Friday, January 11, 2013

We Got Our LID!!

We finally got notification the other day that we have an official LID (Log In Date) with China! Basically what this means is, they've received our paperwork, processed it and approved us to adopt from China! Now we only need to wait to be "matched" with a specific child, then the wait to bring her home begins!!

I've had many of you ask about our timeline and what all is left to do and what all we've done so far in this process. In order to make it easier for all of you to understand, I thought I'd list the steps in the full process here!

April--Mailed our application to Living Hope Adoption Agency.

May--Signed our contract and paid contract fee.

June--Started online training courses and started home study visits.

July--Continued with home study visits, background checks, ordering birth certificates and collecting personal reference letters.

Aug--Home Study complete

Sept--Mailed off I-800A USCIS paperwork

Oct--Got fingerprinted and USCIS approval.

Nov--Mailed dossier to LHAA to be authenticated and sealed.

Dec--Paperwork complete and Dossier mailed to China.

Jan--Official LID of Jan 8, 2013!! Now we wait for our referral!

After we officially have a referral, the steps are as follows:

1. We mail our LOI, or Letter of Intent, to China saying we wish to adopt this specific child.

2. We wait for China to send us our LOA, or Letter of Acceptance saying our adoption request is approved for the specific child. (This could take anywhere from 20-120 days to receive from the time we send China our LOI.)

3. Once we receive our LOA we will send in our I-800 paperwork for her citizenship.

4. Once we have our I-800 approval, we will send our visa paperwork to China.

5. When the visa paperwork is complete on the China side, we will receive a TA, or travel approval, giving us a 3 month window in which to pick up our daughter!!

6. Once we finalize dates for travel, we will be off to China where we will spend about 2 weeks finalizing her adoption, getting Dr appointments done, her passport and visa paperwork taken care of and hopefully visiting her orphanage and home town. She will be given to us about 48 hours after we arrive and will remain with us for the duration of our stay in China! **insert happy mama dance here**

7. Then, praise Jesus, we will BRING HER HOME!!!

I know that there are a LOT of steps in this process and to some it may seem overwhelming. In fact, when we first started the process, I decided that in order to keep my sanity I was only going to focus on the next step. Once we got into the first few months of it, I began to feel more comfortable with all the steps, what order they came in and was more relaxed. Now it's hard to believe we're over half way done! It really is a lot easier to understand and deal with when you're in the middle of it!

We are excited beyond belief to bring our daughter home this year!!! And we feel so humbled and blessed for all of you who are following along with us and praying over our family and our little girl while we wait! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Why Am I Always the Bad Guy?!

I'll admit it. I wanna be the good guy. I wanna be the one my kids think is cool, fun, ya know, big party in a little package...er, um, ok, NOT such a little package, but I'm working on that! ;) But I digress...

My husband, while he truly does know otherwise, likes to joke about how I must enjoy sitting at home watching soap operas (HELLO?! Most of them are off the air now!!--I mean, um, NO I don't watch soap operas!) and eating Bon Bons all day. Let me just say, I prefer the not-so-seasonal anymore Reese's holiday peanut butter egg-tree-pumpkin things to whatever Bon Bons are. Never had a Bon Bon! Again...I digress...

I am blessed to be a primarily stay at home mom. I love having the flexibility it gives me to run errands during the day, blog, have lunch dates, do stuff at the kids' schools, and then have the energy to be able to be the one who needs to be up at a moment's notice at night if one of them needs me. One of the things I DON'T like is being the primary rule enforcer. Don't get me wrong. My husband is THE most involved father I know and we make all of our decisions regarding our family together. He is completely hands on and I don't know what I'd do without him!! That being said, he also works an 8-5 job and is getting his Master's Degree, so he's gone a couple of evenings a week. So other than the weekends, I'm primarily the one interacting with the kids when it comes to chores, homework, etc. Most of that is done by the time he's home, so he gets play time. :)  I harbor no ill feelings about this at all because he works SO hard for our family. But that doesn't mean I enjoy it all either.

Take today for instance.  I had my Little Little come home early from school yesterday complaining of a tummy ache. The school called, I told them to give him some time to stick it out but they called again an hour later for me to pick him up. I hated to do it, but he sounded miserable. My typical rule is: puking, fever or diarrhea will keep you home or bring you home. Anything else, suck it up and you can rest when school is out. Now that may sound harsh, but I was the QUEEN of staying home from school "sick". My mother, bless her heart, is somewhat gullible and a LOT trusting. (Sorry Mom, it's true.) I could fake, quite well, nearly any illness I needed if I didn't feel like going to school. Seriously. I missed like 22 days my senior year!! I am not proud of this. I was at the time, but not now. Now that I'm a mom, I realize the importance of being in school when you are fully capable of being there. Don't get me wrong, I FULLY support taking your kids out of school once in a while to experience life. In fact, I think if your kid has perfect attendance it's sad. Really, I do. I was disappointed when my Little Little got the award for perfect attendance the first 9 weeks of school. I enjoy randomly pulling them out for a day to make a weekend trip to see family or go to the zoo because it's beautiful out or just have a day with Mom! If it ever affected their grades, I would rethink my position, but for now, this is where I stand. Wow! Again, I'm off topic. I apologize!

Anyway, Little Little has not puked, ran a fever or otherwise. But he is somewhat pale, just wants to rest and generally feels yucky. It's not serious enough to head to the Dr yet, but I can tell he's not feeling great. So I agreed to keep him home today, with the stipulation that if he's the same tomorrow or better, he's gonna tough it out at school.

Yesterday, after school, Big Little came home and went to lay down because he didn't feel well either. He took a nap! He never takes a nap!! But when he woke up, he felt somewhat better and was able to do his chores and eat supper. He wasn't 100% but he was better. So I sent him to school this morning. An hour later he called saying he wasn't well. Like his brother, I told him to give it some time and see how he did. He called back another hour later. Still felt like he just couldn't stay. So I gave in. Against my better judgment, I gave in. He came home and scarfed down a bowl of chicken noodle soup and crackers and an decent size glass of Sprite. His appetite alone tells me he's fine. AND IT MAKES ME SOOOOOO MAD!!! I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he used it. Little Little sipped his soup and nibbled his crackers. He's upstairs resting while Big Little is watching TV and playing hooky. How am I supposed to tell the difference between what seemed to be two kids with the same symptoms?! How do I give one the benefit of the doubt and not the other?!

Now I have to be the bad guy! Why am I always the bad guy?? This is one of the not-so-pleasant aspects of motherhood. If I worked outside the home, I may be harder to persuade since I would have to leave work for them to be home. Instead, I have no reason, other than my mom-opinion, to leave them at school. Hhhhhh. Why can't things be more cut and dry? It would make life a lot easier! And it would keep the Big Little from getting in so much trouble!

Thanks for listening to my rant! If you have any ideas to make this kind of situation easier, feel free to share!! I'm always up for sharing ideas with other parents!! And on a positive note, I will say I'm glad I'm dealing with a child faking illness rather than the actual full-blown plague that's going around!!