WHERE TO BEGIN
If I have learned one thing in my life is that...What I want ( or think I want) & What I get...... are two different things... That there is someone else pulling the strings in life and I am fine with that (It might be a WILD ride but its worked out great so far)
Late last year Andrew & I started to talk about looking into putting in a special needs application with our agency. Wanting to make sure we were on the same page, we took our time and had many conversations. One day in early March I stated to researching some of the medical term that are used in special needs while filling out a SN application with our agency on line. Andrew came home & asked me to take a drive with him, I downsized everything on my computer & we left for a few hours. When we got home that evening we found out that we had lost power at some point in the afternoon and I had lost everything I had done that morning. (no I didn't save anything). So I told Andrew that it was a sign and that it wasn't the
avenue we were to take at this time. (standing by my motto of "when the time is right & the stars are aliened the right child will be placed into our arms)
In May, just after mothers day (my 2nd without my mom) we decided to try & put an application in with GWCA. On May 14th I filled out the application and sent it by email. Within a hour I had a reply stating that they would get in touch with us about our application and in the meantime here is a pass code to look at our list of waiting children. I took a quick glance thru the list(not really looking because I wanted Andrew to be with me when I when thru the photos but he was away for the weekend) On Tuesday I received a phone call from our agency, I couldn't answer the call since I was feeding Hunter and let the call go to the machine. When both girls went down for their naps, I grabbed the phone and called Great Wall. Then person I was to talk to was away from her desk so I left a message. 10 minute later the phone rang & it was Cori from GWCA. She introduced herself and thanked me for submitting the online application. As she went on,( I expected questions about why we felt we were qualified to handle the special needs we checked off)her next words took me by surprise...."Donna ,I have a file here that I think you & Andrew are perfect for"...... HUH....she went on to tell me about a 2yr old little girl (again I was like HUH..again & asked if I would like to look over her file? Of course I said yes, we talked for a few more minutes and Cori said she would email the file. As I waited for the file, the rugrats both woke from their naps, my sister got to the house to pick her gang up from the bus stop & Nicky & Gianna were getting of from school so I wasn't able to look at the file till later that night when I was alone. It was Andrew's bowling night so he wouldn't be home till later Wednesday night. After I looked over her file I spent the better part of the night, looking into her special need and researching for an international adoption specialist to look over her file. When Andrew got home I told him about the phone call from GW and showed him the file.He asked what are next step was...I told him about finding a Dr to evaluated the chart & that we had 2 weeks to decide whether we were going to pursue this adoption. over the next few days I was able to locate an international adoption specialist who has a practice just 2 towns over from us. He spent a few days looking over all the information that we had sent him then had a conference call with us. On May 27th I called our agency and told them that we were going ahead with the adoption.We had 72hrs to get our Letter of Intent plus some other major forms back to our agency. Normally not a problem but Andrew & I were leaving in under 24hrs for a weekend of camping. So as soon as the rugrats left I started in on our LOI...I wasn't happy with how the words were reading ( When we had to write a letter when we started this process back in 2006 I remember the letter asking permission to adopt took me days to get right) by the time I had finished it and sent it to my agency it was almost 3am..... I had a MAJOR headache and I had missed a baby shower for one of the Colony 6....While we were away I was in touch with our agency..Our LOI was translated and was being sent to CHINA in the morning also they needed some pictures of Andrew & I that I would have to send to them when we got home on Monday Night.
At this point NO ONE knew of that we had put in an application never mind had a file & sent in our LOI. OK when I say no one I mean no one in our family, Our social worker knew cause we needed to update our homestudy,and the woman who runs the agency who was doing our home study and since we weren't telling anyone and I was losing my mind about our LOI I had to call my G/F Lori.....She was a god sent who calmed me down, told me to take a deep breath and got me on the right path for the LOI. Thank you Lori.. You Rock! And since I can't keep anything from my Stinkerbell I told her.
We were told that our next step is Pre Approval which should take 3 to 4 weeks to get back. On June 9th I received a call from Cori "Congratulations we received your Pre-Approval (PA)! The PA is the CCAA's initial approval and agreement to complete the review of your dossier for He Meng Xiang. Once your dossier is reviewed, approved and you are formally matched with your child by the CCAA, we will receive the Letter Seeking Confirmation for your family" !!! The LSC could take between 70-100 days to receive.... Wow...things are really moving quick here was my thought but that afternoon we got stopped dead in our tracks when my Dr refused to sign my medical papers (we both needed updated medicals). My blood pressure was a wee bit high. I tried to tell him the emotional roller coaster ride that we had been on and of course what started my ride with High blood pressure was brought up... He put me on meds again and gave me 48hrs to get it down otherwise there was no way he could sign off on our papers.....At this point my two sisters knew what was going on cause I was losing my mind.
So for the next 48hrs I didn't drink any coffee, stopped talking to Andrew ( its just easier this way) and really didn't eat anything... When I went to my appt on Friday morning my blood pressure was FINE so we were all set to go! Woo Hoo!!!
On June 14th as I was sitting with my sister Jamie my phone rang, it was GWCA. Once again Cori said "Donna Congratulations we have your LSC here"! Total shock to say the least is what I was feeling at this point, we haven't even gone 7 day from PA and we already have our LSC!
More Later...................
As Always Be Good & Be Safe
Labels: referral
| posted by Unknown at 11:13 AM
