Finally some news!!!

Yesterday we called our agency to see if they had received our paperwork from the Chinese Embassy. They said it would take about 3 weeks for the papers to be approved/stamped so we were thinking they would be done any day. The social worker that has been taking great care of us at LHAA went on maternity leave last week and so we now have to contact another person who is filling in for her. So when we called her to check on the papers, she informed us that they had received the papers last week from the Chinese Embassy and they had already sent our dossier to China. WHAT!!! Was not expecting to hear her say that! I was just hoping to hear that they had received the papers back and were getting them ready to go to China. That was super exciting to hear:) So now what happens is that we wait for our log in date. This is where China lets us know that they have received our papers and are going through them. We do not have to wait until the papers are approved to receive this log in date. So good news there! That will take about a month before we receive that. Once we have the log in date, we are able to be put on the list to be matched. The agency will receive a monthly list from China of children that are eligible for adoption. Our agency will look at that list and see if there is a child that matches our criteria. If they find a match, we will receive that child's information and can decide yes we want this child or we can decline and wait for a different child's file. This happens once to twice a month. Once they match us and we accept, we will have a picture and information about our little girl. So hopefully sometime in May/June we will be matched with our daughter and finally be able to put a face with her:)

I am so excited, nervous, anxious all in one trying to be patient! So to try to keep my excitement to a minimal, I'm trying to occupy my time with prepping for the garage sale, making/selling bows, and beginning to decorate the girls room:) I want to thank everyone who has already given us some things for the adoption garage sale. Our dining room is already overflowing with things! You guys are the best and we so thankful for every one of you!! If you would like to donate items to our garage sale we would so appreciate it. We would be happy to pick it up for you too. If you have any questions please feel free to get ahold of us. The sales are April 30, May 1 and May 2.

I think that's it for now:) Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. They definitely have an impact and are what's getting us through this adoption. Hopefully next time there will be a really exciting update next about receiving our log in date and maybe a picture!!!;)

What's going on

Here's what's going on right now. We are still waiting to hear back from the Chinese Embassy in NYC. We are hopeful that in the next week we will hear that they have authenticated our paperwork and it can be sent to China's government.

As far as ways that you can be involved if you feel called to help us bring our little girl home. There are a few options as of right now.

* There is a portrait party fundraiser that is happening next weekend. A friend and local photographer has put together this fundraiser for us. You get a really good deal on spring pictures of your children and support us all at the same time. Here is the link if you would like more information.

http://kathrynproto.com/portraitfriendsdetails/

* At the beginning of May we are doing a garage sale. As you are spring cleaning and purging to make room in your house, we would love to take your junk or anything that you would be willing to donate to our garage sale. We would love to come pick it up from you too!! The more the merrier:)

* We have been approved for a special project called Both Hands. Things are still in the works but our site is open and you can make a tax deductible donation to our adoption. So if you feel called to give a monetary donation to bringing our daughter home, you can do so by mailing it in and shortly it will be available online as well. If you would like more information on this project you can visit their website. When we have all details we will let you know what's going on and what this great opportunity we have through this organization to raise funds for our adoption.

If you mail in your donation here is what you would need to do.

Mail checks payable to:

Both Hands

PO Box 2713

Brentwood, TN 37024

Attach a piece of paper indicating your giving preference is “Smits #160 adoption” 

http://www.bothhands.org/home

* I have a little side bow business. A few friends have asked for a few orders, so I thought while I'm in the process of filling their orders, I would see if anyone else needed any bows for their little girls. I can make any size and color. The big bows are $3.50 and smaller bows are $2.50. I do make infant bows too that are $1.00 a bow. This picture is the ribbon that I currently have. I can get any color if I don't have what you're looking for. I do need to get a light pink. If I need to ship it to you, we can figure that out:)


So if you have any questions please feel free to contact Aaron or I. Thank you so much to those who have already done so much for us. We are so grateful for you and can't thank you enough for making it possible to bring our little girl home!!!

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!!

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.

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:)

The dreaded hiccup with an adoption

Adoption is such a great thing for any family to do! To bring a child into your family to give a better life, love like your own, raise up and equip them for the world. What a great feeling to know that you can help someone/s out. Isn't that what we are called to do? I'm sure more people would be willing to do it if it weren't so crazy expensive! For a China adoption right now you are looking at about $35,000. That just includes all the paperwork, fees, payments to the country, visas, travelling, and social worker appointments. That doesn't cover additional costs if your child has a medical need that will require attention when you return home.

That giant number really intimidates Aaron and I alot! Yes we have a way bigger house than we really need, we have way more stuff than we really need, we don't have any debt besides our house, we have a steady income, we have two working cars, and we have savings accounts started for the kids for college. And for all of this we are sooo very grateful. We try to live inside our means and be frugal with our money. BUT we don't have $35,000 dollars just waiting to be dropped on this adoption. We both know that God has called our family to go through this adoption. We know that he has this in our family story. So we know that he will help us and will provide for us this money. It's just super hard to see past that. Especially when life happens and things come up.  

