Our little Chinese Girls

This was a good week. Adoption is expensive, and we knew it would be going in. Every little thing costs a lot of money, and there are lots and lots of little things. They seem spread out, and not so hard to swallow sometimes. The agency fees are awesomely spread out, so there is time to save in between each one. On Thursday, I sent off my immigration approval to Washington DC. It cost me $64 to send it, and $115 to get it authenticated! Holy cow, 1 document!! That was a little rough. Then I received an email that China has raised their fee which will cost me $675 if my dossier isn't received there by March 1. It's going to be sooooooooo close, but well worth a lot of prayers on our end. So this day that I thought would cost me around $50, cost me close to $900!! Whoa! Oh well, it's the price that must be paid, and we do it happily.

I had the most amazing experience on Thursday morning. It started like any other morning. I woke up very early, did my morning routine, woke my family, and got them going on theirs. I remembered in the course of the morning that I needed cream for a preschool project, and it had to be done that day. So, slightly rushed and annoyed that I hadn't purchased the cream the day before while I was at the store, I headed off. I have a new little chant that runs through my head a zillion times a day, and every quiet moment that I get, and thus I began saying it over and over in my mind as I drove to the grocery store. About half way there, i thought my heart would fly away! This feeling came over me that I have felt before, but not frequently and not so intensely. It was a feeling of pure peace and joy. It was lovely and unexpected. It was from God telling me that He is aware of me and our situation, and He is in control of it. It was such a beautiful experience, it will carry me through a lot of difficult times to come.

I feel my Chinese girls a lot. I feel them frequently. It is similar to the mild stress that I feel when my present girls are away from me, or when I am away from them. I really like when we're all together, safe and happy at home, and when we're not, there is a little bit of anxiety, and wonder and hope that everyone is well, and that we'll be together soon. It's not huge, but it's there in my head. I feel that for my Chinese girls all the time. Sometimes I feel it very strongly and it's hard. I don't know where they are, or if they're ok, or if they need to be held or fed and are instead crying in their bed. I feel that Heavenly Father lets me feel some of their anxiety and need at times. It propels me, and binds me to them even though I don't know who they are. We pray for them and their well-being, and peace to know that we are coming. We pray for their health and strength, and happiness. We pray for our paperwork to go quickly and smoothly. And we pray that we will be together at home, safe and happy, very soon. I feel that on Thursday morning, I got to feel some of their joy. Maybe their paperwork got started in China so that they'll be "adoptable" soon. Maybe they feel us too! I don't know, and I probably never will. This has been the coolest journey ever. It has been hard, and frustratingly slow, but over all, so far, it's been really cool.

It's GONE!

Yesterday I mailed off my Dossier to CCAI. I get a little bit freaky on the cute little girl at UPS. I have to see it all packaged, taped closed, addressed, and in the little bin. It was so exciting! I also sent off my immigration approval to the Secretary of State. When I get it back hopefully at the end end of the week, I have to send it to the US State Department, and the Chinese Embassy to get sealed and authenticated. When I get that back, I send it to CCAI, and then there is nothing left to do but wait. I don't have to send anything off until my travel visa, and then we're off to get our BABIES!

time line

I read this book once called "write it down, make it happen." It all has to do with positive mental imaging, or what I know to be faith in Heavenly Father and His ability to intervene in our lives for our ultimate good. I write. I write a lot, and frequently. I keep a daily journal for myself, and I write in journals for my girls a few times each month. I write here, I have notebooks in every bag I own, in my car, on my night stand, at my desk, and I'm sure there are a few more. I write. I have written down "goals" of when I wanted certain things to happen in this adoption. I write them several times in my waiting, and they always happen. So I'm going to write a tentative timeline here for how I hope the rest of my adoption will go.

2-1-12 Dossier turned in to CCAI for translation and critical review.

2-15-12 DIC Dossier in China

3-10-12 LID We are officially logged in to China's database, and given a Log in Date

4-1-12 We are matched with our girls

6-1-12 travel to China

We'll see.

I-797C

We've got it! I am so excited, I just can't even sit still long enough to write this post. Heavenly Father is so helping us to get these girls here. This form can take months to get. Everyone is telling us to be patient because immigration takes "forever." 2 to 6 months we were told, and closer to 6 months, "they're so behind" and on and on. I have been imagining our paperwork on the top of a neat stack of paperwork on some guys desk, and I have been imagining him saying "these are finished, send them out." I think of this about 100 times a day, really, every day, and have done so for about 2 weeks. We got our immigration approval in less than 8 weeks!! And the holidays were in there!! I am so humbled, and excited, and thankful above all. My cute sister brought over chinese almond cookies and red balloons to celebrate. We are so very very excited!

