Whooo Hooo!

It came! It came! Yay!! I took the last document straight to our SW's office. It was still hot from the printer when I left it in her mail box! She called a while ago and said I could pick it up in the morning to sign it then we'll bring it back to her and she'll send it to the province right away.

Sooo now we wait for ministry approval. Not sure what turn around time is for this. The provincial adoption coordinator retired so the lady above her is doing two jobs right now. Praying it won't be long and we can get caught up again. We are 4 weeks off what we were hoping to be.

I started painting the spare room for our little prince! Well primer cause it's over a dark terra cotta color. Not exactly sure what color or theme to go with. I'm really liking the monkeys...so maybe a beige and blue or green. We'll see! It's so hard to decorate a room when the age of our son is such a mystery right now. It's exciting!

It's a good day :o)

Where is the last document!

Well almost a month has past since I updated and we are still waiting for that one document. Our local member of Parliament was to have sent a letter to Ottawa Monday that passed and well....it's Friday and we got nothing....I e-mailed our MP yesterday and he said he would call them today and get back to us. We didn't hear anything yet.....and it's past midnight so scratch that for today...I'll email him tomorrow. He has a Blackberry and his emails go straight to him from it. :o)...I'll keep messaging him till he answers....maybe annoying but hey he's a politician so he should be well acquainted with annoyances. :o).

We are now 3 weeks behind where we had planned on being. Hopefully we'll catch up when the province gets our dossier into their hands. Lord willing. Praying it's so!

Hubby got his passport last week, so that's all good.

Stay tuned and please pray with us that this document comes next week!

Up Up Up and Down down down...up up....

This past week my hubby got a call for the passport office regarding his name. It was different on the application than on the birth certificate and they wanted a copy of his licence faxed to them. I checked the name on his birth certificate and it was worded the same way, middle name then first so we sent off a fax asking them to use the name on his licence. On his last passport they had it reversed as to what was on his licence so hopefully they will accept that and issue him it. It's not necessary for us to have to complete for the dossier so we won't fret over it......however!....Yesterday our SW sent us an e-mail with the draft of our home study and other than spelling a name wrong everything was fine. She just has to wait for Hubby's criminal record check to complete and send it to the province....soooo this morning while saying grace for breakfast I asked that his CRC would show up today and ....well it did. They sent it back incomplete because they wanted the exact name of the agency we are using to adopt. Apparently the lady who helped him fill out the application told him to just put "international". We quickly fixed it and it was on it's way to the post office to be sent as registered mail. Hopefully and prayerfully it will hit the hands of the right person and they will complete it right away and send it back to us. I'm thankful that it didn't take longer for them to send it back but I sure wish they would have just called and asked us what agency we were using. Praying it doesn't go back in the pile with newly received one as it's currently taking up to three weeks to have it sent back. God is good and He knows what's going on. Leaving it in His capable hands and praying.

Just one more step!

Took this pic in a park our first trip to China...I love that
it's a Mama teaching her little boy to walk..warms my heart.


Got a call from our Social Worker, she received our Child Protection Check from the province and is just waiting for us to get our last document which will hopefully arrive this week then she will complete our updated study and we will sign it then........OFF FOR PROVINCIAL MINISTRY APPROVAL!!! Then off for translation!

Hang on we're almost there!

Yesterday the RCMP called and my criminal record check was ready for pick up. They figure hubby's isn't far behind. Later in the afternoon our Dr. office called and told us the medical forms were completed and ready to go as well. So once we get Hubby's police check we will have all the paperwork we need for our SW and hopefully she will have it prepared by the middle of the month, I told her it would be a perfect birthday gift for me!

Hanging on......

We got a notice from Immigration today stating they are working on our case and it may take up to 27 weeks. (Brings us to March.)
Sent off Hubby's paperwork for a new Passport. We had to have someone at Town Hall put their stamp on it.
Still waiting on some documents to send off to our SW...Criminal record checks, child protection, and medicals.
Have to double check to see if we need to update any travel needles. The Princess will have to have hers done.
.......................................so ya, that's where we are right now.

Homestudy Update

Yesterday morning we had our first home study update meeting, I'd taken our previous study and wrote out all the things that had changed since we did it last so she only really had to ask the usual necessary questions. She was very supportive and pretty much said that other than collecting the necessary paperwork and delivering it to her that we would only need to meet again when we go over the changes. At the end of our session she asked if we had any questions and it has been so long (2005) since we did this end of the paperwork I had to ask how long it would take and where does it go next. She said she would have it ready by mid October (My birthday is mid October! What a perfect gift!) then she would send it to the provincial adoption Co. and they will call to meet with us, then they forward our dossier to our agency to be translated, they will then send it back to the province and then the province sends it to China. We wait for a LID then, with the Waiting Child program our agency will be ready to match us! I called our agency yesterday and they are saying it's possibly to have a referral by Christmas for our little Asian prince! However they said travel is estimated 3-5 months leaning mostly on the 4-5 months. So with that said we can hope at the latest we will travel in May! That makes us VERY happy! Things are looking bright on the horizon!

