Thursday, May 22, 2008

I-171H Finally Came!!

Yesterday afternoon the mailbox finally contained our final piece of the dossier! I was thrilled. The next layer of the onion (I have come to think of this whole process as a giant onion with layer upon layer to be unpeeled one at a time) can now begin to unpeel. The flurry of activity that accompanies each layer of the onion is now beginning: today we hope to have everything notarized, tomorrow we hope to drive to Tallahassee to have it all certified by the Florida Secretary of State, and then we can express mail it all off to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for authentication. Then, finally, after a final critical review at CCAI (our adoption agency), the dossier will be sent to China. Then, beginning anew will be the waiting that follows the flurry of activity with each layer of the onion--this time the waiting to learn who our daughter is.

Tragic news also came yesterday--the 5-year-old daughter of Christian Singer/Songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman was killed yesterday in the family's driveway, struck accidentally by a car driven by her older brother who didn't see her. I do not obviously know this family personally, but this well-known family has 3 biological children and 3 children adopted from China and has done much to raise awareness of the need for families to love Chinese orphans through their organization, Shaohannah's Hope. Here is a link to a story on this tragedy, as well as links to their organization and Mary Beth Chapman's weblog.

http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/marybeth/

http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357046,00.html

Finally, back to good news, Tom's parents are arriving either late this evening or tomorrow for about a week. We are so excited to see them! They are driving here from Missouri, where they attended our niece, Jollene's, college graduation. How exciting! They will stay with the kids while we take 2 nights away to celebrate our anniversary, and they will also be here next week when Tom pins on Lt. Colonel. How exciting!

OK, off to begin my flurry of activity with the dossier! Thanks for reading!
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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007