Chinese Adoption Timeline

March 9 – Decision to adopt from China
March 13 – Signed contract with WPA, sent in I600A
March 14 – Ordered birth certificates and marriage license.
March 15 – Received Birth certificates and marriage license.
March 19 – Homestudy meeting with Jamie for “3rd” meeting.
March 20 – I600A logged in USCIS office in Detroit.
March 21 – Our 4th Homestudy meeting, Police clearance letters, Wrote Letter of Intent to Adopt, filled out Guardianship designation, Gathered pictures for Dossier. Finished questionnaire, commitment to post placements reports, financial statement.
March 24 – Letter from USCIS, with a 3 month wait for processing.
March 27 – First Draft of Homestudy
March 28 – Jerry’s employment letter.
March 29 – Medical appointment, mailed in record clearance forms.
March 30 – Blood draw for HIV and other blood tests.
April 6 – Medicals done.
April 9 – Baby Shower!!!
April 18 – Post Placement agreement signed by Adoption Options.
May 4 – Mailed Homestudy to USCIS.
May 8 – Employment letter for Christel, copies of passports.
May 12 – Received fingerprint appointment.
May 15 – Received Christel’s birth certificate back with Nebraska Great Seal.
May 24 – Redo Letter of Intent, homestudy agreement.
May 25 – Fingerprints done at USCIS office in Grand Rapids.
June 14 – I171H!!!!
June 16 – Redo Jerry’s police clearance
June 19 – Great Sealed all documents in Lansing, and fed-Exed to There’s Always Hope to submit to Chinese Consulate in Chicago.
June 20 – Documents submitted to Chinese Consulate ( for 48 hours service), except Nebraska birth certificate, which was sent to The Assistant Stork to submit (24 hour service) to the Chinese Consulate in Washington DC.
June 22 – Nebraska birth certificate submitted to Washington DC. Documents picked up from Chicago Consulate and sent overnight back to us.
June 23 – Documents received from There’s Always Hope.
June 26 – Nebraska BC received from The Assistant Stork. Assemble Dossier and make copies.
June 27 – Sent by FedEx to World Partners Adoption, Inc.
July 5 – Dossier sent to Faith International Adoptions, Inc.
July 19 – Dossier to China!!! (DTC)
August 8 - Log In Date (LID) at the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs!! (CCAA)

Julliette

Ever since we got a black Romeo we said we needed a white Julliette! We finally found her 5 years later, in Tennessee. Actually Jerry's sister found her, and called us to see if we wanted her. Of course we did!!! She only weighs 8 pounds at a year old, so she may not get as big as "the boys"! She has learned to hunt from Tiger and loves to stay out all night prowling (I guess), then she comes in mid morning and finds her pink and white fleece banket and snuggles down to sleep the rest of the day, after she purrs for a while! She first discovered the babies' fleece blankets, so we had to make her, her own! Last week she tore ligaments in her tail, we took her to the vet. Who knows how! We say she was trying to hang out with the opossums! She actually has made friends with 2 yearling deer, they follow each other around in the lawn, and sometime chase one another! Jerry even saw them touching noses one morning! She's a rascal!

Tiger!

Tiger was our 2nd kitty that we rescued... we found him in a tree, while a friend and I were walking one day. Neither of us thought that we could take another kitten home and the tree was in someone's yard, so we left him there! Well, surprise, Jerry said "why didn't you bring him home?" We tried and tried to come up with an original name, but kept coming back to Tiger, because the way he walked and moved was like the tigers we see in the zoo! He turned out to be such a sweet cat, if you hear rumbling from across the room it is probably him purring! He sheds fur something fierce though! He constantly brings little critters that he has caught, to the door, so we can see... and praise him! He weighs a womping 16 pounds, and has a white bib, belly and "boots"!!!

Romeo!

This is Romeo! Our first kitty, who came to us as a kitten that was almost eaten by a dog! He was such a lover, we named him Romeo! Now he is Mister Independant and doesn't want us to touch him too much, except when he is in a mood and then he won't leave us alone! He is spooked by just about everything, probably from his younger days of torture from us! Yeah right! He weighs in at 18 pounds, mostly muscle some how, yet he will easily jump 4-5 feet in the air trying to get a bug! Growing up in a house of no kids at all, he will have some adjustments to make, when the kids come home!

Time Line for Kazakhstan!

