Our Adoption Blog

Frustration!!!

2005-10-20T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally got our fingerprinting appointment - December 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is just so far away. We had hoped to have our Dossier to China by Dec. 31, and obviously that's not going to happen. Now we're looking at being DTC by February, getting our referral in August and traveling in September/October...that just seems so far away...
I'm sad and frustrated and there's not a thing I can do about it....
I keep telling myself that it happened for a reason and that the baby that is meant to be ours just needs some more time...

It's Been a While....

2005-10-08T13:46:00.000-05:00

I wish I had something exciting to report, but I don't. We're in adoption limbo right now, which SUCKS!!! Our homestudy is done and we've been approved to adopt in the state of Connecticut, which is good, but since we're adopting from China, it doesn't move us too far ahead. We're waiting for our fingerprinting appointment from Hartford CIS - this office is SOOOO SLOW and I'm getting so annoyed and frustrated with the waiting....

We pick up our criminal background checks from the police department on Tuesday and that's the last document we need for our dossier. In the next few weeks we'll notorize everything and get it approved by our agency. Hopefully by the time all that is done we'll have made some progress toward getting our approval from US Immigration.

We've been at this for six months now and while I know we've made a ton of progress, I just wish we were further along. I'm feeling frustrated and like I want to scream everytime someone asks why it's taking so long...like it's my fault - like I'm dragging my feet cause I don't want to go to China ASAP to get my daughter. I wish people just understood that it's a LONG process and I have very little control over it. Anyone who thinks adoption is the easy way of having a baby is seriously delusional...

OK - I'm done venting now - for the moment anyway...baby, wherever you are right now, I can't wait to meet you....

Finally - My Passport...

2005-09-09T14:50:00.000-05:00

I finally got my new passport sent to me - I miss my old ones with all of my stamps from all over Europe...but I can't wait to have that stamp from China!!! Another step closer to being able to go...Still no word on our fingerprinting appointment yet - hopefully that will come next week.

Some Good News

2005-08-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

Well, some good news...we passed our home study and have been approved for adoption! It's so exciting - no obstacles now, we just need to get all the paperwork done and we're set. We sent in our I-600A yesterday, which is the application to CIS for permission to travel internationally to adopt a child and hopefully we will get that in the next month or two...

Home Visit

2005-08-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

We had out home visit this moring and I think it went well. Our social worker, Betsy, seemed to like our house and she thought the baby's room was nice and big and she liked the two closets. She said we should expect a draft of our home study report next week! I'm so excited this part of the process is over...big relief! We'll be sending in our I-600A form to immigration later this week and get that ball rolling...still working on dossier documents...we'll get there - slowly, but surely we will get there!!

Pre-Adoption Class

2005-08-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

We had our four-hour pre-adoption class today - whew. That's a long time to sit and talk about anything, especially with a bad leg! but we got through it and it was good. We talked about adjustment and attachment issues and a lot about becoming a transracial family and stuff like that. We also saw a sample referral from China and a video of a group receiving their children - it made me get all teary eyed! We're so much closer to that moment now than we were four months ago, but it still seems so far away.

I really, really, really need to get working on our dossier documents!! We need to get those done as we're almost ready to send in our I-600A form. Hopefully, we're only three months or so away from sending our dossier to China! I can't wait until that thing gets FedEx'd outta here...

That's it on the adoption front - our home visit is Friday, so we're hanging up pictures and getting our home presentable - it's looking pretty good if I do say so myself - I can't wait until pictures of the baby are interspersed with all of our other pictures...

The boys go back to W Va. this weekend - that makes me sad. I think they are really excited about having a little sister though, which is a good thing. The last five weeks have flown by so quickly, but I know the boys had a good summer with us...

Well - that's it for now....

Final Visit Set Up!!

2005-07-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

Our final homestudy appointment will be August 17 at 9 a.m. - that's our homevisit!! After that, we're done with that part of the adoption process - very exciting!!!! Time to get our butts in gear and work on those dossier documents...

