USCIS Approval. :-D)))

I spoke with an officer today who told me that we (re: our I800a/797) were approved on December 16th, and that our Notice of Action will be on it's way in the mail.

He explained that the Notice sits in the mail room for 72 hours, then it is mailed, is I presume it was mailed today.

This went pretty fast because we were fingerprinted on November 21st. This approval comes as a result of the I800a form, and we are approved for our 797.


A soon as this arrives it will go with a couple of other docs to NJ for certification, then ALL will go to the China Embassy in New York.

THEN THE DOSSIER GOES OFF TO CHINA! (knows as "DTC" in China-Adoption-Speak.)

DTC should happen very early in 2012. Then China does all of it's paper work, and then lets us know when we can travel to get our darling girl. 

This site has some good information about this leg of the process http://www.china-adoption-online.com/uscis.html. It is not my site at all, I am not connected to it in any way, and I cannot guarantee anything anyone reads there. It is just another site "out there on the web", but from my point of view, in my opinion,  I have gleaned some good info there myself and it always proves to be quite correct and/or helpful. ;)

Blessings, Lynette

The day we chose your name...

Here is our daughter who is waiting in china. We were referred her, or "matched", in October. We are still, working on paper work as we were matched prior to our Dossier completion.

This it the story of the day that we chose her name.

It was 10/22/11.

The sun was shining.

It was a cool, crisp autumn day.

Some leaves had started turning color, and falling, others green and boldly hanging on.

A beautiful day.

Mom (that's me) and dad had gone out for a late breakfast and brought along the updated pictures of you from our friends at Holt.

Your pictures made us smile, made us feel, made us full of pride and joy.

Mom and dad decided that a name Mommy has adored for a long time, and daddy has liked also, would be your first name. Mommy asked daddy to choose your middle name, another favorite was chosen.

And so, you {our dear, sweet, light of our lives} 
became our Phoebe Colette.

Images of the day we chose your name dance in my head, imprinted on my heart.

Home from breakfast mom and dad hung out in the yard together. The yard of our cozy little ranch on the Jersey shore.

We delighted in you, our Phoebe, while we spent time together in happiness.

Images of Posie cavorting in the yard while daddy's guitar played on, the cat, Phantom, hanging out in the house, mommy doing what she loves to do, photographing the moments, and pictures of leaves, light, and love filled the scene of our lives and our hearts.

Blessings, Lynette

Mason's Sweet Date Appetizer

When I was little my mom and grandmom, Olive, who we called Nanny had us children make these on Thanksgiving day. {probably to keep us busy}

They seem to have origin in a family friend named Mason, who was good pals with my Papa, Chester.

As a tradition I still make them every year.

How wonderful ti will be to continue this with our little daughter next year.

They are very rich and chewy. Usually one is all I can eat. They are delectable.

1. Split the pitted dates (sometimes you can find a split on them already, if not then use a knife to carefully make a slit. Of course, adults should do this for the children before hand)
2. spoon peanut butter into the opening. (This does not have to look neat when children are doing this because the sugar step will hide the mess.) 
3. place a walnut half into the peanut butter bed.
4. roll each piece in granulated sugar.
5. place on a plate or in another container.

•  I used a very small peanut butter jar and it took about half of the jar to finish the dates.
• The bag of dates was an 8 oz. bag.
• While I purchased a 10 oz. bag of shelled walnuts, I used the tiniest handful. 
• a half cup to one cup of sugar in a small bowl is more than enough. This will give room to roll each date individually, and there will be much excess you will be discarding.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Blessings, Lynette

moving along, in paper land- NJ Certification Process begins!!

The NJ birth records were ordered in the summer...red tape has held up the correction of the form and I just keep praying it will be here any day. It is still not here and we are going on to Thanksgiving time!

Because of this I was very concerned (putting it lightly) about placing my dossier docs in an envelope to send to Trenton for certifications. But the USPS website tracking states that they arrived in Trenton yesterday just before 8am, so I can only hope they are being sorted to the correct people now, and will be in good hands. They supposedly are returned all done about 15 days later. Please pray about this for us. Thanks!

We sent our first batch of these items for certification by NJ to try to get the wheels of progress turning.

For those of you in adoption-dossier land, following 3 items are what were NOT included presently, but will need to go soon, and will (I think) be the last items to go:

1. My birth record.
2. Cert. of financial status (just because I need to type it in correct form, but it is written)
3. and 797 (we have our i800a fingerprint appt. this coming week, the 797 will come as a result of that)

Here is what DID go in the envelope for Certifications a few days ago. These have taken many months of work to compile:

1. application letter
2. k's birth record
3. marriage certificate
4. k's work letter
5. L's work letter job 1
6. L's work letter job 2
7. k's cert of general physical exam
8. L's cert. of general physical exam
9. k police clearance letter
10. L police clearance letter
11. adoption home study (our life compiled to 12 pages....LOL)

Blessings, Lynette

i800a check has been cashed

The check has been cashed by the USCIS, and I also rec'd my notification in the postal mail (as I had required a signature to know it arrived). Both of these seem to be good sign.

My thoughts are on the $890 check being cashed:

...so is that a good thing?

...does that mean our i800a paper work is being processed?

...just so curious, such a very important document.

...anyone who has "been there, done that" please feel free to chime in. Thanks so much. :-D

Blessings, Lynette

Thank you Calvary Baptist Church in Oceanport NJ :-D

Our dear church family supported us with a yard sale fundraiser this past weekend.

