Hague Prayer Request

I received the following email from our adoption agency. Join me in prayer, won't you?

Dear Families,

I just wanted to send you a quick update to let everyone know that today we did submit to Hague our petition for re-consideration. They now have 15 business days (3 weeks) to respond to us whether they will re-consider us or not. If they choose to re-consider us, there is no specific time line for their decision. If they decide not to reconsider us, then we will have to wait until next summer to re-apply for Hague approval. So please pray that the people that will be reading our re-consideration letter that they find it in their hearts to re-evaluate our agency for Hague accreditation. The more people praying for this the better. We will let you know as soon as we hear back from them what their decision is.



Rebecca Davis and Tina Qualls
Rebecca.Davis@ChildrensHope.net or Tina.Qualls@ChildrensHope.net

Children's Hope International
11780 Borman Dr., St. Louis, MO 63146
Tel: (314) 890-0086 - Fax: (314) 427-4288
www.ChildrensHope.net

Out of Review

As best I can tell, our dossier is officially out of the review room. I must say, I was kind of worried about it because several months ago our agency asked us to supply the C*C*A*A with more information. If you remember they were wanting more details on Brad's gall bladder surgery; which I still find funny. But, we complied and had letters sent by Brad's doctors. Since then, I had asked our adoption consultant a few times and she said that they had gotten it and we had not been asked to supply anything else. However, the C*C*A*A's document processing box had never updated to say that our LID was out of review. The Rumor Queen mentioned that it was taking particularly long for February LIDs to be out of review. But, finally earlier this week the C*C*A*A's document processing box on their website was changed. This means that we are officially in the MATCHING ROOM. This is the room, where one day pictures of our family will be on a screen along with information about us, The Farmers, from Georgia. And, on another screen they will have children and eventually, side by side, will be our family and the child that they pick for us. That at least is my understanding of the basic concept of the process. But, regardless of all the minute details, it is surreal to think about.

Now, I must temper this exciting post by saying we still have at the very least a year and a half to wait. So, this process won't take place for a long time.

Along the lines of waiting, there has been a rumor that the formula problems china is experiencing will affect adoptions, because orphanages using the tainted formula have had children to become ill, and some of them sadly, became ill at the time there new parents were coming to get them. I don't think I have to visually type or "say" this, but that would be a nightmare in the worst possible way.

Please Pray

Hello Faithful Friends & Family!

Brad & I really need your prayers right now. There are some specific adoption related matters that we are seeking God's face about. We REALLY need to hear from God as to what to do. Could you please be in prayer with us. Unfortunately, I can't really go into specifics right now. But, we are needing to make some decisions. Join me in prayer, and please pray continuously throughout the next couple of weeks.

Father,

We believe that you placed a desire to adopt in our hearts and minds. We know that you specifically ask, in your word, for orphans to be cared for (James 1:27). And, we know that you have adopted us into your own family (Rom. 8:14-17) and thankfully, now, we are your children; whom you love.

Lord, you also say that you will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go (Psalms 32:8). And, right now, God we really need to know the way that we should go. You also say, Father, that if anyone of us lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5) God, we confess to you that we need wisdom and discernment; and we are boldly asking for it.

God, in our heart of hearts, we want your Best plan for us. Although, we would like our wait to end and we desire our child even now. We still agree with your plan, whatever it is, and we know that ultimately it is the best and perfect plan. Again, God, we do not want to take any steps that would be outside of your best plan, even though my heart is hurting. So, God direct our path as we try to trust in you and Not in our understanding (Prov 3:5-6). And, Father please help us to trust more completely in you. Your word reveals many blessings for those who put their trust in you. Help us to do just that. God, increase our faith and help our unbelief (Mark 9:24).

Lord, help us to believe that this vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. (Habakkuk 2:3).

Father, show us your will and give us your peace. May fear and doubt be removed.

-Amen

Information

I get a lot of questions asking me about our wait for Malley, and why the wait has increased. I don't really know the answer. It is not black and white, and there are a lot of contributing factors.

