Finger prints are done.

I never thought I would be so excited to say that I was finger printed! I was actually NERVOUS when they were taking them today, praying that all of the prints were "good" and "readable". (Yes, it happens that some people do not have readable prints and have to get them done again). Apparently, my fingers are very dry and the lady kept having to apply Corn Husker's lotion! So much for all of that moisturizing I have been obsessing about the last 10 days. Ha ha!

Now, on to getting our I800A approval. Then it's off to get the dossier apostilled and authenticated.

Love crossing things off my list!

Whoo Hooo! Look what came in the mail today!!!

I800A Update.

Well, it pays to check up on your paper work. It's been quite the roller coaster ride with this I800A process. What should have taken a week or so to get our I800A receipt ended up taking over 3 weeks (others were getting their receipts within a few days!). I realize that the extra weeks sound like a very small amount of time, but when you are waiting on a child, every day feels like an eternity. Plus, though Fed Ex could prove our application was delivered, no one could locate ours for nearly 4 full weeks! It took that long to get our application from the lock box in Lewisville, TX to the Hague Unit in Lee Summit, MO. The entire 4 weeks, I was told to keep calling back to check on the application and that this was very unusual. (GREAT! Love being unusual). Nearly each phone call resulted in more frustration and fear that our application was lost in the shuffle. Apparently, there was a change in procedures during this time, which resulted in a big, old-fashion back log. So, we accepted this fact and breathed a sigh of relief when our application made it to MO. We were thinking that it would be smooth sailing from here! (What were we thinking?) We were given a finger printing appointment (Jan. 13th) and were told that the paper work we needed to take with us for finger printing was on the way. A week later, mine shows up in the mail, but there was no mention of John. I thought that maybe this was normal since I was first on the application, but I called anyway just to double check. Yes, I am one of THOSE types and thank goodness for that! Sure enough, John needs his own set of papers. So, back to stalking the postman again! Yesterday, after finding my mailbox empty of anything from the USCIS, I call back the hotline....by now, I'm sure they are all fighting to see who has to take my call.....and I find that our case has been assigned to an Officer! Whoo Hoo! Good news! My new BFF, Officer Jones, says that she will have my application reviewed by Thursday. (small celebration...love Officer Jones) All we need is the finger prints done. Hmmmm. How to do this without the paper work....beg??? Sounded good to me, so I pleaded my case. She agreed that the paper work was somehow lost (starting to see a pattern here?) and that it was sent out over a week ago. She says to give it another day or so. Well, as of today, no paper work. You guessed it...I called back. The officer that took my call (probably drew the short straw) said that she would mail out another one. Let's see...appt. in 4 business days and trusting the mail to get it to me before Tuesday? No thanks! If we miss that appt. we will have to get in line again for one. It could push us back weeks. We are trying to meet our deadline given by the CCAA (China) of January 27th (dossier to China). We have a great chance of meeting this deadline if we can get finger printed next week! So, I sound off my case to the poor gal and she finally agrees to put a note on Officer Jones' desk, asking for a scanned copy to be emailed. No answer yet as to how this issue will be handled, so cross your fingers and toes that we get to our appt. next week.

So, what's after this??? (many have asked and I do my best to not bore people to tears with this complicated process)

After the I800A approval comes through, we will drive our 13 document dossier to Austin for the Texas apostille seal (on every document) and then it's on to the Chinese Embassy for authentication. From there, we will overnight the dossier to our agency in California and they will, in turn, overnight it to China for translation. This is called dossier to China (DTC). It takes some time to get translated (around a month or so) and then you get your log in date. (LID) After the log in date is given, we wait for our letter of acceptance (LOA). I have seen these coming out within about 2 months after LID. After LOA, I'm a little fuzzy about what is next. I think we apply for the 1800 (pretty sure) and then wait for our article 5. From there, we wait for travel approval (TA) and then it's off to China. All around, we expect the rest of this process to take another 5 or so months. With Chinese New Year in the middle of all of this, it could take longer, we'll see.

No one ever said this would be easy and of course, I knew this when we embarked upon this journey. However; until you walk in these shoes, you just don't realize how hard it is to go through this process. God is trying to teach me some patience, I'm sure of it. (I can see my Dad smiling when he reads this). In so many instances through out my life, my determination to get things done fast and efficiently served up a lot of success. Those sorts of things are in your control. This journey requires that you put a lot of control in other people's hands...you are not on YOUR time schedule anymore, you are on THEIRS! I know patience would serve me well during this part of the journey. (But, I would like to point out that my determined little self DID catch several issues in this I800A process!) Looking towards the light at the end of the tunnel, I see that this too shall pass. Lately, I have been reminding myself of those exact words.

