Six Months Pregnant

Today we are officially 6 months pregnant. It was June 13, 2011 that China preapproved us to be Fu Hao Ling's parents. Unfortunately it is doubtful that this will be a 9 month pregnancy. It is looking like a 10 or 11 month pregnancy.

Found a new picture of our little girl. So glad to see her doing well and to find out she is walking. We also had confirmation that she is in foster care.

We can't wait for this pregnancy to end and to bring her home.

DTC

I am very excited to say we are DTC, today. This is a big step when adopting from China. It means our dossier is headed to China. It makes everything seem more real. Next step is LID. Our Log in Date is when all our paperwork is logged into CCCWA's database. This usually happpens in approximately 10 days. We are one big step closer to bringing our Alyssa Faith home.

Happy Birthday, Zachary!

Yesterday Zachary became a teenager. It is hard to believe that he is 13 years old. I still remember the day he was born in Jacksonville Beach, FL. I loved that the hospital was decorated for Christmas and the lights were shining bright when we left the hospital the next day. Zachary is our most motivated child. He practices his trombone endlessly and is very relentless about getting his homework done as soon as he comes home from school. He won an Outstanding Student Award from the Elks lodge this fall. Two people(a boy and a girl) were chosen from his school and one of them was him. During a very nice presentation he was awarded a couple of certificates and a $50.00 savings bond. There is no doubt that Zachary will go far in life. He is one determined young man.

I-800a Approval

Friday, November 25, after 78 days we received an email from our officer that she had approved our I-800a application. Praise God! This is the last piece of paper we needed so all our paperwork could go to China. Our I797(I-800a approval)was delivered by Fedex on Tuesday, November 29. After going to 4 different notary offices we were finally able to get it notarized and dropped off at the N.C. Secretary of State's office. We picked it up today and now it is in route to the courier in Washington D.C. Friday she will walk it thru the U.S. Department of State and drop it off at The Embassy of China. On Monday she will pick it up and fedex it to our agency. Our agency sends dossiers to China on Fridays. December 9,2011 our dossier should be making its long trip to China.

My Mom, My Best Friend

It has been two years since my Mom went to be with the Lord. Not a day goes by that I don't miss her and wish I had more time with her. There were so many things she never had time to teach me. There are so many moments I wish I could share with her. One day we will meet again.

Having Faith

It has been 66 days since USCIS(Homeland Security) received our I800a application to adopt.  In mid August this approval was only taking 45 days.  At the end of August it took from 62-70 days.  At 66 days we still don't have an officer.  We have to have an officer to be approved.  Just need to have faith that it will happen in God's time.  His timing is perfect.  So difficult when this one little piece of paper is all that is keeping our dossier from going to China.  Praying that this will be the week.

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

It is hard to believe Nicholas turned 16 today.  Wasn't it just yesterday that he was born? What a handsome young man he has grown up to be. I can see so many changes in him over the last year. He is maturing in so many ways.  God truly blessed us!

Happy Halloween!

The girls had so much fun tonight Trick or Treating! Grace told us that next year Alyssa will be with us.  We can't wait to see her in her little costume enjoying the fun with the girls.

Unfortunately no news on our I800a.  Looks like people are waiting even longer for this approval. We are at day 52 and it appears it will be at least 10(probably more) days until we get approval.  We can't do anything else until we get this.  We know it will all happen in God's time. Sometimes it is just so hard to be patient.  We want to bring our little girl home and put a smile on her face.

Dossier (minus our I800a approval) in California

Great news! All of our paperwork except our I800a approval is in California. It arrived at our China coordinator's house this morning.

List of Documents for our Dossier:
1) Application Letter
2) Non-Employment letter for Kristen
3) Employment letter for Dallas
4) Kristen's birth certificate
5) Dallas' birth certificate
6) Marriage certificate
7) Financial statement
8) Kristen's physical
9) Dallas' physical
10) Kristen's police clearance letter
11) Dallas' police clearance letter
12) Homestudy
13) I800a approval(waiting on this)
All the above documents have to be notarized, sent to the Secratary of State in NC to be certified and then sent to Washington D.C. to the State Department to be authenicated, and on to the Chinese Consulate to be authenicated. 
14) 3 notarized reference letters
15) copies of the first page of our passports
16) 2 passport photos of both of us
17) 6 family photos mounted on card stock
18) checks to various people

So glad to be done with this part of the process.  Just one more document and we can send all of our paperwork to China.  We are still quite a ways from travel but every step is one step closer to bringing our little girl.

USCIS Fingerprint Appointment

What a pleasant surprise! Dallas, Kristopher, and I went to the Durham USCIS office today to be fingerprinted.  This is another part of the process. Before we can adopt Alyssa we have to have approval from the Department of Homeland Security. This is one of the longer steps to the process. We are about halfway there.  So back to the surprise. This is our third time being fingerprinted for an international adoption. This is the third office we have been to. You don't get to choose where you go, they tell you when and where.  In Jacksonville and Charlotte the experience was far from enjoyable. We came out feeling like criminals. The employees were very unfriendly.  Today was a completely different story.  They were joking and asking about our adoption.  How nice to actually enjoy this step of the process.  Now on to praying for a speedy approval.

