New Stuff

It has been a while since the last post. A few things have happened since then that are helping us out. In November Jennifer and I applied for an adoption grant through Shaohannah's Hope to help us with the financials of the adoption. We were told it would be late February or early March before we heard anything. It was mid March when we received a letter from them and they were congratulating us for an adoption grant that we are receiving from them in the amount of $3000.00. Talk about taking your breath away. That was a tremendous boost for us. We thank God for that. Yet, another sign that His hand is working in the adoption. The amount will be sent to our agency through paperwork and they will pay up to that amount for the expenses that will be coming up when we make arrangements to leave. They said if there money left over, it will be given to us and then we can use it for the fees while we are in China. That will make things a lot easier.
We held a fund raiser on April 6 and 7. It was an Antiquities Photo fund raiser. We sold tickets for $10.00 to people/friends/family who wanted to have their child/children photographed in an antique like photo. This was a really neat one because you will get a 10x13 photo for buying the ticket. The photographers will come back next week and then they can purchase packets of pictures. That was 2 long days but let me tell you, after seeing some of the costumes and children, those photo's are going to be adorable. We can't wait to see the photo's. The photographers were excellent and did a great job with the parents/children. We are going to do another one of these later this summer/early fall. I will set a link to the right to their website so you can take a look.
We are planning our next "Mystery Dinner" for May 6th. It is Mystery in the Library. What happened to King George? Looks like a lot of fun. You will get to dress up as a favorite fairy tale character. We are finishing up invitations and hope to send out tomorrow. What for more on that later.
The rummage sale is coming at our church in June. It will be June 7-9. We already are collecting items and people are telling us now that they have items for us. This will be bigger then last year so we are going to need help. If you can help setting up or during the rummage sale, contact us. I have a monetary goal of $2500.00 for this. I know it is a lot, but it can be done.
We have changed our focus on the adoption fund raising. We want to bring awareness of adoption, our journey and tell others of adoption. This journey has been awesome to travel so far. It is only going to get better and when we travel to China, that will the "Highlight" of it. It is like you are just cruising along on an interstate at 90mph and you know the city is coming up, it is there, but you just aren't there yet. That is how it feels to me. It is fairly smooth with only minor road bumps. Some of the road bumps are going to be when we have to redo fingerprinting/immigration paperwork. Fees are going up for these also. That will be a minor inconvenience but we will get through it. I will have to start doctoring those fingers of mine so I can go right through it this time. It will be fine.
We have "teamed" up with Roy and Kari Smalley for the fund raising. Roy and Kari are committed Christians and they are walking this journey like we are. We will be doing the rummage sale with them. There are members from their home church that will be donating items along with members from our home church. They live only a few blocks away from us. We have been spending some time with them and getting to know them even more. We are doing a parenting bible study. It is great. There are good pointers and helpful advise for parents. I hope that will help us give a solid foundation to our children. There are many things to that but it is a tool to help. They are a great couple and we know we have established a life long bond with them.
We felt that the focus of fund raising would be taken off of us and directed towards the process of adoption, adoption it self and everything else that goes with it. It isn't about the money, it is about adoption and the journey God is taking us on. We have submitted to him the adoption and are leaving it in His hands. It is only by His hands that this will be fulfilled. I know that may sound different, but that is how we feel. That is where we are at in our faith journey. It's about growing as we go. And this is helping us with that. When we are all done with the process, what a great ministry about adoption we will be able to tell others. This is only part way into the journey and as we get closer the more there will be able to tell. God Bless all of you.