There is a lot of talk about how China is trying not to draw attention to the fact that they have child abandonment "issues" especially during the Olympics while all the world is watching. This article does some to explain why our wait has increased, but when you balance it with this post it is hard to know really what to believe about what is actually going on. I do find it sort of interesting that the first article was in a Chinese newspaper DURING the Olympics. The second link may not make a lot of sense to anyone that hasn't followed Chinese adoptions "behind the scenes," but it basically says that the cutoff date for referrals this month split the dates that the Chinese are normally off for Chinese New Year (2 weeks). So, if no one was there working, how were there referrals in that date range. The post goes on to propose that the reason for this is that the Chinese did not want to have a large referral batch during the Olympics.

The second article goes on to mention that the process could "possibly" speed up now that the "orphanage donation" has increased; as this might be more of an incentive to get children paper ready if they will benefit from a larger donation because of it. It is precisely this type of thing that infuriates me. According to the author (we have no way of telling how accurate they are) China has plenty of children, they are just not "paper ready". So, these children are living in orphanages a lot longer than is absolutely necessary. And, in the author's opinion, when the donations increase, so will the number of paper ready children. It's just sad.

I've already said that the whole "wait" is a muddy, difficult process that I will probably never understand. Is it the economy? Is it China "saving face"? Is it orphanage directors hungry for more money (and maybe this is good for the kids)? I don't know. But, I do know this: the wait time has now grown to 30 months ( 2 1/2 years). We've been logged in for 18 months, so we have at the very least, a year to go. If the CCAA is only going to refer 3 days a month, it'll be a while no matter what.

There is no need to comment y'all, I'm just thinking out loud. I'm just trying to read and educate myself about the world of Chinese adoptions. I like to put some of my findings here. I don't know why, or at least, I probably couldn't explain why without writing a book.

Immigration Approval Received Today

Again, folks, we have some good news & some bad news. It is so frustrating that we can never just get good news; that any news we get is always tempered with new fears and worries.

The good news is that we received our Immigration approval today. The approval date is July 22, 2008. It is good for 18 months, so it will not expire until Jan 22, 2010. However, our fingerprints will expire on September 7, 2009; so we will definitely have to be refingerprinted, and in all likelihood, we will need to apply for immigration approval again.

The bad news is that our agency lost it's Hague accreditation. If a country is a Hague country, like China is, a family can not adopt using an agency that does not have Hague accreditation. This is actually a good thing, and is in place to protect the children, so I am very glad that China is a Hague country. But, I'm not to pleased about our agency losing accreditation.

When we applied, our agency did have Hague accreditation, but it was recently denied after one branch of the agency was non-compliant. If I understand correctly, this non-compliance was the result of an employee (who is obviously no longer there) and CHI is trying to regain it's compliance. But Still, this is so frustrating to me. They sent the email notifying us of their denial on a Friday evening, and have sent other emails out stating that they are working on contacting all of the families to talk with each on about their specific situation.

Right now, because we are already logged in and because we have just received our new immigration approval, I think we are considered "grandfathered in". But, I am not positive about that. I do, however, know that other families that are in a similiar situation as ours, have been told that they (we) would not be affected and our adoption was not in jeopardy in any way, including being pushed back in the 'referral line.' I'm not really sure how much of that I believe.

I also know that CHI has chosen Holt as a back-up agency for any families. But, I really don't know how all that will work, and I don't know if we will need to use them or not. So, I'm just waiting for my phone call to talk about the specifics of our personal adoption.


All in all, I am dismayed and downcast. I have no idea what we're supposed to do (if anything). I keep hanging on to the year 2009, but in my head I really feel like 2009 will come & go and yet Malley will still not be home. When my thoughts head that direction, it very literally makes me sick to my stomach. What? Another year, Lord? Really?

Letter Finished

Hey guys!

