Wednesday

I still haven't heard anything from the agency...so once again I'm hoping that this means everything is ok with the dossier!!!! I know my Pre-Approval has been attached to the paperwork. Grrrr!!! I heard a rumor that the CCAA will be closed all next week, so that may delay my log-in date. I'm having a peaceful day with regards to the wait today. We will travel when we are meant to and not a day sooner or later. I have to accept that. Today that's easy. We'll see what tomorrow is like! :-)

Dossier Update

Apparently, my case worker is off today. But there is another woman at the agency in a different department I love dearly. She is always willing to be my vent recipient.

Anyway, she told me my caseworker was out and of course she has no idea about what happened last week.

BUT>>She actually took the time to go look up my file and found my name on the list of dossiers to be sent to China on 9/30/2005. She said the dossier was good-to-go, so that means no more hiccups this week.

I may not travel in 2005, but I'm confident we'll get Nicholas home before his 4th birthday. I can still pray that my dossier will be logged in with the others send in September, and maybe it will help me catch up to those traveling in December. {{Sigh.}} Back to the waiting game.

You know what they say about "assume"...

I should have known. There cannot be any step of this process that is not a hassle. My agency emailed my work address on Friday that they received my paperwork after the Wednesday deadline, so it wouldn't be reviewed until this week.

The deadline is 10 am on Wednesday.

My dossier was signed for at 0956.

You do the math.

I could fight and fuss about it, I was 4 mintues early...but the fact still remains that our case manager didn't look at the paperwork and it wasn't sent. I can't change that. Another week passes us by.

It will take a miracle to get us to China in December.

The Simple Life

I didn't hear from the agency today to tell me anything was wrong with the paperwork, so I'm going to assume that means it's headed to China tomorrow morning!!!!

Tonight we had our second ASL class. Both my children got removed. LOL! It's not as bad as it sounds. Most of the students in the youth class are older, but Rachel and Matthew apparently are ahead of the class in signing skills. They were playing a game, and R & M were on the same team and kept winning. The older children got upset, and started pestering and name calling. The children ended up in tears and were taken out to calm down.

The director decided that they would probably do very well in the adult class, so next week they are off to sign with me. BTW, I decided to stay in the preschool parent class. The instructor is wonderful and has lots of tips about how to introduce signing that I think will be very helpful to me. Besides, it's fun to do with my family (even if we did get in trouble for talking too much!)

It was another late night, but luckily tomorrow is a teacher work day so there is no school and we get to start enjoying our 3-day weekend.

HURRAYYY!!!!

THERE IT IS>>>>>>A COMPLETED DOSSIER!!!!!!!! And now it's gone. My fate is once again in the hands of Federal Express. Let the Travel Approval (TA) wait begin!!!!!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

I just checked Fed Ex's tracking......my docs are already back in Phoenix and delivery is scheduled by 1030 am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be DTC this FRIDAY!!!! One more quick call to the agency to ensure I have everything I need.....I'll be back later with the official word!

Yesterday was our first day of sign language class. We've been learning on our own up until now, but since the school year started, the Phoenix School for the Deaf has their regular night class for families. We packed in me, my two children, their best friend, my MIL and FIL and SIL.
A woman told a couple of stories, and another teacher interpreted for her. The children didn't understand why the teacher was speaking, because they actually understood the woman signing. It was a great eye-opener for them. They have seen me sign for years, but it is far different to see a room full of deaf people sign together. They were in awe.
We split into classes, and I signed the children into the childcare program that I thought would cover sign language with the children. They were left in the care of 3 of the school's teachers...all deaf.
I went with my In-laws to the basic class for parents of infants & preschoolers. My family loved it.
About 1/2 way into the class, the woman who told the stories, who is the program director, came into my class with my daughter. She told my my daughter was upset because she had been left in childcare but needed to learn to sign for her brother. So they came and found me and asked permission to move my kids into a youth beginning signing class. (That's where I thought I'd left them, but the directions were a little muddy.) So off the kids went.
The children started a class for children with a deaf instructor who does not speak. They loved the class and were very upset to learn it was only once a week.
I always feel I have a basic grasp of sign language, but that my level is very beginner. But happily last night I realized the class I was in wasn't going to cover anything new to me. I was able to explain this to the director, who agreed to let me try the advance class next week. :-)
All in all, the day was a GREAT success. My kids were so happy to be included in the deaf "culture" and were so comfortable in the surroundings and with the school staff. They all agree that sign language is much more expressive than spoken words, and it makes story telling much more impressive.
I think we are going to do right by Nicholas, after all! :-)

9/10 ths of the way done!!!

The documents arrived last night!!! I took them to the secretary of state office when it first opened this morning, then shipped them all off to the courier in L.A. Provided Fed Ex delivers on time, she said she will take them today, and have them back to me on Tuesday. So my dossier should be at GWCA Wednesday morning. I can't believe it's so close to done!!!

Just shoot me now

Everything happens for a reason, I know. But that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. I have every document I need to take to the state...except our homestudy report. They had to write a "short" version for China. It went back and forth for a few days between my agencies, then was fed-exed on Monday. The zip was wrong, and now it's in La-La land. I called fed ex yesterday when the envelope missed it's 1030 deadline, and they corrected the zip and rerouted it. But it didn't make delivery. Then today, it's again past 1030 and still not delivered. I was hoping to have this all done yesterday, but since I missed it, now I have to wait until next week to send this off to China, as my adoption agency only sends stuff to China on Fridays.

I guess I should consider myself lucky...I've heard some agencies only send a package to China once a month.

65 days from next Friday would be about November 27th. That would still give us plenty of time to get a consulate appointment in December. December is ideal travel time for us. Kids are out of school mid-month so they wouldn't even miss anything there.... please say a prayer for us!!! I'll go crazy if I can't spend Christmas with my new son.

Waiting again

And not the good 65 day wait for my TA! :-( I am waiting for my adoption agency to approve my homestudy so that I can get it authentiacated and send it off to China. Unfortunately (for me), my agency got 105 baby referrals from China on Friday, and they have to sort through all those ASAP!!! I understand, that's 105 families who have been waiting 6 months for this "delivery". They must be so excited and want to see their babies NOW. But I want to go get my baby NOW! LOL!! I am trying to take deep breaths and stay calm. But I'm ready to explode out of my skin!!!

Everyone (if there's anyone out there) please do a "read the report" dance for me. If I don't get all this in by next Friday, I'm going to cry!

IT'S HERE!!!!

OUR I-171H ARRIVED!!!!!!!! NOW I JUST HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH IT!!! :-)