Home Study done

Well, our social worker emailed our completed home study to us today and it was long..I didnt know there was that much to know about us. There were actually things about Michael I learned through it. You see, Michael and I had individual interviews with the social worker. I will probably read it again later but will take my tim.

This week, I was given another patient from CHina. He was not even 2 and had only been in the country 2 weeks..This lady had used CCAI, our agency and raved about them. That was awesome. She made us realize something. When he came to the floor, she realized that the crib looked a lot like the crib he had in the orphanage so we quickly moved him to a bed..It was a great learning experience!

Last night, Michael and I sat down to watch National Geographic's Lost Daughters of China! HOly cow! If you didnt have tears pouring down your face, I am concerned. This video involved the journey of a few families going to China to get their daughters. Remember when we told you the story of meeting a wonderful family on our Disney Cruise who had 2 daughters? Well, their story was on this video. It was awesome. It made the whole thing feel more and more real..Please borrow our video or check it our at your library..It was awesome.

Also, please pray for me. The Dr just called and said I had a high white blood count..Not too hight, just a little bit and she was going to send me to a hematologist to see what was going on. She said she really wasnt worried to much, just wanted to rule things out..PLease pray its nothing..The idea of going to another dr just freaks me out..

Thats all..Michael isnt feeling well either so keep him in your prayers as well..
You guys rock!
Amy

We are waiting for financial means before we send out our I600A. That is the form needed for the fingerprinting. We need that in order to get the I171 which we need to complete the dossier.We will update when we can.

Hope you had a miraculous Christmas!
Amy

update

I read the new rules about the Chinese adoption and its okay. Our wait will be longer. I think I may be the only person looking forward to the wait. We will be celebrating when we get our I171 back (the last piece of paper we need) and when we are officially logged in.
I had my physical yesterday and my dr is going to work with me. Not sure how that works as I will be doing the work but whatever.

Thats it for now..Merry Christmas

I am so happy for the families who got their China babies this week! Maisie and Chloe are now with their forever families!!!!

Snoozing

So, I worked last night and slept on and off this morning as I am working tonight. I was awoken at 3:15 by our agency staff who I just love. Anyway, it turns out that if I can not lose the weight, we will be denied by China. I figured this out anyway. Dude, I lost 50 pounds one semester in college by going to the YMCA every morning. I know I can do this again!

Will update later..

Amy

Apologies to those I work with

Okay, so today was the day of my physical which meant nothing by mouth after midnight. I worked an extra shift last night from 11p-7a which meant nothing to eat or drink. If you know me, I drink a few Coke Zeros on my shift and usually a snack. Apparently I was not a nice person to work with last night. In fact, 2 staff members made me promise to never let my blood sugar drop at work again..

So, I left work, ready to go to my 920 appt at the dr. I got there, they pulled me aside and said the dr called in sick and they forgot to call me. Excuse me??? I and the people I work with suffered for nothing?

The worst part she can fit me in until after Christmas and that means my home study will not be complete and i wanted to have all of that done before hand. So I am a bit down but I know things could be worse so I am ok..I have been having some good talks with God lately, which is awesome!

THanks for the awesome emails and comments peoples!

If you would like to be a part of the prayer email list, shoot me an email over at amyschristopher@comcast.net

Prayers needed

Ok, so there is bad news and good news. I spoke to our agency this weekend via email and today by phone. I feel like we have one of the most reputable agencies around. They are just awesome and do not tell you anything unless confirmed by China!
That being said, things in China are changing May 2007. I am only going to post what affects Michael and I so if you are thinking about adoption, please email me and I will send you to other sites.

1)China fees are actually increasing January 1, 2006. Not too much, but enough for Michael and I to look at the budget again
2)Weight is a big issue now. Michael does not have to worry. It all has to do with the BMI or body mass index. It has to be a certain number. In order for me to reach that number, I need to lose 50 pounds. I have done this before, its not impossible.

If we can get logged in by May 1st or have our dossier (the whole paperwork thing) in China by May 1st, we will be okay. After that, the above applies. I do have a doctors appt this Wednesday to go over this. Its a blessing that our Dr is also adopting, because she knows what its like.

This is a bit of a stress but its not impossible and we are in no way giving up. Either
A) we get our paperwork really going which means finding extra money sooner to get our stuff done or
B)prepare to love weight quickly and find lots of support.
The good news is I have needed to lose weight for a while and regardless of when our dossier gets to China, I will use this as an extra incentive to lose the weight.

So that's what's going on, plus the wait time is increasing. They cant say how long but the sooner we get our stuff into China, the better. The last piece of our home study will be the drs notes and me finding Michaels employment letters. Then we apply for finger printing and then we get the governments permission to adopt from China and that takes about 3 months so we have lots to do.

More to come after I have had more sleep. Thanks for checking in!

Ok, well our agency sent an emal regarding dossier changes. I am ok with changes and I hope we are still approved. Apparently China is changing some of the rules and I worried for a minute. There will be a weight restraint so I need to get busy losing or whats the point..If they are going by your BMI, Michael has nothing to worry about!!!!

I have my drs appt on Wednesday and we will talk about weight stuff and immunizations for going overseas. Our biggest hurdle is money. Once we get what we need in, we can mail off for fingerprints and then our long wait form. The only thing the SW needs now is our medical forms and our financial statement. I will let you know when we hear what the actualy changes are. I hate to think we have spent this money to get started to have us turned away. We could use your prayers during this priocess.

