Fingerprints update and a VERY Happy Birthday to our little girl!

A quick update on the fingerprint appointment. Our appointment date was for Dec. 5th but we decided to try and walk in a few days early (this does not speed up the process) so that our boys would not have to miss a morning of school. We went on Wed. Nov. 31st and were successful! :)
Now to wait for the actual approval....USCIS (immigration) has up to 90 days from our receipt date (Oct. 26th) to approve them. We are on day 46 today, I believe. Current statistics are showing 65-75 days which puts us right around the week between Christmas and New Years, so I am going to take a stab in the dark and guess we will be on the longer end- I think 75 days would be Jan. 9th so I am thinking it will be that week. 90 days would be Jan.. 24th and that is getting too close for comfort since our 6 month deadline China gives us from our pre-approval to get our dossier to China (DTC) is Feb. 1st!! I would rather have a little extra time than be pushing it, if you know what I mean! So we continue to wait!

On a totally different note....December 12th is our little Lena's 2nd birthday! You might be thinking...Brooke, it is Dec. 11th....you are right- it is the 11th here, but it is already the morning of the 12th in China! HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY, LENA GRACE YUJIE! It is bittersweet to be celebrating a birthday of one of your precious children, but to not be able to celebrate together as a family. So we will do the best we can- we will celebrate her birthday tonight as a family- we have a cake with her name on it. We also ordered another care package 2 weeks ago. We sent her a cake, a doll, a few books, another camera for her nannies to get more pictures of her for us, and some candy/nuts for the nannies and possibly for the other children in care there. Here are pictures of that. We cannot wait for the day we get some pictures of our sweetheart with her cake....how exciting it will be to get those! Praying our little love has a wonderful day and rejoicing that it will be her last birthday without her family!

Our family celebrating Lena's 2nd Birthday- her last one without her family!

Nana and Grandpa JP too!

Our boys celebrating their sister's 2nd Birthday!

The cake we got to celebrate, along with Lena's picture and a doll my
mom and step-dad bought for her.

Care package we sent Lena minus the cake!

Moving on to the Next Step

Well, it has been awhile! Our home study was approved and that and our I800A paperwork was sent on to USCIS. We got the I-797C document stating that they had received our documents and then last weekend, we got our fingerprint appointment date. It is for December 5th at the Milwaukee office. I wish it would have been sooner so we would have had a better chance of getting the approval before Christmas, when things are likely to slow down again. It is what it is though! We can try to walk-in early, but that most likely will not speed the approval up, so I have been told and read. After we get our I-800A approval, as long as we have every last bit of paperwork in to our agency and it is authenticated, we can then send our dossier (includes our home study, I-800A approval, and some other things) to China and finally be DTC (Dossier To China) which we cannot wait to be! That is a huge step!

In other news, little Miss Lena's birthday is coming up- Dec. 12th. We will likely send another package in time for that. You can even order a cake! For those of you not familiar with Chinese adoptions, cake is a big deal there! Wait until you see what the cake looks like...pretty fancy and they wipe frosting on the kids' faces. I cannot wait to see those photos! Though I wish she could be here with us celebrating birthday #2, I am thankful this will be her last birthday in an orphanage and without a family!

On the Sign Language front...we are still watching our Signing Time dvds and have #3 pretty well mastered! We have started watching one to learn some songs...that has been fun, but much more challenging! I think we will move on to #4. We also bought a dvd for potty training since it was on special. Not sure if she will be potty trained by then or not and she may regress if she is so I figured we may need it. We can also use it in hopes it will help her two younger brothers! :)

That's the latest news here! Bring on the busy holiday season and don't forget to go through our Amazon link on the right when you are ordering online for Christmas! :) Thanks!

Home Study...Check!

Our home study is officially done. That is one big step...too many more to go! I have filled out the I-800A paperwork and will be sending that in tomorrow hopefully! Then we wait for our fingerprint appointment and approval, which I have heard can take up to 8 weeks...praying it will all happen quicker than that so we can get our dossier (boat load of paperwork) to China (also known as DTC) as soon as possible. Oh how I can't wait for that!

Don't forget to type in anything into our box on the right for Amazon anytime you order a birthday gift, Christmas gift, etc. We don't get a lot, but we do get a small percent and a small percent is better than nothing right?!?! Thank you!!

Looking for a great gift for a baby shower or for a child's birthday or Christmas present? Check out my Usborne Books website- you can put in an order online and it will ship right to your home within about 2-3 days. For those of you adopting from China, they have a couple of great books for you too- one is called "First Hundred Words in Chinese" and the other is called "First Thousand Words in Chinese." Usborne's books are very educational, high quality, and have wonderful illustrations and features. Check them out! www.myubam.com/J3737

Pray we get a quick appointment date for our fingerprinting with USCIS! I guess if we don't, we will probably be walking in on a Wednesday morning anyways, so maybe I should be saying pray for a quick approval! :)

Signing Time....and a little update

Should I share the fun news first or the bad news first? I'll start with the fun news!
We have been working on the third Signing Time dvd and are loving it! The kids are doing great and I see them using their signs throughout the days. I try to use them too....just need to remind myself when I am about to say one of the words I can now sign to sign it instead. I am also trying to get the kids to sign for things instead of using their words to ask for them- I think it could help to decrease whining (just maybe), especially for Landyn and the word cheese. Let's sign it instead of whining it for what feels like forever! That kid could probably eat a pack of Kraft singles in a day if you let him...lol.

