It seemed like the paperchase would never end, but alas it is all over! Our dossier was completed and sent to China the first week in June. We received word from our agency that our LID (log in date) was June 12, 2007. This date is important to us b/c China assigns babies on a first come first serve basis. Currently they are matching families with LID of Nov. 2005! Oh yes - that means atleast an 18 month wait for us!!!!!!! Although we may wait for what seems like a lifetime for our little Alice (we picked a name - a household word these days!) - it does give us some comfort to know that she WILL come home to her mommy and daddy, its just a matter or when.
All we can do is stay positive and keep praying for our little Alice on the other side of the world. Please god bring our little baby girl home to us.....soon! In the meantime we are starting to prepare for her arrival. Its hard not to get too excited, we know we have a long wait. But on the other hand all we can do to feel close to her is to start preparing. So we have a little spot in the closet for items for Alice. It is fun to look at from time to time. When I get sad and frustrated, I go to the closet and look at my small collection of clothes and toys - I usually have a good cry but then feel much better! I have also started her a scrapbook. I want her to know how much she was loved before we even laid eyes on her. I want her to know how much love and joy she brought to her mommy and daddy long before she was ever even born!
Now comes the fun part......waiting......and waiting.....and waiting.....and wait some more!
Thank you for your love and support!!
Love, Heidi and Jason
p.s. Did you know elephants are pregnant for 2 years! We're elephant pregnant!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
The Paperchase
Oh the infamous "paperchase"! I had heard about this but had no idea how truly frustrating and lengthy this process really is. Since January we have been working very hard and we are about halfway through the process. Every document we get must first be notarized, then certified by the Secretary of State from where the document originated, and then sent to the Chinese Consulate to be authenticated. We sent off for our birth certificates from Kansas and Arkansas and our marriagie certificate from the Virgin Islands. Finally, we recieved those and now they are in the mail somewhere - in the process of getting State Certified. Cross you fingers that we actually recieve our documents from the Virgin Islands - as you know they are on "Island Time"!
Our friends all tell us stories of their pregnency, show US pics and pics of their tummies as they grow. Not the Fentons ...... we get fingerprinted! Not once but 2 times we will get fingerprinted. We made the trip downtown to get fingerprinted and applied for passports the first week in January. Since that time we have been busy writing financial statements, application letters, and getting physicals ( including HIV and hepatitis tests!). We also made a trip back to another police station to get police clearance letters. We also had to have letters from our employers. All of these documents had to be notarized!
In order to adopt a child internationally we must get approval by the US Dept of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services. for this we filed a form I-600A. We sent this off along with paperwork and a fat check the first of Febuary. Once we recieve our completed home study we will send it to them. From then we will wait to be given a fingerprint appt. The approval from the INS can take anywhere from 30days to 5 months!!!!!! However our social worker says it is more like 30 days - we pray for the 30 days!!!
In the meantime we have been working on our homestudy. This has been very frustrating for us, as our social worker has already dropped the ball!!!!! We met with her at our house for our first visit. She had to inspect our home for her report. As you can imagine I spent ALL day cleaning our house - I wanted to make sure it passed the white glove test! Of course she could have cared less! The 3 hour meeting went fine and we made appts to each have our one on one meeting with her. Jason took the day off clinicals and drove downtown to her office only to have her not show up! On top of that she didn't mail out our reference letters to our references! So I spent last week crying, I want all of this to get going...... everything depends on our homestudy! Alas, we had our appts last Friday and she has sent out our refernces. With a little luck we will have our homestudy in our hands by the end of next week!
So this is where we are now.... waiting! Once we recieve our homestudy we will send it to the INS and wait for fingerprint appts. Then we will have all of our AZ documents state certified, then authenticated. And then.............. they will be off to China!!!!!
We continue to pray for patience! We think of our baby girl everyday! We figure she has already been conceived. Right now on the other side of the world a young women is struggling with a very hard decision. I pray everyday she makes the right decision. We pray that she will find comfort in knowing that she can give her baby a better life!
Thank you following our journey with us!
Heidi and Jason
Our friends all tell us stories of their pregnency, show US pics and pics of their tummies as they grow. Not the Fentons ...... we get fingerprinted! Not once but 2 times we will get fingerprinted. We made the trip downtown to get fingerprinted and applied for passports the first week in January. Since that time we have been busy writing financial statements, application letters, and getting physicals ( including HIV and hepatitis tests!). We also made a trip back to another police station to get police clearance letters. We also had to have letters from our employers. All of these documents had to be notarized!
