Waiting.....gee that's different.

Our agency said they would not let us see files of children without having our immigration paperwork current. They told us about a month before our immigration paperwork was to expire that they would not match us with any children's profiles until our immigration extension was approved. When they told us that I was so....mad! I emailed them and asked them why and they never emailed or called me back. They match people up all the time that don't even have immigration approval yet. My personal opinion is this: They are letting us know that they aren't happy that we didn't take that severely handicapped child they presented to us. They wouldn't let us view any files a month before our immigration approval was set to expire. Sounds fishy to me. What do you think?

If I wasn't at their mercy I would tell them what I really think. But I'm going to save that until after this adoption is completed.

On another note, it took forever to get our paperwork ready to request an extension on our immigration paperwork. The forms were sent about 10 days ago and USCIS got them. But they haven't approved us yet. We still have to be refingerprinted. Yeah, you know, fingerprints never change, apparently only when one adopts does that possiblity exist. Our immigration approval expired 12.11.09. We won't have our extension approval until after we get fingerprinted so no Bailey additions for us this year.

Waiting and waiting and waiting......

Actually we have contributed to our wait. We had been given the opportunity to adopt a baby girl in late October. However, her special needs are way more than we feel equipped to handle. It was very hard to say no. We are very saddened by this. Please pray for her that she will find her forever family.

When? LOL (or cry)!

Here's the latest scoop. Someone posted that they had gotten their referral on a Yahoo waiting family group for our agency. Nothing unusual there. Except...they have a medical conditions checklist dated the day before ours and this person got her referral 9/23. That was over a month ago! A month is a long time between medical checklist that are only a day apart! I emailed our agency this weekend and they have not responded to my email. I'm going to call them today and see what the world is going on. Will update our blog when I find something out.

Just don't know...........

Well, here it is October. As of October 20th we will have been waiting a full long 19 months to get our referral. Will it ever come? Yes! But when? Only heaven knows.

A little closer, a smidge....?

Maybe a little closer, but nothing yet. I was excited last time I posted. Now, not so much. What a roller coaster ride. Adoption is not for the faint of heart. So, I hang tough once again. Maybe it will happen next week. Yeah, right.

Matches haven't come this month for the traditional Chinese adoption program yet. Maybe the Chinese Gov't will send out matches and a new list for the special needs program before they take their Autumn moon festival vacation the first week of October. We can only hope. Of course a little prayer doesn't hurt if the desire to do so stirs in you. These children are waiting for their forever families and this long wait isn't helping anyone.

Maybe next week........

Closer?

Yesterday I called our agency and spoke to Sarah. I had joined a Yahoo group for waiting families (thanks again, Tricia B.) and got some links to other peoples blogs. Reading those blogs made we want to ask our agency where we are in the virtual line of waiting families. So I asked. Sarah was excited to tell me that we are in the ballpark for a referral (FINALLY!!!!!).

GLORY HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD!

So, maybe I shouldn't be quite so excited. But, it feels somewhat like a relief that our referral will probably come this year! Hopefully not too much more waiting.

I ask myself through this long wait, "How do you already love someone you haven't even met yet?" But I love her already. She is in this world, waiting for her family. I just want to go get her! I guess it's sort of like being pregnant (forever, in our case). You haven't met that beautiful little person growing inside. But you know you love them. When you are expecting in adoption the child doesn't grow in your womb, the child grows in your heart. In the adoption world, they call it being "pregnant on paper".

The need to update paperwork and fingerprints...

Our agency has informed us that we need to apply to extend our immigration paperwork. This involves getting a homestudy update and getting refingerprinted. Since immigration is so slow they ask that we start the process now (our fingerprints don't expire until 12/11/09)so that we will not have any lapse in keeping our paperwork current. The good thing about this is immigration made changes and grants a one time extension for no cost. When we got Meigan we had to pay all the fees all over again to get our paperwork extended. So this change is a good thing. However, I continue to wonder why we have to get refingerprinted. Best I remember from biology class is that the fingerprints you are born with stay with you for life. So, why the need to redo them? They are going to be the same every time! What a waste of time. We have to drive over 2 hours to get to the immigration place to get our fingerprints redone on the day and time they tell us. How inconvenient can that be?



Well there is no fighting the system. If we want our daughter home from China we have jump through all of these hoops. So we are starting the jumping process again! Yippee!!!!