Second Homestudy Appointment

2005-07-22T19:33:00.000-05:00

Patrick and I, and Ben and Chris, had our second homestudy meeting with our social worker today. We each met with her on our own and she met with us and the boys together...I think it went well - she mostly asked each of us about our backgrounds and our relationships with our families and stuff like that.

We have our pre-adoption class on Aug. 12 and hope to do our final homestudy on Aug. 15 - at that one she'll come see our house and do a home inspection...

Speaking of house...

We closed on our house today!!!!!!! We are officially homeowners, with a room for our new baby!! :) We have lots of painting and cleaning to do this weekend and we'll definitely be very busy...

So - all in all a very good day for the Sanders family.... :)

Cute picture....

2005-07-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a cute picture of our boys! Chris, 12, is on the left and Ben, 11, is on the right...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/Rosie0613/boysandicecream.jpg

Back from Vacation...

2005-07-16T17:34:00.000-05:00

Hello - we're back from our week-long vacation to West Virginia and New Jersey. First we picked up the boys, then we headed to the Jersey shore and had a blast!! It was so much fun to see the boys having such a good time - and we added two new members to our family - two very pretty Bettas the boys named Rainbow and Shark :)

We told the boys about the adoption and they are sooooo excited!! They can't wait to have a new little sister and talked all vacation about how they are going to teach her how to play video games and play in the ocean. They are also excited to go talk to the social worker on Friday - it makes them feel important to be involved in the process and know that what they say is important.

So - that's about it for now. We have our second home study on Friday and our house closing Friday too - busy day. Still collecting documents and getting everything in place. We should finish the home study by the end of August and hopefully send in our I-600A application by Labor Day - that's the hope anyway.

So Many Documents

2005-07-04T12:43:00.000-05:00

I've been reading through all our paperwork to find out what we need for the I-600A petition and the dossier and my head is spinning!! So many documents and papers - some need to be certified, some need to be notorized, some need to be both...I'm so confused and afraid I'll never wade through all the paperwork..it's very scary. :( I need lots of more folders to keep track of all the documents we need for all the different places - some for the agency, some for the U.S. government, some for the Chinese government...

We have our next home study appointment on July 22...then our pre-adoption class on Aug. 12 and then our final home study appointment after that - so we should be done with the homestudy by Labor Day and I need to have all my I-600A documents to the agency by then - I can do that, right??? I hope so :)

First Homestudy Appointment

2005-06-24T20:34:00.000-05:00

Well, we had our first homestudy meeting with our social worker today. I think it went well - it lasted about two hours and she asked us a ton of questions about everything - and made each of us get teary-eyed once! The sign of a good social worker, I guess :) She also gave us a binder filled with information we need to gather for our dossier. I'm completely overwhelmed - now comes the really hard part I guess! I'm trying not to let it get too overwhelming and trying to tell myself that if I just take it one step at a time it will be fine. I was so hopeful we'd send our dossier to China by Thanksgiving, now I'm thinking the end of the year might be more realistic, which is sort of upsetting. I know, nothing I can do about it - the most important thing is to keep working toward our goal - our daughter!

We go see Betsy next on July 22 - the same day we close on our house! Talk about a huge day. Chris and Ben are coming with us that day too so Betsy can meet them and ask them what they think about having a sister from China and stuff like that.

Well, that's it for now!

The Homestudy Begins...

2005-06-20T15:23:00.000-05:00

Well - Patrick and I have our first meeting with our social worker on Friday at 8:30 a.m. I am so excited and nervous. Our first meeting should take about two hours and I think we'll also begin a whole new round of paperwork with this process. We are so excited to get moving on this though...I hope we like her - I hope she likes us more importantly!!

The next step....

2005-06-13T13:22:00.000-05:00

Well - we've been assigned our social worker - her name is Betsy and she sounds nice. We hope to start our home study in August - and we can't wait. In the meantime, more paperwork to do, gotta get those references done and our health reports in. But each step we take is a step closer to our baby. And the best news is we will soon have a house for her - and us and the boys too of course! We close on our very cute house July 22....