Very quickly, I just wanted to let you know that I called the doctor's office to check on our letter, and she called back to say that it is finished. They are going to notarize it there (BONUS) and I'm going to go pick it up tomorrow at 8:30 AM (they have 1/2 day Saturday hours). After that, I'm going to get the kids from mom's and then head over to church to help clean up from VBS (hopefully by 10:00).

Anyway, this is good news. Please pray that the content of the letter will be sufficient and that the notary will be written and done correctly. Pray that it will be accepted and that our dossier will be moved to the Matching Room. It will be such a relief to be in the final room of the process.

Now, we just have to wait again. In the meantime, I need to have both of our passports renewed as both Brad's and mine expired in April. We also have some adoption "education/training" to attend, but we've still got plenty of time to do that.

Some Exciting Good News with a little scare and Prayer Request for good measure

Y'all what I'm about to tell you is truly good news. It is just the news I needed to lift my spirits and keep me waiting for the long haul. It also just about scares me half to death.....But enough of that all ready, let me tell you what it is.

My China Adoption consultant called and said that the CCAA (Chinese Adoption Officials) are reviewing our dossier and they need more information. Did y'all hear that? Someone in China is actually holding our file and knows that we exist.

I had known that our LID was getting close to being in the review room, but I had not heard (from anywhere) that our LID was actually there. This is some really exciting news. Their little Chinese hands are holding our paperwork and looking at it and reading it with their little Chinese eyes. No, our paperwork is not lost somewhere in the vast country of China......it is exactly where it should be.

Now, don't go thinking that we're any closer. The same amount of time that lay ahead of us yesterday is the same amount of time that lay ahead of us today; but just to know that our dossier is being reviewed in the review room is such a good and final feeling.

In case you don't know, the China adoption process consists of a review room and then finally a matching room. In the review room, your dossier is reviewed and verified and checked and double checked. Then it moves to the matching room. In the matching room, your file is "matched" with a child. From what I understand, the process is kind of cool, but I'll save that for another post. Or, you can look for the Rumor Queen link (to the right) and you'll find an area on her site that explains it.

Ok and now the scare: The CCAA is requesting more information about Brad's gall bladder surgery. They want to know why it was removed and what his recovery has been. In a way, this completely cracks me up. Out of the both of us, you would think that if one of our medicals would get questioned, it would be mine.....what with a history of cancer and an autoimmune disease. But instead, they pick Brad's gallbladder removal, and almost imply that people have those removed just on a whim. I also felt a little silly calling the surgeon to ask him for a letter that states why Brad had his gallbladder removed 3 YEARS AGO and what his recovery is/has been?

But, we're just going to form the scare into a prayer request. When I called the surgeon, his nurse informed me that he was out of town until Monday, and even on Monday, he will be in surgery all day. So, he won't even get to the letter until Tuesday and then it has to go to get transcribed. She indicated that it may be at least 2 weeks. Somehow, I don't really think that will sit well with my agency of China, but what can I do.

The only other option is trying our Primary Care doctor (who is retired now). I have contacted our current primary care doctor, she has Brad's chart/files from the doctor that retired. It was the retired doctor that ordered the gallbladder test and advised Brad to have it removed because it wasn't functioning. So, based on his chart, our current Primary care doctor may be able to write the letter too. I have a call in to her as well. I'm not sure which doctor is preferred by China, and I have a call in to our adoption agency to try to get clarification. Please pray that who ever China prefers will be able to get us a letter quickly (because we have to get it notarized).

*UPDATE: While I was typing our adoption consultant called back and said either doctor was fine, but it needs to be fairly quickly or it will push our dossier back in line. So, PLEASE PRAY that our Primary Care doctor can get it to us as quickly as possible, because we know that it will be 2 weeks for the surgeon to get it to us.

All in all, it's some pretty exciting news......just scary!

A referral milestone??

