Hello again,
We finally received the immigration form last week. We traveled to Austin on Saturday and got the necessary certifcations on all of our paperwork Monday morning. Then we overnighted it back to Houston.
Now it is being overnighted to the Houston consulate, where it MAY take up to 2 weeks for final processing.
Then it will be DHL'd to China (about a week).......then it will be put into the computer system within 10 days, but it may take a month to find out the actual day they put it into the computer system...................
THAT'S WONDERFUL!!!! When we find that date out, we will be able to track the dates that the government is working on from our own computer!!!!
I am VERY happy that this is working out so far. Once it gets to China, I know that I won't have to do anything but wait and check on their dates.
As it gets closer I will have to raise more money and redo some paperwork (it will probably expire before we get to bring her home). However, just the fact that it is in the last hands before we get to see our little daughter.........it's exciting just thinking about it.
We won't have to start redoing paperwork until February (fingerprinting) or April................so it gives me a chance to sit back and work on the money issue from our own paychecks as much as possible......
What a relief.....God's timing, once again, is good...........
Prayer requests:
1. The paperwork to make it to China.....and as quickly as possible
2. For us to raise enough money to bring her home
3. For us to easily get through the paperwork that has to be redone next year
4. For Gary to get a job soon......preferrably teaching at this point
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers......I look forward to sending you more information on Ruth as we have it ourselves, including our first picture of her (we don't expect that until around NEXT August).
We are glad to have you as family!!
Love,
Terri & Gary
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Working on Getting Paperwork to China
Hi everyone,
As most of you probably know, we have changed from Ukraine to China. Last September (right before we sent our money and paperwork over for translation) Ukriane closed it's border to U.S. adoptions of young children. They did this because many Americans were not turning in the follow-up paperwork required for the first 3 years. This keeps the government up to date with the children's health and welfare.
After wiating several months ( at that time our leader was saying that it should open up again within a couple months), in March we finally decided to switch over to China. We had planned to adopt 2 boys from Ukraine (possibly a 3rd if it was a sibling -- esp. a girl). We originally were going to adopt those 2 boys, then a little girl from China, and possibly our last girl from here in the U.S. -- but latina. As you probably know we have had several years of infertility and would love to have a biological child, but don't believe that at our age we should wait around for something that may never happen. We also don't want to have teens and be at retirement age (unless God gives us a surprise of course).
So, instead of getting the boys first, we are getting our little China doll first. She will also probably be the youngest child at the time of adoption (@ 8 months at referral and 12 months when we pick her up), so this will probably be better to help break us in. It's a blessing in disguise that we've had this opportunity. In March the paperwork change went really quick, and we've been waiting on a new I-171 document since then --- because it now had to say that we could adopt 1 child from China instead of 3 from Ukraine.
--------------------------
Now, for Today!
Well, this has been a trying week for me. We have already been waiting 4 months to receive an updated I-171 form from the immigration office in Dallas. It was only suppoed to take 2 months and we've had all of our other paperwork done for 3 months.
We were hoping initially to be able to send our paperwork off by May and then only have to wait about 6-8 months for a CHina referral. That would put us in time to use our current I-171 with the change to China.
However, this has not worked out that easily. The immigration change paperwork supposedly never made it to the adoption officer in Dallas, though we have a receipt saying that it got to their office on March 15. So, we were finally able to reach him yesterday (after trying mutiple times in the last 2 months and being told it was the state office, not the Dallas office we needed). He requested we fax him a copy of our receipt and the original document. He was fixing the problem/approving our request. This sounded good, but I believe it now has to go to another government office before it comes back to us. Who knows really how long that will take.
After this paperwork comes back all of my paperwork has to go through 2 more government offices before going to China. Because it was the summertime, I had planned on walking it through the offices myself to reduce the time and possibility of loss. However, if the I-171 doesn't get to me this week I probably won't be able to walk it through Houston and Austin......delaying delievery to China a minimum of another month --- i.e. arrival sometime in September.
That wouldn't be a huge deal IF China was still referring parents after about 6 months. However, another issue that has come up in the last 2 months is that China is now taking a year to process paperwork -- before we can even get a referral. They said this is because so many other countries have turned to China for their little girls.......they also have boys now too and abortions are probably still high.
All this means that means that we probably won't even get a referal until sometime in September 2007. PLEASE PRAY WITH US that this DOES NOT happen. In some ways it'll be nicer that way because I'll have a much harder time going back to work if I haven't even started the year yet.....BUT it will definitely be harder because Gary is going back to teaching this year and is still looking for a job --- alternative certification. If he doesn't get one this year ---- or changes at the end of the year ---- NO ONE will want to hire him for next year with a baby on the way.
We really need his job. I plan on working for the next 2 school years and then workinging part-time at the most. I want to be a stay at home mom ----- especially with Ruth being adopted and having a much higher risk of attachment disorder. We want to home school our children in everything EXCEPT English (we stink at grammar) and the extracurricular activities. In that way they can go to the church school for that time and still get the social skills needed. (We are or will be certified in all of the other main subjects)
We are very excited about the opportunity to be parents and hope that God's timing brings us peace. We know that He is in control........and working out everything for His good and perfect will.
Please pray that the paperwork will go through quickly to China. The wait won't be so bad after we can just get the paper there.
Prayer Requests
1. The I-171 paperwork gets to us quickly so that I can run it around Texas ---- or just that the paperwork gets to China before September.
2. That the paperwork process can once again be a peaceful thing for me (Terri) especially. Patience is always needed.....but I'm really scared how God is going to teach it to me......we've already had to be patient about having children.