Thanks
Amy

Our wonderful social worker just called to clarify what we still needed. She is almost done with her home study. Michael is going to the dr tomorrow and should get his form filled out and I have mine next week. Those are the last 2 hard forms to get. Once we get the home study down, then we start really paperchasing and finally getting our dossier together. WooHOo! I shall say this now. I would love to be logged into China by June 1st! We will see how close we get to that!!!

Amy

Steven Curtis Chapman-All I Really Want for Christmas

ANother adoption song..Hope you enjoy!

New Prayer Requests

1) That we will stay focused and motivated
2)That we will learn the heritage of our daughter during our waiting time
3)that all paperwork will be done in a timely manner by us and others
4)that all paperwork mailed will arrive at its destination and will not be lost
5)for our social worker and agency as they work on the paperwork
6)finances that we will have the money needed at the right times
7)the orphanages where the babies are-that they will be loved and cared for
8)China in general

next step

Well, more paperwork arrived today. My birth certificate and marriage license was mailed from the secretary of the state of Florida. Time to mail out the I-600A and get our fingerprints. Then we have just our doctor forms to fill out and we can apply for the last form and thats taking over 3 months to get back!

Wow, at least things are coming together!

Well, unfortunately our Friday gathering was cancelled but we are looking forward to the January gathering. Just wanted to let you know that the other song played is Third Day's Merry Christmas. Its an awesome cd and this song is great. Please be patient for the download and take a listen.

Amy

song

Eeyore Jeff told me tonight he could hear the song on this site. If you have time to wait to hear it upload, listen to the lyrics. Its Rascal Flatts and the song is called "My Wish" and I assume it is a letter from a parent to child

and so it goes

Not much to report today. I have been faxing copies of things to our SW so that she can finish our homestudy. Next up, filling out forms that will get us fingerprinted and get us an important form needed to send to China.

We are looking forward to Friday. We will be going to a couples home to have fellowship with other families who are either back from China or in the same boat we are. We have not been since September but we are vey excited to go. We may even see the couple we met on the cruise who introduced us to all of this!!!!!!

hmmmmm

Well, the social worker visits are done and she is just waiting for us to fax over copies of papers so that she can finish our homestudy. We are waiting for Maryland to have the Sec of State sign Michaels birth certificate and a few others..Once the home study is done, we will start waiting on more paperwork.

Our social worker recommended a lot of books for us to read and to my surprise, my MIchael has been ordering them from Amazon and they arrived this week. I am not sure how much we will be reading before Christmas, but we have a lot that we can do during our week.

God has been so good to us and has openend so many doors. I am meeting many families with Chinese children at work and I have loved learning about their experiences.

me

Michaels birth certificate arrived from Maryland today..That didnt take long. Now we have to send it to the secretary of state for authentication. Hope mine gets here soon!!!

etc

Well, the good news is that state of Florida has cashed my checks which means we are in the process of getting our marriage license and birth certificates. We mailed a letter to Maryland for that one.

The actualy homestudy is done. Now we have to give our social worker papers for her to be able to complete it. That includes our police reports, license, birth certificate, and all kinds of stuff. Not too bad.

I hope all of you are well. Apparently there were no referrals in October but quite a bit in early November. Congrats to all of the new families. The holiday season is quickly approaching and I wonder how many more we will have before we go to China. I am hoping 2007 will be our last Christmas with just Michael, Lucy and I.

I am trying to find a person/site to help with this blog and make it a bit more creative. If you know of someone who does this and has had success, please let me know!!!!!!!!

Last nights visit

So, would you like to know how it went? WE PASSED! She said she had no problems with us becoming parents and it would take her a few weeks to get her study together. That's ok, it will take a few weeks to get our paperwork together.

I got home at 9am yesterday and then I slept until noon. I got up and was quite motivated. Michael had already done a lot of work, but I spent 5 hours scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning our room, Making sure the downstairs looked clean and homey. Is that a word? Also, I just found the Swiffer? MY goodness, my I express my gratitude to the inventor. Its awesome! Lucy was over at doggie day care so I had freedom to do the whole house.

6pm Mary Poppins arrives. That's not her name, I just prefer to call her that. We say hello and take a tour of the house..I offer her a Coke Zero and we learn she likes this..Yippee! She likes the backyard and even the big green wall. This is good. The garage had been improved and she changed our water heater in hopes to save us some money. We will see. Saw the white room, which will be the baby room. The only safety issue she pointed out were the corners of the fireplace on the bottom..She recommended that we just soften the corners but we have time to do that!

After the walk around, we did our interviews. We had typed up our autobiographies and she went through those. I was up first and I really enjoyed it. She had given us a sheet with potential issues and we had to choose some to talk about. Most of it was parenting and adoption issues and how the public and friends and family will react. I loved this. Then it was MIchaels turn and I headed upstairs. I have no idea what they talked about, but he passed.

We ended the evening by saying she doesn't think we need another visit but that was up to me. We are meeting with a marriage counselor to talk and make sure we are ready. I am looking forward to this. Please don't think we are having issues. We are trying to prevent any issues from coming up.
Thanks for all of your prayers. This paperchase is crazy but I am loving it and I am looking forward to the long wait.

Amy and Michael