Worried...

Michaels BC is still not back from the state authentication part. Its been 2 weeks and I had it fed-exed. The agency says to keep an eye but sometimes it takes 2-3 weeks. I am mailing out the rest of our paperwork to Houston for final authenticating. The we wait for my passport, Michaels BC and then the rest of the paperwork to come back from Houston and we are ready to turn in our dossier.

Pray

Amy and Michael

the paperchase continues

This week will hopefully get our last paperchase event started. The hope is that we can get our documents to the Chinese Consulate in Houston and Michael's BC to the DC consulate. We are also waiting for my passport and to find a few more group pics of Michael and I with some friends! Then our dossier will be complete once we get everything back!

We have decided to support other local adopting parents on Saturday night. One couple is having a silent auction and spaghetti dinner Saturday night in Acworth, and we think it will be fun. Let us know if you want some information!

the paperchase continues

This week will hopefully get our last paperchase event started. The hope is that we can get our documents to the Chinese Consulate in Houston and Michael's BC to the DC consulate. We are also waiting for my passport and to find a few more group pics of Michael and I with some friends! Then our dossier will be complete once we get everything back!

We have decided to support other local adopting parents on Saturday night. One couple is having a silent auction and spaghetti dinner Saturday night in Acworth, and we think it will be fun. Let us know if you want some information!

1st problem

We really havent had many problems with this whole process. I spoke too soon. Michaels BC is not back from DC authentication. It has to go back one more time before we send our dossier to China. Please pray it comes soon. I even fed-exed almost 2 weeks ago. I know they have gotten busier and I hope thats all it is, but we need it pronto. We also need to find more pics of Michael and I in group photos

Congrats on the referrals this month!

referrals

Hi everyone! Its been kind of discouraging the last few days, reading other blogs from other Chinese adopting fammilies. You see, this month, the CCAA or the Chinese group that matches babies and families only sent a hand out of referrals. This could be because of the Chinese New Year and everything was closed for a week or this could mean the wait for everyone is getting longer. I refuse to get down on it..I just want to get logged and start the long wait.

I dont know whats going to happen but I pray we all have patience. Its a long long road to our babies but our time will come. Lets pray for no new hold-ups in China and that the wait actually shortens this year!

Amy

How we got to this place

Ok, its been asked so let me tell it..Its odd, its strange. Its awesome.. It can only be from God

Michael and I were married October 6, 2001. Since before we were married, we talked about babies..I love babies. I love baby names..It was actually an obsession. Every Monday and Thursday while we were dating, Michael read out the baby names from the Orlando paper and we would assess the situation. You also have to understand that 10 year ago I worked at Jackson-Madison County Hospital and swore I would have twins and name them Jackson and Madison. At the time, I did not realize that everyone thought the same thing. Seriously, they are the most common names EVER! Dang it!

Well, we married and moved to Atlanta. I started working a CHOA (childrens health care of Atlanta) with a lot of women my age who were pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Really didn't effect me until 2 years into marriage. I wont get to personal because really there isn't a lot to tell. We just didn't get pregnant and decided just to be patient. Adoption was never ever in the picture. I never thought I would adopt nor did I have the interest. God is smiling now.

Let's back up again. I went to a Christian college in TN (GO UNION)! I really got into Contemporary Christian music. Steven Curtis Chapman became my top favorite CD to listen to. I became a huge fan for a variety of reasons. 1) his music now brings back memories from college 2)his music helped shape my walk with Christ 3)his music makes me listen. I say that because his music ministered to me and I needed that ministry at the time. When his song "When Love Takes You In" came out, I didn't like it. I skipped it all the time on my CD player. This is very true. I never skip Steven songs. But anyway. When did this whole adoption thing start you ask?"
Michael has taken me to 2-3 concerts but it was the last one that hit me. I can not remember the year or time, but it was like God was knocking on my skull. We started talking about what a cool idea it would be AND

Christmas 2005 Mercy Me/Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas concert. Halfway through the concert, 1-2 dozen Chinese Children came out singing and I couldn't keep my eyes dry. It was horrible, in a good way. Our hearts opened like never before and after that, we talked.

Lets speed up a bit. May 2006. Disney Cruise. Michael and I go on a stingray excursion. We wait in line and they ask for a party of 2..We quickly get on the boat. During our trip we see a beautiful Chinese girl and her parents. As nosey as I am, I ask about the adoption thing and thank God they are nice people. They share their story, I talked to Marissa for what seemed forever and we exchanged addresses. They live 15 minutes away..How cool is that? They also have a younger daughter from China! Back in January, we watched the National Geographic video, Lost Daughters of China and I forgot our new friends were in it. It was wonderful to watch.

