I'm cooking for my family tonight -- chicken teriyaki with rice and green beans. Come on over! I'm making a ton! If I could remember how to post a picture, I would!
Marlee and Russ are home this week! It's so good to spend time with them. In no time they'll be far, far away. :(
Have a Happy Valentine's Day with your loved ones!
February 14, 2012
February 3, 2012
Grateful!
I'm so happy today! A weight has been lifted. It wasn't weighing me down so I couldn't think of anything else, but it's been at the back of my mind for a few months. The makers of Humira have once again approved my application for assistance to receive Humira for free! If you've ever dealt with lousy insurance, you'll know what I'm going through. Since Doug became self-employed, we had to pick up some kind of insurance, but with my pre-existing condition, no one will cover me. I pay a RIDICULOUS amount of money per month for some discount program that my employer offers, yet it doesn't cover much of anything! It doesn't cover a cent of Humira. And with Humira costing $885 every-other-week(!!), I needed some help paying for it. I'm so grateful to God for providing this need in my life. Still praying that we can find some kind of decent insurance that will cover all of us.
We finally got our NVC letter -- the I-800 approval form for the National Visa Center to issue Winn's visa from China. Three weeks ago we got the letter that said they received our petition, and our agency said we would get the NVC letter in one week. They said when we get the letter, let them know and they would forward it to China and then we wait for Travel Approval. Well, one week went by and nothing came. Last Wednesday, when it had been almost two weeks, I sent an email to our agency and asked if we should be concerned because it was going to be two weeks. They immediately got back to me and said, "Yes! You should be concerned. All adoptive families receive the NVC letter within one week." I had to email some government office and ask where our letter was. They sent us an email of the approval last Thursday and said we would have the paper copy in 3 business days. Our agency used the email copy to send to China, but we lost a week and a few days because of this delay and the Chinese New Year holiday. It's so frustrating, but I know it's all going to happen in God's time, not mine or the government. The paper copy finally came in the mail today. More than 3 business days!
Looking forward to the weekend!
We finally got our NVC letter -- the I-800 approval form for the National Visa Center to issue Winn's visa from China. Three weeks ago we got the letter that said they received our petition, and our agency said we would get the NVC letter in one week. They said when we get the letter, let them know and they would forward it to China and then we wait for Travel Approval. Well, one week went by and nothing came. Last Wednesday, when it had been almost two weeks, I sent an email to our agency and asked if we should be concerned because it was going to be two weeks. They immediately got back to me and said, "Yes! You should be concerned. All adoptive families receive the NVC letter within one week." I had to email some government office and ask where our letter was. They sent us an email of the approval last Thursday and said we would have the paper copy in 3 business days. Our agency used the email copy to send to China, but we lost a week and a few days because of this delay and the Chinese New Year holiday. It's so frustrating, but I know it's all going to happen in God's time, not mine or the government. The paper copy finally came in the mail today. More than 3 business days!
Looking forward to the weekend!
January 17, 2012
2012
Well the new year is here! At least it was a few weeks ago when I started this post!
2011 wasn't so bad, but I am glad to see it behind me. Hoping 2012 is less stressful. Yeah, right! That was one of the dumbest things I've ever thought.
Our Christmas was nice but busy. We (I) tried to change a few family traditions that, in the past, caused me to be too busy, and I wanted to be able to enjoy Christmas more this year. When I mentioned that I wanted to try something different, I ran into a bit of resistance. I do understand, but I just don't know how to make everyone, including me, happy. I did get to visit with my sister and her family. She flew up from Miami to Ohio to spend Christmas with her son and daughter-in-law and granddaughters, so we drove there to spend an evening with them. I so wish she lived closer, but I'll take whatever time I can get!
Our agency told us that we would probably travel to China in April, but there is a trade show in Guangzhou that whole month and hotels and restaurants, etc., double during that time. To save money, we will wait until May to travel to Winn. There is a very slight chance we could travel in March, but it would be difficult for Doug to get away for 15 days then, during peak tax season.
