It's about time

This is long overdue but since the last update, things have been going fairly smoothly.  Last time I went to the State Department and Chinese Embassy, I managed to beg an appointment at the State Department. (Most appointments at the State Department these days are walk-in service only which means that your documents are ready two days later.  If you manage to get an appointment, you walk in and out in ten minutes with your authenticated document(s) in hand!)  Thank goodness the man who answered the phone was sympathetic!  

While I was there waiting for my documents, I met a really nice older Chinese man who was in line after me.  It was just the two of us waiting and we had a nice chat.  He wondered what I was authenticating because he saw some Chinese characters on one of my documents so I told him about our adoptions...He so politely told me that our son's surname was "not very common."  "Not a name I've heard before" is what he said.  Our son's surname clearly identifies him as an orphan- it is literally translated as "Party", as in political party.  The man said it was probably because "the party gave him life."  

In case you've never seen a seal from the US State Department, here you go:

Very official looking, wouldn't you agree?  

Because I got my documents back that day, I was able to go right over to the Chinese Embassy.  I got an awesome parking spot which can be a major challenge.  So far things were going great!  

As soon as I got into the Embassy, I realized that it was the day after the May Day holiday (Embassy closed) and the Embassy was absolutely crazy due to the backlog.  There must have been close to two hundred people crammed into the room.  It's just a big room with several glass windows at the front of the room, sort of like a bank.  The Embassy is in a mid-rise building and very unassuming.  The visa/Authentication office is not at all what I had imagined when I thought "Embassy".  When you go in, you go down a long hallway then through the metal detectors and take a number.  From a deli ticket counter!   Most people who are adopting use a courier because they live too far away to go to the Embassy in person, so this might be interesting to some folks reading this who imagine that the Embassy is a grand, beautiful and intimidating place, like I thought at first.  See what I mean?

I got number 422 and they were only serving number 353.  I thought my luck was running out.  As soon as I sat down and asked the guy next to me how long the wait was, he told me he'd already been there 2 1/2 hours.  Ugh!  Then he gave me an extra number ticket he had so I was 397.  Due to a series of unexpected events, the kindness of strangers and the continued passing of number tickets, I got an even lower number which I gave to the original guy I sat next to.  He had been waiting three hours by that point and I was able to pass on my other ticket to the older Chinese gentleman I met at the State Department.  He was so thankful!  He told me if my son ever became famous he would remember his name and think of me.  It was a funny scene there- a really great place for people watching.  I ended up waiting only about an hour, thanks to the kindness of many people and a lot of luck!  Mission accomplished.  I-800A sealed!  Totally official looking, right?!

The last piece of the Dossier was done!  Once the labels were translated by our agency the Dossier was on its way!  

The Little Couple Adopts A Little Boy from China

If you have a TV, tune in to TLC tonight at 10 (9 central) to see Bill and Jen, aka the Little Couple, become parents!  I don't follow the show but I've seen a few episodes which I really enjoyed.  I do know that they've waited a long time to be parents, so I imagine it's going to be fun to watch!  

Another Bump In the Road

Just when we thought we were about to be back on track, we hit another bump. If you are an adoptive parent, or even if you're not but have ever trusted FedEx with important documents, make sure you are sitting down before you continue reading. This is like a bad dream and you hope it never happens to you.

FedEx has lost the envelope with our immigration approval. They say that it was delivered to our house last week but it never showed up. After many phone calls back and forth with FedEx and even talking to the regional and national offices, the best they could do is offer an apology and tell us to contact the person who sent the package so that we can get a replacement. UGH!

Our immigration officer was nice enough to send us a new one but "warned" us that if this one gets lost we will have to file more paperwork and pay $360. for another replacement! Seriously?! Does she not understand that *we* didn't lose it?! It never got to us!

I spoke with a courier (who has some of our other documents) and he said that he's heard of FedEx messing up like this only three times before in twenty years of being in the courier business. One time he said the documents were found two weeks after FedEx delivered an empty box to a very irate adoptive family. Their documents were floating around the FedEx sorting facility for two weeks before they were returned to the family. So, on the bright side, I guess they still might find the envelope with our approval inside.

We are feeling frustrated. We hope that there is still time to get our dossier to China before the end of May, when the Chinese agency that processes adoptions takes a two week break in receiving dossiers to do a software update on their computer system. We've been trying to avoid getting stuck in the backlog of work that will be piling up while they update their systems.

Please send us prayer, good energy or whatever you believe in! We could use a little bit right about now.

He knows we're coming!

We recently got an update on our little guy!  He knows we're coming for him and he likes to look at our family picture (the one we had to send when requesting pre-approval), point to each of us and call us by name, mother, father and brothers! How sweet.  Knowing that he knows we are his family makes it that much harder to wait! 

We hope to have some more information and maybe a few pictures of our daughter in the next week or so.  

In other news, our home study addendum, which approved us to bring home our daughter in addition to our son, was sent to USCIS last week.  (Just getting the addendum was like pulling teeth...and probably not a story I can tell here.)  I called USCIS to speak with our immigration officer to let him know the addendum was on the way.  Remember the kind and helpful man who was ready to approve us and then was going to move our file to the top after he got the revisions?  Well, he's not our officer anymore.  It turns out that we were assigned another officer while waiting for our home study agency to wrap up the revisions.  I've corresponded a few times with the new officer and she is not nearly as efficient or kind as the last one, and definitely not helpful.  She seems not to care that the bulk of our paperwork has been waiting since the beginning of February!  Seriously, how long does it take to read an additional two pages and issue the approval?!  

