Two China Dolls and a Prince!

This blog chronicles the story of 2 of our adoptions, both older children when they came home. It begins in 2008 and will continue in the hopes we can be of encouragement and information to anyone thinking of older child adoption.



Thursday, July 31, 2008

IMMIGRATION IS A PAIN!!!!

Well, to catch up...
I got the letter from immigration and they wanted, as I suspected, the license from the homestudy agency. BUT, and this is the most ridiculous thing, they wanted to know how many times Jr had been married (uh, DUH, did they actually READ the homestudy??), and the address of Adoption House.
Ok, so the VERY NEXT DAY, I had a letter typed up and copies of all the necessary documents; I drove up to immigration to deliver it personally. I walk in and there's two security guards there. It's Wednesday, the "open" day to just walk in. I told them what I was there for and the younger one said "well, there's no one here today that can help you; you'll have to send it in the mail" WHAT???!!! I remained calm and said I had done this same thing with my homestudy weeks earlier. They said well, they weren't allowed to do that anymore. I was seething, but left 'cause I just couldn't think straight. This was clearly simply a case of them not wanting to be bothered to go to any "extra" work.
I got in the car and drove about a block, and then just said "NO WAY!" I am NOT going to sit still for this; I whipped the car around (kids were with me again) and headed back.
This time, I walked in and right off, told them the name of the adoption officer, and that all I needed to do was hand her these documents; that's all! Surely, this wasn't an unreasonable request! Finally, the younger of the two realized I wasn't going to play nice and go away and he went to find the officer.
Turns out the reason I never got an answer to my emails or phone calls was the officer had been out of the office with a broken hip! The guard said, however, there was a new person now, and he said he would deliver my papers to her. I thanked him nicely and left victorious!!
Debbie

Thursday, July 24, 2008

JUDI'S ADOPTION IN JEOPARDY!!

Today we got an email and when I opened it, I literally freaked out. It was from our adoption agency and it said "we are closing". I can't describe to you the feelings I experienced with those words; it was a blow and all I could think of was losing Judi; how on earth would I explain this to the kids??!!
I read a little further and the email went on to explain that our adoptions were safe (though trust had gone out the window by now) and not to worry.
NOT TO WORRY??
You should have seen the emails from the families on our agency Yahoo group; they were flying back and forth all night. We all have no idea what will happen; all we can do is sit and wait; some of the families are very close to DTC (dossier to China), including us! In fact, I had just sent my dossier to Adoption House with a big check attached; at 11:00 pm, I called my bank's 1-800 # and cancelled it. This is just crazy; how does something like this happen?
We are praying hard tonight; if God's plan is for Judi to come home to us, He will make it happen. If not, we must trust Him, though my heart will be broken.
Debbie

Thursday, July 3, 2008

FINGERPRINTED!!!!!!!!

For anyone not in the adoption world, this is a BIG step! After waiting 3 weeks for our notice to BE fingerprinted (you have to be invited), I had to call. I actually got ahold of a REAL, LIVE person at the office, and she said she would send me the notices asap. Well, I practically camped out at the mailbox all weekend and by Tuesday, no notice. Imagine my disgust and embarassment when I realized she had sent them by EMAIL, for goodness sake! So I had them for 3 days and didn't even know it!
So today, we drove 1.5 hours up to the immigration office, walked in and walked out 10" later, and drove 1.5 hours home. Now, we wait for the real deal, the final immigration approval, the coveted I-171H!
Debbie