One goal that we have set for ourselves is that we don't want to have to go into debt and take out a loan for the adoption. We just feel for us that God doesn't want us to go into debt and have that on our backs for the next few years to deal with. We want to be good stewards of our money and use it wisely. So if we don't do a loan, there are grants. Well we have filled out some for those but we don't qualify for many because of xyz silly reasons.  So another option is fund raising. I go back and forth so much with fundraising. I don't want to ask people for money. I feel guilty asking for peoples money. I don't want people to feel forced to make a donation for us. I feel like we need to earn your donation. I feel like since it was our decision to adopt and we knew how much it was going to cost, it should be on our shoulders to figure out how to get the money. But then I know there are so many people out there that love our story and want to help out in any way that they can. I know that God has probably put it on peoples heart to help families who are adopting. Maybe they don't feel called to adopt themselves, but they want to help other families. So I go back and forth. 

Some things that Aaron and I have talked about were things that we could make to sell to raise funds. We are both pretty crafty people and so we thought we could use that talent to help bring in some extra money to put towards the adoption. Aaron has always been really good with his hands. He loves to make things out of wood and does a pretty good job if I can say so myself;) He is currently working on a brand name for his business and plans to open a little shop and website where you can order things that he has already made, or you can place a custom order. I thought it might be fun to make some bracelets, tag fleece blankets, and bows that I could sell. I am already babysitting and selling Jamberry so I don't have a ton of extra time, but I have been pinteresting some cute ideas. Another idea we had was a garage sale. We have a ton of baby stuff that we need to get rid of and other odds and ends taking up space. We thought if anyone wanted to donate items to our garage sale that would be a way to make some extra money. And we have thought of a bake sale or even a charity work day event. 

After I started this blog, a friend of mine contacted me about wanting to help us fund our adoption. She is a local photographer and was wanting to use her talents to help us as much as she could. (She took our family pictures and the adoption announcement picture) So we have been brainstorming back and forth and we came up with a fun little event. On March 21st, we are doing a spring portrait party. It is a 15 minute photo session for your children and you will receive her services, CD of prints, and setting fee for $140. She is donating half of that to our adoption fund!!! And if you don't meet the requirements for the party, you can schedule your own session and part of that will go towards our adoption.  If you would want more information, you can contact me or you can go here. http://kathrynproto.com/portraitfriendsdetails/

So that's where we are now. If you have any ideas or you've been through an adoption, I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, how you raised the funds, how you dealt with the guilt of asking for help, and so on.  And of course your prayers!!

Checking things off the list

I am a very organized planning type of person. If I have a lot of things to get done, I make a list. I LOVE lists. I feel so accomplished and proud of myself when I can cross something off. (I often times will forget to put something on the list, so I will add it just so I can cross it off:)

With the adoption process it's super smart to make lists. There is so much paperwork involved that something could easily be forgotten and then could delay things. From pictures of you and your family, medical examinations, marriage licenses, birth certificates, financial reports, essays, background checks, pet vaccination records, and so much more.

Up to this point we have pretty much crossed everything off of our list that we can. We have all papers filled out and submitted to our agency. We have pictures printed, we have had our medical examinations, we got all of the official paperwork ready to go. As soon as we get our approval letter from the USCIS we can give the go ahead to our agency to send our paperwork to China along with our payment for the dossier.

Yesterday we knocked out another requirement for the USCIS and are one step closer to getting our approval letter from them. We had our fingerprinting appointment in Indy. This appointment is assigned for you by the USCIS and make it pretty difficult to reschedule. And if you don't show up, you are out of luck. So our appointment was for the 22nd at 8am. Lucky us. We had a few things already on the calendar for yesterday so we had to move everything around so that we could make this appointment, wake up early, and drive down. All in all, it was a pretty fast appointment once you made it through security of the government building. We waited for a few minutes, had our fingerprints taken digitally, and then were free to go. A total of 30 minutes to drive down and then turn around and come back.

One thing that I will never understand is our governments ways of doing things in an adoption:) For our home study we had to go downtown in Fort Wayne to get fingerprinted for our background check. That appointment was the exact same thing that we just did yesterday. They were even scanned too.  So why can't they send a quick email with our scans to the USCIS? Apparently they don't communicate well and do not like like to share information. So we are in the system now for the county and state. So WATCH OUT:)

I wish we could have just made a fun day of it in Indy, but we had things back home that we needed to do so we couldn't stay. We did make it a point to stop at Trader Joe's to grab some things to make the drive worth our time. And the drive gave Aaron and I plenty of time to chat about fundraiser ideas, names, and just what's coming up in these next months with our family.

So hip hip hooray we get to check another things off our list!!!

We are hopefully almost ready to send our papers to China!!