The waiting is what gets you

This week epitomizes the roller coaster that is international adoption. We started the week with the hopes that our home study would be finalized so we could take it through the certification process. Our social worker let us know that she was still waiting for the agency to approve the draft and that this weekend the agency is having a big reunion in Virginia Thursday through Sunday. This translates to us not getting a notarized copy of our home study until next week. Bummer, because I had the last three days of the week off of work for mandatory time off as part of my company's expense reduction measures. So much for making hay while the sun shines. The upside is that we received an email from our agency Thursday evening that they approved the final draft of our home study and we are clear to submit our next paperwork batch, the I800-A to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). With this in mind, Julie and I crafted a plan to try and maximize our efforts while I am traveling for work.
1 - We sent a pre-paid FedEx envelope to our social worker so she can drop our home study in it after she gets them notarized and certified in her home county.
2 - I prepared the cover letter for our I800-A and made photocopies of the required birth certificates and marriage license that will be included with the I800-A form.
3 - Filled out the I800-A form and have it ready to sign and drop in the already prepared FedEx envelope to the USCIS processing center.
4 - Drafted our application letter to CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) and submitted it to our agency for approval. Once approved, yep, you guessed it, it needs to be notarized and certified as well. Hopefully we'll get approval so that Julie can print it out and get it notarized and certified by the county during the week.
5 - Sent Julie's birth certificate to the US Department of State for certification since the certificate originates in Maryland. Luckily we get to skip this step for documents that originate in Ohio. We already received confirmation from FedEx that the letter was delivered and hope it'll be returned this week.
6 - Assuming we get Julie's birth certificate back from the US Department of State and our home study certified, we can send them off to the Chinese consulate in New York for certification there, too which can take up to 20 business days. Seriously, who would have thought this process would have this many steps? Sad part, we're still not in a position to say we have our dossier to China which really is the next big step. *sigh*

With this plan in place, it is possible that by the end of week Julie will be able to take the notarized home study and our CCAA application letter to the Ohio Secretary of State for state-level certification. Assuming that falls into place, we should be in a position to mail off our I800-A and documents to the Chinese consulate over the weekend and get that waiting process started. Sounds pretty tenuous, doesn't it? Hope springs eternal, I guess. :)

We'll see how the week plays out. At this point we're trying to control that which we can control and everything else we're along for the ride. Prayer helps, for sure.

Staycation - sort of

We started the weekend in a hotel at Polaris getting away from the day-today hectic pace we've been keeping with work, school, Scouts, gymnastics, La-La class and more. Since this was a rewards stay (FREE!) and my status with the hotel chain, we had access to the executive floor for breakfast. We went upstairs and ate from their semi-hot breakfast and watched the commuters going to work on a rainy Friday morning. Since nothing opens until 10AM (why so late?!) we went back down to the room and hung out for a while. I had picked up the new Dan Brown novel at Barnes and Nobel so was quickly engrossed in it while everyone else played and Julie started crocheting(sp?) a baby blanket for Lil Bubba.

The plan for the day is to hit the new Lego store in Easton and see what else we can do. We packed up the crew and headed over. We were a little surprised by the size of the store as it was smaller than what we'd pictured. Having been to the store in Orlando this was WAY smaller than we expected. The kids had a good time looking at the various displays and Veronica loved playing with a Duplo train set and misc. blocks. Max picked out a Lego racer kit and Sydney had trouble choosing what the get within a reasonable price range and finally settled on a bucket of Legos that she got to fill from their bins. Veronica found a Bob the Builder set that she liked. Having conquered the Lego store Veronica wanted to ride the escalators so we did. Max doesn't like escalators and one of his least favorite places on Earth is the Waterloo tube station in London where we had to take what seemed like 10 BIG escalators to get where we needed to go. He doesn't like the small ones at Easton, either. :)

It was getting close to lunch and we decided we would do a silly lunch and went to Cold Stone Creamery. The kids loved it - and who wouldn't - ice cream for lunch! We enjoyed sitting there and had the whole place to ourselves. Apparently this isn't a normal lunch for anyone else. After enjoying our yummy lunch both Ron and Julie were still hungry so we stopped by Skyline and took it back to the hotel. We ate our more substantial lunch and then the begging for the pool began. Hard to say no to your kids so we all changed and headed for the hotel's pool. Like Cold Stone, we had the place to ourselves and swam until the kids lips were turning blue. Veronica has gotten over her fear of the pool and literally jumped in from the steps leading in. That was an exciting start to the swimming. We had a great time playing shark, splashing and jumping in while I caught them. We called it a day in the pool before hypothermia set in and went up to the room to get cleaned up.