Better day today...

Today I went down to our local courthouse and got a few documents certified and stamped. The JP is a lady who goes to our church so it was nice that we found favor in her today after the last few days. I brought home the documents and sealed them in an envelope and will send them off tomorrow.

Today was 1 year ago from Gotcha day for our princess. While eating supper it started to rain while the sun was shining..it was magnificent....I just knew in my spirit that there would be a rainbow in the front side of the house so she and I ran to the front door and sure enough. I love how God reminds us of His faithfulness....you see we seen her before our Adoption Coordinator even called us....on a website that advocates for waiting children. called "Rainbow" Kids... You just can't call that a coincidence...what are the chances that out of 147 million orphans in the world we would have seen her face before the phone even rang. That was 100% God. I love how He shows up in the most timely ways.

and yet a few more paper cuts......

Hubby's passport stuff came back today so we have to refile for a whole new passport for him.

His venerable persons check came back with the same snag mine had, so he has to run fingerprints and have it sent away also.

I filled out the citizenship package and paid for it on-line. I have to have some documents certified tomorrow by the notary public.

My licence isn't due for renewal until October but I wanted all current info photocopied so I got that done today.

Then to top it off I had my physical done and my Dr. will fill out the form when my blood work is done. He gave us a hard time about it last time and this time was no different. He really doesn't understand why they want him to fill it out but not send any laboratory test results as proof. I said I wouldn't argue with China about it, they have their reasons and I won't question them.

AHHHHH! So here we are. The citizenship looks like it will take up to 7 months, (this doesn't have to go with our dossier) the medicals will be ready in a few weeks and the police checks can take up to 3-4 weeks so even if our SW is done we can't send everything for translation until all the paperwork is collected. I'm guessing the earliest would be the end of October to mid November before we can send it to China. That is a bit of a downer but everything is in Gods timing so I will try not to dwell on those particulars. He's on top of the littlest details. I know He is. ;O)

and the snags begin....

The rollercoaster is taking a dip...hang on it's only temporary!

Dear hubby's passport went threw the wash over a year ago, (funny China accepted it last September...) he got a call from the Passport office saying they will not renew it because of the shape it's in......AAAAAAAHHHHHKKKK! So they are sending it back and asking him to reapply from the beginning. Which means a different passport number which means more paper cuts as I thumb threw alllllll the paper I filled out with his passport number on them!!! THANK Heavens I didn't start the citizenship packet yet! So....I'm not sure how long that will take for him to get his new one. Still waiting for mine and daughter's to be sent back to us.

Then....if that wasn't enough I went in to have my venerable persons check done and they called the next day to tell me there is someone else in the system with a similar name as mine and they will want to fingerprint me and send it off. This is a new process they started only a month ago the lady was telling me and she said it may take 3 weeks or more but that it would more than likely be longer....ugggg. Praying everything mysteriously gets expedited.

This Monday coming I go for my physical. So I'll have that for filled out and that will be another piece of the paper castle. Hubby gets his done the following week.

More paper cuts!

Sending our registration off to our agency today. This is two forms one to be sent and the other to be filled out and e-mailed.
Yesterday we did our Letter of Request, collected letter from Guardian, reference letter from family member, got my letter of proof of employment from accountant. (Need to get hubby's). Birth certificates collected, Marriage certificate, divorce papers(I was married at 18 then separated at 20), and some pictures collected to mount to card stock(this was new this time around, they want you to mount them on card stock with the date of photo and a line describing the picture. ) Today we will hopefully collect the other two reference letters from friends.

Welcome!

Well hello there friends! Yesterday was my first "OFFICIAL" paper cut...I got it while printing off our home study that we had for Sugar. I printed it off to make the necessary changes I need to so that we could resubmit it to our social worker. This morning I made some changes and added some important info then off to my social workers tonight to put it in her mailbox!!! So we have officially started to paper chase for our son! We will be requesting a boy up to the age of 4 from the Waiting Child Program. We are soooooo ready!

Sugar is looking forward to having a little brother and it will be so exciting having the two of them growing up together sharing memories. My older daughter will love to have a little brother too! Not to mention our grandbutton! Holidays will certainly be milestones to remember around our kitchen table for years to come.

We knew pretty much right away we would adopt again if the Lord put it on our hearts. I know He did a work in both my husband and I and we are over the moon excited to add to our family. So buckle up and enjoy the paper roller coaster ride. Watch your fingers.,..the paper is sharp!