I800A update!!

We got a letter yesterday saying that the USCIS has received our I800A application. They will be contacting us to let us know when we need to get our fingerprints done.

We have our dossier almost done, from our end. We are waiting for our certified copy of our marriage license. And on Monday we have to contact the police department to get our Police clearance letter. After we have everything together, including our I800A approval, we get all our Delaware documents certified with the Great Seal of Delaware. From what I understand we can take all our Delaware documents to Dover and get it in person. We have already sent off my Maryland birth certificate and Mark's Michigan birth certificate to be certified with their Great Seal.

After that we send our paperwork to Bethany Christian Services to be checked and they send it to Grand Rapids, main branch of BCS, then then it is sent to the Chinese consolate in USA. At some point in the process it is translated into Chinese and after all of this it is sent to China!!

The kids keep asking me to count down the days until Adam's 11th birthday....38 days until our little man's birthday!! Mark and I don't think that we will be allowed to send him a care package for his birthday. We have to wait for several different steps in the referral process before we cane send a care package and we just don't think we will be at that point before his birthday. Of course, Abby's response is , "Well, I'll send him a present if you won't!!!" We explained that we would love to send him a present and cake but that we weren't allowed to yet. His birthday is Sept 9....maybe everyone could send up a pray for our little man on that day. I think I'll have the kids decorate a cake for Adam on his birthday. Adam, we love you and can't wait to bring you home!!!

Prayer requests:

Please pray that all of the government paperwork (Chinese and American) gets done as quickly as possible, and maybe even that God does a miracle and it is quicker than ever!

Please pray that Abby, Emily and Brian do not feel threatened by all the time that we have to spend on adoption related things (time spent preparing the dossier, adoption reading "homework", preparations for Adam, etc)

Please pray that we are awarded several adoption grants, we have alot of money left to raise.

Please pray for Adam that he is prepared for the adoption and that he is able to transition to life with a family easily.


Have a great day!!!

New puzzle picture

Well, Mark and I set aside time to work on the puzzle today...we are STILL not puzzle people. LOL! We have 252 pieces put into the puzzle. We have had 472 pieces sponsored. We're getting there.

Yuan has a family!!!

The 12 year old girl from two posts ago has a family. I don't have any details but I did find out that she is in the process of being adopted. Praise the Lord!!!

Beth

1/4 of the way there!! Also, school news...

We have raised/been approved for 1/4 of the amount needed to adopt Adam. This is from the fundraisers, the grant from Bethany and the money we've saved. Right now I have several books listed on Ebay, with several more to be listed in the coming weeks. We have been listing "leftovers" from our yard sale on Craigslist. Mark is just looking forward to clearing out the garage again!! LOL!

On that front, we have had 470 puzzle pieces sponsored so far. We are, unfortunately, not as far along on putting the puzzle pieces together! If anyone lives in DE and loves to put puzzles together...I can give you our address. Yes, I am serious!...Either email me or call me (302-832-9036)

We mailed out our application for the I800A last week. We are working on the dossier, we're 2/3 of the way through our "checklist" for the dossier.

We have applied for one adoption grant and are working on several others right now.

On to the "school news", Mark and I have decided to homeschool Abby and Emily. There are definate financial reasons for this decision but I am feeling excitment about this new direction in the girls' schooling. This is something that I NEVER thought I'd been doing...and some of you have heard me say that!

Off to research homeschooling and work on adoption "stuff"!

Beth

12 year old girl needs a home!!

There are parents who advocate for children who are still waiting for families. Here is a message from a mom who is trying to find a family for this girl. I feel such a burden on my heart for this girl.

"I've advocated for this girl before, but no family has come forward for her. I met her last year when I was adopting two of her foster home "sisters." She begged me to take her too, but understood when I told her that my paperwork was only approved for her sisters. I've been haunted since that time with her request "Tell your friends and family in America about me! Tell them I want to have a family too!" So I am trying again, in the hopes that Yuan does have a family out there somewhere.
Yuan is a soft spoken, very sensitive, 12 year old girl who will be 13 soon. She loves to sing, play with babies, and works hard in school. She is blind, as are all of the children in her foster home. She speaks fluent English and knows both English and Chinese Braille. She has been studying very hard the last few months after some of her friends were adopted. She said she wants to do well so she can be adopted too. She is very helpful and likes to take care of the people around her. She was shy when everyone was crowding to see me, but was thrilled to sit quietly and talk to me at length. She just has such a sweet, gentle spirit. It just shines out of her when you speak with her. She knows she is close to aging out, and desperately wants a family before it is too late.Her orphanage does not believe she is adoptable due to her blindness. Her paperwork has not been prepared for adoption, and will not be unless a family comes forward for her. Thus she has no chance to be seen on waiting child sites or to benefit from any advocacy from adoption agencies. However, should a family come forward, her paperwork can be forwarded directly to the adoption agency of the family. This is the procedure that we used to adopt her foster sisters. If we were in any financial position to adopt again, we would go back for her in a heartbeat. Having adopted two of her "sisters", I can testify that they were very well prepared for adoption, and that living with children who are blind is simply not as hard as one might imagine. There is much more information available on Yuan to interested families. Please feel free to contact me for additional information. Also, please feel free to crosspost. I would really love for Yuan to find a family.
Velleta
vtscott @ cox . net"

Homestudy complete!!!

We have been on vacation for the past two weeks but while we were on vacation our social worker emailed us the homestudy to check to make sure everything we accurate. It was so they finished it up and it was waiting with the rest of our mail when we got home!!! Yay!! So, Mark and I will be finishing up our I800A application, which is for the document that we need to bring Adam to America. It generally takes 3 months for this application to be reviewed and to get the document to us. While that is happening we will be working on more paperwork for the dossier which will be sent to China for their review.

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Beth

Something to "watch out" for...

On Saturday we had our yard sale to raise money for the adoption. After the yard sale we took the kids out for dinner. I asked Abby if I could write something on her coloring page and she said, "I bet it's about Adam!" So, I started to wonder if we focus too much on Adam and the kids are feeling left out. (I actually wrote "I (heart) Abby")
I asked Abby if she feels like we talk about Adam too much and she said yes. This could be because we talked about Adam and the adoption to pretty much everyone who came to the yard sale. But it is a bit of a wake up call to make sure that the adoption doesn't take over our life. There is so much to do to adopt internationally that it does feel like it takes over sometimes so I just need to be aware of that and make sure that we also focus on Abby, Emily and Brian.

Anyway, thanks for "listening"!!

Beth