We applied with our agency, CCAI, in September and got our approval on our anniversary trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

This experience has been awesome. It wont be too long until we turn our dossier our agency and we are hoping for an April log in date (LID).

Amy and Michael

monthly First Friday meeting

Once again, we were blessed. It is so nice to be around people with this common bond and to develop friendships. We had dinner with Karen, another future mommy and then we headed over and talked some more. There is another couple who is our age and is about to be logged in to the China system. We are very happy for our friends.

After socializing, the host and hostess usually say a few words and then there are questions. one guest brought up something interesting. She seemed concerned that a lot of people depend on this group for encouragement and things, which is good. She encouraged us to make our own support groups outside of this group and to start encouraging others. It hit home that "our story" can encourage and impact others..She gave us lots to think about and I will probably post about that later today or tomorrow..

Its just that after every meeting, we come back so excited..

Amy and Michael

I 171

Ok, here is my view of what happenned.
Yesterday after I woke up after coming home from work, Michael and I watched some TV. He fell asleep and I went to the post office to pick up a certified letter. I was actually hoping this was the form. I got their, waited in line for 35 minutes to find the letter was actually a letter from our mortgage company.I was sad but realized we actually had weeks to wait for our form.

I get home and Michael has already gotten the regular mail. He asks me to check out the form and as I read it, it seems its just a normal letter from the immigration center saying they have our info. I kept looking at it and looking at it. I noticed it said 797 on top so I knew it wasnt what we were waiting for. Still, I was curious.

We went to trivia and looked at the form again and again. We found a form in our adoption guide that looked different, but it said the same info..A light bulb went off. My heart was racing, but I didnt want to get my hopes up..

Then, I turned the page to the guide. I found a page that said I 171 example and it had the 797 in the corner like ours. I kept reading the pages and noticed it was identical to what we had in our hands. We were ecstatic. I had Michael look at it a few times just to make sure and when we got home, I got online and asked all of our online friends.

I went to the agency to get it notarized and they said this was the quickest they had ever seen..Yeah God! This is awesome. They said they had no doubts we will get logged in before May 1st. That stress is behind us.

What we are waiting for before our info goes to China.
-we are waiting for my passport (its been 2 weeks)
-we are waiting for michaels bc to come from DC so I can send it back to DC before sending it to our agency

We now send all documents to the CHina consulate in Houston and then they will sned it back to us and then our agency gets those.

Keep praying

amy and michael

WOW !!!!!!!!!!

Wow!

In the mail today, Wednesday, February 28th we recieved our I-797, also known as the I-171. This is TWO WEEKS, yes, just FOURTEEN DAYS after we were fingerprinted!

We are on our way, just needing two last documents to be ready to submit, my birth certificate which was mailed to Washington, DC on Monday. It gets one more trip home and one more trip to DC, and we need Amy's passport which we sent off for two weeks ago.

I have not heard of ANYONE getting their documents so quickly after fingerprinting. We are grateful, amazed, and blessed.

-Michael

When Love Takes You In - Steven Curtis Chapman

This is the 3rd time I have posted this video since starting this blog..Mostly out of selfish reasons. I was never a huge fan of this song until one night at a concert, it hit me and I think it solidified our decision to pursue our daughter from China. I hope any new readers will enjoy this!

Mail

I woke up from my nap to find Michael home, who had brought the mail in. In the mail were 2 letters from the Senators offices that we visited last week. At least we know someone wrote back.
I am at work and I have just made sure that all forms we are sending to Houstin have been copied. I have written the cover letter and gotten the application ready. I just need Michael to double check and add the money order!

Michaels BC made its way back to DC today and I thought I made a mistake by sending it FedEx but apparently they only accept FedEx. Whoo!

My old college neighbor posted below and shes been logged in for a few months. I cant wait to hear more stories from her!

