A Great Week

I am believing that God really wants us to get these boys home.  Everything we needed to begin the home study update came this week.  All the physical forms are in my possession.  The state fingerprinting background check usually takes weeks.  It came in 3 days.  If our home study agency would have been open we could have dropped everything off today.  Unfortunately they are closed on Fridays.  It will be dropped off on Monday.  Praying our social worker will work quickly this time.  Hoping and praying everything goes smoothly and at record speed.  We want to get these boys home!  I would be very happy with early summer travel.  I really need Zachary's help so Summer would be ideal.

We celebrated Nicholas' birthday this week too.  On November 1 he turned 17 years old.  Where has the time gone?  I still remember taking Kristopher  Trick or Treating the night before he was born.  Nicholas was induced so we knew he was going to be born on November 1.  After Trick or Treating Kristopher went to spend the night with his cousins.  Nicholas has turned out to be such a great kid.  This year he has really grown up.  He got a job at McDonalds while we were in China.  He works 20 -25 hours a week and maintains honor roll status.  He has his driver's license and takes himself most places.  He has proven to be very responsible.   Now if he could just learn to wake himself up in the morning.  This kid requires more sleep than any of our other kids.  An alarm clock will not wake him up.   You can wake him up, make sure he is in the shower and then he will still fall back asleep.  Don't know what he is going to do when he goes to college.

Physicals Again

Another physical out of the way.   Two more to go.  The good thing about the blog being private right now is I can write whatever I want and not have to worry about anyone reading it and critiquing it.  Basically I am just writing to myself.  There are some definite benefits.  On the other hand it would be nice to have an audience but then I wouldn't be able to write 4 posts about physicals.

I would like to get an update on the boys.  Hoping to be able to do that soon.  I want to make sure we have all our physicals completed and sent to our social worker before I do.  I don't know why I am so worried something is going to go wrong.

Tomorrow I think I will write more about the boys instead of another post about physicals.  Just don't forget that after tomorrow all the physicals will be complete, we will just be waiting on the forms.

Physicals

Today I had my physical for the adoption.  I know I shouldn't be concerned but I am scared something is going to come back that will prevent us from getting the boys.  I want these boys with all my heart and soul.  What if it isn't meant to be?  I am beating myself up that we didn't do them when we first sent in our LOI(Letter of Intent) for the boys.  We would already have the results back.  I didn't schedule them then because I was concerned we wouldn't get PA(Pre-Approval).  Once again I had nothing to be concerned about nonetheless I was nervous until we heard the official word from China.  So now we wait.

Tomorrow Dallas has his physical.  He is certain all will be well with both our physicals and that I need to stop worrying.

Nicholas and Zachary have their physicals Wednesday.  Not worried about them at all. Just want them all out of the way so we can start our home study update.

Praying we get all the physical forms this week so we can send them to our social worker.

Our Boys

Guess it's time to tell you a little something about our boys.  They are 2 years old and live in the Jiaozuo  SWI in Jiaozuo, Henan.  Their birthday is February 3, 2010.   They live on the 4th floor of the SWI which is the Show Hope floor.  Show Hope is Steven Curtis Chapman's charity.  Dallas and I are Steven Curtis Chapman groupies.  We have been to many of his concerts and have sponsored children through Show Hope.  What this means for our boys is we know they are getting excellent care while they wait for us.  What it means for us is that our last adoption(yes, I did finally say that) will leave us with 2 more reasons that we love Steven Curtis Chapman.

The boys have had abnormal cat scans.  We don't know what this will mean for them in the future. We are not concerned. We know whatever their future holds we can and will be there for them.  We live near some of the best doctors. We can get them any services they need.  God brought these boys into our lives and has showed us time and time again that they are ours, we know he won't let us down when we bring them home.

Gathering Paperwork for the Homestudy Update

The paperwork has begun.  Yesterday Dallas, Kristopher, and I were fingerprinted for the state background check.  Praying it comes back quickly.

Kristopher was the first of us to have his physical.  The girls don't need one since they have had one this year.  We just need the doctor to fill out the form for them.  I have mine on Monday, Dallas' physical is on Tuesday, Nicholas and Zachary are on Wednesday.  By Thursday we should have everyone's and be able to send our social worker everything except the state fingerprint clearance.

The sooner we get our home study update the sooner we can move on to the next step.  We need to file an extension and make some changes(Supplement 3) to our I-800a.  In order to do this we need an updated home study.

We are really hoping to travel this summer.  I need my right hand man, Zachary, to be able to travel with us.  So excited that my sister agreed to go with me.  Dallas won't be going this time.  It is too expensive to try and take all the kids and with Alyssa being so young and only home a year we don't want to leave her with anyone.  Not to mention that we don't have anyone to stay with the kids.

Oliver and Hudson have a family! We have PA! Huge Thanks to Brooke!

