Fingerprinting Fiasco

The way things went, I'm pleasantly surprised that we actually got our fingerprinting completed today. We were afraid that Brent would be on strike duty in Kansas, so I was very happy that he was here to get his fingerprinting done. I had been telling him the address of the federal building over and over and his response was always, "Don't worry! It's a new, beautiful building right by my office." We head in for our 8:00 a.m. appt. and are right on time getting to the new, beautiful federal building. Problem came when we discovered that our room didn't exist and the guard finally figured out that we needed to go to the OTHER old federal building. Well we hightail it several blocks over through the snow (Can you believe SNOW on April6!) and arrive late and there is a room full of people. The wait is long, which would be fine on other days, but today I have to be at Lydia's school to work by 9:30 a.m. Impossible on this day. I call Mom to tell her my predicament (she's home with Lydia who's sick & not going to school) and get the school phone # so I can tell them I'll be a little late. I had to sneak and do this in the lobby because cell phones are NOT permitted. Well, a few minutes later my cell phone rings. I dart out of the room and try to dodge all the dirty looks I'm getting and what do I hear when I answer? Lydia yelling, "Mama! It's snowing!!" It was very cute and sweet, but I was too frazzled to enjoy this cute, illegal phone call. By now I'm sweating and my blood pressure is high over everything that is wrong on this Monday morning. I finally get my turn and am telling this to the fingerprint lady and she say, "You could have just come later today or any Wednesday. You have 87 days before your case is considered abandoned." Sure wish I'd known that!

USCIS I600a application

Carol brought our final draft of the homestudy by and we're ready now to send in our USCIS I600a application. This is an application that we send in to immigration -- a department of Homeland Security. Doing this is significant to me because Carol has told us from the beginning that, once approved, this is only good for 18 mos. She has said we won't send this until much closer to the end of the process. Here we are ready to send it!! When we get back from the Disney cruise we should have received word on when we go in to get fingerprinted. Getting our federal fingerprinting done is an important part of being approved.

Exciting Revelation!

Jill called and totally brightened my day! She told me that she had been talking to Carol and was told that right now the wait for referrals was pretty short. Carol said that the time from signing up and getting on the list to referral was 8 months. 8 months!!!! We got on the list Oct. 1, so 8 months from that is June. I can't believe how soon that suddenly is. If we get a referral in June we should be traveling 3-4 months after that wich would put us in September or October instead of December. I'm incredibly excited and also as this reality is barreling towards us I'm finding several things to be nervous about. In those nervous/excited moments I remind myself that God has brought us here and will be with us. Me and my family have a lot of love to give and God is on our side, so everything will be fine. Oh, I just can't wait!!!!!!!

Hurray!

This past Wednesday our Social Worker, Carol, and I braved the snow to meet at the Bread company. She had just a few questions and then gave me some information that I've been dying to know. She said that Henry might be born sometime around this time or is about to be born!! Of course I won't know for a while when he's born, but it's exciting to know that it's sometime around now. Every time I think of it I say a prayer for him, his mom, his foster mom and for us. This is also exciting news because around 5-6 months after Henry's birth we should get a referral and picture. AND THEN 3-6 months after that we can go get Henry. I'm thinking that my goal of getting Henry by Christmas might not be so far fetched!!

Korean video

Our good friend Jill gave us some clothes that Max has outgrown in case they would fit Henry -- of course we won't know until we get a referral what size Henry will be. Anyway, yesterday,Lydia very excitedly pulled each item out one by one and held it up for me to see. All the clothes were so cute and we had the best time. Lydia had a comment for each piece and was visibly excited at the thought of one day having Henry to dress up. We had the best time!

Our family also watched a video today from the library. It was about 2 children from South Korea and one of them was from Seoul. It followed each child for a day as he/she went through their daily activities. After watching for several minutes Trixie sat up straight and said, "When will Henry be on there?" She was quite disappointed that we weren't going to see him. Lydia watched the video silently, but her eyes were glued to the screen and she was taking it all in. When the video was over Lydia immediately shouted, "Let's watch it again!" It really was a good video.

Feeling antsy

This past weekend our family went to a fun and festive Chinese New Year party with other adoptive families. The girls had a great time. They did some crafts, but by far their favorite part was running around and yelling with all the other children. Brent and I enjoyed meeting new people and hearing about their adoption story. We got lots of advice and stories about where to stay, how to book travel plans, good sight seeing sites, etc. Today Lydia and Trixie and I went to the Biehl's house to play with Sophia, Julia, and Max. The girls just love going over there. Jill was so sweet to give me a bag of clothes that Max has outgrown. It is the very first "boy" item that we've got. Between hearing the stories on Saturday and getting the boy clothes -- that are absolutely adorable, by the way -- I'm very antsy and ready to go get Henry tomorrow! I'm certainly hoping for Henry to come sooner rather than later.

Let's get going

After a couple months of Thanksgiving, DisneyWorld, Christmas, and procrastinating I finally decided to get my blog up and running. I still have to figure out how to insert pictures and try to remember from a couple months ago everything Jill taught me about setting this blog up, but this is the beginning. May this new year also be the beginning of the year we get our Henry.