Alyssa Faith?

I am still not sure I want to name our new daughter Alyssa Faith.  I definitely want to honor Dallas' wishes and have her middle name be Faith but I am not sure about Alyssa yet.  So far it is the only name that all of us like.  Most of us like the name Lily or Lilli, too.  We don't want her name to start with a K,Z,N,J, or G because we already have children that go by names that begin with these letters.  To be honest the rest of the family wants me to stop suggesting names and just go with Alyssa but I can't let it go.  It was the same way with Grace. We didn't officially decide until we were in China and she had been with us a night.  Any suggestions?  What is your favorite girl's name?  Does she look like an Alyssa?

He Gets It

Sometimes this teenager of mine really surprises me.  He isn't one to share his feelings or give you too much information about his day at school.  So I was one proud Mom the other day when he shared this story with us.  One of his teachers was talking about how she has always wanted to adopt a child.  He said the kids in the class didn't understand why she would want to do that.  He said that they think if you adopt a child that the kid just comes to stay with you and aren't really a family member.  He spoke up(surprising in itself) and said it isn't like that at all.  They become a part of the family, you don't think of them as being adopted, they are you siblings.  He, also, said you don't notice that they look different(in the case of Grace being from China).   I don't know that he will ever adopt a child himself(he says he wants a small family) but I am so glad that he gets it. 

New Pictures

We sent Alyssa a birthday cake for her birthday. I am not so sure she likes the cake.  We can't wait to put a smile on that face. Look closely she has a pearl like necklace on.  She is going to love playing dress-up with the girls.

Happy Birthday, Alyssa Faith!

We wish we could be with you today!  You are now two years old.  We hope someone sang Happy Birthday to you and gave you the birthday cake we sent. 

Zachary made you some cupcakes for your birthday. They were delicious.  You also got a couple of presents. We are looking forward to bringing them to China so you can play with them. Nicholas is not in the photo because he was at a football game. He did get to enjoy some cake when he got home.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  We love you!

Fingerprint Appointment

We recieved our fingerprint appointment today. Great news! It is for October 21 but we are going to try and walk in next week.  Hopefully our USCIS approval will come by the beginning of November.  The other good news is the rest of our dossier is on its way back from Washington D.C. with all of its authenications.  Once we recieve our approval from USCIS we can send that off to D.C. too. We would love to be able to send our dossier to China at the beginning of November.  Confusing I know but every step is one step closer to bringing Alyssa home.

An Earlier Photo of Alyssa

Homestudy Complete and I800A on the way to USCIS

I haven't posted in awhile because I have been a little frustrated with how long the homestudy process was taking.  Thank goodness it is done now.  We had 4 very valuable copies in our hands today.  We are down to two because one went to USCIS(United States Citizenship and Imigration Services) and one is going out tomorrow to our placing agency in California.  One copy needs to be certified and authenicated for our dossier and one is ours to keep.  Our homestudy is about 16 pages long. I never thought Dallas and I were that interesting.

Unfortunately it will most likely be around 60 days before we get approval from USCIS.  Praying for things to speed up but we know it will all happen in God's time.  We should get a notice in a couple of weeks informing of us the date we are to be fingerprinted. This will be our third time being fingerprinted for this adoption.  Kristopher got to join in on the fun this time around because he is over 18.

My best guest for travel is April 2012.  It would be nice to travel during the Spring this time.

Now it is time to get our dossier completed so all we will be waiting on is our USCIS approval. Hoping to be LID by the beginning of December. LID means China has our paperwork and it is all logged in.

First Homestudy Visit

Late this afternoon we had our first homestudy visit.  I think it went well. Unfortunately it appears things are going to take a lot longer than we would have liked.  You need a lot more clearances this time around. In the end it will be so worth it.

We won't have our next visit until July 15.  Too long to wait for me but we have to do it according to the social worker's schedule.  I need to stop worrying about it.  Everything happens in God's time.

Preapproval and Homestudy

As of June 13, 2011 we have preapproval from China to adopt Fu Hao Ling.  Last time it took us months to receive this approval for Grace due to lost paperwork.  It is hard to believe we have it so soon.

Next step is to get our homestudy completed. Our first visit with the social worker is Tuesday at 5:30.  We chose Frank Adoption Center since they did our homestudy last time.  We will have a different social worker, the director of the agency.  Hopefully we can get the homestudy completed quickly.  Unfortunately much of it is out of our hands.  The homestudy includes background checks and reference letters. We have no control over how quickly they will arrive.

We went ahead and told the girls tonight. They were so excited. Grace wanted to know why we can't name her Sally.  That is her favorite name and she names all her dolls that. 

