. Purple is her favorite color. She likes all things pretty. In fact, so much so that while I was doing laundry the other night, she managed to get her hands on some lipstick and tried to give herself “pretty lips”. Below are some pictures of her makeover.

I just wanted to post a beautiful picture of China that a friend of ours took over the summer. Click on it for a larger view.

Hello. I know, I know…long time no post! There’s been a lot going on. Lets see…first of all, Mike and I had our fingerprinting appointment back on 11/14 at 8 am in Hempstead (about 30 minutes away). We overslept (Mike accidentally shut the alarm in his sleep), so the morning started out with a big rush. We didn’t even have time to drop Emily off at Mike’s parents’ house, so we ended up bringing her with us to the appointment in her P.J.s! No biggie. Everything went pretty smoothly. The one thing we learned is that appointment times don’t really mean anything at the Homeland Security office. About 300 other people had the same appointment time as us, but things still moved along pretty quickly (took us about 2 hours from start to finish). They no longer use ink to fingerprint you with. Instead, you place your hands (one at a time) on what looks like a supermarket cashier’s UPC code scanner. It was hot in there (with all the people), so my hands kept sweating, so they kept having to re-scan my fingers. Thank God the woman was patient with me! Mike and I kept getting the same error message when they did our prints “Match warning, match warning”…..No biggie….I guess there are just two serial killer psychos out there in the world who have the same prints as us (hopefully not!).
This week, Emily got sick with a fever and a very yucky, blistery throat (kind of like strep). The doctor said “With a throat that looks that bad, if she doesn’t feel better within 3 or 4 days, she probably has mono.” However, thankfully, she recovered within about 48 hours, so it turned out just to be a regular, yucky virus (no Mono…yay!) My mom was kind enough to come down to Long Island to watch Emily while she was on the mend. I think they both enjoyed their time together.
I came home today for lunch to find blood all over the floor (Ruby the dog was sick). I brought her to the vet, who checked her out and prescribed 10 days of antibiotics and a bland diet of just chicken and rice. Poor Ruby!
Otherwise, no real news on the homefront. Thanksgiving was really nice. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost Christmas….and then shortly after that, my baby girl will be a big girl of 3 years old….Waaaaaaahhhhhh! Hopefully, we will have our approval from immigration/Department of Homeland Security well before then, so we can get our documents to China before the new year. That is the big goal! :)

So, on Saturday I officially turned 30- and what a birthday it was. First off, some of my friends treated me to a morning at the spa (massage and pedicure), which was absolutely WONDERFUL!!!!! Then I came home to a warm birthday welcome from my husband, my parents, my sister, Mike’s parents and brothers, and several close friends. About an hour later, when the mail arrived, Mike and I were both racing to get to the mailbox first. (Of course, Mike let me “win”---it was MY birthday, after all! Heehee!) And when I got there, there was great news inside. We received our fingerprinting appointments for immigration. So we are all set to get fingerprinted on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 8:00 am. It was great to have our families right there to share the great news with! So, after we get fingerprinted, we will receive our clearance from the government several weeks later, and then all of our documents can go to China!!!! We are almost there!

I added a short video to this blog (below). It was made by a couple who adopted twin girls from China. Mike and I thought that it was a really sweet video, and decided to add it to our blog (courtesy of You Tube). This way, whenever we feel down and frustrated by the wait, we can watch this film as a way to remind us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that this couple also used the same adoption agency as us (China Adoption With Love in Brookline, MA....otherwise known as CAWLI).

Yay! I just checked the United States Postal Service's website, and our paperwork was received by the NY City Immigration office just before noon today! Let's just keep our fingers crossed that we will recieve a speedy fingerprinting appointment. :)

Woohooooo!!!!!!!! Last night, Mike and I finally received in the mail our completed home study (for Immigration). Within 30 minutes, we had the I600A form filled out and all necessary copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate, as well as our original homestudy ready to be sent into the Department of Homeland Security (aka USCIS- Immigration Services). Today, first thing in the morning, I went to the bank and got the $685 money order to be mailed with our paperwork to Immigration (in New York City). So, today our paperwork was officially mailed to Immigration. From here, it will take approximately 2-3 weeks to receive an appointment card from them, for our federal fingerprinting appointment. After we have our fingerprints done, it will take another few weeks for our fingerprints (and for all of our paperwork) to clear through Immigration, and we will receive in the mail our I171-H (approval from the government to adopt an orphan abroad). Once this I171-H clearance is received, all of our paperwork (called our dossier) will be sent off to China, so that we can officially start the waiting process to be matched with our baby. :) We definitely met a milestone today (as we have done everything paperwork-wise that there is for us to do), so Mike and I will have a glass of bubbly tonight to mark the occasion.
Some other news on the forefront, Emily has announced to us (at the age of 2 ½) that she is going to be a teacher when she grows up “So I can teach my kids.” Needless to say, her daddy (also a teacher), was thrilled with her career choice. She also learned how to open and close large buttons by herself for the first time yesterday. She was grinning from ear to ear with pride. :)

Nothing too much to report, unfortunately. We are still just waiting for the final draft of our homestudy, in order to set up an appointment for our federal fingerprinting, get USCIS approval and finally get our paperwork to China. Mike called the homestudy agency today and they said that our social worker is on vacation until Thursday. However, they also said that the homestudy had been completed and was sent to CAWLI (our agency) for review. Mike called CAWLI today to confirm whether or not they have received it. Hopefully, when he comes home today, he'll have some good news....

UPDATE: Mike just called and CAWLI has received our homestudy draft from Family Focus (Thank you Sandra!) Yay! They said that within the next day or so, they will be done making any necessary changes/corrections, and send it back to Family Focus to finalize. Stephanie (the social worker from CAWLI) also said that Family Focus is excellent at writing home studies for China, so there probably won't have to be any corrections. So, by next week, we should be in posession of our final homestudy and should be able to send in the I600A to USCIS. We'll start filling out the I600A tonight so we are prepared to mail it out when the time comes.

We are all done with the adoption paperwork (and everything has been submitted to our homestudy and adoption agencies). Yay!!!! The ONLY thing we are waiting on is the finalized draft of the homestudy from our social worker. Without this, we cannot proceed. The social worker needed my CPA letter to finalize the draft (which we sent in to her last week). Even though it has only been a week since the SW received our final paperwork from us, it seems like an eternity that we've been waiting for the homestudy final draft (In case you haven't noticed, I am not very good at waiting). The reason why it feels like so long is because this is the only piece of paper holding up our whole process. Without this draft, we can't apply to the Immigration office for the government's permission to adopt an orphan abroad (the process of getting this approval alone can take about 8 weeks). And without this approval, we are unable to send our documents (dossier) to China. And without our documents in China, the Chinese government doesn't even know we exist, and we can't even begin the waiting process for a baby..... So, as you can see....everything hinges on getting this homestudy draft. What is so nerve-wracking is that we are no longer in control of our paperwork....Not that we're stressing out, or anything!!! :) For all who read this message, please pray that we receive this homestudy soon, so that we can sleep at night again! Did I mention that I don't like not being in control of our paperwork? Did I mention that I don't like waiting? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!