For anyone who is checking out my blog.....Dave and I have a fingerprint appointment next week. I'm not sure how long it will take between fingerprints and USCIS approval, but hopefully it will be quick. Once the approval comes we get a few last pieces of paper through the notary/authentication steps and we have everything ready for our dossier! We are ready to get that piece out in the mail to our agency and then off to China. Our hope was to have it well on its way by December. Knowing that both American and Chinese holidays will complicate the speed at which this is all processed, we'd like for things to be logged in asap. Once that dossier is in China we await a LID - Log in Date. After the dossier is reviewed they will send us an RA (referral approval) as we are already PreApproved. After the RA, we await our TA (travel approval). Once the travel approval arrives we are quickly planning flights and our two weeks in China- depending upon our agency's next travel group, once we get the TA it could be a month, or a week, until travel. I am wishing and hoping and praying that we can be in China by March/April - but am preparing for a possibility that it may be May. As I wrote this I glanced at the spring calendar and see that there is a spring recess for the schools. It would be PERFECT if things fell into place where our two weeks in China coincide with that week. Instead of missing two weeks of school the girls would only miss one. I don't mind taking them out - but I think Ballerina might sorely miss being there!
Anyway - we are another step closer to a big journey across the ocean!
Heather
Friday, November 6, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Four Years!
Four Years - that is how long I've been a mommy. Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of sweet Ballerina joining our family. Today is the fourth anniversary of it being official - the day we signed the adoption papers. Its been an amazing four years. Our first foray into parenthood immediately led us into the paper process for our second sweet girl. We brought Songbird home 2 1/2 years later and now we are planning a return trip this spring to bring home Big Sister. The night we watched Ballerina sleeping in her crib for the first time we vowed that this would not be our only trip to China, nor our only child. We loved her right from the start and couldn't believe how blessed we were to have been put on this path by God. Years prior to our paperchase we might have thought that a true miracle in our family would have involved children being born to us...and perhaps adoption later. Instead we found that the real miracle was adoption. For us, this is how we grow our family, and clearly how God always intended it.
I often can't believe that I'm the only one of my friends who've adopted - I'm not counting the people that I met because of adoption, I mean the ones I knew before adoption became my passion - who knew me and Dave well before that was on the horizon. I honestly wonder how come more people don't adopt, how come they ONLY choose to give birth to their kids. I feel like many of our friends and family could easily be adoptive parents if they truly considered it, prayed about it and took a leap of faith. We don't see ourselves as very different from our friends, but being adoptive parents is different....and I don't feel like it should be - we should ALL be adoptive parents. I am always praying that children without families will find them - and while I pray for them, I pray that some of my loving friends, who are already wonderful parents, will find that they can welcome a child into their family through adoption. They have been incredibly supportive of our family - I would love to be the ones supporting them!
I know that the biggest challenge as parents is ahead of us with the adoption of a tween, but I'm praying that God will guide us all through the next stage. We will need all the heaven sent help we can get!
This post wasn't what I intended it to be, praise to God for the adventure he has led us on, and the blessings of the two girls who are the complete joys of our lives.....but its what's rattling around in my brain.....adoption evangelization!
Heather
I often can't believe that I'm the only one of my friends who've adopted - I'm not counting the people that I met because of adoption, I mean the ones I knew before adoption became my passion - who knew me and Dave well before that was on the horizon. I honestly wonder how come more people don't adopt, how come they ONLY choose to give birth to their kids. I feel like many of our friends and family could easily be adoptive parents if they truly considered it, prayed about it and took a leap of faith. We don't see ourselves as very different from our friends, but being adoptive parents is different....and I don't feel like it should be - we should ALL be adoptive parents. I am always praying that children without families will find them - and while I pray for them, I pray that some of my loving friends, who are already wonderful parents, will find that they can welcome a child into their family through adoption. They have been incredibly supportive of our family - I would love to be the ones supporting them!
I know that the biggest challenge as parents is ahead of us with the adoption of a tween, but I'm praying that God will guide us all through the next stage. We will need all the heaven sent help we can get!
This post wasn't what I intended it to be, praise to God for the adventure he has led us on, and the blessings of the two girls who are the complete joys of our lives.....but its what's rattling around in my brain.....adoption evangelization!
Heather
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