Baby steps

I sent our marriage certificate BACK to St. Thomas today. They screwed up the first certification of it. So, try and try again.

I mailed a large stack of documents to the NC secretary of state today. I hope to get them back by Friday or Saturday. Next Monday at the latest. And then off to our courier in DC by the middle of next week.

We got a letter from USCIS today giving us the date of our scheduled fingerprinting. It's mid May, but we'll be walking in this week sometime, to get it done early. That hasn't been helping families lately, but has in the past. I'll try anything.

Once we get back everything from DC, and our immigration approval, our dossier can be sent to our agency. Our fabulous and amazing adoption coordinator, Xiaoqing, sends groups of dossiers every Friday. I am still holding out hope that we will get ours there in JUNE!!!!! Please say some prayers with me that this will happen. We are still hoping to travel approximately 5 months from sending our dossier. This Momma's heart will be SO happy to get Tessa home for Christmas and her birthday.

Update:-)

So, we got a letter from USCIS today, and our official rec'd date is April 13. Go forward 45-60 days from that, and hopefully we'll be approved. I am really hopeful it goes quickly. My goal is to be DTC (dossier to chin@) by the end of June.

I just finished reading "The Boy from Baby House 10", which was about a boy from a Russian orphanage. I did a good bit of crying. There are 147 million orphans in this world. 147 MILLION children, folks. Can you begin to comprehend that number? Can you comprehend that many children NOT knowing a mother's love? I can't. And while I obviously can't mother them all, I can mother Tessa. I can rock her to sleep. Put bandaids on her boo boos. Teach her what unconditional love is. There are so many things I want to do for her and with her, but most importantly, I want her to know love. To be loved, and feel loved. I wish she could even have just a little bit of an idea of how many people already love her. Of this great big extended family waiting to welcome her. Of how many people are praying for her daily. It is so hard to explain in words, and I don't think I ever could. But our sweet girl is already my child in my heart, just as much as my boys. I have three kids. Three toddlers. I just can't wait to get the third home where she belongs.

Also, we got an email and text that our application to immigration has been recd:-)

Waiting...

Our I800a application has been mailed to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. Now we wait two months. (Approximately).

Patience.....patience.....patience.....

We're Pregnant!

Hehehe!

Monday Mailday!

Today was a REALLY good mail day. Not one, but TWO things came in the mail related to adoption paperwork. One, our marriage certificate from St. Thomas. I was starting to get stressed about it. I turned right back around, and sent it back to St. Thomas. This time, to the Lt. Gov. for authentication. I paid a little more for the shipping this time, so that it can be tracked better. I need the peace of mind of knowing where ALL of my documents are. Once it is back from St. Thomas, it's ready for the trip to DC.

Second, Eric's birth certificate came back from the State of NY. With a note telling me I screwed up. Oops. I have to send it to the county of Erie first, for their clerk of court. So, I sent that off as well. I spoke to the absolute nicest lady in the clerk of court office in Buffalo. My husband, his family, and that nice lady, just dispel all preconceived notions about Yankees not being as nice as southerners. Once it's back, I can try again to have the NY sec of state authenticate it. Eric's poor little birth certificate will go through FIVE different certifications/authentications before it ever gets to China.

Our I800a application should be out in the mail tomorrow. That is our immigration application, and they've been taking 45-60 days on average for approval. I plan to diligently work on the rest of the dossier during that wait. Could it be possible that we could be dossier to china (DTC) in June? July at the latest, I am praying!

New blogs to read

I've added two new blogs at the right side. They are both pretty awesome. Ni Hao means hello in chinese, and the blog nihaoyall is about a big family that oozes coolness. I invite you to go read what that Momma has to say.

Secondly, and most importantly, go to the cornbread and chopsticks blog and read her latest entry about 'Why'..... I feel like she managed to get out in words what I feel in my heart.

And if you really want to feel inspired, and have a good cry, go to the "Our family, our story" blog. Scroll all the way to the bottom, and she has three videos posted. They are the three videos of how her 3 youngest children made their way to her family. UNBELIEVABLY GOOD. That Momma's name is Amy, and she lives here in Charlotte. She is actually a friend of my friend from work, who has also adopted from China (and is on #2!). I have no idea if that made sense, but who cares----go watch the videos!

Tuesday Update

I have one FABULOUS agency. I asked a couple of weeks ago about expediting any part possible. And do you know they are reviewing our homestudy in LESS than a week, rather than the standard two weeks!!!!! I love them!!!! I still don't know about expediting any of the rest of it, but every day counts. It's one less day Tessa has to spend without her forever family loving her to pieces! I'm shooting for having the notorized homestudy by Friday, and mailing out our application to the USCIS on Friday or Saturday.

A couple of weeks after the USCIS gets our application, they will send us a postcard with an appointment date and time to go get fingerprinted. There is an office here in Charlotte, and those fingerprints are used for our FBI background checks. It's common for families to "walk-in" rather than wait for the actual appointment, and we'll definitely be doing that. On a popular message board I visit, a family got their approval ONE day after fingerprints. That is HUGE folks. A major speed up in the process:-) I hate to let myself get hopeful, but I am. I just really want our girl home before Christmas.

In the meantime, we continue to collect and perfect our documents needed to be authenticated. I hope to send the big pile to NC next week. Once those return, the entire stack will go to DC via a private courier. I am a woman on a mission to get this dossier done!

I had a little fun today, in the midst of the paperwork. I went shopping for Tessa! SO much fun! Even the little girly socks are stinkin' adorable!!! I bought a couple of dresses, some PJ's, and a few shirts. And the socks of course. I love Kohl's return policy. I don't normally do a ton of shopping there, but you cannot beat their returns! I can take what I buy now back a year from now, with receipt, and get cash back. And since we don't know, and won't know what size Tessa is, I have to buy a variety. We'll do shopping for her while we are in China, to get us through a couple of weeks, and then do the rest after returning home.

This tired Momma needs to go send yet another email to harass someone about a paper we need, and I'm off to bed early:-)

PS. Enjoy the music. I love these two songs. They really speak to me about this whole process and our sweet girl.

PS. Heard something on the radio yesterday: "If something breaks your heart, that may be God's way of calling you to fix it." That really hit home. Sweet babies without a family has always weighed heavily on my heart. I can't change the world. But I can change Tessa's world.

New week, new wait....

FINALLY, on last Friday, our homestudy document was completed. We were waiting on one stupid piece of paper, and finally got it Thursday night late. I emailed it Friday morning before 7am, and our homestudy agency was done by 11am! Bless their souls for being speedy!

Now, we wait for our adoption agency to approve the homestudy. They have to go through it carefully, to make sure all the appropriate pieces are there. This takes two weeks. Two painful, slow weeks. Patience is not a virtue I have a lot of. I guess I'm learning!

Once they approve it, we send in our application to the USCIS. (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service). I have that pretty much ready, and hope to finalize that on Tuesday, when I'm off. So the day they tell me I'm approved with the homestudy, that application is being overnighted!!! That's when the 45-60 day wait happens. Some folks have been seeing less of a wait lately, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It's hard not to.

As far as the other parts of the dossier compilation, things are moving along. My SC birth certificate is back from being authenticated, and is ready for DC! Woo hoo.....it's the first thing ready to make the big trip to DC for the US Sec of State and the Chinese Consulate. Eric's birth certificate is on it's way to the NY capital for it's authentication. And our big pile for NC is growing, I hope to send it next week:-)

Still waiting for any news on our girl....

Still waiting to hear if we can expedite any part of this....

Still waiting...

We are coming Tessa!!!