Well, as of the 15th we have officially started the 2 month wait for getting our 800a approval.
We also are in the last days this month to find out about the new cut off date for referrals. Many hope that we'll finish August. Realistically I HOPE they'll get through the 29th. They are through the 21st right now, but there are VERY FEW before the 28th since it was just "ghost staff" that week in 2006. On the 28th/29th there seem to be alot, but I am hoping enough of those changed to special needs that the workers will be able to complete those days. If not, I am thinking I won't get a referral until May or later.........depending on how bad the slow down would be. It should be really exciting since they're actually in the week of our LID, but since it looks like there may have been a lot of log in's this LID week, it could go back to 1 day a month, or even not having referrals some months (because they didn't finish the entire day, not because they don't have anyone receiving their child's referral).
Please pray for the staff as they continue to place children in the homes that they believe will be a best fit. Pray for the babies that they will be able to adjust quickly to their new homes, and please pray for those waiting for patience.
Also, please pray for us as we continue to wait. If we do not travel during the summer (before mid-August) we do not know what we will do with our current 3 children. We believe that it would be great to take them with us, but right now don't have the funds for that. We also know that there is really only 1 person that all 3 know well enough to be comfortable with for 2 weeks and only seeing us online. This is also an age for bonding with Sierra (15 mo) and Isaiah (31 mo), so I am concerned about how this will effect them, not even considering any jealousy on their parts with the new child. And Isabelle would truly benefit the most from going because 1. she will remember it and 2. She will be able to understand more about how she came to be part of our family.............IF United honors our frequent flyer miles, we should have our tickets covered. Plus we have enough for at least 1 child........but we also would need 2 lap tickets (1 for the new child one way only and 1 for Sierra) and another child roundtrip ticket.......plus the money still for food/souvenirs. We also need to make sure that we have enough while we are there...............I don't really know how we are going to raise much more money at this time with me being a SAHM. I have the coffee fundraiser online still going..........but that's not much. I need another adoption grant from somewhere, but don't know how it would work with so much waiting still. Once we get the referral, it's only a few months later for travel..........:( so please just keep this in prayers.
Thank you!
Terri for the Casebier's
Friday, March 16, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Continuing on.........
Well, as I was excited in October, I am somewhat stalled again here in February. They are through August 21st in the review room, so only 10 more days BEFORE our LID of 9/1............however, it was supposed to be through 8/27 this month since there were "no referrals" for the 19th-27th.........ho hum!
As long as they get through 8/29 next month, I truly believe that we will finally see our child's face in April!!!! What a GREAT Easter gift!!!!
As far as travel though, as one always asks..............It's been said that we will have to wait another 12 weeks after referral to travel under my new I-800 documents -- since the I-600a's have all now expired.........:( Someone else posted that they read somewhere that travel could take up to FIVE (5) months!!!!
I want him/her home before September!!!!! YIKES!!!!!
Another HUMONGOUS change that has come about is that in December we changed our request from "either" to that of a boy up to 2 years old............so we are eagerly awaiting to see not just how young they will refer us, but also what gender they will refer us as well!!! We have a boy's first name picked out, but we won't reveal that until we get a referral...........
As far as Hannah Mei Yi...........we have been fully blessed through "her" adoption............and it's a wonderful name. I will never forget the "process" of adopting our "Chinese daughter"..........even if SHE never comes.......:)
As long as they get through 8/29 next month, I truly believe that we will finally see our child's face in April!!!! What a GREAT Easter gift!!!!
As far as travel though, as one always asks..............It's been said that we will have to wait another 12 weeks after referral to travel under my new I-800 documents -- since the I-600a's have all now expired.........:( Someone else posted that they read somewhere that travel could take up to FIVE (5) months!!!!
I want him/her home before September!!!!! YIKES!!!!!
Another HUMONGOUS change that has come about is that in December we changed our request from "either" to that of a boy up to 2 years old............so we are eagerly awaiting to see not just how young they will refer us, but also what gender they will refer us as well!!! We have a boy's first name picked out, but we won't reveal that until we get a referral...........
As far as Hannah Mei Yi...........we have been fully blessed through "her" adoption............and it's a wonderful name. I will never forget the "process" of adopting our "Chinese daughter"..........even if SHE never comes.......:)
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Finally a glimmer of hope!
We received news this week that 14 days had gone through the referral room this month, taking it through 7/28/06. It doesn't seem like much, but when you've spent years looking anywhere from 2-5 days a month, this is incredible.
We believe this month will be another low batch because there is a 1 week holiday in China..........they sure seem to have a lot of longer holidays there.
We are officially 35 LID days away from a referral! I hope to be receiving one by February, if not in Dec/Jan............who knows. Praying not to get my hopes up too high.
Since my last post 4 years ago, I think, alot has happened. In Fall 08 we decided to try embryo adoption to see if I could actually give birth to a child. It worked and we ended up with Isaiah Pax (peace)...........immediately after birth I told Gary I wanted to do it again IF he had any biological siblings left...........there were 3 embryos left and we took 2 (the most they'll do at a time)...........we ended up pregnant again with Sierra Faith..............they are both such blessings to us, just as I know our little child in China will be.