My second part-time job has come to an end so Gob Cakes Galore is back in business. We're very far from our fundraising goal for this adoption. It has been discouraging. I don't doubt that God wants us to adopt Winn, or any child for that matter, but my patience is surely being tested to see how or when He's going to take care of it. It could just mean continuing to work hard at doing without certain things most people take for granted, or working another part-time job, or having another yard sale...
I mentioned this in our Sunday School class last month, and I'm going to say it here, too. I hope by saying this people don't think I'm a bad person. It doesn't really matter what anyone thinks, I'm going to say it anyway! I'm not excited about bringing home a 9 year old orphan boy. A boy who doesn't know how to be part of a family. I look forward to seeing him learn how to be part of our family, though. A friend of Marlee's asked me last night if I was ready for two boys. No. I'm not! I really can't imagine life here with Jerremy AND Winn. I would be so excited to be bringing home a baby girl again. Maybe not a baby, but a little girl would be so sweet! However, God didn't say for us to bring home a little girl. So I'm just going to go with it and pray A LOT that God gets us through whatever is ahead. Because if life didn't include times to grow our faith, what good would this life be? (Hmmm. A bumper sticker maybe?) Haha!
2011 wasn't so bad, but I am glad to see it behind me. Hoping 2012 is less stressful. Yeah, right! That was one of the dumbest things I've ever thought.
Our Christmas was nice but busy. We (I) tried to change a few family traditions that, in the past, caused me to be too busy, and I wanted to be able to enjoy Christmas more this year. When I mentioned that I wanted to try something different, I ran into a bit of resistance. I do understand, but I just don't know how to make everyone, including me, happy. I did get to visit with my sister and her family. She flew up from Miami to Ohio to spend Christmas with her son and daughter-in-law and granddaughters, so we drove there to spend an evening with them. I so wish she lived closer, but I'll take whatever time I can get!
Our agency told us that we would probably travel to China in April, but there is a trade show in Guangzhou that whole month and hotels and restaurants, etc., double during that time. To save money, we will wait until May to travel to Winn. There is a very slight chance we could travel in March, but it would be difficult for Doug to get away for 15 days then, during peak tax season.
My second part-time job has come to an end so Gob Cakes Galore is back in business. We're very far from our fundraising goal for this adoption. It has been discouraging. I don't doubt that God wants us to adopt Winn, or any child for that matter, but my patience is surely being tested to see how or when He's going to take care of it. It could just mean continuing to work hard at doing without certain things most people take for granted, or working another part-time job, or having another yard sale...
I mentioned this in our Sunday School class last month, and I'm going to say it here, too. I hope by saying this people don't think I'm a bad person. It doesn't really matter what anyone thinks, I'm going to say it anyway! I'm not excited about bringing home a 9 year old orphan boy. A boy who doesn't know how to be part of a family. I look forward to seeing him learn how to be part of our family, though. A friend of Marlee's asked me last night if I was ready for two boys. No. I'm not! I really can't imagine life here with Jerremy AND Winn. I would be so excited to be bringing home a baby girl again. Maybe not a baby, but a little girl would be so sweet! However, God didn't say for us to bring home a little girl. So I'm just going to go with it and pray A LOT that God gets us through whatever is ahead. Because if life didn't include times to grow our faith, what good would this life be? (Hmmm. A bumper sticker maybe?) Haha!
December 5, 2011
Birthday Pictures!
We had a care package sent to Winn for his birthday on December 10, but yesterday, December 4, we got pictures of Winn's party. The orphanage director was going to be busy on December 10, so Winn got his birthday package early. He doesn't look all that happy in the pictures, but who knows what's going through his head. He has a lot of things to think about now. Like leaving the only "home" he's ever known, even if it is just an orphanage. Leaving all his friends. Moving halfway around the world to live with a strange looking family (Oh wait! Tessa and Jerremy look like him!) Having to make new friends. And on and on...