                                                       Alyssa Faith Braxton, God willing

Alyssa Faith

We are all tired of calling her Linda so we are switching to what we think will be her new name ... Alyssa Faith.  We have officially commited. First checks were sent today.  I still have lots of concerns and continue to pray this is God's plan.  Dallas is certain it is so I will have to believe it too. 

Alyssa is from Fuzhou City, Jiangxi in China. Unfortunately it is a different Fuzhou then where we got Grace. It is a different province.  She is in a foster home and from what I hear the children are well cared for.  Alyssa is listed as having developmental delays.  We hoping she will catch up when she arrives home but if not we will be prepared to get her all the services she needs.

We are trying to choose a homestudy agency now.  There are several options and we would like a social worker that is personable and completes the homestudy fairly quickly.

Found Faith

We found her but to be honest I am so worried we made the wrong decision.  So many concerns this time around.  My fifteen year old had a seizure Wednesday(June 1) on the way to the bus stop.  That is our top concern.  He will be having an EEG done on Friday.  Of course finances are always a concern plus I have many more.  Dallas has the faith I am lacking right now and believes this is God's plan and we need to go for it.  At church we sang a song about not being afraid and that God is with us. Guess I really need to keep reminding myself of that.  She truly is beautiful! 

I think Linda may be Faith

We decided to preceed with Linda.  Tomorrow morning I will be contacting a doctor who specializes in international adoptions to look at Linda's file. It doesn't have a lot of information in it but we still want his opinion. He looked at Grace's and gave us so much insight. 

She is beautiful!  I will post again once we hear what the doctor says.  If Linda is the one we will be going to Jiangxi Province this time.

By the way Linda is just her agency given name.  We don't know her Chinese name yet.  We are thinking about the name Alyssa Faith but aren't definite yet.  We didn't decide on Grace's name until we had met her so it will probably be the same with Linda.

Is Linda Faith?

Well we found another little girl with a different agency.  She was born in October 2009.  We are still trying to make a final decision.  She is absolutely beautiful but we are just trying to decide if now is the right time. 

I am including a few sentences from a post an adoptive mom posted in one of my adoption groups.  It explains exactly how I feel and she does a much better job explaining it than I would be able to explain why we are adopting again.

I am truly blessed and content . People ask me why adopt again when you have so much. That is exactly why we are adopting again. We do have so much. And when I end my life, may I remember the happiness of today and the joy in watching children scared, isolated, left by others who are brave enough to join our family.

Teresa is not our daughter

Got the email this morning that the other couple decided to proceed with Teresa's adoption.  Guess she wasn't our daughter after all.  God must have other plans for us.

It may be awhile before there are any more posts on this blog.  We aren't in a rush to find our next daughter but you never know when she will come along.

Is Teresa our daughter?

We still don't know if the other family is going to proceed with adopting Teresa. It has been a very long weekend waiting. We found 2 videos of her online.  She is absolutely adorable.  Dallas and I truly believe she is our daughter.  We sure home we find out tomorrow.  We know it is in God's hands but it sure would be nice to know one way or the other.

Is Teresa our daughter?

Since adopting Grace Dallas and I have always said we would like to adopt one more daughter.  Dallas always wonders if the time is right.  A year ago we went through Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. It changed our lifes.  We still aren't done but our only debt left is my van and the house.  So we weren't planning to find our daughter yet.  We have been discussing whether we thought she was in China or possibly foster care.  We really wanted to be debt free before starting the process again.

Along came Teresa, a little girl on our previous agency's China Special Focus list.  We first saw her picture on May 11, 2011.  We didn't decide to view her file until May 15.  Unfortunately by the time we asked another family was already viewing her file.  We are now waiting for their decision.  If they move forward we miss the opportunity to have Teresa as our daughter.  We are hoping to hear something at the beginning of the week.

There are several reasons we feel Teresa is our daughter.   She is born the right year.  The boys were born in 1992, 1995, and 1998 and the girls were born in 2002 and 2005. Our next daughter should be born in 2008, right?  She is from the same province as Grace. This is a big one.  Before we saw her file we knew she was living in Beijing but didn't know what province she was from.  We said if she is from Fujian then she is the one.  We were quite suprised the next day to find out she was from Fujian.  The agency gave her the name of Teresa. The day I saw her picture for the first time was the same day my friend, Teresa, received her baby through domestic adoption.

So now we sit and wait and wait and wait some more.  We know if she was meant to be our daughter the other couple will say no but this waiting is tough.  It is like waiting for a call from the doctor's office to find out if you are pregnant.

I decided to title this blog Finding Faith because Dallas and I weren't quite ready to begin this journey again but we know we need to have faith and follow God's direction.  If this is the path we are to go then God will surely lead the way.  Dallas is also pretty insistent that this daughter's middle name be Faith. 

Hopefully in the next post I will be able to answer the question  "Is Teresa our daughter?"