Paperwork, Paperwork & MORE Paperwork!

You would think we would be pros by now in the world of the paperchase.  But we are NOT!  Goodness.  I thought I made enough copies of everything. And I did not!  Seriously?  What was I thinking????  So today, I made 2 copies of our dossier, and 3 copies of the State Certification letter AND Authentication sticker from the Chinese Consulate.  So now, we have THREE full copies (plus the ORIGINALS) of our dossier.  Whew!  (of course, it's not complete. Just waiting on ONE more form).

So out of all the work, here is the result.  We have to send this, along with a full set of copies to our agency. They will send the originals to China once we send them that last piece of paper.  The agency keeps the copies.  We have 1 set of copies that we will leave at home and another set of copies that we will take with us to China.

I took photos!  You knew I would, right?  LOL

We can't wait to travel.  The thought of leaving the kids home does not excite me, but the thought of meeting our new daughters and bringing them home does.  I know once we are on the plane I will be just fine. And thank goodness for Skype & Facetime.  An easy way to chat with our kiddos at home.

The dossier

I love seeing  official things in Chinese

 

Pretty thick. This is just the originals. We have another stack of just the copies.

Now hurry up USCIS, pretty please!  We are anxiously waiting that last piece of paperwork!  :-)

It's been 3 months....

3 months ago today, we saw Hope & Maggie's photos for the first time.  And here we are, with a 90% completed dossier (just waiting for the US Government to send our LAST approval for our dossier) and then we will be done with the paperwork and ready to send it on to China.  This paperchase has gone extremely fast.  For the girls & for Ethan, it was easily a 6 month paperchase.  We hope and pray we'll be able to send everything to China in a month.  We are on day 50 of our wait for the approval.  I've seen people get approved anywhere from 55 days to 90 days.  We have not been notified from USCIS saying we've been assigned an officer to approve us.  Once we get that email/text, then it's about a week until we get the approval.  We are anxiously (and not so patiently) waiting for this letter.  Please pray that they are working hard and that we'll get the approval quickly.  We are still praying that we can travel in the summer before school starts. 

Merry Christmas!

Another Picture!

This was posted on Facebook tonight. I love seeing our girls.  This is Hope with her friend. They are all celebrating the holidays at school.  Merry Christmas Sweetie!  You & Maggie will be home with us next year celebrating.  We love you guys!

PICTURES!

We have pictures.  TEN pictures!  I was only expecting 2.  Of course we were not home when the email came through. And the file was so big they had to send them to us in a link.  :-)  We were pleasantly surprised to see so many pictures.  The girls look good.  We're wondering if Maggie is doing okay with the news.  She looks a little shocked in a few pictures. I can only imagine how her world/life just changed in her mind.  I'm sure a lot was going on for her in that moment. 

We were told though, that the girls are "happy to live in the same family".  :-)  We are happy to hear that.

So here they are.  The 10 photos of our girls.  Enjoy! 

Hope "meeting" her new family

Maggie

Hope & Maggie opening their goodies

Hope

Maggie reading our letter

Hope reading our letter

Hope

Maggie

Sisters FOREVER!

Seeing the new photos of the girls for the 1st time.  :-)

Pictures, Soon

It's been a week since the girls found out they have a family, that they will be sisters. It's been a week since I heard that there are photos out there of them reading our letter & holding their Minnie Mouses.  A week of jumping every time my email "dings".  And yet, no photos.  BUT...I have been told that photos are at our agency.  And they will email me.  So I wait.  And wait.  I know we are not the only family they are working with. I know there are others who are being matched with their precious babies/children and who have tons of questions like us.  But all I want is an email with the photos.  I'm so anxious and I should not be.  They will be coming. I just hope and pray it's before the office closes down before Christmas.  They know we are waiting. And they promised they will send them to us.  It's just so hard waiting when I know they have them.  So....hopefully soon, like tomorrow, I will have pictures to share.  Until then, I will continue to jump every time my email "dings". 

On another note, our dossier (minus the 797C) is complete and authenticated. The courier is going to pick it all up tomorrow and Fed Ex it back to us.  YAY!  Now if that silly (well it's not silly, it's very important) 797C will just hurry up and get here, then we can be on our way to having our dossier complete and sent to China.  We are currently on Day 43 of our wait.  We should have an approval on or before day 90.  PRAYING before day 90. 

Until next time....

They Received the Package

I got confirmation TODAY that Hope & Maggie received their package. Photos were taken. Love Without Boundaries has forwarded them to their adoption assistance program and they said if our agency requests them, they will pass it on so we can see the pics.