The results were amazing for this little church with a BIG heart!

The fundraiser raised 1400 dollars!! 

This included sale profits of 400 dollars, an anonymous donor who had pledged to match whatever the sale made (which brought the sale amount to 800), 

anther anonymous donor who gave 500 dollars,

and yet another who gave a gift of 100 dollars.

Our hearts are warmed

beyond measure!

Here are some pictures from the day of the sale:

http://www.lifeatcalvary.com/

Blessings, Lynette

I800a is on it's way, and now for some Cupcake Therapy

VERY important paper work is on it's way to Texas.


And now for some Cupcake Therapy.

It was surreal to go over the checklist in my head, to realize that I actually had a completed home study in the envelope with the i800a form (both of which were major items on the checklist months ago), and that a little girl is waiting for her mama on the other side of the world, and OH, by the way, that mama would be ME!

Also, surreal is the amount of money going out for the process right now:
The aforementioned i800a was mailed with a check for 890 dollars.

In other news, also mailed today were the  Dossier fee to our agency for 3,000 dollars, and the Adoption Medical Specialist fee for review of our little girl's medical information at a total of 500 dollars. (The last fee is on the lower end compared to others I have heard of...)

And faxing was done today for the adoption as well.

The adoption process is a job unto itself!

Ask any adoptive parent and they will tell you that it is all worthwhile!

(Now, where did I put those cupcakes?.....)

Blessings, Lynette

the death of me....

Our " 800 a " will be the death of me, UGH, it's not even like it is that hard to fill out...it's just the immense pressure to be sure it is all correct; down to the littlest thing.


Blessings, Lynette

Learn from my mistake, do not fax your LOI. ;)

To all my hormonal, worried, anxiety ridden adoption-mama-to-be blog friends out there...this post is for you.

If you receive your referral from Holt, and have to send your LOI on a Saturday when no one is in the office.

DO NOT fax it them (actually any time, do not fax it!)

LOI's are supposed to be EMAILED ONLY.

I personally made a mistake (not Holt--- just me by myself)

and caused my self hours of worry, and loss of sleep.

My husband and friend Julie were right, they said calm down and trust in the Lord. My poor mother had to listen to me on the phone all day and night.... (note that since it was a Saturday no one was at Holt to check their phones or email...but I was required to send an extremely important document on Saturday)

Instead I trusted in worry.

Bad choice on my end!

The good news now is that Beth at Holt confirmed that they have my pdf that I emailed last night, at oh, about midnight. (about 15 hours after the fax I sent in the morning)

Fiery darts tried to steal away my JOY.

Not going to happen!!!!!

I am excited BEYOND measure about my little bundle of JOY.

Just remember, do not fax the LOI. (big sigh)

I love my girls at Holt.

Beth gets an impressively BIG gold star for taking care of me these past days.

Blessings, Lynette

REFERRAL !!! & LOI !!! IT'S A GIRL !!!!

We have a referral!

Apparently a list came out on Thursday night, or thereabouts.

We got our call later on Friday!

IT'S A GIRL!

SHE IS AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL!

We faxed our LOI this morning EARLY and just found out moments ago that they never got the fax ("oh fiddlesticks", she says as she hopes that the anxiety does not destroy her)

Being that we do not have a fax in the house, this is super big time anxiety settling in at 11pm and how >>for the love of Mike<< am I going to sleep??!!

Anyway, we will not allow that to destroy this happy moment:

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOO HOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And as friend Julie, in celebration mode,  says on facebook:

CAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUST HAVE CAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, as I bid you goodnight, I hope to hear my phone ring. As I lay in bed worrying, praying for a call to confirm that the fax has been found...or at the very least that they know we do INTEND to accept this referral.

If not, then off I'll go to hunt down a fax early Sunday morning, with my bags under my eyes because of lack of sleep.

The bumpy road continues...but this time, I am smiling ear to ear anyway! ;)

Take THAT, silly old fax!! We have a daughter, and you can't take that joy away!!

Blessings, Lynette

passport pics are not the most attractive things in the world, ya know?

The China Team at Holt has requested "passport type" images for one of their needs.

Can I tell you, it is not fun trying to get a decent looking passport style image?!

>>straight on, white background, SO unattractive.<<

we did our best.

sigh.


BUT the saving grace is that I ADORE the "family" picture we sent.
Here it is:

They suggest not including your animals, if we could have it would have been a huddle pic of us, the cat, and the dog. LOL

But we both like the one we picked anyway.


Blessings, Lynette

Yard Sale Postponed Due to Rain

The Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale has been postponed due to rain (even though it now looks like there will be no rain all day according to the weather website...LOL...it certainly appeared like it would be *VERY* wet as of last night).

PLEASE DONATE!  You can drop items off to me if you would like to donate your "stuff".  

Dropping off donations:

• You have the week ahead to do so. 
• Friends of KOKS, I can meet you at the lot on weekdays at 12 noon and tuck items into my car. 
• Friends closer to home, I can meet you at the church to collect your items, so contact me and we can make a plan.

Profits from the sale of your items (which will be sold at the church's tables) go to the adoption fund!! (note that sales from people's private tables go directly to those people)

We hope you will come by to support all of us on Sat. October 1: 9-3 to buy something cool at the sale!! 

here at our church, Calvary Baptist Church in Oceanport:

1305 Eatontown Blvd. Oceanport, NJ. THANKS!!

Blessings, Lynette