January Referrals

Today is referal day on the chat sights. People who were LID at the end of July or August are starting to get their referrals today. When that starts happening people really go nuts on these sites. They list all the information they have etc. I should be really happy for them, but I only feel depressed because I am not there yet. I know my time will come but it still seems so far away.

Mom will find out tomorrow about her biopsy. We are still crossing our fingers. My aunt (her sister) Trudy is also having some difficulties. She may have to have her thyroid taken out for cancer reasons and they have also found a spot on her lung. The good news is her son Jimmy and his wife Michelle just found out they are expecting their first child. Whoo hoo. Finally some great news.

Last night we had some company over. A couple from our church that came home from China one year ago with their daughter came over with a video, pictures, experiences and advice. It was really nice getting to visit with them.

Well, back to the referral announcements.
ChinaMama

Sent off...

Today I received our Homestudy in the mail (actually about 6 copies!!) So, right after my bus route I headed to the post office to priority mail one of the precious copies to USCIS. Now hopefully in about 3 weeks we will be heading to Hammond to get our FBI fingerprints taken. There is a good chance we could have all our documents in by March. I am really excited today. Only one more paper to go and then the leg work of certification and authentication.

ChinaMama

It's In!

Well Fran was good to her word this time. She emailed me the final draft of the home study at 2:30 AM this morning. I just forwarded it to our agency. Now we just wait for the okay from AHH. Once we get that then Fran will mail me several copies and I can get one to USCIS so we can get our fingerprint appointment set up. One more step closer.

For those of you reading this today, please keep my mother in your prayers. Last week during her mammogram the doctors found a lump in her breast. She is having a biopsy done today. She is obviously quite concerned and we just ask for God's peace to be placed on her and for knowledge for the doctor's on how to best handle this.

Today is our Anniversary! Yep that is right 19 years today. I know we had a rocky and unsure start (Evan's arrival 10 weeks early) and some ups and downs but we have endured. Mike remains my best friend and partner to this day. Here is to the next 19 years!!!

ChinaMama

It's about time

Well Fran our social worker finally made it to the house today. She said if everything goes well, she may have our homestudy done by the end of the week. YEAH!! Then we can get our fingerprinting appointment set up at USCIS.

This woman is crazy. Mike said she makes me look quiet. LOL. (Yes it is possible to talk more than I do!) Anyway, she was here for about 2 hours. We just went over our draft and made a few changes. Then signed a couple papers and gave her a tour of the house. That was it. She is a really laid back person.

Now here is the kicker-she wanted to know if I would be interested in doing some work for her. She was impressed with my "type A" personality. The same personality that has been driving her nuts for the last month. She said she needs an organized person with computer skills to do computer work for her that is a people person. She said she will contact me in the next couple days and tell me what she is interested in. Mike thinks she would drive me crazy and that I would be mad at her all the time because she is just the opposite of me. I want to hear what she has to say.

Oh well, now if I can just get her to keep her word and have our homestudy done by the end of the week I will be a happy camper.

No news on the name game. I have just about given up. We will just call her "Hey you". I came up with about 5 new names and of course Mike didn't like any of them.

Well that is about it on the home front here. At least my house is starting the week off clean.

ChinaMama

WOW!

Last night I had enough of my Website done to share it with close friends and family. I got two reponses back from my aunts. WOW! (hence today's title). I hope they don't mind but I am going to post their comments because I want to be able to look back on them someday when I am feeling down.

Hi Rachel...I am sitting here with tears running down my face....I am so happy for you and Mike and your kids. What a blessing you are giving this family! And if you are still looking at names... how about Ronda Sue....after grandpa Yoder and you. Bringing a new little one into your lives is so exciting and giving her a name that connects her to her new family might be very special to her as she grows up. It may give her a sense of really belonging. Oh...I'm just so excited for you....well, I will be following your every step and every day you and Mike and Baby Stahley will be in my prayers. God bless you on your journey......Love, Aunt Sandi

This is fantastic/wonderful/miraculous!!! Can't wait to meet our new little great-niece! Let us know if there is anything we can do to help! Also, when you have a bit more information (age, size, etc.), we need to throw a big ol' baby shower!