I've been tracking my dossier, coming from Washington DC, and will receive it tomorrow hopefully early enough to send it on to our agency. Our I -797C has been copied, notarized locally, and will be sent to the Secretary of State, and then State Department, and Chinese Embassy all in the next 2 weeks, and then we are finished on our end. Our entire dossier will be translated into Chinese by our agency and hand delivered to the CCCWA in China (the agency responsible for adoptions). We will then be DIC (dossier in China). Our file will go at the bottom of the "stack". When it comes to the top, we will be logged into their system, and will then be LID, (we will have a Log in Date). Once we are LID, we can be matched, and fairly quickly. Once matched, we will travel within 8 to 11 weeks. I'm praying that we travel in July, and that is seeming more a possibility now than ever! Maybe even sooner? I don't really know the time lines for translation, or delivery, or rising to the top of the stack! I'm going to find that out tomorrow.

We had a fabulous Chinese New Year party, I've got lots of pictures, I'll get those posted very soon.

Chinese New Year

We are totally going to have a Chinese New Year party this weekend. There is a lot to learn about this awesome new culture that will soon be a huge part of our family. In preparation for the new year:

1. The house has to start out immaculately clean. Every part of it. Out with everything old.

2. Buy new clothes and shoes for the children, preferably red ones.

3. Children receive money in a red envelope, a brand new dollar bill symbolizing good luck in the coming year. They also receive an orange to symbolize good health and a long life.

4. Open all windows and doors on New Years Eve to get rid of the past year.

5. Decorate doors and door ways with red paper cut-outs, and streamers that symbolize good fortune.

6. A circular candy tray to symbolize sweet togetherness.

We're also going to have a feast, but that's a different post. I'll post pictures for sure. There is a lot more, we'll get to it.

There's a sweet tradition that you leave an empty place setting for everyone that couldn't join this year. We'll have two little empty places, and we feel it.

Today is a bank holiday, the kids are home from school. The little cousins are over to play, the older cousins have gone snowboarding. It's super fun, but I'm a little bit sad, because government agencies are closed! Nothing moving forward today. Hmmmm. I'll tell you what though, I'm taking this tradition to heart. My laundry room is beautiful, and the mud room is also beautifully clean! I have a huge pile to donate. My Chinese New Year is going to start out right! Next year, we'll all be together, as we were meant to be.

Waiting

Waiting is hard. I have spent some portion of every day, for the past 4 months doing something to progress our adoption. Now, it's just waiting. It's hard, and I'm feeling thankful almost that I'm not matched with my girls yet. It's hard enough knowing that they are in an orphanage, and who knows what they are and aren't getting. It would be really hard knowing knowing who they were, and realizing that I had months of waiting ahead of me. Some days, I don't know why, I feel them so strongly. I can't get them out of my head, and out of my heart. They are ready to have a mom and a dad. I think back a few years to when I was having multiple miscarriages, and feeling that I wouldn't be having any more children. I felt them then. I didn't know it though, they weren't even born yet. I knew in my heart of hearts that there were more children for us, however, my body was not cooperating with that effort. I knew they were there a couple of years later when I couldn't even get pregnant again. I didn't know where they were going to come from, but I felt them, and knew they were there. I love adoption so much. It's my favorite topic these days. I've always loved adoption stories. I can't wait until my story has some faces behind it, and is a little bit longer. I love those girls, I can't wait to bring them home!! Until then, we wait. We wait for our government, we wait for their government, we wait for seals, and visas, and endless paperwork. We wait, and so do our girls.

Biometrics

Today we had our biometrics taken. Seriously? We got fingerprinted by USCIS!! A step closer. I had to use all of my powers of mental persuasion to get G's done. We only received an appointment for me, and apparently "there's nothing we can do about that." said the nice lady across the counter. " He'll just have to wait until he receives his appointment in the mail, and come back up!" she said. "But we live far away!" I said. "We've had to leave work!!" I said. "Can't you look him up?" I begged. "No, I'm sorry, you'd have to have an appointment for that to happen!" I tell you my boy was a little more than just put out. So, I sat patiently in my chair thinking over and over and over in my mind; "let me see if I can do something for you." Over and over and over, and do you know what happened after about 5 minutes of that? She walked up and said, let me have your social, and I might be able to look it up." Oh really?? Awesome! Then, my head was thinking "Yes, we found your appointment, how strange that you didn't receive it. We'll take care of that today." Over and over and over and over. About 5 minutes later a guy came out and said "I was able to find your appointment, it's at the same time as your wife. Strange that it didn't come at the same time." I felt like a total JEDI!! So, in the end, we were BOTH able to have our biometrics scanned. We gave them raving remarks on the comment card they provided and went out for waffles and frites. When I got the mail today, G's appointment was there. Hmmmm.

I've got everything together to photocopy tomorrow and send to the document handler in Washington DC. She will take all 12 of my documents (at$43 per document, + $5 for gas. seriously.) to the US department of State to get notarized, and then to the Chinese embassy to get sealed. Then she will send it back to me, and I will send to to my agency for translation and review.

I am hoping and praying that our immigration approval comes very soon. I don't want to wait three months. I want to wait 1! That should be do-able right?