Monday, February 16, 2015

The waiting game begins

Well, Friday was the big day. I was able to pick up our medical paper from the ENT and get everything sent in the mail to our agency. What a great feeling to put that in the mail and know that there is not a single thing left to send in or complete anymore. But now the fun part begins... waiting. Our agency will look over all of our paperwork and then will send it to China in the next days. Once it's in China, we have to wait for their approval and then once we get the approval we will be put on the list to be matched with her and will wait for that glorious special day that we will see her picture!!

It's a good thing we have some things to occupy this wait time. We have a garage sale to get ready for,  a pretty big fundraiser that we are needing to plan and organize, and decorating and repainting the girls room. I'm sure it will seem super slow at times, but I'm hoping it will go pretty quick. With school activities, two crazy boys, and life, we will have a lot to keep our minds on task.

I will write another post soon on the different fundraisers that we are going to do to help raise the remaining $22,000 that we need for the adoption, but we are pretty excited about them and are very thankful, honored, and humbled by your support and prayers that we've already received. We truly have the best friends, family, and support system to help us through this journey! We love you all!!


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

UPDATE on letter

I'm sure all of you are on the edge of your chairs wondering if our dr letter came in the mail yesterday.  So I wanted to update everyone.

It didn't come yesterday. The last few days our mail has been coming pretty late in the day (between 4:30-5:30) so we haven't been able to catch the dr office before it closes for the day. Luckily yesterday the mail came around 4:30 so I was able to immediately call the dr office and call Aaron to see if he could call them too. After calling several times and waiting on hold to talk to the phone nurse for 20 minutes I couldn't get through. It kept asking me to leave a message. Well, as frustrated as I was, I didn't want to leave a message, I wanted to talk to someone and ASAP! I couldn't wait on the phone any longer since I had to get dinner going, the kids were screaming at each other, and I needed to get Leah to ballet. So Aaron was going to try to get ahold of them before they closed. He couldn't get through either but did leave a message. (smart man) The nurse was kind enough to call him back later and she reassured him that they indeed did send the letter and wasn't sure why we haven't gotten it yet. They came to the conclusion that it was lost. So Aaron asked her to fax him a copy of the letter at work instead of putting it in the mail. Hooray! Thank you lady. Now we don't have to bug you anymore and we can get the paperwork sent in this afternoon.

Well this morning Aaron called and said that the faxed copy was received but the agency can't use it because it's not the original copy:( So we have to deal with the ENT again to get an original copy. Why they can't use a fax copy, I'll never understand!! So Friday morning I am going to the ENT to pick up TWO original copies of the letter. The doctor is out of the office today and will be in Ohio tomorrow so they are having him sign them and someone is driving them from Ohio to his office for us to get on Friday. You now know what I will be doing on Friday!! I'm tempted to sleep in the parking lot Thursday night to make sure I'm first in the door ;)

I've just been thinking "just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" All things work together for good. We will get the letter, our paperwork will get mailed out, and we will get the Chinese approval in due time. Breathe and just keep going.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Frustrations

So I know that this adoption isn't going to be flawless. There will be things that will happen that won't go the way I have them planned in my mind. And that's because God's in control not me. Up until this last week, I was perfectly fine with how everything was going and how quick everything was being processed.

Last Monday we received our letter of approval from the USCIS. Hooray! Such awesome news. That means we are all set to send our dossier to China to get approval. Well when we called LHAA to let them know we got the letter and to just see if there was anything else that we needed to send in, we found out that we need an additional medical paper filled out by our doctor. China is super strict about your medical papers. If you had surgery in the last 10 years, they have to have a typed documentation from the doctor who performed the surgery. It has to include what it was, why it happened, and if the person is medically able to adopt. Well a few years ago, Aaron had sinus surgery to repair a deviated septum in his nose and his tonsils taken out. So we needed to get ahold of his ENT to have him type this up.

I have to say when I heard about this, I was a little ticked. LHAA has had our papers for a few months and they had already looked over our paperwork once and said they had everything. It would have been nice if they had told us a bit earlier so we don't have to wait around for this now when we were waiting for a month for the USCIS approval. We could have already gotten the medical documentation while we were waiting, have it and now be able to send all the documents to the agency to send to China.

So we contacted the ENT and they have supposedly had the letter typed and put in the mail to us, but we haven't gotten it yet. Here's where my frustration has kicked into full gear. We've called a few times to check in and I've even threatened to go to the office which is 10 minutes away and pick up the letter myself that way we don't have to wait on the mailman. In my mind, it shouldn't take a week to get to our doorstep if they are 10 minutes away. The letter was a short 5 minute assignment that the doctor could do quick for us. We told them our situation but I guess there's not much you can do when it's out of your hands.

I guess it frustrates me because we have these deadlines and date sensitive deadlines that we are dealing with in our paperwork. For example: when you submit your dossier to China all of the papers have to be within a 6 month window. If they are older than 6 months, you have to re submit them. Our papers will be 6 months old in March. We also are getting very close to the Chinese New Year which is on the 19th of February. This is a major holiday in China where everything shuts down to celebrate. I'm not sure how long the celebration lasts, but the government will be out as well.

I just have to keep reassuring myself, this is happening for a reason. I don't know why it's happening right now, but in the end, I will know. This is to teach me patience. It is to teach me that I have no control and I need to let God have control.

I know it's a little silly, but will you pray with me that our letter from the ENT comes in the mail today.  If it comes today, then I can get everything in the mail to LHAA. Pray for my patience in the situation.  Pray that I can go with the flow and let God have control.  Pray that I will not let the frustration get in the way.

If you see me stalking our mailman/mailbox you know why:)