Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Welcome to our
adventure! We’d like to tell you about our choice to adopt a
baby. We have three wonderful sons and we love them very much.
We wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. We have
enough love and space in our family for another child…who
would’ve thought almost twelve years ago that we would want
another one? Not Angel! Poor Rodney thought she was crazy at
first, and then he liked the idea. Angel became friends with
some ladies who had children from China. We got all kinds of
information and started talking about it.
It was a perfect solution; we have three boys and would love to
have a little girl. In China there are lots of little girls who
need families. It’s a perfect fit. So we started our
adventure. I have a friend whose little girl is from China and
they were in Publix one day. An employee started to talk to
them about adoption. The little girl said, “It’s easy to get a
baby from China…just get on a plane, fly to China and get one!”
I’d like to tell you it’s that easy, but it’s not.
This is what we’ve done so far... the short version:
- Applied to Great Wall China Adoption – we met China’s
guidelines for approval
- Applied for approval to adopt an orphan – Dept. of Homeland
Security
- Fingerprinted for FBI clearance
- Local police background check
- State police background check
- DCF clearance
- Physicals with lots of blood work and tests
- Completed a home study
- Collected letters of reference
Today we received our I171H form. This is very important
because it’s our approval from USCIS…United States Citizenship
and Immigration Services or Homeland Security. This is the last
form we need for our dossier. Hopefully next week, this form
will be certified by the Secretary of State and authenticated by
the Chinese Consulate and leave the US for China.
Once our file is logged in at CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption
Affairs) we should receive a referral for our baby in about 6-7
months. A referral means we’ll get pictures, a name and
background information on our baby. Normally babies are at
least 6 months old before they are referred, sometimes older.
We’ve requested 0-7 months at time of referral but are open to
whatever God has for us. After we accept the referral, we will
travel to China in about 8 weeks. We will go as a family to
welcome our new little one. We’re learning about China now and
plan to use that as part of our homeschool curriculum for the
upcoming year. We want to be able to tell Emma Grace about the
culture she was born into. Chase, Dylan and Blake are very
excited about their new sister…much more excited than I thought
they would be.
We will be updating the site twice a month as we go through the
process. In our updates to follow we will let you know what
we’re up to as we go about our daily lives. Right now enjoy a
few pictures of the family. Some are recent and some are just
fun pictures to share.
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Praises
Praise
for the opportunity to adopt a little girl
Praise
that we’ve completed our dossier
Prayers
Pray for
our family as we go through this process
Pray for
Emma Grace, that she is being loved and cared for in China
until we meet her |
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Rodney and
Angel
Blake & Dylan built the stroller
Just hanging out
Arriving at the drama awards... the red carpet
Chase and Paps at Christmas 2004 |