3. That Gary will get a good job and not need to change districts at the end of the year.
4. That Gary will be successful in whatever he does......to help be a better leader for us.
5. Adoption financing........especially air-fare ------frequent flyer miles anyone? :)
6. That people will understand that infertility is an extremely stressful time........and that the adoption process can be just as hard because it's basically giving up on a dream to be a biological parent. Pray that they will not throw issues in our face (i.e. about not being biological, disease ?'s, ethnicity ?'s, etc.) and that they will be happy for us. Sometimes people push us without really thinking.
Thank you for all of your prayers ----- The rest of these pages I'm sure will be much more light hearted as we get going. We also plan on posting updates while we are in China. These will also include pictures (as we have some) of our little Ruth (no, not Baby Ruth........Gary lol).
Terri
for the Casebier's
As most of you probably know, we have changed from Ukraine to China. Last September (right before we sent our money and paperwork over for translation) Ukriane closed it's border to U.S. adoptions of young children. They did this because many Americans were not turning in the follow-up paperwork required for the first 3 years. This keeps the government up to date with the children's health and welfare.
After wiating several months ( at that time our leader was saying that it should open up again within a couple months), in March we finally decided to switch over to China. We had planned to adopt 2 boys from Ukraine (possibly a 3rd if it was a sibling -- esp. a girl). We originally were going to adopt those 2 boys, then a little girl from China, and possibly our last girl from here in the U.S. -- but latina. As you probably know we have had several years of infertility and would love to have a biological child, but don't believe that at our age we should wait around for something that may never happen. We also don't want to have teens and be at retirement age (unless God gives us a surprise of course).
So, instead of getting the boys first, we are getting our little China doll first. She will also probably be the youngest child at the time of adoption (@ 8 months at referral and 12 months when we pick her up), so this will probably be better to help break us in. It's a blessing in disguise that we've had this opportunity. In March the paperwork change went really quick, and we've been waiting on a new I-171 document since then --- because it now had to say that we could adopt 1 child from China instead of 3 from Ukraine.
--------------------------
Now, for Today!
Well, this has been a trying week for me. We have already been waiting 4 months to receive an updated I-171 form from the immigration office in Dallas. It was only suppoed to take 2 months and we've had all of our other paperwork done for 3 months.
We were hoping initially to be able to send our paperwork off by May and then only have to wait about 6-8 months for a CHina referral. That would put us in time to use our current I-171 with the change to China.
However, this has not worked out that easily. The immigration change paperwork supposedly never made it to the adoption officer in Dallas, though we have a receipt saying that it got to their office on March 15. So, we were finally able to reach him yesterday (after trying mutiple times in the last 2 months and being told it was the state office, not the Dallas office we needed). He requested we fax him a copy of our receipt and the original document. He was fixing the problem/approving our request. This sounded good, but I believe it now has to go to another government office before it comes back to us. Who knows really how long that will take.
After this paperwork comes back all of my paperwork has to go through 2 more government offices before going to China. Because it was the summertime, I had planned on walking it through the offices myself to reduce the time and possibility of loss. However, if the I-171 doesn't get to me this week I probably won't be able to walk it through Houston and Austin......delaying delievery to China a minimum of another month --- i.e. arrival sometime in September.
That wouldn't be a huge deal IF China was still referring parents after about 6 months. However, another issue that has come up in the last 2 months is that China is now taking a year to process paperwork -- before we can even get a referral. They said this is because so many other countries have turned to China for their little girls.......they also have boys now too and abortions are probably still high.
All this means that means that we probably won't even get a referal until sometime in September 2007. PLEASE PRAY WITH US that this DOES NOT happen. In some ways it'll be nicer that way because I'll have a much harder time going back to work if I haven't even started the year yet.....BUT it will definitely be harder because Gary is going back to teaching this year and is still looking for a job --- alternative certification. If he doesn't get one this year ---- or changes at the end of the year ---- NO ONE will want to hire him for next year with a baby on the way.
We really need his job. I plan on working for the next 2 school years and then workinging part-time at the most. I want to be a stay at home mom ----- especially with Ruth being adopted and having a much higher risk of attachment disorder. We want to home school our children in everything EXCEPT English (we stink at grammar) and the extracurricular activities. In that way they can go to the church school for that time and still get the social skills needed. (We are or will be certified in all of the other main subjects)
We are very excited about the opportunity to be parents and hope that God's timing brings us peace. We know that He is in control........and working out everything for His good and perfect will.
Please pray that the paperwork will go through quickly to China. The wait won't be so bad after we can just get the paper there.
Prayer Requests
1. The I-171 paperwork gets to us quickly so that I can run it around Texas ---- or just that the paperwork gets to China before September.
2. That the paperwork process can once again be a peaceful thing for me (Terri) especially. Patience is always needed.....but I'm really scared how God is going to teach it to me......we've already had to be patient about having children.
3. That Gary will get a good job and not need to change districts at the end of the year.
4. That Gary will be successful in whatever he does......to help be a better leader for us.
5. Adoption financing........especially air-fare ------frequent flyer miles anyone? :)
6. That people will understand that infertility is an extremely stressful time........and that the adoption process can be just as hard because it's basically giving up on a dream to be a biological parent. Pray that they will not throw issues in our face (i.e. about not being biological, disease ?'s, ethnicity ?'s, etc.) and that they will be happy for us. Sometimes people push us without really thinking.
Thank you for all of your prayers ----- The rest of these pages I'm sure will be much more light hearted as we get going. We also plan on posting updates while we are in China. These will also include pictures (as we have some) of our little Ruth (no, not Baby Ruth........Gary lol).
Terri
for the Casebier's
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