A lot about this post will depend on whether you're a "glass half empty" or a "glass half full" type of person. When I read the first couple of sentences of the update from our agency (below), I was kind of excited. Wow, 15 referrals is a lot nowadays. And, then towards the end, it really struck me. It says that the next families to receive referrals will be those with LID's of February 9, 2006. You know what's significant about that day? It is exactly one year ahead of our LID, which was February 9th, 2007.

This was exciting to me for about 30 seconds, and then the realization hit. We have a year to go, 365 days worth of Log In Dates before ours is here. And remember, that doesn't mean we are a year away, that just means there are that many days worth of referrals ahead of ours. But, any way you do the math (and trust me I've finagled them every way possible), we've got a long way to go. Currently, the wait is at 29 months, we've been waiting 16 months already, so we have at least 13 more to go. And, that is IF the wait doesn't continue to climb. Right now, I'm just praying that we can get her in the year 2009.

Regardless of all that, I'm happy that there were so many referrals this month. And, I'm glad that the CCAA is within a year of our LID. And, in my head, I know that we'll get her at just exactly the right time, and she'll be just exactly who God had always planned to be our daughter. And, I know that anything can happen and be a part of God's plan. And, I know I have to lay all the dates and the waiting at HIS feet. But, I can't wait to tell her all the ways God used her to shape her mommy's heart and to force her mommy to trust God's unseen hand.

I love you my little Malley-girl.


UPDATE FROM OUR AGENCY:
Monday, June 9, 2008

Fifteen China Referrals and Three Seeking Confirmation Letters!
Today has been a wonderful day. We received 15 referrals for our China families!! There were two boys and 13 girls. The ages ranged from 8-months-old to 22-months-old which put all within the age range of what was requested by the families. This referral day covered January 13, 2006 to January 16, 2006 for a nearly 29 month wait. The next Children's Hope log-in-date to receive referrals will be February 9, 2006. In addition to today's referrals, Children's Hope received three seeking confirmation letters for families adopting waiting children.

Much ado about fingerprinting

Hey friends!

At the end of the day, we had our fingerprints taken, but that's just the end of the story. Y'all wouldn't believe what took place at the beginning. I'm going to tell you, just for the shear sake of documentation.

(I feel like I need to say, "once upon a time" or something, but I won't....this is no fairy tale, but it does have a happy ending)

It was Friday night, and Brad & I were just getting in to bed, talking about our upcoming day. We had to be in Atlanta at 8:00 AM, but the kids were with my sister, so we had the rest of the day in the ATL to do whatever we wanted. We had thought about staying overnight somewhere nice. But, instead, decided to spend the money on some home improvement projects; so we were mapping out (in our mind, not literally on paper) all the shops and stores and restaurant possibilities. We were really looking forward to the time to spend together, and were excited about the prospect of having all day and evening to do whatever our hearts desired. What luxury!! I was beginning to think that our earlier snafu had been a blessing in disguise.

But then the phone rings. Don't you hate a late night call.....ugh!! It was Brad's work, and someone had made some programming changes that had literally shut down 20 manufacturing plants. Needless to say, it was a huge deal. Poor Brad had to work very literally ALL NIGHT long. Somewhere in the middle of the night he had dealt the blow that it was not going to be possible for him to leave work at 6:00 in the morning. He told me to go on ahead and take his forms with me to reschedule him. There is not much you can say or do when your employer is having a major manufacturing outage and you can fix it. Obviously, I was disappointed.

I left the house around 5:30 (they are doing construction around Kennesaw and I wasn't sure if it would cause a delay) and on the way down I was telling God how disappointed I was. Some might call it whining, I prefer to think of it as......um.......being honest with my disappointment- there, doesn't that sound better? In all honesty, I really don't think I was whining. I wasn't mad. I was just bummed. Yet again, something was preventing us from accomplishing this seemingly easy task and it was taking a much needed 'date time' with my husband down with it. In my mind I was also wondering how difficult it was going to be to reschedule, and if it would get lost in the shuffle. I was also afraid that it would create problems if Brad and I had different expiration dates.

