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| Journal |
| January 2005 - Although, I had planned to write in this journal from the very beginning, It has taken some time to get this website situated. Better late than never, I guess! So far our paperchase seems to be moving along fairly quickly. We all had appointments for physicals the first week of Jan. Six appts and eleven shots later we now have our medical letters from our Dr. and Pediatrician. Pat and I will still have 2 more visits to complete our series of Hepititis A and B shots before traveling (hopfully) late this year. Jan 7th - We had our first homestudy today. It was so nice of Christina to be able to schedule 3 of our 4 homestudy apts back to back. First she met with me alone, and then with Pat. Then she called us both in together. I was a little nervous. She asked several questions that I had never thought about before, but most of them were just verifying things that we wrote in our biography. Jan 13th - In home homestudy appointment today! I thought it was going to be cancelled because of the snow, but she made it!!! The kids did great, although I was a little worried about my "more imaginative" ones. We were very comfortable and the kids seemed at ease with her. They behaved well almost until the very end. Joshua the 5 year old couldn't stand it any longer and insisted on jumping off the bunkbed when he was showing Christina his room and nearly landed on her. Oh well! Most of our paperwork is now in! Christina said our file is still waiting on 1 reference letter and the name search from the Hwy Patrol. Our birth certificates have come back from being authenticated at the Chinese consulates in San Francisco and Houston, but we are still waiting on our marriage license to come back from the Consulate in Los Angeles. Some time next week I will go down to St. Louis and have our Missouri paperwork certified and then send it off to the Consulate in Chicago. Yay! Jan 18th - Our marriage license came back today. Tomorrow Katie and I will venture out into the frozen tundra of down town St. Louis and take all our Missouri documents to be certified and then send them off to Chicago! Jan 20th - We had a minor setback with paper work over the last couple of days. Upon taking our papers down to the Secretary of States ofiice we discoverd that we were going to have to re-do some of the papers because the notaries were rejected. Apparently the notaries stamp and signatures were not enough, the "Subscribed and Sworn" statement needed to be on there as well. Suffice it to say, I will be on a first name basis with the nice people at the SOS office before Im through! Trip #3 tomorrow. Jan 27th - Well, all our papers are corrected and have been sent to the Consulate for Authenticaiton. Our homestudy is waiting on the "highway patrol name search" to come back and then it will be complete! I noticed that the check cleared on the 25th so hopefully we'll see that soon. We will then be able to file our 600A form with the BCIS. I am really hoping for a LID (Login date) in March..........Got my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath! Feb 1st - Yay! Hwy Patrol background check is in. Picked up our completed homestudy this afternoon and sent it out to the St. Louis BCIS. Feb 4th - Recieved fingerprinting appointment for March 4th. I am considering writing a letter to see if we can get in the week prior to our scheduled apt. It may not get me anywhere, but what's it going to cost me? A postage stamp? On a little more melancholy note, I've been thinking alot about Hannahs birth parents lately. We have been praying for what her family, especially her mother is going through. I figure that she is probably only a few months old (assuming the age we requested) On the 12th of this month my oldest daughter Katie was born (on my own birthday.) I cant imagine what it would have been like to feel pressured to give her up. It makes me sad. Feb 24th - Well Im glad I didnt invest more than a postage stamp in that letter! Oh well! It seems like forever waiting for this appt. to come. I am hoping and praying that our I 171-H comes back quickly. I will be happy when our paperwork is finally in China and logged in. Looks like we will probably have a LID in April, which is ok. I keep forgetting that God is in control, not me! I know that His will and His timing are perfect and I need to remember that whenever I start getting impatient. March 4 - Fingerprints are done! They told me that I should recieve the I 171-H in 2 to 3 weeks. Four weeks would be the worst case scenario. In some states it can take several months to get the form back, so Im thankful. March 18 - Still waiting..... Trying not to be impatient. I gave myself permission to go out to the resale shops and buy a few things that I know I will be needing. We're trying to be really frugal about this whole thing, so I figured that had I not given all my hand-me-down clothing away, Hannah would be wearing mostly hand-me-downs anyway. I purchased things like socks, tee-shirts and a few sleepers. They are all in sizes that are a little larger, just in case we are referred an older or larger baby than what appears to be the average. It was kind of nice being able to actually buy something for her. March 22 - Got curious yesterday and had Pat call the FBI number to check on our fingerprint clearance. They said that our prints cleared on the same day they were taken and were sent back to BCIS same day. I have heard errors in your home study can hang the process, this