I will eventually close down this blog. It will be part of our child from China's journey and will be a great story, but we have decided NOT to name a daughter Hannah after all of this time -- and purchasing MANY things with Hannah on it---
We may still change to SN, but probably not since the line seems to be speeding up. We would like another girl, but also another boy...........and so my heart is a little apprehensive about not getting a boy right now. I know we are supposed to have both, we feel and believe that God has told us so (1 hopefully biological to us), but my fear sometimes gets the best of me and makes me want to change the China child to a boy just in case so I don't have to worry if we have another boy later or not..........
That said, if it weren't for our "Hannah Faith Mei Yi" we wouldn't have any of our other children...........I'd saved up $10,000 for the trip, at that time it was what we needed............if we didn't have that money, we couldn't have traveled to get Belle. We got money back from her adoption (IRS) -- resaving it for Hannah, and used that for Isaiah's adoption that Fall........then IRS gave us more back from Isabelle and we used that (instead of saving it for Hannah) for Sierra's adoption. Much of what the IRS had given us at this point was from taxes and a little from the adoption credit.........Well, this year they changed the refund amount a little (higher) and made it so we could get the remainder all at once instead of just continuing to get the credit.........so we got all of our adoption credit from Belle back and that is the money we now have to get "Hannah" (to be renamed) and it was actually more than our original $10,000 so God took what we gave Him in faith and multiplied it with both children and money.
We are growing close to heading for China and have raised all we need for the trip EXCEPT our plane tickets. Isabelle is going with us and we have her ticket money. We have frequent flyer miles for our tickets, but I am concerned that there will be a blackout date or the airlines will change something. It's United and they recently merged with Continental -- so they're changing their plans. We hope to raise another $5000.00 somehow for these tickets. When we went for Belle we didn't have plane money either and that's how we ended up with credit card bills.......fortunately this child will not need 3 trips like Belle did.......wwwwooosshhh.
We figure that if we raise the $ and don't end up needing it for the tickets, we'll use whatever is left to purchase the bed we still need to buy (a bunk bed for the small rooms we have!)........so it's not just going to us............
SIDENOTE for our own personal memories -- When we started this journey, I wanted 5 children. I think Gary and I had discussed it. But with the long wait we dropped it. I went to 4 children in my head and didn't think much of it. When we were pregnant with Sierra, Isabelle declared that she wanted 2 brothers and 2 sisters (not 4 kids total, but 5). When I told daddy, I laughed and said, well I did want 5 and he said, I thought that was just me.............so we are more convinced than ever that it is supposed to be 5 children. I don't know where #5 is coming from. If it's adoption, it will be in at least 5 years and we'll have to make more $..........for now I'm trying not to hope to hard that God will grant us a biological child as the 5th. We'd tried hard to make it our 1st and it would be God laughing at us granting it as the last child and with our ages (though I'm still younger than Sarah and Abraham)...........I've prayed many years that God would take this desire away and I thought maybe He had somewhat after Isaiah, only to have Gary make comments about a biological child that drove me right back to it. I can't love the children I have any more or less than a biological child. They are TOTALLY MINE no doubt about it........but there's a little tinge I get when I think about passing on my parents (deceased) genes and what a biological child of ours would look like as well............negative of that is that this child would also have my bad genes too.....:) guess I'll just have to teach him/her how to eat healthy and exercise from the start........:)
We believe this month will be another low batch because there is a 1 week holiday in China..........they sure seem to have a lot of longer holidays there.
We are officially 35 LID days away from a referral! I hope to be receiving one by February, if not in Dec/Jan............who knows. Praying not to get my hopes up too high.
Since my last post 4 years ago, I think, alot has happened. In Fall 08 we decided to try embryo adoption to see if I could actually give birth to a child. It worked and we ended up with Isaiah Pax (peace)...........immediately after birth I told Gary I wanted to do it again IF he had any biological siblings left...........there were 3 embryos left and we took 2 (the most they'll do at a time)...........we ended up pregnant again with Sierra Faith..............they are both such blessings to us, just as I know our little child in China will be.
I will eventually close down this blog. It will be part of our child from China's journey and will be a great story, but we have decided NOT to name a daughter Hannah after all of this time -- and purchasing MANY things with Hannah on it---
We may still change to SN, but probably not since the line seems to be speeding up. We would like another girl, but also another boy...........and so my heart is a little apprehensive about not getting a boy right now. I know we are supposed to have both, we feel and believe that God has told us so (1 hopefully biological to us), but my fear sometimes gets the best of me and makes me want to change the China child to a boy just in case so I don't have to worry if we have another boy later or not..........