Anyway, Brad called while I was still driving down and he said that I should ask them if he could still be fingerprinted as long as he made it down there some time that day. He seemed to think that he could leave (for an hour or so) later on that morning. I felt it was a long shot, but when I got there, I asked, and much to my surprise the answer was yes (as long as he got there before 3 PM.)

Luckily, Brad was able to leave around 8:30 or so and he met me in Kennesaw (remember, I had his forms) then went on down to the processing office, and then went straight back to work. And, since I was already down there (and without kids) I decided to hang around and go to all my favorite shops.

In the end, all that suffered was our time alone.....Oh, and maybe my sanity for a few hours. But, it's all good. The kids won't be back until Thursday, and Brad will definitely be taking some comp time, so our 'day' is coming.

Don't you just love a happy ending? Lord knows I do. - Thank you Jesus!

Fairly soon, I should be posting about our new approval!

Happy to Announce......some good news!

Hey friends!

I just wanted to pass along some good news. I went out to the mailbox today and lo and behold, we received our new fingerprint appointments in the mail. Yahoo. Our new appointment is this Saturday, 6/7 at 8:00 AM!! Wow, that is 6 days notice. We're going to have to juggle some things and cancel some others; not to mention, get up way early. But, we'll gladly make it happen. It will be nice to have this part of the process over with. After this, we should get our new approval which will be good for 18 months, I think.

That's all, just happy to pass on some good news for a change. Oh, and keep praying!

Yep, too good to be true.

Well guys, it didn't happen. Brad took a day off of work and we drove down to Atlanta, and still did not get our fingerprints done. We got to the U*SC*IS application office around 11:00 this morning. We were encouraged because the parking lot appeared empty, and we didn't see many people outside. However, once inside my gut feelings were confirmed. We went to the desk and explained our situation and that we had called the 1-800 number ON THE FORM THEY SENT and that we were instructed to come on a Wednesday. This was our reply (and, I'm not joking, pretty much verbatim,) "yeah, they don't give the right information out. Walk-ins can come any day, not just Wednesday; but they can only come at 2:30 (remember it was 11:00) and there is no guarantee you will get in, but if you don't you can reschedule."

So, what choice did we have? We were already there. So, we went to get something to eat and shopped for a while, and then went back to the office in hopes of being seen. We got back at 2:30 and by this time, a line had formed outside. The man we spoke to earlier came out after a while and pretty much told us (and the others) that we would not be seen, so we opted to reschedule. In order to do so, we had to make a copy of the invitation that we had received in the mail and brought with us. Apparently, there are no copiers in the office, so we had to leave and drive down the street to a Publix to make the copies, and then go back to the office.(Am I the only one that thinks that is insane?) I assumed (crazy me) that we would get an actual date and time when we went back, but instead, he just took our forms and said that a new invitation would come in the mail. I (very politely) asked him why, if they know the 800 number gives incorrect information, do they include it; and I went on to explain that we live an hour and a half away. He apologized and said that the 800 number is not for that particular processing office, and they are given generic responses to give out; which may be true for some offices, just not all (NICE). He then goes on to say that if we do not get anything in the mail (I changed our address on the form) within one month to come back, and show them the copy. I said, "So if we don't hear anything and we come back next month, will they do our fingerprints?" Are ya'll ready for this.......His reply (and I quote) "Definitely maybe." Are you kidding me? I laughed at this point, because there was nothing else to do. I mean, is this the best that a g*vernm*ent agency can offer us?....definitely maybe.

So, after all this, we did not get our fingerprints, and we do not have an appointment for them to be done in the future. Not only that, I can't even call or inquire further until it has been a month; and then, even then, it will require another trip to Atlanta with no guarantees. And, I just feel it necessary to say again that we've already been approved and done this whole fingerprinting process once. It still amazes me that our fingerprints "expire". I even took our original approval form with me.....it meant nothing.