Today we got a call from our adoption agency. Dana told me our Letter of Approval (LOA) came. We have to sign it and return it ASAP. She said travel will be in about four months! That puts us into April - Doug's busiest time of year with taxes. She said we do have some say in the exact date, so we could wait until after April 16 to travel. I was excited to know we could travel a month sooner than we had originally been told, but then I looked at the kids' school calendar and saw that PSSA testing, along with other cyber school testing, will be taking place those two weeks in April! If we push it back until they're done with all of that, we would miss Kendall's grad school graduation. So now I'm wondering how we'll do it. We don't want to make Winn wait for us any longer than he has to. We can't forget our Chinese exchange student who will still be here until the end of May! We will have to find somewhere for him to stay while we're gone for 15 days!
When you start the process of an adoption from China, you're told travel will be anywhere from 10-14 days. It was 14 days for Tessa, but it was 15 days for Jerremy. We never questioned why, that's just the way it was. Well this time we thought we'd only have to be gone 10-12 days because Winn's province is in Guangzhou where all adoptive families have to end up, regardless of what province their child is from. For whatever reason, our agency requires us to fly into Beijing first for a few days to get acclimated to the time difference -- travel around and see all the sights there, like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, acrobat show, etc. Then you fly to your child's province and spend 5 business days, then fly on to Guangzhou for a week to finalize everything. We thought that since we will be in Guangzhou the whole time, we wouldn't have to be there as long. The travel coordinator for our agency told me that we actually will be in China longer because Winn's province requires us to stay 7 business days instead of 5, but I still don't understand why we have to be gone 15 days. GRRRRR! I need to relax and let God take care of the details. Then my life would be a whole lot less stressful. I wonder at what age I'll learn to do that.
Here are the pictures from Winn's 9th birthday party.
Today we got a call from our adoption agency. Dana told me our Letter of Approval (LOA) came. We have to sign it and return it ASAP. She said travel will be in about four months! That puts us into April - Doug's busiest time of year with taxes. She said we do have some say in the exact date, so we could wait until after April 16 to travel. I was excited to know we could travel a month sooner than we had originally been told, but then I looked at the kids' school calendar and saw that PSSA testing, along with other cyber school testing, will be taking place those two weeks in April! If we push it back until they're done with all of that, we would miss Kendall's grad school graduation. So now I'm wondering how we'll do it. We don't want to make Winn wait for us any longer than he has to. We can't forget our Chinese exchange student who will still be here until the end of May! We will have to find somewhere for him to stay while we're gone for 15 days!
When you start the process of an adoption from China, you're told travel will be anywhere from 10-14 days. It was 14 days for Tessa, but it was 15 days for Jerremy. We never questioned why, that's just the way it was. Well this time we thought we'd only have to be gone 10-12 days because Winn's province is in Guangzhou where all adoptive families have to end up, regardless of what province their child is from. For whatever reason, our agency requires us to fly into Beijing first for a few days to get acclimated to the time difference -- travel around and see all the sights there, like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, acrobat show, etc. Then you fly to your child's province and spend 5 business days, then fly on to Guangzhou for a week to finalize everything. We thought that since we will be in Guangzhou the whole time, we wouldn't have to be there as long. The travel coordinator for our agency told me that we actually will be in China longer because Winn's province requires us to stay 7 business days instead of 5, but I still don't understand why we have to be gone 15 days. GRRRRR! I need to relax and let God take care of the details. Then my life would be a whole lot less stressful. I wonder at what age I'll learn to do that.
Here are the pictures from Winn's 9th birthday party.
November 8, 2011
Still Here
I know it's been awhile. I just haven't felt like blogging. I'm not good at putting my thoughts into words, especially for others to read (if anyone even reads this stuff!)
We got approval from the CCCWA to accept our late paperwork! That was an exciting day! Lots of dancing and singing and praising God! We went through so much to get our paperwork done on time and sent in, but a combination of our government and the CCCWA, kept us from getting it logged in before the October 1st deadline. Since our son-to-be is considered hard-to-place, our agency asked for leniency so that he won't have to wait any longer than necessary for his family. They agreed! It looks like we'll travel sometime next spring.