We have probably learned somewhere between 50 and 100 signs by now. Some of the kids are picking them up and using them more than others, but that might be due to their age, their attention span, and interest level. Some of our new favorites are: you guessed it, "cheese," cookie, cracker, cereal, candy, ice cream, apple, banana, cold, hot, help, wet, dry, full, sad, happy, day, night, and help!

Now...do I really want to go there? Not really, but I have to update you. Our social worker fought the good fight for us and tried everything from phone meetings to a list of 10 reasons why our family would be great for bringing home two girls together, but the boss lady won...she stood her ground and said no for the final time...at least to bringing home two at once! We can't lie- we are heartbroken, frustrated, you name it- the list goes on. We can re-use our dossier (aka boatload of paperwork) within one year of Lena coming home and go back for another child who waits, which would save a little money and a lot of time with less paperwork, but in the end it is still very expensive and we won't be able to afford to go back- not any time soon. And frankly, after the drama we went through with our first adoption and now this, Rick is ready to say- no more adoptions period after this! It is sad that the bureaucracies are what makes adopting so difficult. It is sad that a child waiting for a family could have had a family, but someone that doesn't know us and someone who has a lot of power said NO!

Right now I am going to focus on my precious little girl who is waiting for me...we are coming little one- I'm just sorry it has to take so long!

The first care package is off!

Well, I debated on when to send a care package to our daughter. Part of me wanted to send one right when we got PA, but a part of me wanted to wait until we got DTC (our boatload of paperwork to China) or later so she didn't feel like she was waiting FOREVER for her family to come get her. I just couldn't wait THAT long. I did wait a little while, but as of today the care package is ready and Lena should be receiving it soon, which is also likely when she will hear that she has a family (I wish I could see that moment). Maybe they will take a picture of her getting it since we sent a disposable camera with the package. That would be a wonderful moment to have documented. We used Ann at Red Thread China- http://redthreadchina.com/
She was amazingly quick and she did a great job! We are hoping to get some questions answered about our daughter....we'll see what comes back.

We sent a disposable camera for them to take pictures of her, a soft photo album with pictures of our family, our house, her bedroom, and pictures we made colored for her, and a cute PINK blanket. We will certainly send her more care packages during this wait to hopefully make it just a tiny bit easier for her and for us. Here is the first care package! :)

We got updated pictures and info!

YAY for updates! We got a brief update on measurements today thanks to Ann at Red Thread Kids- she sure is fast! We also got four updated photos of Lena. They have cut her hair even shorter and unfortunately, she doesn't look too happy in any of the pictures. I sure would like to squeeze her and see that beautiful smile! That's the hard thing about getting updated photos- it just makes your day to have them, but at the same time, it makes you just want to go over there and get them and that is not possible and there are so many more long waits ahead. We'll just pray that the waits are as short as possible and that we can get her home as soon as possible! If you are someone who prays, we would love prayers that Lena Grace Yujie is being cared for as well as possible and loved, along with the other children in her orphanage's care.

Enjoy the new pictures...I was excited to see one of her in a dress- can't wait to dress my first girl in cute clothes!

Things are Moving Along

We are way overdue for an update...that's for sure! Between the middle of August until now we have had our 4 visits with our home study social worker, including the in-home visit. We've been busy! We have also been learning more American Sign Language (ASL). The kids like to show us every now and then a few of their favorite words, including food, eat, water, mom, and dad. But their favorite (and this must be a boy thing) is poop.

We have just about turned in all of our paperwork that our home study agency requires- just waiting on a couple of little things and then we'll have our part done. We are hoping our home study will be completed by next week sometime so it can be sent on to our placing agency and approved by them so we can move on to the next step- immigration and fingerprinting!

We are also waiting to see if we will be approved to adopt two children or not. Our social worker is 100% on board and feels we are ready, capable, prepared, and have done our research on the special needs we are open to. Her boss is saying no though because the disruption rate increases significantly for those who adopt two children and the disruption rate for Chinese adoptions is on the rise (though I think there might be a bigger reason for this than because people are bringing home two at once, but I won't get into that). We have filled out a special form with our placing agency for families interested in adopting two children, which has been shared with our home study agency. We have had multiple discussions with our home study social worker and a conversation with our placing agency. Sadly, someone is trying to make a life decision for our family and for a child who is waiting for a family and she has never even met our family. Our social worker is trying to support us the best she can and we are doing what we can. There are a couple more things we are going to try and we'll see if this person will change her mind or not. Ultimately, we need our home study agency's approval to be able to bring two girls home. We have the approval of the social worker we have been meeting with and who has come to our home, just not that of her boss- the director of the agency. We'll see where things go this week! Praying for God's plan to be revealed.