After the fun of the pool, we considered going to a movie but the only kids movie out didn't look that good and I don't like the book - not to mention it didn't start for a while. We checked out the pay per view movies and decided we'd watch "Up." We went downstairs and popped a bag of popcorn and grabbed some Sprite before we settled in to watch the movie. It was very good and had a nice heart warming theme throughout. After the movie we went out to grab dinner which was Noodles and Company for the kids and Indian for Julie and I. Mmmm, mmmm, good. With our curry and vindaloo quotient filled, the kids played Legos while Julie crocheted and I read.

Saturday was a nice slow start with everyone getting up around 7AM, so it was nice to sleep in. We got ready and went downstairs to the buffet for breakfast. After we ate, we came back to the room and started packing up to go home. The staycation is over. :(

We got home and I replaced the garbage disposal in the kitchen with the one I bought Thursday morning. It was easier than I figured it would be and was a great way to save some money. I was concerned that it would leak, but so far so good! After that I climbed back onto the roof to install the ground wire for the lightening arrestor on the cell antenna. I've been concerned about having it on the roof with no ground so have left it disconnected for 2 weeks. I hate getting on the roof as my fear of heights kicks in and the thought of falling 20 feet to the patio doesn't seem like much fun. Max stood in the yard ready to call if I fell, so we were covered from that respect. The hornets, wasps and yellow jackets were all out - they must love the heat from the shingles and it seemed like they were everywhere. We got that project completed just in time to get ready for church.

We went to mass at St. Mary's because Max wanted to go to the TAG (Tweens and God) youth group meeting from 5:30 to 7:00. We dropped him off for that and went to dinner at Subway and then shopping at Kroger. Sounds like fun, huh? We picked up Max and he seemed to have a great time and then it was time for bed. Julie and I struggled to stay up until 10 and were glad to sleep in our bed. The hotel was nice, but nothing feels as comfortable as home.

Sunday was busy between Julie teaching PSR, Ron working on the book - my chapter was due Weds - yes, the previous Weds not the upcoming Weds. LOL! See mom, I still procrastinate! Max's Cub Scout pack had the BB gun and archery range at Camp Lazarus booked for an afternoon session and we've been looking forward to it for a long time. We started with archery and Max took no time at all to hit the targets and scored quite a few bull's eyes! We rotated to the BB gun range where it seems like he may be left eye dominant rather than right eye like. He was having a good time and did a great job and qualified for a BB gun patch by scoring a 41 (needed 35) with 5 shots! It was cool to see Camp Lazarus in the fall and I'm sure I bored Max with my stories of "We slept in that cabin during the winter and had to feed the fireplace to keep warm" and "We used to shoot BBs in the Exchange Lodge" and "I remember one time when it was so cold that we were all playing on the frozen pond." LOL! A lot of good memories there and hopefully he'll have plenty too!

We came home and grilled out for dinner since there won't be too many more chances to do that. After dinner Julie got the kids and their stuff ready for the next day while I continued to work on the book. Julie put the girls to bed and Max read to me before heading upstairs. I wrapped up the chapter around 10:50PM and mailed it off to my editor which quickly kicked back an Out of Office message for Monday! Oh well, it was due 4 days ago and now the ball is in his court while I start the next chapter. Why do I do this stuff to myself? It is one of those things that sucks while you are doing it, but will be cool to go to a book store with the kids and show them a book I helped write. :)

Time for another busy week to start. Have a good one everybody!

Busy, busy days

Julie was able to coordinate the notary and the doctor to make it all happen so that is HUGE! She rocks! With the doctor letters completed and notarized we are gaining full steam on getting the next step of the dossier building process knocked out. The process requires that any Ohio notarized documents be certified at the county level. After county certification we need to take them to the Secretary of State for authentication before sending them on to either the US Department of State for an extra level of authentication or directly to the Chinese Consulate in New York.

Julie took the doctor letters to the Delaware County Clerk of Courts to be certified along with some of our other documents like the police background checks, financial statement and more. She and Veronica found the Clerk of Courts and they were able to knock it out pretty quickly. I spent Weds. evening sorting papers to make sure I knew what needed to go to Marion for notary certification there or directly to the Secretary of State. I have Thursday and Friday off from work so we decided we'd see what progress we could make.

Thursday morning I drove to Polaris for a church men's faith group meeting at 6AM. After the meeting I hit Lowe's to pickup a new garbage disposal for a weekend replacement and then hit the road to Marion. As I was searching for the address of the Marion county Clerk of Courts I found two addresses. I decided on one of them and after going through security and talking with the lady there, I was in the wrong one. Luckily two blocks away was the right one, so I walked in and they were able to help me very quickly. Back on the road to Columbus, I decided to swing by the Delaware County Probate Court to get a marriage certificate with a raised seal. I had noticed that the one I grabbed must have been one of our copies because it was missing the imprint. I walked in and they helped me too very quickly. I had it in my mind that this whole day would be akin to a trip to the BMV - take a number and wait. That was not the case at all. The ladies at the Probate Court didn't think I'd be able to get the marriage license certified as it didn't have the judge's signature, but figured I'd try since I would be downtown anyways. The marriage license, my birth certificate and Julie's name change documents didn't need to be notarized since they were already certified copies.