happened recently to another couple using our agency. I hope there aren't any problems with ours.... March 23 - Called BCIS today just to see where they are with our paperwork. They said that our case had been assigned to the officer in charge and it could be a couple of months before we get it. Didn't have any other information for us. March 28 - It came!!! Boy I was just getting settled in for a long wait after what we were told by BCIS. Yay!!! Drove down and got it State Certified this afternoon. I will be sending it out for authentication tomorrow. I will be so glad to be finally done with all the paperwork! April 8 DTC Day! - Well, according to our SW our dossier should be on it's way to China today. They express them there so, our documents should be there on Monday. It will take 2 or 3 weeks for our dossier to be translated and logged in. From what I gather, it will be a month or two before we actually find out our log-in date. After we recieve that date, our countdown to a referral will begin!!! I was really looking forward to being done with all the paper work, but it was really strange handing it over. So much of my time and energy has been spent on those papers, I felt like I was handing over my "baby" to someone else! Like an over protective mom, I found myself asking silly questions like "Will it be tracked"?, "Will you notify us when it gets there"? "When will we know when it is logged in, etc"? I'm glad Pat wasn't there, he would have been rolling his eyes at me for sure! I have got involved with a 100 good wishes quilt project with some other families that are DTC in the month of April as well. I am looking forward to having something to focus on as we enter the long wait for referral! April 22 - It will be another month before we know exactly when our LID is. I have busied myself with several projects while I wait. We are in the process of trying to set up a charitable foundation to help raise money for a certain portion of Hannah's adoption and to continue to raise money for humanitarian aid to go to her orphanage and the babies left behind. I felt led in to "do something more" from the very start and I think that maybe this is it. I am excited to be bringing Hannnah home to be cared for in our family but am saddend by the fact that so many are left behind. We will be honoring Hannah's heratage and her humble beginnings and yet helping those orphanages and orphans left behind. Not quite sure exactly where God is leading on this, but I am really excited about it! January 26 2006 - Wow it has been quite some time since we have updated the journal. There has not really been anything significant to report. We are keeping busy in preperation for our referral. Kim has finishished (I Think) the 100 prayer quilt. It is a sight to behold. She also made a baby blanket with smaller squares of the same materials. I will post pictures. Things have taken much longer than we anticipated when we started this journey. We are getting ready to enter the 14th month. We initialy thought we would have had our referral and have traveled by now. Just goes to show you that we are not in control. God has really helped me develop patience, something that I am seriously lakcing in. Well, the CCAA just released referrals through May 13 and we are NEXT in line. We have a May 20 LID and we re hoping and praying that we will have a referral by or in March. February 27 - Well today was "supposed" to be referral day. We knew that referrals had left China on the 24th and were on the way. Our social worker called in the morning to make sure we were going to be by the phone and to get updated alternate numbers. The hours ticked by and no word. After the normal time for the DHL delivery had passed our agency called DHL and were told they had no tracking number in the system for CHI. Our referrals were lost in the mail. My personal worst fear!! Thus a two day journey started to determine what happened and where the referrals actually were. Wind two days forward to Wednesday. CHI determined this morning while working with the CCAA that our referral package had been sent to the wrong CHI. It was sent to "Children's House International" in Salt Lake City Utah. Our fabulous CHI China program director, Ann, worked some magic with DHL and was able to get the package rerouted to St Louis. We are eagerly wating on the package to make its way from Utah and we will get that phone call we have been waiting for for 10 months. It has been a long and very emotional two days. We can never thank Ann, the China Program Director, and Anna from the Beijing office for literally working around the clock to bring resolution to this problem. There were 47 families living on pins and needles and if like us not much sleep. March 2 - After 4 months of paperwork and 10 more months of wating and waiting and more waiting we are extremely excited to anounce that we have our referral for the most beautiful 7 month old girl. Her name is Qiu Yang Rui, soon to be Hannah YangRui Gresham. She is presently residing in the Yangxi SWI in Guangdong provence. March 30 - TA's (Travel Approvals) came in today. YEAH!! March 31 - CA's (Consulate appoitments) have been made and travel dates are confirmed. We will leave for Beijing on Friday May 5 arriving on Sat May 6. We leave Beijing for Guangzhou on Tuesday May 9 where we will spend the remainder of the trip. We leave Guangzhou, through Hong Kong, for home on Saturday May 20. Gotcha day should be Tuesday may 9. We can't wait. |
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