Update with Upcoming Stuff

It has been almost 2 months since the last posting. There is no change. We are waiting. We maybe waiting even a little longer now. The times are increasing. It will be sometime next spring with the way it is going. That is ok though. That will give us time to get the house finished even more and save even a little more money.
We have some upcoming fundraisers. After some thought and consideration, Jennifer and I along with Roy and Kari Smalley are teaming up with fundraising. They are logged in 3 weeks ahead of us. I know Jennifer and I feel our focus is changing. We want to bring awareness about adoption and how it will change lives. It is so different when you adopt compared to have a child naturally. We feel that as a group of 4 that we can do this. Our goal is to keep awareness out there.
Back to the fundraisers, in a nut shell, we are doing a great one now with antiquities photos. It is really cool. You buy a ticket for $10.00 and you get a photo sitting. This is for children up to age 16. The photo look really neat, especially of young children. Kind of like the ones you would have taken at a county, state fair. Dress up and pose. With the $10.00 you get an 8 x 10 photo. When you pick it up, it is then you buy different packages with different sizes. We are hoping to sell a minimum of 60 tickets (we have to) and want to do it at the end of March. If you want a ticket, see or call Jennifer or myself - SOON.
The next thing we are doing is a MYSTERY DINNER. Hopefully in April. The Library is this one. You can dress up as one of your favorite story book characters. We have the list. Call us if you want to attend. It is alot of fun to do these. Can't wait.
Then in June, the first Thursday - Saturday we doing the Rummage Sale at Fifth Ave. UMC. We did it last year and it was a huge success. This year we doing it on Thursday also. We are under the understanding this is the day the "professional" rummagers are out. I have a sinking feeling we are going to run out of room. Not that is a bad thing. We are collecting boxes already for it from generous people. We are being asked about it and this is going be twice as big as last year. Plus, we have a good time setting up. It is hard work, but is it fun.
That is it right now. There are a few more things we are talking about after the 4th of July. We will post more on that stuff later.
Again, we (all 4 of us) want to THANK everyone who is behind us. All of you are a huge support in your way and I wish we could tell everyone thank you. We forget sometimes. This is going to be a great year. We are going to be ready to go financially, maybe emotionally, and hopefully physically. This is not an easy task. It takes a lot hard work but will it be worth it 10 fold. Check back soon and hopefully we will have an update about the photo shoot and The Library mystery dinner.
Again, THANK YOU TO ALL!!

Mike

A New Year 2007

I truely believe this is going to be a great year. We have so much to do, so little time. A year will go by fast if you are not careful. We have a house to baby proof yet and that will get done once summer comes around. We will start on little things now but the larger stuff will get done when the weather is warmer. As I look back at 2006 it went by in a blur. The adoption paperwork and appointments kept us going. Always to do something. Now, it is different. The paperwork is done, but now it is the house.
We have so many people praying, supporting, helping us in their own way, it is hard to say thank you sometimes. I have the plan, a plan but maybe it will come together, and that is when we get back home with our little one, and after we settle down, we hope to have a party. A GREAT BIG PARTY for everyone that was there to support us in the way that they did. Only one small way to say thank you.
2007 is upon us and we have still alot of work to do. Some fundraising ideas are in the back of our minds. We hope to have the rummage sale again the first weekend in June. We may even team up with the Smalley's and do it together. They are only a few weeks ahead of us. We may even do some other fundraising with them. Geogia from Georgias Bridal deserves a great big THANK YOU for her generousity. She had ordered and sold jewelry with 100% of the proceeds going to our adoption fund and the Smalley's adoption fund. She raised over $200 by doing this. She has been such a supporter for both the Smalley's and us. So, THANK YOU Georgia!!! You are truely a great blessing to us. You are in our prayers. There is going to be some fun times coming up. As always, keep us in your prayers. Thanks

Angel Donor

The day after we got home from our Christmas trip to Minnesota we got a call from Alana our church secretary. She said someone from Mayville had called the church to ask about donating to our adoption fund. This person then contributed $500.00, but asked to remain anonymous.
Mike and I are utterly amazed and humbled by this generosity. Words cannot describe how deeply this whole process has touched us. Whoever you are - I am glad you have remained anonymous because there is no way we can humanly thank you enough. As much as I would like to be able to say thank you face to face, I have complete faith that God will reward you for your generosity and your discretion. Know that we are praying for blessings to reign down on you for God's word says: "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured out into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6:38 And: "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6:3-4
Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our adoption fund. We are not worthy of this trust and generosity. Pray for us that we may be good stewards of these God given gifts. We know these gifts are not for Mike and Jennifer, but for God's will to be done through us when we bring home that precious child he has chosen for us.
To God be the glory forever, and ever. - Jennifer

WE ARE LOGGED IN!!!!