With a full complement of raised seal and certified notarized letters, I headed for the Secretary of State. I walked into the Rhoades tower only to find that the office I needed had moved 2 blocks away. Common theme of the day, huh? I checked in at the desk and was again helped very quickly. This time the process was a bit longer as I had 13 documents that needed authenticated but all was smooth, including the marriage license the ladies in Delaware had been concerned about. As she gave me the documents I started to review them and found an error that the Secretary of State had made. She gave me a new certification, I paid and was on my way! I can't tell you how glad I am that we found that error, especially after reading about how long (20 days for mail in authentication) it is once the dossier gets to the Chinese Consulate. We would have lost 40 days - 20 for the original error and another 20 for the re-submission. Yikes!

I picked up a package from the post office and made my way home. Julie and I sorted the papers to make sure we have it all lined up. We reviewed the forms and we really, really need our completed home study. Our social worker submitted it to the Asia coordinator for review so hopefully we'll hear back soon. Once we get it, we'll need to take it back to the Secretary of State for authentication and then we're ready to start sending docs via FedEx to the Consulate and Department of State. I *think* we can do this in parallel to our submission of an I-800A form to USCIS so we can get authorization to bring an adopted child into the country from US Immigration. Confused yet? ;)

We took off in the afternoon for a weekend getaway in a hotel in Columbus that we're using my travel points to get 2 nights free. We did this last year and the kids really enjoyed it so sprung it as a surprise for them today. We ate dinner at Olive Garden and then did some quick shopping at Barnes and Noble. Now we're back in the hotel room watching "Survivor." I know we all can use the days away. Work has been crazy - some of the craziness normal and some self-induced with the book and some difficult customers. A few unplugged days from work will help.

God is good to us and Adventure Island

You can tell by the title that something exciting has happened and it has! We received an e-mail from our agency Friday afternoon that the updated paperwork we faxed to them on Thursday was acceptable so now all we need to do is get it all notarized. Once that is complete we can then submit it all for certification and begin that step in the adoption process. Pretty exciting stuff for us and nice to go into the weekend knowing it is good.

On that happy note, Max has hist first big school project where he has to make a large land form and show various aspects like a peninsula, lake, desert, etc. We knew this would take some time to complete so we started on it Thursday night with gluing cardboard boxes and egg cartons to a foam board to make the "mountains" and volcano. Julie had picked up modeling clay/stuff for us so we covered the mountains and made the island Friday to let it dry overnight. It was exciting to see it start to take shape.

Saturday morning Max and I drove to Meijer and picked up the paint we needed as well as a bunch of misc other things for projects around the house. We came home and began painting with tempra paints.

We let the paint dry through the day and talked about what else we'd add and what else we'd name things. Max wanted to name the island "Adventure Island" and features things like the "Cliffs of Death", "Keel Haul Island" a sea cave with an eel and an erupting volcano. Saturday evening we went to mass as usual and were looking forward to our Fall Festival and an outdoor mass. When we got there the meadow where we'd have the outdoor mass was too wet, so we celebrated indoors. We stayed for the Fall Festival and the kids enjoyed eating hots dogs, burgers and chips. The previous week was Sister Julie's 80th birthday and the church had taken a special collection for her to send her to Colorado for a retreat her order does every year. They presented Sister Julie with the gift and then made her promise to use it on herself because anyone who knows here, knows she'd give it all away and miss out on her retreat. We then had cake and let the kids play outside for a while before we called it a night.

Julie and I didn't eat at the festival as they didn't have anything veggie friendly so we swung through super-nutritious Taco Bell (do I know how to show a girl a good time or what?!). As usual, we double-checked the food before we left and found meat on Julie's nachos so waited while they made her a new one (on the timer of course - we were not going to pull ahead and let them off). We got the second set and at first glance all was well and we pulled away. As we got onto the road, Julie found meat, so I turned around and took it in asking for a replacement. They always get you in the drive through, don't they? They apologized and we were on our way. I think Julie was concerned that I'd make a scene - not sure where she got that idea from. ;)

All of the paint was dry on Sunday so we added our lake, river, delta, waterfalls and lava. We also added the labels we made for the features and used a pirate font called Windlass to make it look cool. We think it looks pretty nice so hopefully we'll get full credit for it. Even if we don't it was fun to spend time working with Max and helping him turn his ideas into reality.

Max also turned into a fearsome fly slayer this weekend and has killed 4 at last count with his Nerf gun. Who'd have thought a Nerf gun would be good against flies? You learn something new every day.