This was the post I wrote on the AdvocateWC yahoo group on October 23, 2012, the day we received PA for the boys. It has a couple of minor edits.  They were known on the yahoo group as Oliver and Hudson.  We are planning to choose our own names for them.


Over a year ago we first saw the boys pictures. We were in the process for our adorable daughter, Alyssa. As a family we prayed for the boys and jokingly thought of names for them. The whole time we wondered why no one was choosing them. When it came out they were in an excellent facility we were sure they would find a home but still they waited. Why?

As we approached travel for our daughter in April, 2012 we said if the boys were available when we came home we were going to try to bring them home ourselves. My mom was a twin and I had always dreamed of having twins of my own. Never thought they would be boys but through years of teaching preschool I taught 4 sets of twins, some boys, some girls and I loved them all.

We came home the end of April and the boys still waited. Alyssa was doing great so we felt adopting the boys was a real possibility. First post placement visit we talked to our social worker and she burst our bubble. She wasn't willing to do an update until the end of July. After that we started getting cold feet, what if she was right, all the doubts seeped into our minds. Finally at the end of June we decided we had to make a final decision. The boys' fates were in our hands or so we thought. We had an international doctor review their files, we got an update, and we prayed. First week of July we decided they were ours and we needed to stop dragging our feet and do what we felt led to do. We went to lock their files.  They were gone... no longer on the shared list. Where did they go? They were they the week before.  The agency we had planned to use did some research and said they had been sent to an agency in Holland(which oddly happens to be my middle name, my mom's maiden name) and had a family. We were heartbroken and really felt like the door was closed. We blew it! After a month or so I threw away all the pictures of them I had around the house, it hurt too much to see their faces every day. We moved on but never forgot about them.

Fast forward to September 26, I was shocked to open FB and see a message from Brooke. The boys were back on the shared list. We were being given a second chance. They were indeed our boys! 

We were delighted to receive PA for the boys today! They are our sons and will be coming home to 3 big brothers(20,16,13) and 3 big sisters(10,7,3). We have no idea what we will name them. We are open to suggestions! 

Thank you so much, Brooke! The boys are coming to our family because of you! Your encouragement, kind messages, etc. have meant the world to me. 

Kristen

Six Months with Alyssa

Sometimes it is so hard to believe that this is the same little girl brought to our hotel room 6 months ago.   The girl who never smiled smiles all the time.  She is one happy little girl who will only throw a fit if you make her mad.  Have to admit with 3 brothers and 2 sisters this does happen several times a week.  She, like her older sister Grace, goes off to pout in her room when you have upset her.  When she is ready she will come out and start playing again.  

Oh, how we love this little girl! People often say she is a lucky little girl but that is not true.  We by far are the lucky ones.  It blows my mind that God chose us to be her parents, that he entrusted us to love her and take care of her.  What an amazing God!  We are often asked why we chose to adopt.  I don't know that we actually did.  I honestly believe we were called to adopt.  There are so many children that need families. Many live in conditions that you can not even begin to imagine.  We know that by stepping out in faith we will be rewarded in tenfold with a wonderful son or daughter.  What greater joy is there? Julia, Grace, and Alyssa are as much our children as the boys.  We have been abundantly blessed!! The other question we are often asked is if we plan to adopt again.  The answer is wherever God leads us we will follow.

Now more about Alyssa.  She is absolutely obsessed with Minnie Mouse or rather Mickey Mouse.  It depends on who you ask.  Alyssa and I have a daily discussion about whether it is Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse.  Most times it is Minnie Mouse but she continues to argue with me that it is Mickey Mouse. Be prepared if you take her to Walmart.  Every Mickey/Minnie Mouse you pass she will yell "Mickey Mouse!" If you happen to pass Ariel, Tinkerbell, or Spongebob she will inform the whole store too.  Now if you pass a Hello Kitty she will yell "Minnie Mouse." We haven't figured that one out yet.

Alyssa plays very well independently.  If I am doing laundry or household chores she plays beside me or plays in her room.  If her siblings are home she loves playing with them.  She loves looking at her books, dressing Minnie Mouse, putting her Minnie Mouses night night, and playing Legos.

During nap time she often doesn't sleep.  I am okay with that as long as she has a rest time and isn't crying.  Today she kept telling Minnie Mickey "Mickey Mouse, come here, go night night!" We often hear her talking to Julia, Grace, Nicholas, Zachary, or Kristopher.  They aren't there but she is talking to them anyway. 

She says lots of words but only a few sentences.  Her favorite sentences are I like this, I don't want that, and that's my home right there.  Almost every time we get home she says "That's my home right there." So funny when she says this. She says it with a very southern drawl.  We have no idea where she picked up that.  One more thing... If you ask her where any one is she will tell you the bathroom.  Guess she thinks we all spend too much time there.

Didn't mean to write a book but I could go on and on about Alyssa.  She is a trip!  Alyssa often wakes up before us and just sings and plays until we get her out of her crib.  Every day she greets you with a smile and a hug!  I can't think of a better way to start the day!