Its Amy

I'm glad Michael has been posting because he is very good with words. TO continue with the paperchase, I hope to send Michaels BC to DC tomorrow. Its been almost 2 weeks since we were fingerprinted..Lets hope we get a miracle and get it soon! Im trying to stay positive. I talked to one of the plastic surgeons at work today..There are 2 pediatric ones who work at my hospital. I asked him if he does a lot of cleft lip/palates on Chinese children and he said his surgeries have doubled this year already. He said for some reasons, Chinese children usually stay an extra day and that may be because of low birth weights or nutrition deficiencies or such. It was nice to talk to him about that.. I think it would nice to adopt a special needs child if this one goes smoothly. I guess we will see..


ATLANTA FRIENDS, IF YOU ARE GOING TO THE FIRST FRIDAY GATHERING THIS WEEK AND WOULD LIKE TO DO DINNER BEFORE HAND, LET ME KNOW!

Another small step

Today in the mail we received my state certified birth certificate from Maryland, so it will be mailed off on Monday to some office in Washington, D.C. after which it will come back to us and be mailed to the Chinese consulate in Washington, D.C.

Funny thing is I just finished watching season 4 of "24" and they do some things at the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate in that one. :)

Recap of a 2nd Productive Day

So friends, yesterday was our second consecutive productive Wednesday regarding our paper chase. Not everything went the way we anticipated, but here is what we have to report.

I went to work from 6:30 to 11:30 while Amy got some sleep as she had worked the night before. I got home a little after noon and we got everything together and started out on our mission around 2pm.

Our first stop was the office of the Secretary of State of Georgia. Mapquest was a little vague and the result was we circled a block twice before discovering the place we needed to be is a two tower building atop the Georgia State University MARTA station (MARTA being our bus and train system in Atlanta). We paid $5 to park and climb a steep hill to the entrance which is behind a nice park with fountains and war memorials to Georgia's fallen soldiers. The walkways have benches and bench swings.

We entered the capital office building and immediately came to an information/security desk where we were asked our business and for our identification. Amy seldom carries her ID on her so this was a problem. I showed my driver's license and we were told Amy would have to wait downstairs. I proceeded to the 11th floor and found the office. I told the receptionist I needed document authentication and she said she would call the person I needed. I asked about the security measures and another employee was heading out. That employee heard me and asked for Amy's description and she actually went down and got Amy for me.

The process at the Secretary of State's office was quicker than the County clerk of Courts as the county guy had to hand type a lot of things including our notary's last name (Chwemelewski). We had all 9 documents certified and paid our $90 in about 10 minutes and the documents were very nicely set up in official folders.

We left downtown and headed towards home to make stops at our two Senator's offices. I did not use mapquest, but had looked to see where we needed to be. We circled Cumberland Mall a bit and found Johnny Isakson's office first. There we met a case worker who told us things have increased tremendously since January 1, as the immigration people have added more staff to process I-171 applications. Everyone in this office looked very Republican, all clean-cut white men wearing ties, it was like a room full of Alex P Keatons.

We went next to Saxby Chambliss' office which is less than a mile away. There was seemingly no one there except an attractive young woman who greeted us and set us up in a room to fill out a request form for intervention to go with our letter requesting help. As we left we helped ourselves to some of the GEORGIA PEANUTS which filled a bowl in both Senator's offices. Perhaps this could be a nickname for our baby, the Georgia Peanut.

Since we had finished our mission, we called Amy's sister and found she was not feeling well throughout the day. We told her to go rest and we went to grab a snack at McDonald's and then drove to her hotel. Kelly was not feeling great and we debated what to do for the evening. The end result was we took her to Jason's Deli where she made a salad and got some soup and cheesecake. We took Kelly back to her hotel and we headed home until it was time to head out for trivia. We were in 3rd place going into the final bonus which we answered correctly, but did not wager much on, so we won nothing but had a good time.

FYI - the final bonus was "Who was the highest paid child actor in the 1980's?" Answer - Gary Coleman. The other question that hurt us also was a bonus with wager - "In 1998, who was the oldest woman to have a number one single in the US pop charts at age 52?" We guess Streisand for her duet with Bryan Adams - it was Cher.

Another Work Day

Today will be another good day for the adoption journey as I will be at work until 11am or so after which I will come home to get Amy and we will drive the half hour or so downtown to visit the Georgia Secretary of State's office to get our documents certified at the state level. After that we'll be visiting the offices of our two senators to petition them for help in expeditiing the I-171.

I'm thinking if we have time afterwards we'll go see a movie together before we go pick up Amy's sister Kelly (she's in town for her job) and take her to trivia tonight.

Whats going on.