In order to adopt a child internationally we must get approval by the US Dept of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services. for this we filed a form I-600A. We sent this off along with paperwork and a fat check the first of Febuary. Once we recieve our completed home study we will send it to them. From then we will wait to be given a fingerprint appt. The approval from the INS can take anywhere from 30days to 5 months!!!!!! However our social worker says it is more like 30 days - we pray for the 30 days!!!
In the meantime we have been working on our homestudy. This has been very frustrating for us, as our social worker has already dropped the ball!!!!! We met with her at our house for our first visit. She had to inspect our home for her report. As you can imagine I spent ALL day cleaning our house - I wanted to make sure it passed the white glove test! Of course she could have cared less! The 3 hour meeting went fine and we made appts to each have our one on one meeting with her. Jason took the day off clinicals and drove downtown to her office only to have her not show up! On top of that she didn't mail out our reference letters to our references! So I spent last week crying, I want all of this to get going...... everything depends on our homestudy! Alas, we had our appts last Friday and she has sent out our refernces. With a little luck we will have our homestudy in our hands by the end of next week!
So this is where we are now.... waiting! Once we recieve our homestudy we will send it to the INS and wait for fingerprint appts. Then we will have all of our AZ documents state certified, then authenticated. And then.............. they will be off to China!!!!!
We continue to pray for patience! We think of our baby girl everyday! We figure she has already been conceived. Right now on the other side of the world a young women is struggling with a very hard decision. I pray everyday she makes the right decision. We pray that she will find comfort in knowing that she can give her baby a better life!
Thank you following our journey with us!
Heidi and Jason
The Process
Let me first answer the questions that everyone is asking - When do you get this little girl? How old will she be? Do you go to China to get her? I will briefly describe the process for you.
Our first step is the infamous "paperchase". It will take us approximately 4 - 6 months to get our paperwork together. Then our agency will send them to China, where we will be recieve an LID or log in date. (bear with me, I'm trying to learn all this adotion lingo). At that point we will wait...... and wait......and wait...... for our referral. Just how long do we wait you ask. That is the disapointing thing. When we began this process in the summer, the wait time was 6-9months but all of a sudden the wait time has jumped to 12 -15 months! Yikes! But our hearts are set on China and we dream of this little girl everyday! And so we will wait until God is ready to bring her to us! We also pray everyday that China will speed up the process.... and in my heart I know this will happen! We also pray for patience!
We are guranteed a baby girl under the age of 12 months. However this means she can be one day under 12 months when we recieve our referral. Once we recieve our referral, it will take approx 6 - 8 weeks before we travel to China to get our lil china doll! Our baby will probobly be between 10 and 14 months old when we actually have her in our arms! What a fun age!!!!
We will be spending atleast 14 days in China when we get her. But once we are in China we will officially adopt her!!!!!! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking of that day!
Our first step is the infamous "paperchase". It will take us approximately 4 - 6 months to get our paperwork together. Then our agency will send them to China, where we will be recieve an LID or log in date. (bear with me, I'm trying to learn all this adotion lingo). At that point we will wait...... and wait......and wait...... for our referral. Just how long do we wait you ask. That is the disapointing thing. When we began this process in the summer, the wait time was 6-9months but all of a sudden the wait time has jumped to 12 -15 months! Yikes! But our hearts are set on China and we dream of this little girl everyday! And so we will wait until God is ready to bring her to us! We also pray everyday that China will speed up the process.... and in my heart I know this will happen! We also pray for patience!
We are guranteed a baby girl under the age of 12 months. However this means she can be one day under 12 months when we recieve our referral. Once we recieve our referral, it will take approx 6 - 8 weeks before we travel to China to get our lil china doll! Our baby will probobly be between 10 and 14 months old when we actually have her in our arms! What a fun age!!!!
We will be spending atleast 14 days in China when we get her. But once we are in China we will officially adopt her!!!!!! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking of that day!