I was told that the girls are "so glad that they will live in the same family"

Yes I'm crying!  Yes I can't wait to get the photos.  Yes I have already emailed our agency (it's 5:45 AM there) asking if they can get the pictures.  I pray that they will.  Now, once I get them, I will post them here on this blog.

I can't wait!  I'm so happy!  I'm so happy the girls are happy!  Prayers have been answered! 

Maybe the package was delivered???

We still have not received another update from the US Post office.  We have called 2 times. Both times they said just what the email said.  Yesterday they told us that the orphanage will have to request the delivery be attempted again.  What????  They also said "Maybe they did not update the system and it was delivered". 

So Bill emailed his friend in China.  Told her our situation. Gave her the phone numbers to the orphanage and the tracking number for our package.  This was her reply:

William,can you check again if they accepted.I just rearched the Internet and saw where the package was.it showed there is someone accepted .the people's name is GUBENYONG.And think he probably is the person who responsible for all the package that in the orphanage.And then he will deliver the package to the peolple that who is  the reciever.
so i am not sure if the person didn't give the reciever or rejected.
And if the package was rejected I will check with the post office.

I am PRAYING this means that the orphanage has it.  But I don't understand how she can see it was delivered and we can not.  Praying we get some sort of confirmation that our girls have their package. I have lost sleep over this. I'm so anxious and nervous.  Wondering what they are feeling and what they are thinking. 

Please continue to pray.  Pray for the girls.  Pray that they will be excited to learn they are sisters and they have a forever family.

Keep checking the blog. I'll post an update when I hear something.  Thanks for Praying!

They need a family too!

Could one of these girls be your daughter?  They are in need of a family. They are patiently waiting and their time is running out.  They are 13 years old.  Once they turn 14 they are no longer able to be adopted.  PLEASE help me find their forever families.  Michelle & Brianna are with Hope & Maggie.  I would love to see 2 more of our girls friends find their forever families.  Please contact me if you want more information. 

Brianna

Michelle

The Girls Package

I received this email from the US Postal Service at 6:07 PM: "Attempted Delivery -CHINA PEOPLES REP 12/11/11 5:16pm. Scheduled for another delivery attempt today". We do not know if this means attempted to deliver to customs, or the orphanage. We also do not know if this is China time or EST time. (they are 13 hours ahead of us). They said 6-10 business days for delivery. Tomorrow (the 12th) is 10 business days. I really hope we get an email saying DELIVERED. Please pray! The girls could be finding out about us today (Monday) if this means they are trying to deliver to the orphanage. 

A little Glimpse

I'm so excited. I have met a new friend online through this adoption.  She is waiting to bring home her precious daughter who is in the same orphanage as Hope & Maggie.  Well her daughter just had a birthday and she sent her a birthday cake.  I was so happy to see that Maggie was at this little party.  So happy to see the smiling faces.  Every little glimpse of our girls is a treasure to us.

Maggie is standing up in the pink jacket

I LOVE this picture.  Maggie is behind the birthday girl. I LOVE how it looks like they are praying. But I think they are making a wish.  I wonder what Maggie is wishing for.  :-)

My friend has offered to take pics of the girls if they allow her to visit the orphanage in a couple of months.  We've also asked if she would mind taking a small gift to the girls and she said she would do that for us.  I'm just amazed at how small this world is.  Thanks to the internet, I have met a new friend, who is adopting one of our girls friends, who lives about 8 hours away from us.  I love how Maggie will have a friend close enough to visit one day. I love how she will be able to keep in touch with her. 

No news on the girls package.  They should have received it by now. I'm not sure if we will find out. I hope so.  Our agency told us that they will only ask for 1 update on the girls before we travel.  So I think we're going to wait until the spring to ask for the updates.

We are on day 31 of our wait for the I800.  Our social worker tried to expedite it for us but USCIS said no.  They will only expedite in a life threatening emergency.  So we sit and wait.  Please continue to pray for this process.  We're ready to get on that plane and go.

Hopefully we'll get some more updates soon about their package.  If we do, I'll put it here on the blog.

Help find her Forever Family!

This little girl is waiting for her forever family.  She will be 14 soon and then her chances of being adopted will be gone.  Do you know of ANYONE who is logged into China already who is approved to adopt a child up to age 14?  Please pass this link around and pray that she finds her forever family before it's too late.

Thank you!

Until They All Come Home