Paperwork

I am trying really hard not to stress out about how much time is going by. We turned in the last of the reference letters, so we are finished with our part of the paperwork collecting. My fingerprints finally cleared!!! We are now waiting on my child a use clearance from Hawaii. I have heard that it is one of the states that takes the longest. I believe they have thirty days to process it and it has been a few days over thirty. I asked for the phone number and left messages on every extension it listed. I will start again tomorrow morning and see if I can get it moving along. I hope our social worker was able to finish our home study this weekend or will have it done in a few days! When she is finished she will email it to our adoption agency to see if ther have to be any changes made. They will email it back and forth until it is perfect and then it gets sent to the USCIS with paperwork for a 800A. I think. I am going to download and fill out the paperwork for that tomorrow. The only way to not obsess about this is to concentrate on one thing at a time. It is very hard, but I am doing my best. I know getting stressed won't help anything.

Zhoa Lei's Orphanage

A great thing happened today. I was on the internet last night trying to learn more about Lei's orphanage. I had googled it before, but last night I spent HOURS trying to get information. It isn't listed on any of the lists of orphanages I could find. It wasn't even on the list my own agency sent me! I finally found a referral picture of a little boy who looked like he was sitting in the same park or field that Lei's picture had been taken in. It is a pretty view of cherry trees in blossom. It had a page or two of a blog his dad had written while getting him from China. I wrote him an email asking if he was from the same orphanage and if so, could he give me any information about it. I also joined several yahoo groups and posted the same request. I was accepted into one yahoo group in the middle of the night. I heard my phone ping as it received and email and knew what it was. So I wrote out my message asking for information while I was half asleep. This morning I received an email from a woman saying she had adopted her nine year old daughter from the orphanage over eight years ago. She said that the director told her that her daughter was the last Non Special Needs child they would have at the orphanage. She also told me that the orphanage was very small (with only 15-20 children) and was part of a hospital. She said that she did have pictures and would try to get them to me later this week. How great is that?!
I happened to check my email while I was making dinner and I had received an email from the man who had adopted his son from the same orphanage! At least I had hoped that he had. I was shocked when I read his email. He not only had pictures of the orphanage, he had pictures of my daughter and information about her! He gave me his phone number and I called him. We talked for an hour! He told me some details about the city, the orphanage, the kids, staff, his son and Zhoa Lei. He said he remembers her because he was told by the staff at the orphanage that he and his son spent a lot of their time playing together. I will write what he told me tomorrow because I am really tired and want to write it correctly and I am really tired now. One really interesting thing is that his little boy is in Zhoa Lei's referral pictures and he is in hers!

WE GOT OUR LSC!!!

Our LSC arrived on February 24th! I had called my caseworker at the adoption agency to ask if she needed copies of the certificates that we had finished all of the hours of online education classes that they offer. They are required now to be Hague compliant, which is great. I love anything that helps me to become more educated about adoption. The classes cover things like what to expect when traveling internationally, older child adoption, adopting trans racially, attachment issues...all good things to know. I didn't know if she needed copies or could just see we did them since we did it through the adoption agency. She said she would need me to email them or fax them to her. She also mentioned that she wouldn't be able to send us the Letter Seeking Confirmation unless they were completed. I emailed them to her that morning. Later that day, she called and said that the LSC had just come in! She mailed it to me and we got it the next day! It is the official form asking us if we want to adopt our little girl. We can't do anything with it right now since our home study update still has to be completed, but it is great to have it.
I made an appointment for Ray and I to get our fingerprints done the day after we sent in our LOI. Ray's went through, but mine were rejected. I went in again, and they were rejected. I decided to try a new place (even though the first place was the sherriff's office) and am hoping they go through this time. If not, it takes about 30 days if they have to use my social security number to get a clearance. We are also still waiting on my letters of clearance for each of the states I lived in after I turned 18, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey, California and Hawaii.

WE FOUND HER!!!

We filled out paperwork (Our Letter of Intent) and sent in in on January 14th, 2011 for a beautiful nine year old girl in China! We are very excited and cannot wait to bring her home. Of course, between then and now we have a TON of paperwork to fill out and collect from various places. So far we have asked for letters of reference, had physicals for kids at home, scheduled our physicals, requested letters from kids teachers, had fingerprints done, sent our for child abuse clearance paperwork in different states we have lived in (I lived in four states besides California since age 18 so I had to fill our paperwork for each state), and requested proof of health insurance coverage. It's hard for me to get each piece of paperwork filled out correctly when I am mentally filling out so many in such a short period of time.
We called the same home study agency we used when we adopted Sasha over three years ago. They did a great job and we are happy to work with them again. Also, the social worker we really wanted was available, so we get to work with her. There is only one home visit this time. She is scheduled to come in the weekend after next. Yeah!
When we sent in our LOI, we were told that PA's (pre approval) were coming in quickly. To me that meant in ten minutes. I had read about people getting them in two days. Ours took 10 days! We were trying not to tell anyone until we got the PA, but my mom, two sisters, two oldest children and I were all getting together for lunch before Dakota left to go back to college. I really wanted to announce it in a fun way instead of on the phone to each one. I had already told my older kids, but not my mom and sisters. As we were walking up to the restaurant, the social worker called me. She had just received the information that she would be doing our home study and called to say hello. It was the first time I had talked to her since she did the paperwork for Sasha's follow up visit three years ago, so I waved them in to the restraint and talked with her for a few minutes. We made the appointment for the vsit and I went in to join the others. I was really excited that things were finally moving forward in a concrete way. Within ten minutes of sitting down, I looked at my phone (which I have done a million times since sending out our LOI) and saw an email from our adoption agency with "Congrats--Your Pre-Approval (PA) has arrived!!!" What great timing is that??!! So, I told my family our news. They were all surprised, happy and excited. I had printed a few pictures of her and I shared what little information we had about her. We know that she just turned nine, is living in an orphanage, does very well at school, likes sports and is very cute.
Since we used our old home study for Sasha's adoption, we have to do another one. Some things are the same and some things have changed since our home study a few years ago. I feel as if I have to relearn all of the paperwork and really have no idea if I am doing it right. I hope I am! I want to get everything to our social worker when she does her visit so we can get things moving on our end!