We received confirmation today that our LID is November 24. We are officially logged in with CCAA. Now the wait. We count down from this day. About 14-16 months is what the time frame looks like. Keep checking back occasionally for different updates, fundraisers, etc. Thanks!!! Mike
For those of you who don't know - the LID (or Log in Date) is the all important date in Chinese adoption. It means official recognition and exceptence into China's adpotion system. Everything up to this point had been paperwork and approvals on this side of the ocean. So recieving that final piece of approval is very exciting.
The next coorespondence we will be recieving is our pre-travel planning information which I think comes 6-8 months from now. There will then be a couple of other travel info packets before the long awaited "match day" when we recieve the name and picture of our match baby or babies! Match day is about 12-13 months away. After we recieve the match we will have 5-8 weeks until we travel. Of course, keep in mind that all of these dates and times could change at any moment. So now you know as much as we do!! Jennifer

Sucessful cook off

We got to experience another amazing fundraising event today. Our chili cook off got people all fired up:-) We held it jointly with Roy and Kari Smalley who are also adopting from China. Friends, family, and strangers turned out to compete and to buy the chili. Including Roy's and my chili (we didn't compete for the prizes) there were 13 different chilies to choose from. I had no idea there were so many different ways to make chili! There was turkey, venison, pork, beef, sausage, and that was just the meats! We even had a tofu entrant.
My sister Tina captured 1St place with a venison chili that had red wine, cinnamon, and choclate in it.
It was a long day so we will write more tomorrow and hopefullu get a picture up.

Being Translated

As of today October 27, 2006 our dossier is being translated. We were able to get a document changed and overnighted it to our agency. Had to make a minor correction. It is done, the paperwork is done!!!!! For now- we are done, kind of. Once our dossier is translated it will be sent to China. From there it will be about 3-5 weeks before we are "logged" in. That day we are "logged" in is when the countdown begins. It will be about 14 months from that day.
On Saturday November 11 from 1-4 pm a few of the local businesses are sponsoring a chili cook off fundraiser. This is for our adoption and for Roy and Kari Smalley. Their dossier is on it's way to China or already is there. We aren't that far behind them. Keep that Saturday open. Come to Mayville to try some chili and have a visit. We will all be there. This will be a lot of fun. The businesses are Georgia's Bridal, Celtic Crossroad Cafe and Mortgage Central. Thanks to Georgia G., Cyndy B. and Kris Steinbach for doing this and being sponsors. If you can cook a killer chili, enter it. Hot, medium, mild, doesn't matter. Hope there is some for everybodies like. The more chili the better. There will be door prizes and prizes for first, second, and third. Cyndy asked the local radio personalities to judge the chili and they one uped and said they would plus they will promote it on the radio. Can't wait to hear it. Will keep you all posted as the next steps happen. Keep us in your prayers that this next step goes smoothly and we get our log in date. This is a very important step. God bless all of you. Thanks.

We Are There.....Just about

Just about!!!! On October 16 we overnighted our dossier to our CCAI. We finally got enough pictures taken and prepared it and photocopied it all. It is there. Aside from 2 small corrections that we have to make it is approved and ready to be sent to China. We will get the changes made and on Monday we will get the papers and hopefully get them notarized on Monday evening and then overnight them to CCAI so they will get the changes Wednesday. Hopefully by the end of the week, CCAI will have sent it out. Now the waiting begins. The updates will continue but there is only a few left until we receive our match in about 14-16 months. We will try and keep everyone informed as the last few things happen. Thanks to all. Now is the time for patience!!!!

Almost....

Almost there. We have received all documents back from the Chinese Consulates. They all have their approval. We just need to take some pictures and then it is time to mail our dossier to our agency. We have finished all paperwork for now. I don't know of any other paperwork and if there is it will be when it time to go to China. Almost. Will keep you posted.

Another step down, only a few left

On Sept. 11 we mailed out documents to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago and San Fransisco. The documents were returned today from the Consulate in Chicago with their approvals of our documents. We are waiting on the return of the document from San Fransisco. We had to mail Jennifers birth certificate to that one because she was born in the state of Washington. Chicago is the one for the midwest. Once we get the certificate from San Fransisco we will be going through and making sure everything is done and sending to our agency. Almost there.

Finally, we are moving forward!!