Home for the Holidays

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and time of year. I grew up in Kansas City, but all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins lived in the Eastern states. Nearly every Christmas, we packed up and drove to Tennessee so we could spend time with everyone. There was nothing all year that I would look forward to more. The memories that those trips created for me will be cherished always. So, every other year, this Texas gang packs up and drives to Kansas City, where we see most of our family. Over the past week, I have sat and watched my own kids creating those same memories with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I cannot help but to smile when I think of how special these times are in my children's lives. As the week has gone by, I am left with many great memories once again, but at the same time, underneath the joy lies a constant ache for a little soul out there that is missing from this bunch. I cannot explain how much this little girl has already affected our lives. Though we have never met her, we feel that she IS part of our family and her absense is felt by us all. As I have tangled with these feelings all week, I have taken comfort in knowing how much times like these will mean to McKenna some day. The bonds she will create with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins will last a life time and we will all be so blessed to have her as part of our lives. I intend to never miss another Christmas with McKenna. As I look forward to the many holidays ahead, I cannot wait to see what is in store for all of us.

We are still waiting on updates about McKenna from Ladybugs N Love. We are hopeful that our packages were delivered to McKenna's foster family and she was able to enjoy her presents/birthday cake on her birthday. Our I800A application was MIA for a short amount of time, but has finally been officially recieved by the USCIS. It took nearly 3 weeks just to get our receipt stating that our application had arrived. Thank goodness for Fed Ex and tracking numbers! We knew our application was delivered, but no one else seemed to know and the USCIS officers kept telling me it was very unusual that it was taking so long. Who wants to hear that!?! The next step is waiting for our finger printing appt. I have decided to put my time line expectations aside and just go with the flow. If you know me well, I'm not exactly the most patient person in the world with things like this. I know the wait will be long and it will probably get a lot harder, but the reward at the end of all of this will be the greatest of all.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

The Day our Ladybug was Born.

Today is McKenna's 2nd birthday. We wish we could be with her to celebrate, but since that is impossible, we sent her a care package and ordered her a birthday cake. We hope that the orphanage director was able to get them to her today. She was supposed to be paying a visit to Nanning to check up on McKenna before her birthday. She promised Angela from Ladybugs N Love to get some updates on her. We are anxiously awaiting new photos and any new information!

This day has brought out many emotions. It's strange to think that I will never know much about McKenna's first few years of life. I will never know what her first words were, when she got her first tooth, when she started crawling and walking, what she was like as a baby.....all the things that I documented in Jack, Austin and Ava's baby book. The milestones in each phase of baby-hood. As much as I relished those milestones with each baby, it was just not meant to be that I know those things about McKenna. They are just so unimportant to the bigger picture. I can still celebrate the small steps in her life. Though I don't really know exactly what they were, I do know that she has been on the path to us all along. And for that, I am good not knowing the little stuff. The bigger picture is so much sweeter.

Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find myself wondering what it must have been like for her birth parents on the day she was born. Why did they abandon her? The easy assumption is to blame it on the 1 child rule. 1 child = perfect, healthy boy for most. But was this really the reason?

Abandon: to forsake completely; desert; leave behind.

There has to be some pretty big reasons. It's so final...so unimaginable...so, well, just sad.

No matter the reasons, to make the decision to walk away from your 1 day old infant...one would think there would be an unbearable amount of pain and sadness.

I will chose to think there was pain. A lot of pain. A lot of sadness. Parents that wanted a better life for their baby girl. Parents who will never forget that day on December 18th, 2007.

I have promised myself that I will never pass judgement on McKenna's birth parents as there are so many circumstances that will forever be unknown.

Bottom line.....She was meant to be ours. No matter how she got to us. No matter what her history.

This is the last birthday she will ever spend without her family.

Happy Birthday, McKenna. May this day be filled with fun, laughter and a wonderful celebration of your precious life.

Care Packages for McKenna....a great way to stay connected.