Obviously, there is much to pray about. Obviously, my attitude is anything but positive. Obviously, it looks like there is no end in sight, and doubt and fear consume. God, may I ask, "Are you telling us something or is this Satan's handywork or is this just 'part of it'?" Lord, would you instruct us and teach us in the way we should go; will you counsel us and watch over us. (Psalm 32:8)

Unbelievable!!

As you know from previous posts, we have submitted an application for an extension of our Immigration Approval for little Malley. We did this on Monday, April 14th. We were right behind our close friends, the McGhee's, in this process. I had been checking with Angie to see if she had gotten a response. Sure enough, she got her appointment for fingerprints, and they only gave her an 8 day notice. Based on the timing, I knew ours should be just about a week or so behind theirs. This made me panic a bit, since we were about to leave for Disney, and I didn't want to be out of town during our fingerprint appointment time. So, I had our neighbor and friend, Meleia, religiously check our mailbox while we were gone.....but nothing came. Finally, today, we received our forms in the mail. Unfortunately, attached to the original document was an envelope. Apparently, they had sent the original document to our previous address.....even though, if you remember, I had asked in an email if there was anything specific that should be done to reflect our new address. Even though the response was a month late in getting to me, she assured me that nothing else should be done because the address change was reflected in our home study. But, they STILL sent the fingerprint appointment to our old address. UUUGGGHHH! So, guess when our appointment WAS? 5/10/2008 Hello, that was 9 days ago.

I find all of this so unbelievable!! How is it that absolutely every single step of the way is riddled and laced with error and mistake after error and mistake.

I called the immigration office and told them what had happened, and the representative told me that all we had to do was show up at the fingerprint office on a Wednesday and give them the original form and explain the error. That almost sounds too good to be true, and I asked her two different times to be sure of what she is saying. I even went on to say, "so, even though this form says that if we fail to appear as scheduled, our application will be considered abandoned?" She assured me again, that it will be fine. But, I don't know. I'm scared to death, and quite frankly, mad as hell.

So, you guessed it. We'll be making a trip to Atlanta on Wednesday. Please pray that the lady is right, and that they will go ahead and do our fingerprints and honor our request. If you don't mind, I think I'll pray right now.....care to join me?

Father God,

You know my emotions right now. You know how frustrated I am. Thankfully, you know me and you know my feelings. Jesus, would you please show us favor when we go to be fingerprinted on Wednesday. Lord, just as you gave your favor to Joseph, would you grant us your favor with the immigration office. Would you allow the fingerprints to be taken, and the process with our application to proceed. We ask that the road ahead be paved with your grace, and that ultimately, that road would lead to our sweet little girl. God, we are waiting on you and with you; please give us strength. Until the time when she is in our arms, Lord, please comfort her in yours. Give her peace and protection. Jesus, I also ask for the ability to receive our Malley in the soonest possible time. Would you protect her, and the other children from having to wait unnecessarily due to red tape or bureaucracy. God, we acknowledge that your ways are not our ways, and that your timing, although rarely ours, is perfect. Your way is perfect God, and we trust you. Your timing is perfect God, and we hope in you.
-Amen

Citizenship & Immigration Papers Resent Today

Hey Folks!

Our homestudy update was finally received......after a nice, long talk with the executive director of our home study agency. After we got that, I added the other necessary documents (that we had ready) and sent the whole kit and kaboodle to the Atlanta office of the CIS. We should be fine on the deadline, our document doesn't expire until May 16. So, hopefully, they will get it a good month before the deadline.

There is one small matter of concern that you could feel free to pray about. It is nothing major, but could just cause more hassles....um work for us. Since our original homestudy was completed, we have moved; that is part of the reason we did the update in the first place. But, I'm not sure if I needed to do anything special with our paperwork that we sent off today to reflect that (it is reflected in the update). I asked our adoption coordinator with our placement agency, and she wasn't sure, and apparently didn't feel the need to check on it and get back with me. Her advice to me was to email the Atlanta office (and then let her know). I did that last week. I got a generic automated response, but I still have not received any other email. From what I gathered on the CIS website, you only need to fill out extra paperwork if your status is pending, and our status is approved, it's just about to expire. I couldn't find any information that matched our scenario. So, my decision was to go ahead and send our documentation, and if there is something else needed, hopefully they will let me know and I can still get it to them by our deadline next month. I sincerely hope that doesn't come back to bite me, but I felt better about everything being there, than waiting on an answer that I may never receive.