Now that we received the 171H approval we have been able to move forward. This next round is going to go fast. We sent for the notary certifications and received that back in 2 days. We now gather our notarized paperwork and the certifications and send them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. From what I understand they approve the certifications and notarized documents. They return to us their approval and paperwork and then we gather everything up and send it to our agency in Colorado. From that point, we wait. We will have completed all paperwork at that point. Finally, we made it and have completed it. The waits starts but we know there is light at the end of the tunnel. The wait time is about 16 months right now.
We have another round of fees we will need to pay. We are about $1200.00 short for this next round. There is the $2300 adoption agency fee. The $400 dossier prep fee (translation) and about $600 in fees for the Chinese government. After this we will have time to save for when we go. We will need about $10,000 for what is left. $3000.00 of that is already taken care from our Will and Memorials fund at church. The $3000.00 is for the orphanage that we receive the child from and that is given directly to them. The balance could change slightly because of air fare rates and in China accommodations. We are applying for grants this week maybe we will be receiving a few so we can get ahead start on saving for when we go. I feel there is nothing to worry about. So far everything has been met and with no problems.
We have another mystery dinner we are thinking about doing around halloween. It is called "The Library". One would dress as a favorite character from classic books. Huck Fin, Peter Pan, etc. I think it is for 30 people. We don't think we will do this as a fund raiser but more of a "free will". I think we have asked for all the fundraising we can do at this point. It is so hard to ask for help with funding. That's why we think a free will is better. If no money were to be raised, that is fine. Most importantly, we were able to gather as a group and have fun and fellowship. (We are talking about, and have been asked, doing another rummage sale next spring at church. I think we will because it was so much fun and most important a great ministry for our church.) Anyway, the mystery dinner looks like a lot of fun and we think it would be a lot of fun just do with friends and family. Don't know where we would have it but possibly at church or something similar. Need some room. Will keep you posted on that.
We will keep you updated over the next few weeks as we prepare to send everything off.

Just When You Think.......

Just when you think.... about this whole process and the wait, the paperwork, the wait, etc..... Today we received our 171H from USCIS!!!!!! This was supposed to take 60-90 days to get. We got ours in 26 days. This is a very important piece of paperwork. We now have the necessary approval (from the US) for our adoption to continue. Now we have to get our notaries approved by the state of Wisconsin, then send off to the Chinese consulant/embassy for their approval, then we send it off to our agency in Colorado, then they translate and and sent off to China for us to be put in the system.
I guess you can say our USCIS office is quick. The other couple from Mayville that is also adopting from China received their approval on the 90 day mark.
I am sure to say this is an answer to (our and your) prayers and most definately-- it is all Gods timing. Remember this Bible verse from Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus.
Just when we were getting ready to start sending off some paperwork to have ready for when we get the 171H to get ahead, we are now alittle behind. It is time to start sending off notary for approvals and for grants. We have to get caught up now. Whan can we say. God is good. Until Next Time.....

And the Wait goes on

Just so you don't think we have fallen off the face of the earth - nothing new to report yet. We are still waiting for our FBI/immigration piece of paper that says our fingerprints have been cleared. We probably won't see that for another 30 to 60 days.
We are just working on things around home. We will be starting the second phase of our remodeling projects in the next couple of weeks. We have a door to replace, a window to put in, and a ceiling to insulate before winter gets here. We still have indoor and outdoor painting to do, but we will get to that when we can.
I just have to say that every day that goes by in this long drawn out process, the more firmly I believe that this is whole thing is covered by God. Everything good that has ever come into my life has been His doing - it is just that it usually takes me quite a while to come around to His way of thinking. I have gotten to the point (after many years of banging my head against the wall) that I can pretty much tell when God wants me to go a certain direction with my life, because I usually do't want anything to do with it. So, defying all logical explinations, I dig in my heals and pitch a fit because God's way is different than mine - even when I know His outcome will be better than mine.
I have to be totally honest - I didn't want to adopt. After Mike got sick and we were told we probably wouldn't be able to have children of our own I decided we would be the exception to that rule. God saw Mike through all of the surgeries and treatments and back to full health. Of course God would provide us with the minor miracle of a child, because I knew was close to God and that we had an understanding. He (God) would save Mike from cancer, Mike and I would dedicate our lives to Him, He would bless our commitment with a baby. Made perfect sense to me.
Have any of you every seen the bungie cord game where you attach yourself to a bungie cord that has a big inflatable air pillow behind it and run full speed ahead as far as you can? Well you know what happens, just when you think you can hold it, the laws of super elastic kick in and wham, splat! Back into the pillow.
I was running full steam ahead with my plan - I never even noticed that as soon as you give your life to Christ you automatically get the bungie cord of the Spirit. I stretched that cord as far as I possibly could this time. I'm still trying to clear my head because I hit that pillow so hard:-)
The first thing I realized when I hit was that even though I didn't understand His plan, I needed to be obedient to what I knew God wanted me to do. And in a moment of reluctant insight I knew he wanted us to adopted a baby. Not just any baby and quite possibly babies plural from China.
I have more to say - but it's getting late and I have to get up very early tomorrow so - to be continued........
Jennifer