Much love,
Aunt Louie and Uncle Jim

These emails just made my day!!! I got one from Uncle Chuck last week and didn't think to save it . Now I wish I would have. These will be so fun to share with our daughter someday.

No news on anything since last post. We are just waiting for our fingerprint appointment and next weekend our homestudy appointment. I am still praying for patience.

ChinaMama

Finally The Draft

No....I don't mean Evan got drafted. I mean we finally received the first draft of our homestudy. All I can say it is about time. This has been a very frustrating week for me. We had heard nothing from our social worker for over a week. She was not answering my emails or returning my calls. I finally sent her a "I am getting very frustrated with you...." email. The next day I sent her an apology. (I figured this was not a woman I wanted mad at me). She finally emailed me back and said she understood. Then she changed our first home visit from this Saturday to next Sunday. (Hmmm....maybe she is mad at me). I am praying for patience. I am to the point where there is nothing else I can do. We are just waiting on our homestudy and INS approval.

We did get Mike's passport this week and my last two birth certificates from Allen County.

We are back to working on names again. We had it down to Olivia. Then I read that Olivia was #6 in the nation last year. That means there will be a boat load of Olivia's running around for the next 5 years. Now we are looking at: Lyndsay, Molly, Gabrielle, Julia, Mychelle and Brooke. I really like Sabrina, but Mike shot that one down. He doesn't like anything that I do.

Well, I will sign off for today. Keep praying for us. (Me for calm and patience).
ChinaMama

Makin' progress....a little at a time

Well our application is off to USCIS (formally known at INS). We sent it out yesterday and they got it today. Yeah! Now we just wait. When I talked to the woman there she said we should get our fingerprint appointment for about 3 weeks after our application is received. We are still waiting on our homestudy stuff. She said she would meet with us next Saturday (1 week). I sure hope that goes quickly. I am still unsure of that lady. My goal is to still be DTC by the first of April. If that happens we should be in China in about 11 months.

I have faxed all the documents we have collected so far to Grace at AHH. She has given the okay on them with only minor adjustments. She says we are moving at lightning speed. I hope, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

I am 37 today. No fanfare please. Don't really care. Just another number. Yuck!

ChinaMama

Holidays Are Over

Boy, am I ever glad the holidays are finally over. Now maybe we can get some stuff done. We finally got some papers from Fran our social worker and filled out everything we could and got it all back to her. (We are still waiting on the state police check and CPS check). I hope she will now set up our homestudy interviews.

I know they say the wait after sending your papers to China is the hardest but I don't think I agree. I will feel relief when our papers are sent off and everything is out of our hands. At that point it is just the waiting and the planning. That won't be so bad. This pushing and waiting on other people so I can go to the next step is not any fun.

I bought the decor for her room. I went with Boyd's bears. It is really cute. I found a whole set on ebay and bought it. Now this summer we can tear Morgan's old room apart and decorate.

Michael and I have been discussing names for our new little one. We are leaning towards Olivia.
Michael doesn't like any of the names I have suggested. I like more unusual names and he likes them a little more common. So far we have come up with Olivia and Abigail.

Some of my other favorite names were: Reiley, Payton, Isabelle, Kalina and Delaney.

I want to keep posting because when we get our referral, I want to look back and see what we were doing on her birthday.

Tomorrow we are back to school and work. At least something to keep us busy. Katie was really sick this weekend with the stomache flu, but seems to be back on track today. Thank goodness.

Well, more to post later.
Chinamama

Christmas Day

Well we are done with the Christmas stuff. Time to work hard on the paperchase. I am really frustrated with our social worker. I am thinking about switching to someone new. We have not paid this one anything yet and I feel like I am on the back burner with her. I don't know what to do. I know of a couple others, but they are in Indy. I like the idea of having one close.