The Beginning
Our journey to China and to our lil China doll actually began in the summer of 2006. We had been trying unsuccessfully for nearly 2 years to start a family. We were feeling very frustrated and sad at that time. After all, we had watched our friends pop out babies and they all seemed to get pregnant so easily! We began asking, Why us? We are young and healthy, what is wrong with us. We will make wonderful parents. It just isn't fair! We had tried all the tricks - read all the books. We began searching for answers. After many doctor visits, tests,blood draws, MRI's, and ultrasounds (did I mention alot of tears) later, we learned that it may not be possible to have our own biological child. Although it is not impossible to get pregnant, we learned that we may have a hard time carrying a baby. Our next step to getting pregnant would have to be fertility treatments. After alot of soul searching and praying, we came to the conclusion that God makes babies and not science. And so we are leaving it in Gods hands, if we are meant to have our own biological child, then someday he will give us one. There are so many babies in this world that need a mommy and a daddy - we feel we are already parents just needing a baby to love! Through adoption we will find that baby!!!!!!! And so began our journey................
We immediately ruled out domestic adoption - too many horror stories. And so we began our research phase. We spent many many hours on the internet, talking to adoption agencies, and emailing adoptive parents. A few months earlier our good friend Chris had shown us a Lisa Ling documentary "The Lost Girls of China". Those baby girls had touched our heart and stuck in our minds. Remembering that video, our hearts kept leaning towards China for some reason. In September, I was in Denver for a conference and decided to take a little sidetrip to Littleton to visit an agency specializing in China adoption (CCAI). It was there that I first realized that my baby girl was on the other side of the world - and I NEEDED to go get her. My love for her started to grow at that time! In November, Jason and I visited with the regional rep here in Phoenix for Great Wall China Adoption. She brought her adorable 2 yo adopted daughter Carly to the meeting and we fell in love! After leaving our meeting Jason said "we have to get one of those"! And so began the next step! We decided on Great Wall, but needed to save some money. This little adventure in not going to be cheap! And so Jason started picking up shifts (he is a full time grad student, so working is not easy!) and I began working overtime - and we saved our pennies!
On a warm sunny day in mid December I mailed off our application to Great Wall China Adoption! My heart was filled with joy and my eyes filled with tears - as my journey to motherhood was finally beginning!
We recieved an early Christmas present on Dec. 22nd , we had met the requirements to adopt and we could begin the time consuming "paperchase".
I have started this blog for several reasons. Not only do I want to jounal my thoughts and keep my family and friends updated on the process, but I also want to help others. While I was coming to terms with my own fertility and how to best start a family - I found great comfort in reading about other families and their stories. I spent countless hours on the internet - reading and leaning. Hopefully, I can now help someone else!
Thank you in advance for your love and support as we embark on the most important advernture of our lives!
Heidi and Jason
We immediately ruled out domestic adoption - too many horror stories. And so we began our research phase. We spent many many hours on the internet, talking to adoption agencies, and emailing adoptive parents. A few months earlier our good friend Chris had shown us a Lisa Ling documentary "The Lost Girls of China". Those baby girls had touched our heart and stuck in our minds. Remembering that video, our hearts kept leaning towards China for some reason. In September, I was in Denver for a conference and decided to take a little sidetrip to Littleton to visit an agency specializing in China adoption (CCAI). It was there that I first realized that my baby girl was on the other side of the world - and I NEEDED to go get her. My love for her started to grow at that time! In November, Jason and I visited with the regional rep here in Phoenix for Great Wall China Adoption. She brought her adorable 2 yo adopted daughter Carly to the meeting and we fell in love! After leaving our meeting Jason said "we have to get one of those"! And so began the next step! We decided on Great Wall, but needed to save some money. This little adventure in not going to be cheap! And so Jason started picking up shifts (he is a full time grad student, so working is not easy!) and I began working overtime - and we saved our pennies!
On a warm sunny day in mid December I mailed off our application to Great Wall China Adoption! My heart was filled with joy and my eyes filled with tears - as my journey to motherhood was finally beginning!
We recieved an early Christmas present on Dec. 22nd , we had met the requirements to adopt and we could begin the time consuming "paperchase".
I have started this blog for several reasons. Not only do I want to jounal my thoughts and keep my family and friends updated on the process, but I also want to help others. While I was coming to terms with my own fertility and how to best start a family - I found great comfort in reading about other families and their stories. I spent countless hours on the internet - reading and leaning. Hopefully, I can now help someone else!
Thank you in advance for your love and support as we embark on the most important advernture of our lives!
Heidi and Jason
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