Well, as December nears its end we have accomplished a few things.
We celebrated our third anniversary.
We visited all our families for Christmas where we received the Radio Flyer Little Red Fire Engine, several books: an adoption stories compilation book, a picture book of Vietnam, a children's book, and some cookbooks. I can't wait to try out Vietnamese cooking! I'll keep you posted on that adventure. :)
And last but not least...We cut our stay in Houston a day short to travel to Austin. In Austin, we got our foreign dossier state certified, so now our next step is getting the foreign dossier embassy authenticated. We are one step closer!
So, this is a song I heard last year from Third Day called Merry Christmas; it's from their Christmas album. I've included the lyrics and audio (I think).
Last Christmas, we told our families about our decision to adopt. This Christmas we are still in process, and next Christmas we can't make any predictions about. I really appreciate and connect with this song. I hope you like it.
There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
There the forgotten are
But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine
It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas
As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow
But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here
It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas
Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
and we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his life
and prepare a place for us
so we could have a home with him above
It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas
So, I picked up our criminal records checks' today. I'm sure you all are glad to breathe a sigh of relief that we are not criminals! :) I was never worried about it. I mean look at these faces.
Well, now that we have all our papers and forms, we get to scan each paper (some are double-sided) and email them to our agency for review. Hopefully, the whole scanning and email thing goes well. We had an issue with it earlier in the process. After, our agency reviews our papers, we have to get everything notarized before we start the authentication of our foreign dossier. (Luckily, I work with a notary.) The first authentication step !is sending everything to Austin, the state capital. I'm kind of nervous about sending documents during the holiday season, but oh well, that's when we were ready. :) I'll be sure to keep you posted.
Sorry, it has been so long since we posted. We actually received the instructions on how to fill out our foreign dossier two weeks ago. We were finally able to sit down yesterday and sort through everything. We have a list of eleven documents we are compling:
- Marriage Certificate
- Criminal Records Checks
- Medical Certificates
- Employment Certificates
- Homestudy
- Signature Page of Passports
- Affidavit for CIS approval (This is what our last blog was about)
- Family and Home Photos
- Note Concerning Adoption Application
- Application for Adoption
- Commitment on Giving Periodical Information
We have requested our marriage certificate and our criminal records check. We still have to get our employment certificates. We have all the other documents, and we think having 8 out of 11 is not that bad. :) After we compile all the documents, we send everything to our agency, so they can check it. Then the documents go to the State to be certified, and the last step is sending everything to the Embassy to be authenticated. Once all this is done, our foreign dossier will be complete. We're getting closer! :)
On a different note...twice when I have told people we are adopting from Vietnam, they have thought I said I am adopted from Vietnam. I either look Asian or don't speak very clearly; I'm guessing it's the latter.
We got two pieces of good news last week. The first arrived by mail and was titled, "NOTICE OF FAVORABLE DETERMINATION CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR ADVANCE PROCESSING OF ORPHAN PETITION." Does the federal government know how to write a compelling letter or what? Anyway, we needed that clearance and we got it, so that's a good thing.
The second piece of good news came from an organization called Life International regarding the Tapestry Adoption Assistance Fund. We encourage you to read more about the fund via the previous link, because it is such a great thing. We just found out that LI and the Tapestry fund awarded us an interest-free loan to help us pay for part of our remaining adoption expenses. We are grateful to those involved with the fund because of how this will help us in our process.
That's all the news for now, we'll report back soon.
So, we finally got our paperwork from CAS. Now, we just have to wait until the end of the month to send them the deposit they need. The good news is that we can "officially" start our foreign dossier after we turn in the deposit and paperwork to CAS. I say "officially" because we've already gathered several of the documents we need.
Also, you remember that we were fingerprinted in September. Well we got a letter, yesterday, saying we had a few deficiencies. Luckily, they were referring to paperwork they needed not us. We've already contacted our social worker and she'll be forwarding the papers for us. This was easy to solve. We'll see how the rest goes. :)
Today we got our fingerprints made at the Application Support Center. We were prepared to spend the better part of our day at the center, but instead we only spent 40 minutes. Twenty of those forty minutes were spent waiting for the center to open. Once we reached the inside of the center, a man checking people in saw that we were adopting and put us on the fast track to the front of the line. About twenty people had started their paperwork before us. The helpful man kept hurrying us to fill out our paperwork, and even filled some parts out for us! Just to make sure we got in before anyone else. He said that he liked people who were adopting, and we ended up being the first ones. Assuming our fingerprints come back clean, we should be cleared by the government. :)
Hey, so it's a good thing at our house when you receive mail from the Department of Homeland Security. We can now go to the Application Support Center and wait to get our fingerprints made. Hopefully, they'll let me have two copies because as a preschool teacher, I now have to have my fingerprints on file at work. Who knew?!
Also, we received an email from our social worker with Carolina Adoption Services (CAS). She was letting us know she was going on vacation and who we could contact while she was out of the office. This was our first email from her, so I was just happy to know that CAS knew who we were. I'll be sure to bombard her with all our questions when she gets back from vacation. :)
Then, one more thing happened, I went to the Women's Bible Study at our church, and I told my small group that my husband and I are adopting. First the small group leader thought I said my husband and I were adopted from Vietnam which was confusing for her since I don't look Vietnamese. :) (It was loud in there). Later, when there was a chance to chat more, the lady to my left turned to me and said, "So, what else do I need to know about you besides that you're going to be a mom?" I was so happy that she didn't ask lots of questions. She accepted the adoption and didn't let it define who I was; she asked more questions about me! This is the kind of first reaction and acceptance I've hoped for as I explained in our article "We're Expecting, Too". Needless to say, I feel fortunate to have had this experience.
So, I was actually joking when I said we needed 200 word essays and photos. Sorry. I thought people would know, but I guess that's what I get for trying to do a bit. The pictures below are the only ones I have of family and friends. Unfortunately, it's an unfair representation because they're mostly my friends. Also, some pictures I couldn't use because I didn't want to send pictures of us in swimsuits or sining karaoke to Vietnam. I thought that might be a little weird, so this is what I found. :)