Adoption quote.....

2005-06-02T11:12:00.000-05:00

"Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute: You didn't grow under my heart, but in it." -Fleur Conkling Heyliger

I love this quote!!! Thanks Julie for posting it on your Web site so I could steal it...it makes me cry every time I read it!!

It's in the Mail!!

2005-06-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well - Part One of the application is in the mail and on the way to the agency - yeah!! There must have been more than 50 pieces of paper we sent to them - everything in triplicate...I'm so glad it's done - next we will be assigned a social worker and we hope to start our home study at the end of July!!

In the meantime, it took me an hour today to get a doctor's appointment within the next month! We need to get our health forms signed by a doctor. I can't believe it will take me that long to get in to see one - it's crazy. And because of insurance laws, my GI, who actually knows me, can't fill out the form for me - very frustrating...

OK - next steps - get reference letters and Passport!!

Patrick and me!!!

2005-05-30T14:22:00.000-05:00

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/Rosie0613/003_1.jpg

Here's a picture of me and Patrick - I'd post it in my profile, but blogspot keeps saying it's too big!!!

Part 1 - DONE!!!!

2005-05-30T14:09:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally finished part one of our application - I am so happy!!!! It's a ton of paperwork and it took a long time to collect everything. The agency wasn't kidding when they said it would take two months. By the time we send it in, it will be almost exactly two months to the day since we registered...wow - what a feeling of relief. I know we have "miles and miles" to go, but hey, ya gotta start somewhere, right? Now we are that much closer to bringing Sydnie Anina home!!!! All I need are pictures of our new house, and we can send it in - Thursday is the target date, which means by Friday it will be in our agency's hands!

I feel so happy!!!!!!!!!

Finally!!!

2005-05-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

My birth certificates finally arrived from New Jersey - I can't believe it took a month for them to get here. Oh well - they're here now so we can move on. I'm planning (hoping!) to send our first round of paperwork to our agency next Tuesday. Wow - finally, some progress. We're getting closer to having our daughter....

West Virginia comes through!!

2005-05-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

We finally got Patrick's birth certificates frm West Virginia!!! Hopefully mine from New Jersey will come soon and we can send our first packet of information to our agency! I'm so excited - things are moving along bit by bit...

Adoption Books...

2005-05-09T20:18:00.000-05:00

I went to Barnes and Noble tonight to buy some books on adoption - in the whole, huge bookstore they only had THREE books!!!! How crazy is that??? I guess if I want more books I'll have to go to Amazon.com.

Of course I ended up buying two of the three books :)

One of them is called, "Why I Chose You" - it's a real tearjerker - here's an excerpt...

I chose you...

Because you are the child of my dreams
To complete my family
Because I want to be the one to put a smile on your face
Because when I first touched you I wanted to hold you forever
Because I wanted to do for someone what my parents did for me
Because I needed you to become whole
To bring happiness to the empty places in my heart.....

Birth certificates - where are you?????

2005-05-05T12:13:00.000-05:00

Ugh - waiting is the worst...I know, I need to get used to it!

I sent away to New Jersey and West Virginia for our birth certificates weeks ago and they still haven't come in yet - how hard is it to pull a birth certificate off a computer, put the seal on it and send it off?? Apparently, very hard...this is the last piece of documentation we need before we can send in part 1 of our paperwork and get going...

I know, I need to be patient - this is good practice for that long, long wait after we send our dossier to China and wait for the referral for our baby!!!!!

Hello to anyone looking in!!

Welcome!!

2005-05-02T17:12:00.000-05:00

This is our adoption blog...to help us keep friends and family updated on our journey as we prepare to adopt our baby girl from China!

Right now we are collecting documents and hoping to send the first part of our paperwork to our agency in the next 3 weeks or so.

We are using Wide Horizens for Children - they are great...you can check them out at www.whfc.org

Thanks for joining us on our journey!!!