If all goes as planned we should get the "one time free extension" and another appointment to do our fingerprints, as they have expired. Then, we should be able to sit back and wait again.

You may have noticed that I've added a song to Malagan's blog. In fact, it should be playing for your listening enjoyment even now, as you read. (I suppose it's only fitting since the name of the blog is Malagan's Song.) This song was playing on a friend of mine's blog during a time when she was waiting. One day, the words just popped out at me. I had heard it a thousand times, but finally, really caught the first few lines of the lyric. It says, "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord." So, now that has become our adoption waiting theme song. Not only because we are waiting on the Lord, but because it goes on to say that the Lord himself is the defender of the weak, and the comforter to those in need. I ask you, who is more weak and needy than my little Malley, and all those like her. I will trust Him to hold her and the others in his arms until I can hold her in mine. He does not faint and he does not grow weary, even when I do.

EVERLASTING GOD:
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Our God You reign forever
Our Hope our strong Deliverer
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles
You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
The everlasting God
The everlasting God.

Update Woes

Well, at least we're consistent. Yep, you guess it, we have had and are having issues with our home study update. You know, again, this is something that should be so routine for everyone involved and yet, it just isn't.

First off, our social worker was scheduled for 3/5, but lo and behold, she had to reschedule for 3/11. She stated several times that once the in home meeting took place, she would have our update ready within a day or two. Well, the 13th came and went with no word, and yes the 14th too. Finally, on the 17th she emailed me saying that she needed more information. There is a particular form that each family has to have completed by their local Department of Family & Children Services. I had sent our form in way back in January. Apparently, our social worker hadn't received it, and we were going to have to actually go to DFACS ourselves and have them fill out a new one. But, just by chance I called the main office of our home study agency just to double check, and it turns out that they had it there. Obviously, that was a relief but also very frustrating, because we could've had our update much sooner, had the correct communication happened between main office and social worker. Anyway, I'm thinking worst case scenario, we would have it by 3/21. No such luck. FINALLY, on 3/26 she sent me an email saying that she had sent in our report to the main office. Oh, and she apologized for the delay (thank you very much). Well, I kept expecting an email or something in the mail, and I still haven't gotten it. I know, it's just the 29th, but I'm working on a deadline here and I'm anxious. So, I called the main home study agency office today.

First of all, the phone was answered with "HELLO". Obviously, I thought I had called the wrong number. But, no instead it was our agency's receptionist and she was out at a restaurant having lunch. She had forwarded the calls. I couldn't hear her for all the background noise and conversation. But, I tried to inquire about how long I should expect to wait before I receive our update. And IF I heard her correctly, she said, "Oh, you can call back A WEEK FROM TUESDAY, when s0 & so is going to be in, she's the one that does that." I'm thinking, Are you kidding me????? I was prepared to have some discussion right then and there, but I thought, "what good would it do, she is obviously doing more important things right now, and doesn't have time for me." But, you can bet, on Monday morning I will be making a call to the executive director herself.

Again, this is so frustrating because it doesn't have to be like this, it shouldn't be like this!! There are children here and all over the world that need parents. Yet, we have agency's that don't even care enough to man the phone during normal office hours. We have, over and over, in this process been met with people that are apathetic and just quite honestly don't care......and I'm not talking about caring about us or what we're trying to do as a family, I'm talking about people not caring about their own jobs. People that could care less whether they do their job properly and to the best of their ability. And, this is just not acceptable. Not when there are government imposed deadlines to meet, and if they are not met will cost us, at the very least an extra $1000. Not when, there is a little girl across the world that doesn't have a mommy to meet even the most basic of her needs.