I received so many wonderful ideas on the post below and I thank all of you. Today, Michael and I will head downtown to get things state certified and then we will figure out what to do next. I am royally confused but just emailed my agency so I hope they can help!

Presently, we are waiting on:
1)my passport
2)the famous I-171
3) Michael birth certificate (which went fro Maryland to our house back to Maryland and when it comes back, it will go to DC and then back to us and then back to DC and then back to us and then our agency and then China! Was I clean enough??


Thanks for all the prayers and support!
Amy

HELP!

There are a few of you who are also going through this experience of have already completed the process! I want some ideas on how to bring the culture into our family while we wait. We have every book to read and plan on reading a lot once we are logged in!
Im looking for anything that will keep us occupied!Whats keeping you busy?

Happy New Year!

Today marks the day to celebrate the Chinese New Year! Hope you have a good day! Found this article on CNN today..Click here!

I-171 wait Day number 3

We expect a wait of a few months but we are trying to be patient! Hope everyone is doing well. I am suprised at how many people have asked if we have a name picked out yet. The answer is no. MIchael and I have quite a list of traditional names that we like, but thats about it.

FYI, Using delivery confirmation, Michael's BC made it to Maryland and now we are waiting for it to come back so that we can send it to DC!!!!

This weeks adoption plan:
Take documents to Sec of State to sign! Glad its in Atlanta!

Prayer Requests
1. That all documents get where they need to go
2. Pray for our patience
3.That nothing gets lost in the mail
4.That we can stay organized
5.That our marriage stays strong as we prepare for this huge change
6.Pray for those that are caring for the babies in China
7.Pray for our friends who are also adopting

A VERY Productive Day

Good Afternoon Friends!

Amy and I are relaxing at home for a few hours while Lucy is at doggie day-care and befoe we head out to trivia tonight. More importantly, here's our day so far...

6:15 am wake up

7:15 out the door heading to the Immigration offices in Atlanta to be fingerprinted for our I-171. It was an efficient and painless task, using no ink they now use digital scanners and a lot of Windex. While we were there we chatted with another couple who are adopting their second child from Kazihkstan. They had their 4 year old daughter Alma with them and it turns out the husband is a teacher at a school very close to my restaurant. The only weird thing is they have a rule that you cannot have a cell phone on your body in the building. They don't frisk you or anything, they just ask, and if you say yes you have to go back out to your car and come back in.

8:45 We were at immigration for about 45 minutes total and on the way out we hit a Chick-fil-a for some breakfast and headed up to the CCAI offices to talk with the dossier advisor. We cleared up a few questions and found a change we need to have made to my medical form. Jamie notarized all of our current documents and we found out we need to send my birth certificate back to Washington D.C. after it comes back from Maryland, and it will be done. I figured it was a null element considering I was born on Federal Government property, but since my birth certificate is from Anne Arundel County, MD, we have to play this game where we sent to MD to get it, they sent it to us, we had to send it back to MD to do something extra to it and now it will return to us so we can send it to the Chinese consulate up there.
The good news is there is a county court office and car tag office about a mile south of our old apartment and we were able to take everything Jamie notarized to that office to be certified. We'll take some time next Wednesday to go to the Georgia Secretary of State's office to have the county certification done and we'll be set for all documents except for the I-171!

10:45 Being done at the county clerk's office, we drove home to get Lucy and take her to doggie day-care. We continued back to Sandy Springs for our Valentine's lunch at Carro de Bois, our favorite Brazillian restaurant. It is one of the type where you serve yourself at a hot and cold food bar and return to your seat where servers come around with many, many wonderful meats including lamb, roast pork with parmesean, garlic pork tenderloin, chicken, sausage, and about 4 or 5 types of steak. It's the kind of place where you eat very little before and after your trip. We chose to do lunch there to avoid the dinner rush for Valentine's evening and we are going to trivia tonight.

12:45 We finished lunch and headed back to the house for a pit stop before heading out again for Amy's 2:00 appointment at the post ofice for her passport. That took til about 2:45 but Amy shold have her new passport with her correctedname in time to make a copy for the dossier and she'll be set to travel next year as well. We stopped at Walgreen's on the way home and got our extra passport photos for the dossier as we needed 3 sets each.

So now it's about 4:30 and we're back at the house watching "Little Miss Sunshine" before we have to pick up Lucy, our own little miss sunshine and we'll go play trivia tonight with Peter at Winston's. So we accomplished a lot today and we are happy.

This report brought to you by Michael