You can't have her

Sophie is on hold for our family. No temporary hold, no tentative hole, she's on hold. WACAP received our LOI today. It won't go out to China until next week, but that's okay. I know that it's there and will go out then. I can't wait to add our name to the roll call. Woohoo!!!

Woohoo!

Well today is an all around good today. I received an email from our agency that if our LOI gets there tomorrow (please pray that it does), it will be translated and sent out on Friday. If it doesn't get there until Friday it won't go out until next week. Hopefully it will go out Friday, but I am fine with next week. We also received our fingerprint appointment letter today. We have an appointment on 7/13 at 3pm. If any of you are at the Atlanta CIS office getting fingerprinted that day, we hope to see you there. Hopefully it won't take to long after we are fingerprinted to get the coveted I-171H or I-797H or whatever it's called now.

LOI!!!

I'm at work and just had to quickly post that our LOI is on it's way back to our agency. I just dropped it off in the mail. They should get it tomorrow or Friday. It should definitly go to China next week. I am so nervous and so excited all at the same time. I still can't believe it's going to happen.

Agency website

I went to our new agency's website as I always do to look at the kids. I always look at Sophie's picture there because it makes me smile to know that she will be home soon. It also makes me sad to know that some of the kids on the list have been waiting for a long time. If you are interested in adopting please consider a child with a special need. There are some boys who have cleft lip/cleft palates that have been repaired and are cute as buttons. They really need to find a home. Anyway, back to my point about the pictures. I always look for Sophie's picture and tonight it wasn't there. It kind of freaked me out at first. For a minute I thought that some other family had claimed her, but then I came back to reality and realized they took her off because she's ours. They are no longer advocating for her because she has a home. It's so hard to believe that I have looked at her picture for almost a year now and prayed (as I do for all of the children) that she would find a home. Little did I know that her home would be ours. I feel so blessed and can't wait to get her here. By the way, our agency is WACAP. If you are interested in a waiting child, please go to their website wacap.org and click on the Family Finders link. You will have to email them to get a password, but it is definitly worth it. You will fall in love with the kids.

USCIS

Well our check was cashed last night by the USCIS. Hopefully we will get our fingerprint appointment letter next week. Hopefully we will be able to get fingerprinted soon. I really want to be DTC no later than August. If we can be DTC by August than we have a pretty good chance of traveling in November or December. Travel approvals are taking about 73 days (I do the averaging for our yahoo group) but some come really fast and some take really long. There is a rumor that if your CWI is a small one and doesn't do a lot of international adoptions that travel approvals get done quickly. I hope that's the case. I asked 2 different Magic Eight balls tonight if Sophie would be home before Christmas and they both said yes the 3 different times I asked it. That would be fun.

So excited

Well, the USCIS received our documents. Everything is in their system. We should get our fingerprint appointment letter next week. Also I just got off the phone with our agency. Wa aka Sophie is on a tentative hold. Next week when we receive the hold documents she will be on hold for us. That means she's ours according to the agency. We just have to get the pre approval from China and they don't think we will have a problem (or else they wouldn't have accepted us). Woohooo! What a great way to start the weekend.

It's on it's way!!

We got our official home study approval in the mail today. I love Hope for Children! I can not say enough good things about them. They were very friendly and quick. The changes that needed to be made were minor and something that I should have caught myself. It's now on to the USCIS and our adoption agency. I just can't believe it's actually real. It still doesn't seem like it. I ordered our marriage certificate yesterday from TN so it should be here anyday. They are pretty quick about getting things done. Also, if your wondering what happened when I called our first home study agency to get the notarized copy of our original home study. The only thing I could do was laugh when I got off of the phone. First of all I thought I got Grumpy the dwarf when she answered the phone. This time it was actually someone who worked there and not the director. When I told her what I needed, she told me that GA law says they do not have to keep the home studies that were completed that far back (2003) and it was already scanned in and gone. Funny, I know other people who had their's completed in 2001 and 2002 that were able to get original copies. I guess those agencies were breaking the law. Oh well it's all taken care of. The adoption agency says that all we need to do is get a notarized copy of the copy (which we did) and that will suffice. Everything will be on its way to them tomorrow. WOOOHOOOO! I can't wait to be able to send our LOI.

Yeah!!!

Our homestudy is finally approved!!!! All I need to get is a notarized copy from Hope for Children (so awesome) and a copy of their license and our post placement contracts. They only downside to this is I have to contact our first agency about getting a notarized copy of our first home study. I'm a little nervous about that. Hopefully I will be able to stay calm and not go off on anybody, but I'm going into this ready for a fight. Stay tune for the fun. This is the last piece of information that I will ever need from them and I can't wait! On a good note, this means that the adoption agency has approved us and that basically Sophie is on hold for us. I still can't post her picture until we get the approval from China, but hopefully it will be soon. We have to complete the paperwork from the adoption agency to send to China for our pre approval. If I haven't mentioned it before, these are the steps that have to be taken 1. Letter of Intent (or LOI) this is sent to explain to China what your plan is to take care of your child. You basically have to tell them that you are going to provide for all of her medical needs. 2. Pre Approval (or PA) this is sent back from China to say that yes, you can adopt the child you want. 3. Our dossier can either be sent before LOI, PA or after we get our PA. It just depends on how fast we can get our I-171H which is the USCIS clearance that says we can adopt. Atlanta is running about 6-8 weeks, so we will see. 4. Travel approval (or TA) this is what is sent when your dossier has been approved and it is okay for you to travel to pick up your child. This can take anywhere from 1 month to 4 months after your dossier is sent to China (or DTC). I am hoping that we can go and get her by the end of the year.

Still nothing new

Okay, I'm growing a little weary now. It's been since the Thursday or Friday before Memorial Day that the agency has had to review our homestudy. So far we had 3 rewrites done and have sent them our first homestudy. They received that yesterday and the 3rd rewrite today so hopefully it won't be long now. As far as I know we are still the only family who has come forward for her, but I'm still anxious. I got my police clearance letter yesterday. All we need is our homestudy, I171H (or whatever they are calling it these days), AJ's police clearance letter, his employment letter and our marriage certificate. Yeah, a little over half way there. Hopefully the homestudy will be cleared up next week. Say a little prayer.

Nothing New

Nothing new to report. We are waiting for both agencies to make the necessary corrections and then sign off on our homestudy before we proceed further. I'm getting anxious. I bought Sophie a little duck today. Maddie didn't say anything about it which I was suprised about. When we get our pre approval from the Chinese government I am going to send Sophie a care package with the duck, pictures, clothes and some things for the other children and care givers. I can't wait.