According to the most recent email from our immigration officer, our paperwork is "in line to be reviewed".  Not, "let's get this going", "I know your kids have been waiting two extra months already" or even a hint of kindness.  I am trying to breathe deeply and be as zen as possible.  Obviously there is nothing we can do but wait.  And wait some more...and try not to have a pity party for myself.  Haha.  We just want to go get our kids!  

I'm pretty sure that any parent going through this process is going to be impatient, but this woman is just really unsympathetic about the sense of urgency.  Yes, I realize that she deals with other impatient parents every day and maybe she's jaded but these are kids and they are waiting to come home!  I wanted so badly to tell her how to do her job and hurry up while she's at it, but I was on my best behavior!  Nothing but a grateful heart and gentle words, I promise.  

Big News

Big things have been happening in the Incredible Household! I know you all are dying to know what it might be, so I will just come out and tell you and fill in the details afterward. The big news is that we are now bringing home two children! A boy *and* a girl!

When we started the adoption process, we had planned to bring home one child, our son, so having the option of bringing home two children was a huge mental adjustment for us. We had talked about and thought about another adoption...a few years down the road. The timing of our second adoption was honestly a big surprise. If there is such a thing as a surprise adoption, our second adoption is probably as close as it can get!

We had been plugging along with our Little Guy's adoption and had already sent our paperwork to USCIS/Immigration to be approved to bring him home. While we were waiting on our approval, we got a phone call late one night. When the phone rang, I startled awake wondering who was calling. Who calls you at midnight unless it's bad news or an emergency? Apparently, our adoption agency does! They are a few times zones away on the west coast and I guess they don't always think about the time difference when they call us on the east coast. Plus, when the new shared list comes out, they are working on China time, which often means that they are up in the middle of the night anyway! I let the call go to voicemail and picked up the message when my heart stopped racing and I was a little more awake. The message was from the China coordinator at our agency and was very vague. I called her back immediately after listening to her message and was expecting bad news. Instead she told me that they had locked the file of a little girl who they thought was a perfect match for our family. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very peacefully that night...I tossed and turned, trying to puzzle it all out. It didn't help one bit that Mr. Incredible was snoozing peacefully right next to me! There's little worse for insomnia than listening to someone breathing deeply and sleeping calmly.

We had 72 hours to make a decision about a second adoption. We had some serious work to do! First, the soul searching-could we open our hearts to another child? How could we say no now that we "knew" her? We had our daughter's file evaluated by a doctor, and had to consider family dynamics, space, finances, you name it and we thought about it. Everything was mulled over, distilled and percolated....and then we said "yes".

But wait! It's not that easy. If you've read other adoption blogs or my previous posts, you already know that. After you decide that you would like to parent a child from China, you have to write an official letter to the Chinese agency that oversees adoption (CCCWA). This letter outlines how you and your family will care for your new child and what plans you have in place for him/her. And then you wait until they answer your letter. This can be quite painful because by the time you submit the letter, you've already made the mental shift to having another family member. The CCCWA will either decline your request or agree to process the adoption. China agreed to process our adoption so now we have six months to get all our documents (dossier) gathered and sent.

Luckily, we are planning on completing both adoptions concurrently which means that most of our paperwork is already done. We'll have to make some ammendments to our home study and that will hold up our immigration approval, but folks, we are close! I even called USCIS to let our immigration officer know what was happening on our end. Would you believe that he was a cheerful, helpful, kind soul?! I've honestly never had a nicer interaction with a government employee. Hopefully the rest of the journey will continue this way and all of our paperwork will land on the desk of equally helpful and kind people.

And, without further ado, here is a picture of our daughter

The Power of Family

This video is too awesome not to share.  It's been floating around the adoption blogs that I read for a while now.  Originally my sister-in-law sent it to me but I was reminded about it last week when I saw another video of  one of the sons of this family playing the guitar.  It might not sound that special at first.  Except...this guy was born without arms.  When you're done watching this one, Google "George Dennehy and guitar".   You'll find several amazing clips of him playing his guitar...or piano...or cello.  See the power of family.  Watch and enjoy!

Week In Review

What are the chances that on the day our home study is approved (finally- hallelujah!) I would unknowingly buy a loaf of bread with our new son's name on it?!  First of all, I rarely buy bread because we just don't eat that much bread and when we do, I usually make it, so it was on a whim that i even bought the bread.  Secondly, by the time I got to the store, I had exactly twenty minutes to tear through the store and shop for and buy a week's worth of groceries before racing off to pick up my younger son.  I was charging through there like a crazy woman!  I quickly squeezed a few loaves and chose the squishiest, freshest one.  Imagine my surprise when I took the loaf of bread out of the fridge the next day, I was shocked to see "Julian", our son's advocacy name*, printed onto the bottom of the bag!  I'm pretty sure that I've never bought a loaf of bread that had our other son's names printed anywhere on it!  As our seven year old, Smushy, said, "That's called a coincidence, Mama".  It sure is, son.   I wonder if all the bread at Whole Foods says "Julian" on it?  Do you think "Julian" made the bread?  Inspected it?  Bagged it?  Maybe I should go back and check...because would it seem more or less weird if every bag said Julian?

*Most agencies give the children that they have listed an advocacy name, an English name that is meant to protect their privacy.  

We also got a new picture the night our home study was finalized!  Here he is in all his glorious cuteness!  

And, last but not least, our I-800A was finally sent off to USCIS on Friday for the first round of immigration approval.  Yay!