I read some very good news today! We started the adoption process this time around back in March when I saw a blog about a 12 year old girl who was aging out in China. She had a repaired cleft lip and palate, and she looked so sweet and sad in her picture. We started the paperwork specifically to bring her home. There was a family who had wanted to adopt her, but they had 4 younger children at home and had been advised by many people that adopting a child out of birth order, especially a girl, might not be a good thing. So they decided to not pursue her adoption and were advocating for someone else to adopt her. When I heard that, I had reservations too. When our homestudy provider told us they wouldn't approve us to adopt out of birth order, I was relieved to not have to make the decision. I felt so bad for her and continued to see her picture on others' blogs advocating for her. Today I read that the family who originally wanted to adopt her, with the four younger children, have moved forward with her adoption anyway! Such wonderful news! I have read other blogs where families have adopted older children out of birth order and it's worked out fine. Maybe next time! :) I texted Doug today to tell him about the Duggar's expecting baby #20, and I told him we're only 15 away from catching up to Jim Bob and Michelle! He just laughed. Who said I was joking?!
Marlee and Russell have been home a little over 2 weeks now. We've had a great time catching up with them and spending time playing with their two beautiful kittens! We will be so sad to say goodbye to them on Saturday, especially since they'll be moving to Alaska in April for four years!
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update more often.
We got approval from the CCCWA to accept our late paperwork! That was an exciting day! Lots of dancing and singing and praising God! We went through so much to get our paperwork done on time and sent in, but a combination of our government and the CCCWA, kept us from getting it logged in before the October 1st deadline. Since our son-to-be is considered hard-to-place, our agency asked for leniency so that he won't have to wait any longer than necessary for his family. They agreed! It looks like we'll travel sometime next spring.
I read some very good news today! We started the adoption process this time around back in March when I saw a blog about a 12 year old girl who was aging out in China. She had a repaired cleft lip and palate, and she looked so sweet and sad in her picture. We started the paperwork specifically to bring her home. There was a family who had wanted to adopt her, but they had 4 younger children at home and had been advised by many people that adopting a child out of birth order, especially a girl, might not be a good thing. So they decided to not pursue her adoption and were advocating for someone else to adopt her. When I heard that, I had reservations too. When our homestudy provider told us they wouldn't approve us to adopt out of birth order, I was relieved to not have to make the decision. I felt so bad for her and continued to see her picture on others' blogs advocating for her. Today I read that the family who originally wanted to adopt her, with the four younger children, have moved forward with her adoption anyway! Such wonderful news! I have read other blogs where families have adopted older children out of birth order and it's worked out fine. Maybe next time! :) I texted Doug today to tell him about the Duggar's expecting baby #20, and I told him we're only 15 away from catching up to Jim Bob and Michelle! He just laughed. Who said I was joking?!
Marlee and Russell have been home a little over 2 weeks now. We've had a great time catching up with them and spending time playing with their two beautiful kittens! We will be so sad to say goodbye to them on Saturday, especially since they'll be moving to Alaska in April for four years!
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update more often.
September 19, 2011
Still nothing!
So much for the help of our congressman! Still nothing from the USCIS. We've been in touch with our agency and another homestudy provider. Just waiting to hear what we need to do and how much it will cost. The director of our adoption agency, the person who told us we had plenty of time to get our paperwork done and logged in before the October 1 deadline, isn't there anymore! We got a phone call Friday afternoon telling us he is no longer with the agency. We don't know why, but we do know the interim director is the same man who was the director when we adopted Tessa and Jerremy. He had left the agency to do mission work with his family in Vietnam. They are back in the States and he will be taking over until they can find a replacement. We have a lot of respect for him, so we're not concerned.
On the school front, things are looking up! The kids are still doing cyber school, but just as I was about to crash and burn, God intervened and an angel stepped in and rescued us! I now take the kids to a cyber school building, with a wonderful real teacher who guides them through their lessons and has patience like no other! We're so thankful for Miss Patty and Achievement House. And when the snow flies this winter and I don't want to brave the snow covered roads to get them to school, we can still do school from our cozy home! Thank you, God! You're awesome!
Our exchange student comes from a very warm part of China, so he doesn't like our fall-like weather we've been having. He wore his big heavy winter coat to church on Sunday, and he asked if winter will be this cold! Oh my! He's in for a real surprise when it gets below 0 deg.