September 2004 - Discuss starting a family in May 2006. Talked about a life-long dream of adopting internationally.
March 2005 - Heather and Paul announce their pending adoption in China!
April 2005 - Started thinking about adopting before having biological children! Research! Research! Research!
April 25 2005 - Decided on Kazakhstan and World Partners Adoption, Inc.
May 24 - Mailed in our application to WPA.
June 5 - First homestudy meeting with Jamie from Adoption Options Worldwide, Inc.
June 10 - Received contract from WPA.
June 16 - Second and final homestudy meeting.
June 28 - Sent in I600-A
June 29 - Physicals, HIV and TB tests.
July 14 - Received Jerry's birth certificate and our marriage license.
August 3 - Bank reference letter. Notarized copies of passports.
August 5 - Medicals finished
August 9 - Received letter of employment
August 17 - Fingerprints for The I600-A, at the office for Homeland Security in Grand Rapids.
October 8 - Homestudy came with mistakes.
October 13 - Fingerprinted for the FBI (new requirement)
October 14 - New Post Placement Agreement form and Letter of Obligation
October 20 - Finished Homestudy came! Redo medical on new forms
October 24 - Sent homestudy to Homeland Security Office.
October 25 - Pick up bank mortgage letter (new), new Letter of Obligation,
November 1 - Received FBI fingerprints back, stamped "no record"!
December 3 - The 171H came!!! (gives the approval for us to bring orphans into the USA!)
December 8 - Sent Dossier to Lee at Paperwork Partners.
February 6, 2006 - We received our final copy of the Dossier back
February 10 - Dossier to Kazakhstan to be translated!
February 15th - Sent Letter of Invitation, General Power of Attorney and copy of 171H to be Apostilled in Lansing.
February 27 - Dossier has been translated and heads to the Consulate office in New York City, for 60 days minimum.
March 2 - Received LOI, GPA and 171H with apostille.
March 6 - Sent LOI,GPA and 171H to WPA.
March 8 - We learned that Kazakhstan has changed some rules and are no longer allowing 2 unrelated children to be adopted at once. :(
March 9 - We decided that we would get a dossier together for China for our daughter and still find our son in Kazakhstan. What ever it takes to bring our babies both home!
April 9 - Baby Shower!!!
April 27 - Dossier heads back to Kazakhstan.
June 27 - Sent China Dossier to WPA!
July 18 - new Medicals, HIV and TB tests again! Updated homestudy to follow! all must be apostilled. Ugh!
July 19 - DTC! Dossier to China!
August 3 - Dossier in Kazakstan for 14 weeks!!!
August 29 - The Email!!! After 28 weeks of waiting patiently.
August 30 - Sent the medical info and pictures to the International Adoption Specialist Doctor.
September 3 - Talked to Dr. Jerri Jenista and signed the Acceptance forms.
September 5 - Sent updated Homestudy and Medicals to Lansing for Apostilles and the Acceptance forms to WPA.

We Have a DTC!!

Our Dossier went to China on July 19, 2006!!! We are using the same agency for our Chinese adoption as our Kazakhstani adoption! World Partners specializes in Kazak adoption, so it is only fair that they partner with a company that specializes in Chinese adoptions, Faith International Adoptions. So our Dossier went with Faith’s other families’ dossiers to China! DTC! Dossier to China! We are so excited! We are officially “pregnant with paperwork" again! See!

Chicago!

We went to Chicago twice in July!

July 5-6 we went there with Jerry's parents and Terri, Robby, and Maggie. It was the most beautiful 2 days! The weather was more perfect than we could have asked for! Sunny and 70 degrees! We had a blast! We went to American Girl and they now have some Asian dolls!!! So of course I had to buy the Asian Bitty Baby, for Kimi! Maggie and I named the doll Mei Ling! :) So I am a mess, what can I say?

I also figured out how we were going display all the kids books! I found these shelves at Menards! The one is for shoes, the other...? Who knows? It is part of a shelving system for a closet. But I put all the little books in the shoe shelf and some little toys, and all the large books on the other! It looks so cute! I think the kids are going to love it!

Again!

We went to Chicago again on the 15th! We went to the museum of Science and Industry, and then met some friends at Shedd's Aquarium! We had so much fun with them, and their kids are so adorable! We just loved "playing" with them! Afterwards we went to a really great Restaurant in Greek-town! We had never eaten at a Greek Restuarant before! We loved it! The poor kids were so tired, but were quite good through dinner! We finally had to say goodbye though!!!

In the Morning on the 16th, we met with Heather, Paul, Ryleigh and Kristina (their neice) at the train station in Michigan City, and we headed back to Chicago to go to the Chinatown Summer Fair! We had so much fun! We bought some stuff, and ate Chinese of course! I found the best flip flops for only $4!

So after we were exhausted from Chinatown and the heat (95 and sunny!!) we got on the train to head back downtown! Then Jerry and Paul went home and we girls stayed overnight! We went to our Hotel to cool off for a while and then went to dinner at the California kitchen on Ohio Street. We had a fun evening, Ryleigh and I , playing with the Chopsticks that came with my salad!

We came home the next evening, we were all so tired! from being so hot all day!!! But we were really glad we went!