That said, if it weren't for our "Hannah Faith Mei Yi" we wouldn't have any of our other children...........I'd saved up $10,000 for the trip, at that time it was what we needed............if we didn't have that money, we couldn't have traveled to get Belle. We got money back from her adoption (IRS) -- resaving it for Hannah, and used that for Isaiah's adoption that Fall........then IRS gave us more back from Isabelle and we used that (instead of saving it for Hannah) for Sierra's adoption. Much of what the IRS had given us at this point was from taxes and a little from the adoption credit.........Well, this year they changed the refund amount a little (higher) and made it so we could get the remainder all at once instead of just continuing to get the credit.........so we got all of our adoption credit from Belle back and that is the money we now have to get "Hannah" (to be renamed) and it was actually more than our original $10,000 so God took what we gave Him in faith and multiplied it with both children and money.
We are growing close to heading for China and have raised all we need for the trip EXCEPT our plane tickets. Isabelle is going with us and we have her ticket money. We have frequent flyer miles for our tickets, but I am concerned that there will be a blackout date or the airlines will change something. It's United and they recently merged with Continental -- so they're changing their plans. We hope to raise another $5000.00 somehow for these tickets. When we went for Belle we didn't have plane money either and that's how we ended up with credit card bills.......fortunately this child will not need 3 trips like Belle did.......wwwwooosshhh.
We figure that if we raise the $ and don't end up needing it for the tickets, we'll use whatever is left to purchase the bed we still need to buy (a bunk bed for the small rooms we have!)........so it's not just going to us............
SIDENOTE for our own personal memories -- When we started this journey, I wanted 5 children. I think Gary and I had discussed it. But with the long wait we dropped it. I went to 4 children in my head and didn't think much of it. When we were pregnant with Sierra, Isabelle declared that she wanted 2 brothers and 2 sisters (not 4 kids total, but 5). When I told daddy, I laughed and said, well I did want 5 and he said, I thought that was just me.............so we are more convinced than ever that it is supposed to be 5 children. I don't know where #5 is coming from. If it's adoption, it will be in at least 5 years and we'll have to make more $..........for now I'm trying not to hope to hard that God will grant us a biological child as the 5th. We'd tried hard to make it our 1st and it would be God laughing at us granting it as the last child and with our ages (though I'm still younger than Sarah and Abraham)...........I've prayed many years that God would take this desire away and I thought maybe He had somewhat after Isaiah, only to have Gary make comments about a biological child that drove me right back to it. I can't love the children I have any more or less than a biological child. They are TOTALLY MINE no doubt about it........but there's a little tinge I get when I think about passing on my parents (deceased) genes and what a biological child of ours would look like as well............negative of that is that this child would also have my bad genes too.....:) guess I'll just have to teach him/her how to eat healthy and exercise from the start........:)
Friday, November 30, 2007
September is OFFICIALLY out of the Review Room!!!
Well everyone,
As we continue to wait for Hannah there is a little good news. There are 2 rooms that we have to get through before we can bring Hannah home. The review room and the matching room.
The review room is where they look at our files and determine if we are able to adopt from China. As of today, we are finally out of that room. Our agency has told me that this doesn't mean we've fully cleared the room yet. It may take a few months to get any news about if we've "passed" inspection or not. However, this does mean that we didn't have any questions on our file. So, it looks good. Plus, because we were LID 9/1 and they've taken 2+ months to finish September, I really think we've probably officially passed the review.
The matching room is where they actually put your file together with a child. This is the room that is only on December of 05 still. So many people are requesting non-special needs girls that the line is extremely long. There are lots of children, but not all have been in the system for the required 8 months yet...........and some aren't available because of severe special needs...........and yet others don't even have their paperwork filed yet. So, we'll continue to wait.
We brought Isabelle home on 10/14 from Russia.........and we think we still have a 2-3 year wait for Hannah. If we still have a 2+ year wait next fall, I think we may do another interim adoption of a little boy. We'd like at least 2 boys, 2 girls......but I already have the 3rd girl named!!!!.......lol..........an older boy or a family of children would really be wonderful to me.
Have a WONDERFUL day!!!
Terri for the Casebier's
As we continue to wait for Hannah there is a little good news. There are 2 rooms that we have to get through before we can bring Hannah home. The review room and the matching room.
The review room is where they look at our files and determine if we are able to adopt from China. As of today, we are finally out of that room. Our agency has told me that this doesn't mean we've fully cleared the room yet. It may take a few months to get any news about if we've "passed" inspection or not. However, this does mean that we didn't have any questions on our file. So, it looks good. Plus, because we were LID 9/1 and they've taken 2+ months to finish September, I really think we've probably officially passed the review.
The matching room is where they actually put your file together with a child. This is the room that is only on December of 05 still. So many people are requesting non-special needs girls that the line is extremely long. There are lots of children, but not all have been in the system for the required 8 months yet...........and some aren't available because of severe special needs...........and yet others don't even have their paperwork filed yet. So, we'll continue to wait.
We brought Isabelle home on 10/14 from Russia.........and we think we still have a 2-3 year wait for Hannah. If we still have a 2+ year wait next fall, I think we may do another interim adoption of a little boy. We'd like at least 2 boys, 2 girls......but I already have the 3rd girl named!!!!.......lol..........an older boy or a family of children would really be wonderful to me.
Have a WONDERFUL day!!!
Terri for the Casebier's
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