On the school front, things are looking up! The kids are still doing cyber school, but just as I was about to crash and burn, God intervened and an angel stepped in and rescued us! I now take the kids to a cyber school building, with a wonderful real teacher who guides them through their lessons and has patience like no other! We're so thankful for Miss Patty and Achievement House. And when the snow flies this winter and I don't want to brave the snow covered roads to get them to school, we can still do school from our cozy home! Thank you, God! You're awesome!
Our exchange student comes from a very warm part of China, so he doesn't like our fall-like weather we've been having. He wore his big heavy winter coat to church on Sunday, and he asked if winter will be this cold! Oh my! He's in for a real surprise when it gets below 0 deg.
September 9, 2011
TGIF
I'm so glad it's Friday! This cyber school stuff is very stressful! I'm almost ready to give up, but I won't! Tessa and I don't like it at all, but Jerremy likes it a lot. We get started around 8:15 a.m., work until almost Noon, and are still at it at 4:00 p.m.! We stop just because we can't take anymore, and then after we eat dinner, we finish up what we didn't get done. I'm thinking I might be able to handle traditional homeschool better than this. It's just making us so unhappy and it's not a good feeling.
Our exchange student is very nice. He seems to be over the jet-lag-tiredness now. He told his mother he likes my cooking and he likes how Doug jokes around with him. I made him plain rice the second day he was here. He said, "I eat rice two times a day for 16 years. I no want anymore rice!" We laughed. One of our favorite meals is a microwave chicken and rice dish that I make every few weeks. So the night I served it, I made him leftover ravioli that he liked the night before. Turns out he liked the chicken and rice so much, he had 3 servings and didn't touch the ravioli.
It's almost October 1, and we haven't gotten our paperwork back from the USCIS. Our adoption agency told us to get our congressman involved. We did that, but it's too late now for us to get it back, drive it to Harrisburg for certification, overnight it to New York City to the Chinese Consulate and wait for them to review it and return it, and then have our agency send it to China and be logged in before October 1! It's looking like we'll be having to find a new homestudy provider, pay thousands of dollars more, and then send that to the USCIS for another 90 day wait!
There's nothing easy about adoption. I was thinking today that had we not decided to adopt again, our lives would be moving along at a comfortable pace, with the kids still at their small Christian school and me probably only working one part-time job. None of this crazy cyber school stuff trying to save money; no stressing about the paperwork getting back in time. It sounded pretty good, until I thought about Winn still in China with no family to call his own. And as much as the thought of a comfortable life is, I wouldn't give up one day of the process to bring him home! God will get us through, no matter what!
Our exchange student is very nice. He seems to be over the jet-lag-tiredness now. He told his mother he likes my cooking and he likes how Doug jokes around with him. I made him plain rice the second day he was here. He said, "I eat rice two times a day for 16 years. I no want anymore rice!" We laughed. One of our favorite meals is a microwave chicken and rice dish that I make every few weeks. So the night I served it, I made him leftover ravioli that he liked the night before. Turns out he liked the chicken and rice so much, he had 3 servings and didn't touch the ravioli.
It's almost October 1, and we haven't gotten our paperwork back from the USCIS. Our adoption agency told us to get our congressman involved. We did that, but it's too late now for us to get it back, drive it to Harrisburg for certification, overnight it to New York City to the Chinese Consulate and wait for them to review it and return it, and then have our agency send it to China and be logged in before October 1! It's looking like we'll be having to find a new homestudy provider, pay thousands of dollars more, and then send that to the USCIS for another 90 day wait!
There's nothing easy about adoption. I was thinking today that had we not decided to adopt again, our lives would be moving along at a comfortable pace, with the kids still at their small Christian school and me probably only working one part-time job. None of this crazy cyber school stuff trying to save money; no stressing about the paperwork getting back in time. It sounded pretty good, until I thought about Winn still in China with no family to call his own. And as much as the thought of a comfortable life is, I wouldn't give up one day of the process to bring him home! God will get us through, no matter what!
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