Care packages are a great way to feel connected to your waiting child. If you want to send one, you must go through a third party to do so. We found the most wonderful organization called Ladybugs N Love. They have a gal over in China, Angela, who shops for your items and puts them all together. She will also translate letters and call the orphanages to learn more about your child. For birthdays, they will send the orphanage or foster home money to buy a cake and in return, they ask for pictures of the child/cake as insurance that the funds were used properly. It's a great way of getting updated photos of your child!

Our first care package was sent right after we received our PA from the CC@@. We included a letter to the foster family and an album made up of 10 photographs of our family. Angela does a great job of labeling the photos in Mandarin so the foster parents can teach your child about each member of their new family. We also included several treats, cameras, a blankie and a stuffed animal. My favorite part of their service is getting to ask 10 questions about McKenna and her life. Angela does a great job of taking pictures of the care package (see above) and then keeping you posted about the progress of delivery, updates, etc.

Our package was delivered to the orphanage in Pingnan County, but we found out later (through Angela) that McKenna is several hours away in Nanning. We were a bit taken back with this news. Our agency was not aware that McKenna's foster family lives in Nanning and pretty much said that we may not get any more information on her. The information that was given to us in McKenna's file was pretty dated (so were the photos), so we were pretty sad that there may not be any way of sending something for McKenna or learning new tidbits about her. Our agency said that the Guangxi province was pretty strict about giving out any updated information. Well, Angela didn't give up! She continued to call and finally connected with the director of the orphanage in Pingnan. She found out that McKenna was in Nanning because this is where she had surgery/casting for her club foot issue. They decided to leave her with the foster family because she was doing so well (her surgery was a success). The director told Angela that she would be going to Nanning to see McKenna before her birthday, 12/18, and if we wanted to send more things, she would personally take the packages there for us. She is also going to be getting all of our 10 questions answered and will be taking the money we sent for a birthday cake. Immediately, I ordered more goodies for McKenna! We are so anxious to learn anything more about her. Most importantly, we are thrilled that she will receive the pictures of us so she knows our faces when we come to get her. I owe a big thank you to Ladybugs N Love and most of all, to Angela.

I'm amazed at the desperate feeling I have to learn ANYTHING more about McKenna. I have poured over her medical file, growth and developmental chart and photographs a million times already. Any information from this point forward will be such a great bonus for us!

I800A is on its way!

Fed Ex Office has been my home away from home lately. When I started on this journey, I knew that the paper chasing was intense, but I never knew just how much until I was smack dab in the middle of it. The day we turned in our applications to both Bay Area Adoption and our home study agency was the same day we received our referral for McKenna. That same day, we had applied for our passports, never suspecting for a moment that we would receive our daughter's file that night. As a matter of fact, when the post office worker asked if we wanted our passports expedited for an extra charge, we said "why would we do that??" Little did we know at that time, the next day would bring a whirl wind of expediting! We thought we'd have plenty of time to gather our documents...God had another plan for us.

The paper chase started with our 33 required documents for our Home Study. As we muddled through that paper work, we were faced with many obstacles, each one seeming worse than the one before. I started to compare the process to the awful morning sickness I had with both Jack and Ava (thank goodness, none with Austin). You know it's only temporary and you know that it's all worth it, but at the time, it seems so miserable. I certainly could see the light at the end of the tunnel and boy, that light guided me through every step of the way!

Fast forward 6 weeks....6 VERY long weeks of collecting, printing, overnighting, requesting, check writing, doctor visiting, money ordering, notarizing, writing, researching, pleading, organizing, praying, crying (this was me, not my husband:)), stressing, etc. and our I800A is FINALLY on its way to the USCIS. It's hard to imagine that now all we do is WAIT. We are waiting for our fingerprinting appointment and after that is complete, we will wait for our I800A approval. We are hopeful that even though the USCIS quotes 90 days, this process will go much faster.

Our dossier portfolio is all complete, except for the I800A approval. After our I800A approval comes in, we will send our 13 documents to the Secretary of State Department for the Apostille Seal and then on to the Chinese Embassy for authentication. I'm crossing my fingers that a miracle will come our way and we will meet our January 27th deadline, given by the CC@@. If not, we will have to file for an extension.

I am still a little taken back with this difficult process. The seemingly endless paper chase combined with the tortuous wait to bring your child home is a true test to your commitment and desire to adopt. The clock continues to tick....each second, a reminder that our little girl is on the other side of the world, but each second also bringing us closer to the time when we will bring her home forever.