Fingerprinting is Complete

Today, I was able to be fingerprinted. My fingers had healed enough to pass. Of course there is always a chance the FBI can reject them but they didn't think so. They viewed them and said have a nice day. In and out within 15 minutes. I am not aware of a government office operating at that type of lightning speed. It was nice. Got there at 8:30am and by the time we walked out it was before 9am. 3rd shift was kicking my butt, am I tired. I should go back to bed but I need to eat. Now we wait. It sounds like it will take the 90 days to receive the 171H paperwork for approval or denial. Once we have that paper we can finish our paper work and send it to our agency. Once they have it, with 2 weeks roughly they will prepare and send it to the Chinese gov't for us to be entered into their system. Once we have been entered (which can take 30-60 days) we will have the ever so need Log In Date. From there the wait begins. Right now it is 12-15 months from that date. So if you add up the time line if we receive the 171H in 90 days that will be November 1st. Allow 1-2 weeks for us to makes sure we have all of our paperwork ready. Mail all our paperwork to our agency and they will prepare it for China. They send it off in 2 weeks. That would be about Thanksgiving. Now you have to allow for the 30-60 days for the Chinese government to enter us into their system. That would put us at about beginning of Febuary. From there we wait the 12-15 months to go. YES, that is a long time but don't forget our heading for this. It is a walk by faith. 90 percent of people would never want to go through this process because it is long. It is grueling. It is frustrating and on and on and on. But with the good Lord doing this we have to understand that it is his timing. Everyone needs to know that there is a child already picked out for us and it has to fall into place. Don't be impatient or frustrated about this process, just understand that God is in control and we will do what we are supposed to do. When we arrive home after all of this, everyone will truely know why it took the amount of time it did. I have heard it said time and time again, "I would rather go through a normal pregnancy than do that". Not us, we prefer the hard path to take. And so far, it isn't hard. We are welcoming this walk of faith for us to grow in Jesus Christ through this process. He is teaching us valuable lesson through this walk. So, in closing, don't lose heart, keep strong for us, and most of all--PRAY for us for this process. The power of prayer is more powerful than anything else. Until next time-- God bless.

Mike

Delayed-- Temporarily

We had a minor setback yesterday for fingerprinting. Being I work with my hands alot and doing alot of assembly work (at work or at home/shop) I usually have nuts and bolts in my hands. Being I use my thumb and index finger (either hand) I have somewhat dried out skin. Well, it was bad enough that they couldn't do my fingerprinting. Jennifer was able to do hers. I will have to go back on July 31st and do it then. The sheet we received from USCIS with our appointment says not to have any cuts, scrapes, etc. Not realizing what they meant. They mean even stuff not visible to the human eye is picked up on these machines. It is high tech. They put my thumb on there and it appeared on the screen in front and you could see any little cut/crack what ever. They suggested that I "nurse" my fingers and soak them and use a lot of hand lotion. They did say the one good thing about it is that we only drove 1 1/2 to get there. They have had to turn people away who have come from Michigan and Iowa. Felt better after hearing that. They even said one gentlemen who is a wood worker took a month off from work for his fingers to heal properly so they could do his fingerprinting. So, I will go back on July 31 at 8am and try again. It's like I almost want to wrap them in some kind of bubble rap to protect them. Even a paper cut the size of a pin head could be rejected. That is it for now. Don't be discouraged about this process. It is going to take awhile. Jennifer and I have a whole lot of faith in this and we are trusting God that this is all part of it. There is a special little boy, girl, siblings, twins etc that he has waiting for us and it has to be on HIS timing. It is a hard thing to understand sometimes but in the end, we will truely understand it and know why we had to do what we had to do. It's up to Him, not us. We would want it now, but this isn't one of those buy it and have it now situations. Have faith, and alot of it. It's easier. Until next time.

Mike

Fingerprinting Scheduled!

Finally we have been scheduled to be fingerprinted! It is July 12 at 1 PMThis is important since it is one step closer to receiving our approval from the USCIS. Once we have that approval letter; which can take up to 90 days to get, we will be able to finish our paperwork and send it to CCAI. One step closer to getting our Log In Date. Almost there!!. Thanks to all.

Measurable Progress!