This process is killing me. It is stretching me and doing things with my patience that I never ever thought I could. You see, in the past, I've always had some tiny morsel of control. Something that I could do that might change the outcome of the situation. But, with this adoption, there is not one single solitary shred of control. Not even the most minute amount. And, I think I would be okay with that on some days, but when the wait drags on and on, and there is nothing I can do about it, I just ache and feel the most hopeless feeling. It is the same way I felt when Sara Kate was sick, and I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do to help her. Try that feeling......on, and on, and on. It's a hard place. Please Pray

Our Fortune

We are almost finished gathering the paperwork for our homestudy update. It has been a long process. It seems every task, no matter how small and easy proved difficult. I know we are not the first adoption in our area, but with each piece of paperwork, it was less and less evident. I was beginning to think I was actually speaking my request in Chinese, because many were the misunderstandings. We are now just waiting on a three sentence letter from Brad's company stating that he actually does work there. Apparently, a three sentence letter is very time consuming, and Brad had to wait for the ladies' assistant to come back to work before it would be typed.

Enough venting.....

I thought I would share the fortune Bryce got last night after our meal on our little date at Ginga. We are counting on it to be true, even though Ginga is a Japanese Steak House and we are adopting from China. Lets not get hung up on the details. Any way, It said:

"Good news of a long-awaited event will arrive soon." -Amen

No it really didn't say Amen at the end......but if my memory serves me correctly, Amen means, 'so be it'. So, I added that.

Let's Pray it so ya'll, pray it so.

Where to begin

Well, first, I guess you should read "What's in a Name," that will give you some background, and then I'll give you the cliff-note version of what's happened since. As you can see, we started thinking about adoption in 2005. We began the paperwork in February 2006. Our paperwork was finished sometime in late December 2005 (Sara Kate's sickness was a factor in the timing.) It was then sent to China on January 5, 2007. Our paperwork was officially received and 'logged in' with China's Center for Adoption Affairs on February 9th, 2007. That date, applicably so, is called our Log In Date or (LID). It is from that date, that the waiting actually starts calculating. Right now, the wait time from LID to referral is 24 months. If you're doing the math, we have at least one more year, and that is IF the wait does not continue to increase. I must note, that when we started this process the wait time from LID to referral was 8-10 months. So, as you can see, I fully expected to have our youngest daughter by now.

Because the wait has been so long, the documents in our dossier (documents that make up a biography of you...birth certificate, marriage certificate, financials, medicals, yada, yada, yada) are beginning to expire. So, right now, we are in the middle of getting our home study updated.

This week, we have had our septic tank inspected (poor guy), our bodies examined (poor doctor), and we're having our fingerprints retaken and resubmitted to the FBI tomorrow (it's funny, aren't they smart enough to know that your fingerprint doesn't change.....anyhoo). We still need to get a letter from Brad's employer and we still need to fill out the financials. Then our social worker will come to our house and visit with us; and hopefully, once again we'll get the GO ahead. After that, we'll submit a request for an extension for our other immigration fingerprints or CIS approval, so that we don't have to pay for them to be done a second time. We still have to do them a second time, but won't have to pay again. After all that gets done, we get to wait some more.

If you haven't noticed, I'm a little grouchy about the whole thing. It is a tad bit aggravating to re-do everything you've already done (correctly I might add) and paid for; but it is part of the process. And, we do what it takes to bring our baby home. I think the hard part for me is knowing that there is a fairly strong possibility that we'll have to do all of this (redo) again a year from now, because we may still be waiting. Re-do a re-do (there may be something spiritual in there). Anyway, If you're real perceptive you just noticed a prayer request, if not, I'll spell it out for you.....PLEASE PRAY FOR US! I need a super amount of patience and perseverance, and if God would choose to speed this up a bit I would be forever grateful.

Until she's home........