We still are waiting to hear that our paperwork is logged in and we have a formal acceptance from China. Seems like things continue to move at a snails pace. But, we did get some pictures of Ali today from a father that has brought one of her friends over, so at least there is something to look at! I love her freckles ….
Cameron
A couple of weeks ago we sent Ali a “care package” through Ann at Red Thread. We had used her before to send Caleb some gifts to let him know we were thinking of him and she does such a beautiful job (and is so kind) that we wanted to use her again. Below is the package that she put together for us:
We sent her pictures of the family, a necklace, a camera so that she could take some pictures of her friends, and a letter that Kelly wrote. Today we received the pictures of her receiving her package. It is somewhat bitter sweet. It is nice to know that she now realizes someone is out there for her and is coming to get her. At the very same time, it is hard to watch her look at the pictures and try and figure out what must be going through her mind. I know that adoption is the only option for her. Without it, she is doomed to a miserable life in China. And, I know that she wants so desperately to be part of a family that loves her, which we do. But it will be hard for her to leave all she has and make a new life here. I can’t wait to give her a hug and all I can do is pray that God prepares her and us for that transition!
I believe she is counting in the next picture. HOW MANY SIBLINGS?? Poor thing. Probably had fewer people in the orphanage…
Here she is actually reading the note from Kelly. What emotions she must be feeling …
Don’t you wish you could take them all??
Cameron
Kelly has spent the last couple of months moving kids around and updating all their bedrooms. The last one was the girls room, which she just finished a few weeks ago. I thought I would post the pictures on the blog as this will be Ali’s new room!
Cameron
Well, the waiting on the U.S. is over! We received all our documents from U.S. Immigration and was able to get everything certified in New York today, so the next stop is sending all of our paperwork to China! Once they approve everything, it should be about four months, which is about four months too long! However, it is always nice to be making forward momentum.
We received the pictures below from the orphanage today along with Ali’s updated measurements. She is almost 5′ tall, which makes her a little taller than Brittany. But, Britt isn’t complaining. In addition, while they do not have email access at the orphanage, we can send her a letter and they will fax it to the orphanage for her to receive. Also, we used Red Thread to send her a little care package last night. I’m not sure how long that will take to get to her, but hopefully she starts to know we love her and are coming.
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know!
Cameron
Thank you for everyone who prayed today! We went down to USCIS and there were only two people waiting. The VERY nice and friendly lady signed us right up and took care of our prints. Now we have to wait on the US Immigration Agent to look everything over and approve it! Be praying now that the next process goes quickly!
Cameron
Yesterday we received our fingerprint appointment from US Immigration. It is set for late February, but I think Kelly and I are going to head down there tomorrow and see if they will let us walk in and get that done. Once the fingerprinting is finished (which takes all of about 3 minutes) everything gets sent back to immigration and within a couple of weeks we should have our approval from the US Government. Then, we have to pack everything up and send it off to China for them to give us approval.
The process does seem to be moving SO much slower than it did for Caleb. At this rate, it feels like it will be August before we get there. However, we really need to get over there before the end of September! It’s not just that we would like to get Ali before she turns 12, but Zachary turns 18 on September 22nd, and if we don’t leave by then, we have to go through additional paperwork and he has to be fingerprinted because he will at that time be considered another “adult” living in the house.
Below is a video that has several snip-its of Ali in it. In fact, she is in the back row just as soon as the video starts. There are several other glimpses of her as the camera pans by.
I think this video might have put Kelly right over the edge and I’m fairly certain that a care package will be going out to Ali in the very near future! Kelly continues to go through all the kids bedrooms upstairs, repainting and moving kids around so that all the girls can be together in the biggest bedroom. So far, things have run like clockwork!
Please pray that Immigration will allow us in tomorrow as walk-in’s and do our fingerprinting. That will take several weeks off of the process!
Cameron
We received news today that our adoption agency has approved our home study and we should have it ready to go tomorrow. We will then send it off to USCIS to begin the process of the US Government approving our adoption. It is nice to have things moving in the proper direction again!
We received several pictures today from another family. This family adopted Ali’s friend and had sent her a gift for New Years.
We will keep you in the loop as this process moves forward!
Cameron
OK, haven’t posted in awhile because, well … the paperwork that was supposed to come from the State of Ohio didn’t come. We got a nice (not) phone call from the Ohio Bureau of Family Services explaining to us that just because we called our state senator, that wouldn’t speed up the process. Hmph! So there!
Not one to take things like that laying down, Kelly started calling and emailing people. Finally we found a sympathetic ear who told us they would pull our file and put our child abuse clearances in the mail this past Monday. Today we received them. Yay! NOW things start MOVING!
Pray for our friend, Jennifer Armbruster (www.knowingnotignoring.blogspot.com), who is traveling to Africa on Sunday after Christmas to get two of the children that they are adopting! It is a very exciting time of year.
Cameron
As many of you know, we have been held up by the Central Registry in Ohio which has a huge back-log on clearing people for child abuse claims. Even though we just had this done last year, we were required to get another child abuse clearance. Because of budget cuts at the state level, the Central Registry is very short-staffed and a process which usually takes at most 30-days has been taking 90. We filed our forms with them at the end of October and we were starting to get a little frustrated that we may have to wait until the end of January for this clearance. We had talked to a couple of different people to see if we could advance part of the adoption process while we wait for the clearances, but nothing can move forward without them.
On Monday, I called the offices of Sharon Jones, the Ohio State Senator for Warren County, and talked with a very nice your lady named Megan. She informed me that this has been a relatively common issue that they get called on and, while she was very sympathetic to our situation, there was a limit to what she could do for us. However, she promised to call Central Registry and talk to their contact there and have them inform us on where we were in the process. This afternoon Central Registry called us, told us that they were pulling our file, and that our clearances would be here next week! Thank you God! One more hurdle that we are over in what always seems to be a challenging process. Hopefully our Oklahoma clearances are already here or will be shortly.
Cameron
It has been a good week. We received our BCI and FBI background checks yesterday (less than a week) and received our pre-approval from China today! Yay! Now, keep praying that the child abuse clearance come back quickly so the home study can be completed. Those seem to be what will take the longest amount of time!
Cameron