At last! After a couple of months of waiting, filling out paper work, re-doing paper work, waiting, and filling out more paper work we have made some progress! We got the draft of our COMPLETED homestudy in the mail today!! Yeah - we have been officially, officially approved to adopt a child and it says so on paper. Julie (our social worker) already faxed a copy to CCAI and mailed one to Immigration. We should be recieving the call to get our fingerprinting done any time now. Then we just have to wait a little longer to get our "favorable letter of determination". Once we have that we will finally have all of the pieces we need to send in to the State of Wis. to be verified (they have to approve our notary). Once everything has been verified - they actually do this pretty quickly - all of these forms and certificates get sent to the Chinese consulate in Chicago where they get "authenticated". Basically they are double checking the double checker. THEN everything can be sent to CCAI to be translated and sent to China.
O.k. - that probably doesn't sound like we have made very much progress, but trust me, it is a major milestone. Now that we have the homestudy in our hands we can start applying for grants for one thing. That's all for now folks! We will update as soon as we have more to share.

All I can say is--- WOW

The rummage sale at our church was a huge success. We raised $1100 to go toward the upcoming expenses. We have a few items from the sale we are going to put on Ebay. That will generate another $50-$100. We filled most of the fellowship hall and also used all the tables. We were doing everything we could to get some more. We brought some from the upstairs to use. Check the pictures out. We thank all who helped and supported us. Jo P, Ellen J. Jon and Jean, Jerry G. Tom and Dee R. and everyone else from our church at FAUMC. Sorry if I forgot a name or two, we will do our best to try and thank everyone personally. Everyone has been so supportive in one way or another. I think of Pastor Jeans sermon 2 weeks ago. She called it "FANAFI". I liked it and thought it was very good. I knew that sometime it would come in handy and I would recall it. Well, I did. Sooner rather than later. I really didn't put it together though until after the rummage sale. We (the Church) just did this "FANAFI". Really, I thought. Still haven't figured out what it means-- it means "Find A Need And Fill It". We did that with the sale. No. We really did this. Applied to a life experience but didn't realize it until after. We came at FANAFI in 3 different directions or maybe more. One- it filled a need we have with the expenses. Two- it brought people into our church who might not attend a church. Three- we will able to meet the needs of people who couldn't other wise afford to buy clothes at a department store. I know there are more but that is a few. It was all worth it for the last two. The first one just comes with the sale but the other two serve as a ministry in some wayfor our church. Something to think about. Check out the pictures of the sale. Take care everyone and God Bless all of you. Thank you!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Well, we haven't really progressed that far since the last update. Now is a waiting game. We are waiting for passports to come. We are waiting for Immigration to notify us when to have our fingerprints done and then will wait for the Immigration approval letter. We are waiting for the homestudy paperwork to be finished.
This is the order of what needs to be completed:
Once we view to homestudy paperwork for review and it is finalized, it will be sent to the immigration office in Milwaukee. The immigration office will then notify us when we will have to have our fingerprints done. Once that is completed it will be about 60 days until we are either approved or declined for immigration. It is highly unlikely it will be declined. We will then receive an approval letter from immigration and that along with our other paperwork will have to be notorized and then sent to the Secretary of State here in Wisconsin. They have to verify the notary on the documents. This should take about 1-2 weeks. Once we receive them back with the verification we have to send it to the Chinese consulate in Chicago to have the Secretary of State Seal Authenticated. That should only take a short time. Then they will send it back. We then send all that along with a few other miscellaneous forms to our agency in Colorado. They take about 2 weeks to prepare our dossier for China. They send it. From there it is reviewed and entered into the system. Once it is entered into the system it will take 10-14 months before we are matched. This is taking longer at this time but that time can change as it goes. That, in a brief overview is what we are waiting for.
We are getting ready for the rummage sale at church this Friday and Saturday--June 2nd and June 3rd. We are truely grateful for all the people who are helping us with this. There are a large number of donations for the sale. The one thing we don't know is everyone who has brought items. It will be hard to thank everyone for supporting us. I would love to see this done every year for this type of outreach ministry. We as a church could do alot of good with something like this. I can only hope and pray this continues. It would really be great if we could help other couples with this journey.
As for now, we are waiting. We will do our best to keep updating this blog as things happen. Until then--Have a great and wonderful day!! :)

More Completed

Jennifer and I have completed more paperwork. We mailed the I-600A petition to the USCIS in Milwaukee. We completed and sent for our passports yesterday. So far we are on track. This Sunday we will be having more paperwork notarized and then mail that to CCAI for our dossier. All has been going well. We are starting to organize the rummage sale and have already received a few bags of items. Jennifer ordered a few more books and a DVD that talk about Chinese adoption. The DVD is titled China's Lost Girls by National Geographic. It is only 40 minutes but is packed with valuable information. Really is an eye opener. Tomorrow I will watch the last 10 minutes of it. Well, until next time--Take care everyone.