October 2010

Oct 6,2010 – rented the Karate Kid – the new one done in China – Allie really impressed me with how much Chinese she’s learned.
Oct 8, 2010 – Jenna’s birthday. We go bowling and out to dinner. We see a couple in Houlihan’s that has an Asian daughter. I stop by their table and give him a card with my cell phone – ask him to call. We go on to Silver Dollar City for the weekend- Breanna and Sabrina along for the ride.
Oct 11, 2010 – speculating with Carolyn that we really don’t need the entire dossier together to go to the MO secretary of state to get things updated. She decides to collect up what we have and go in this week.
Oct 13, 2010 – Carolyn goes to sec of state of MO to get certifications on all notaries. All docs pass except for both our medic al forms. Notary language is not in place.
Oct 16 2010 – We have 3 other couples from Holt (that we took the July class with) over for dessert. Jenny can’t make it, but all others are there. Very wonderful, high quality and fun people all around. Good to get their updates. Carolyn shares that we took our stuff down even though we don’t have the dossier back.
Oct 18, 2010, we get notified by USCIS for our fingerprint appointments – all on Nov 11.

Oct 22, 2010, Carolyn starts this blog.

Oct 23, 2010, I upload my log entries to the blog.
Oct 23, 2010 – Greg calls – the guy I dropped a card on in Houlihan’s. Their daughter is from China – they got her when she was about 2 – I think she’s 4 now – but could be 6 – I’m not sure I got this right. Have had a tremendously positive experience - loves his daughter – has a great family. Did not use Holt, but has heard good things about them. Gives me info about a class in Lees Summit on Saturdays for Chinese adoptees. Nice guy – lots of good info.
Oct 25, 2010, I go to my doc office to check on my notarized records – they notary only comes in on Friday’s and did not come in last Friday. Will check on 29th.
Oct 29, 2010, I go back to doc and get my notarized forms – Carolyn can now go back to Mo sec of state. If this flies, the only thing left will be to complete certify the USCIS app.

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Great Reading

Baby, We Were Meant For Each Other, by Scott Simon, notable journalist and author, about his personal experience adopting two little girls from China. Awesome book "In Praise of Adoption".
I'm also on my third book by Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter and The Kitchen God's Wife. All so very very good, with such poignant insight into Chinese thinking, especially from a female point of view.

Holt International has provided book lists for adoptive "parents in process", many of which I've read and are incredibly good. (If anyone's interested, let me know - I'll get you the list).
In fact, if you've been looking for any children's books on China from the Lee's Summit library, sorry, I've had as many as I can get my hands on checked out.

When it comes to the topic of adoption per se, I'm always learning and gaining insight into my own heart and mind, since I'm adopted too. Wow. Big topic, but really, when you think about it, it's so very simple . . . and powerful.

Oy vay! I could write on this subject forever!

Brave enough to shout it to the world!

Hi. Thanks for visiting. Just provided the link on Facebook.

As of today, we're waiting for U.S. immigration (a.k.a. Homeland Security) to approve us to adopt from a foreign country. We still need to go to some government building to be fingerprinted to add to our application. Once we receive permission - (and wonder of wonders, we do expect to be approved) - we take a quick trip downtown to MO secretary of state, then send the whole bunch of documents to the China consulate in Chicago.

The process has us excited about getting the mail every day, since so much has depended on snail mail.

Just so you know, we haven't been matched yet, but we call our future little girl "Ming ming", or "Our China Doll".

Post-posting

Well, finally decided to blog, but it feels kinda weird. Doug's been keeping notes on our process, so I guess we'll "back-post" them. The hesitation we've had about sharing the process publicly is that it feels a little risky. The first time I was pregnant, we told EVERYONE, but I miscarried & it was difficult to go around and update everyone. People who didn't know would ask, "how's the pregnancy going?" So in the same vein, it would be very difficult to have to go back and let everyone know if something about this adoption doesn't go well. We're pretty far along now though, and at least with a blog, you can let everyone know by posting if something goes wrong. So. . . please pray for us & our new daughter! More details to come.