Tonight we had Christmas with my dad, brother and sister-in-law. Their last gifts were the poem I had written and their Chinese dresses. It only took them a minute to figure out what was going on. Talk about pandemodium. WOW! My sister-in-law just about knocked me off my chair. My dad was stunned. He did not even know we were considering adoption so he was pretty shocked. They were all happy and excited for us though. Lots of questions and explaining came afterwards. Well now all the secrets are out. The important people have been told so we can now talk freely.

Chinamama

Another Day of Nothing

Oh this is gonna drive me nuts. Everything is moving so slow. I am just sitting around waiting on packets and paperwork to get here. We did get a call from A Helping Hand Agency that we have been approved and that our Family Coordinator will be Ebbie. (Bummer-I had already talked to a Grace several times and she was hoping to get assigned as our FC). Oh well. I just want to be doing something right now.

I love the site thestoryofyou.com I have become addicted to reading all the journey to China stories. I just keep dreaming of the day I can travel to China to get our daughter.

Morgan is finally calming down some. The first couple days after we told her the news she would break down and cry. She is so excited that the thought of waiting a year to see her sister was almost more than she can bear. We keep throwing out names for our new little one. Yesterday she said "I wish you guys would hurry up and pick out a name already. That way we don't have to keep saying....the baby or the kid." She is so funny.

I got the Chinese baby booties I ordered. I think I am going to send them out to mom tomorrow. I made up a little poem for the Grandparents to announce our plans. I am going to put it in with the booties and see if my mom can figure it out. Grandpa Yoder will find out on Christmas as will Jon and Lisa. Mike thinks I should wait until we go out to Iowa to tell mom but I can't wait that long. I think she will be excited. She has been to China and I think she has a special place in her heart for the Chinese people. Little did she know she was gonna be the Grandma of one someday.

Well I am going to go read somemore China Journals.
Chinamama

Waiting...

Today I applied for my passport. That is it. I am waiting for the packet from the social worker now. It should come by Friday I think. I am trying really hard to not bother Grace (our Family Coordinator with A Helping Hand Adoption Agency) or Fran (Adoption Network-social worker). I need to start the paperwork for our homestudy. I am sitting in limbo right now. I guess that is pretty normal. There will be lots of times I will be in limbo.

I found a really neat sight. It is called thestoryofyou.com

It is journals of families that are either in China now picking up their children or recently got back. It is really interesting to read them. I am sure I will be addicted to this sight for the next year.

Well off to sleep.
Chinamama

Starting Out

Wow! We have started the process. By that I mean our paperchase so we can travel to China and bring our new daughter home. That is what my focus is. I have not met her-heck she may not even be born yet, but right now my main focus is to get done what I have to do so I can go get her.

We have selected our agency, our social worker and our country. We have sent for our criminal background check, employer verifications and some other minor things. It sure seems like there is a long way to go. My goal is to pull off this paperchase in record time. I have not even met with the SW yet, but I have started collecting the documents she will need. I am not a slacker that is for sure.

I am sure friends and family are wondering what in the heck we are thinking. Well I myself am not real sure how this all happened. All I can say is that when God has a plan, if you are willing to listen, you better just hang on for the ride. He started out by planting seeds in my mind and heart. Articles in magazines, news reports on TV and actual TV shows. That started the thinking. So I planted the seed in my husband Michael's head and decided that if it really was God's will he would fertilize the seed. Meanwhile I am not one to sit around and wait so I started researching on the Internet. We are talking about 8 hours a day for almost two weeks. I started sharing some of my research with Mike (gotta water the seed too) and waited for a sign or answer from him. After two weeks of amused looks but no confirmation I questioned him as to his thoughts. He (after teasing me some) said "Fill out the paperwork, let's go for it".

The reason some friends and family might be surprised is because we have one son Evan who is about to graduate from high school and start his college adventure. We also have a daughter, Katie, who is a junior in high school and another daughter, Morgan, who is 9 and in the 3rd grade. So when we are 1 1/2 years from almost having an empty nest, we decide to throw another egg in it. Who knew? Not me. A couple months ago I was relishing the idea of less housework and less kids to clean up after. I guess that is not what God had in his plans for us.

Oh well, I will be posting here to help vent my frustrations and keep those updated as to where we are in our process.

China Mama to be
Rachel