Supplement 3 to USCIS

Happy to say our Supplement 3 and homestudy update went to USCIS, today.  We are another step closer to our boys.

Homestudy Approved

Just got word that our homestudy has been approved by our placing agency.  Our social worker will be back in the office on Monday.  We should be able to send it on to USCIS next week.  Moving right along!  My goal is to be DTC in January.  That may be a little unrealistic but really hoping we can.  Our boys need to come home.

In honor of this step, I attached a photo of the boys we received in June.

Homestudy Sent for Review

Today our homestudy agency sent our updated homestudy to our placing agency for review.  We are excited to be at this step. It may take 2 weeks to get approval but at least it is there.  Once it is approved hopefully within a week we will have it.

Homestudy Update Rough Draft

I wrote a post yesterday complaining about a few things.  Today I decided it was best to delete it.  We had another surprise today but we got it done within hours and I am delighted to say that we received our homestudy update rough draft this afternoon.  There are some minor things that need to be fixed but all and all not bad.  Sent it back to our social worker before the end of the day but I doubt she got back to it.  They are closed tomorrow.  She is still waiting for NC child abuse checks to come back.  Hopefully it will be there Monday and it can be sent to our placing agency.  Then we wait again.  Our placing agency typically takes 2 weeks to review it.

Requested an Update

I wanted to put this on the blog so I wouldn't forget the date.  I just sent BLAS an email requesting updated information on the boys.  We are now suppose to go through BLAS to get updates.  This is a new rule started shortly before we brought Alyssa home.  From what I understand if their file is more than a year old there will be no charge.  Hoping that is true otherwise it will cost us $180 to get updates and photos of the boys.

No news on the homestudy.  If we don't hear anything towards the end of next week we will definitely be calling our social worker.  We are in limbo until we get the homestudy completed.

Homestudy Update Begins

Today, Dallas delivered all our homestudy update paperwork to our home study agency.  Our social worker said she should have a rough draft for us next week.  That would be so awesome!  We never expected it could be done so soon.  Moving right along...

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