We are still trying to get our homestudy updated for the I-800. Talk about a pain. When we let our paperwork expire back in 2008 (cause I didn't want to drag Granny Annie thru the fingerprinting process again because of her health) I told Andrew that we would start redoing our paperwork when China got to mid March 2007 for referrals. Since Aislinn's referral came as a complete surprise to us (still a bit in shock that things did happen that quickly) we had to scramble to get thing moving. But I knew (that the speed we were going) was to good to be true...the homestudy wording has to be just so, it been going back between by agency & social worker, add in people taking vacation & the heat & you have one very cranky me! LOL.As soon as my homestudy wording is just right then we have to send in our I-800a and wait to be fingerprinted (again!)
I do have to say I have been blessed. I joined a yahoo group for the orphanage that Aislinn was in and received a message from someone(Stephanie) that knew of her and she put me in touch with a woman who is adopting Aislinn's foster sister. Shelly told me about the foster family that Aislinn is in, plus sent me two photos. One of the foster mother holding Aislinn and the second is of Aislinn & her foster sister. Both I will always treasure. I was so excited when these women reached out to me. I love the adoption community.
When we received our referral there was 3 signs for me that this was suppose to be, The 1st was a post I did on the day of her birth. The second was was our original fingerprints expired on April 23,2008 & the third is when her birthday is. My sisters Jamie & Kerri Ann both had children born in July (Saorla & Carleigh) & February (Fianna & Hunter) both of Jamie's girls were so excited to be sharing their birth month with a cousin.Now Seamus will share his birth month with Aislinn
I really haven't allowed myself to buy anything for Ailinn yet in way of clothes but I did buy her a doll, some hair clips & a doll.I know I need to start but not sure what to get. When we have a free weekend Andrew & I need to get into the attic and get down the crates of clothing we have ( hand me downs from some of the rugrat & family) and go from there. The we need to paint her room, paint her dresser pick out a bedding set,& get a carseat & stroller...one would thing I have all the time in the world! LOL Camp Chaos has been kinda quiet this summer, with all the heat, the rugrats have been staying inside even though Stew-Be has the pool up. I have Kenzie & Tommy 3 days a week & my nieces 5days a week. Looking after all these rugrats during this long wait has help me keep my sanity. Hunter, my newest niece smiles at me and everything goes away for me. 
I Luv how she looks at her big sister Carleigh
As Always Be Good & Be Safe
Labels: referral
| posted by Unknown at 8:52 AM
Back in October when we wrote that message in the sand I never thought that we would have an answer this soon. And to answer the question Our daughter is waitng for us in Hanzhong city . Which is a municipality in the southwest corner of Shaanxi province, in central China.
And now without further ado It is with great pleasure & honor that I present
He Meng Xiang
Soon to be known as
Aislinn Mariah
She was born April 23,2008. Now when I said I believe in signs, I went back into my post to see what I wrote around that time...
This was the first photo we saw. When we locked Meng Xiang file we were sent a update on her..........
She is a gentle and pretty little girl.
She is living with foster family and gets on very well with foster brothers and sisters.
She likes to be held by mom.
She has big and beautiful eyes.
She seems to understand what you said.
She is speaking now and she can say words of “mama (mom)” and “baba (dad)”.
She has formed regular daily routine.
She has good appetite and sleeping.
She is a lovely and easy-going girl.
Weight: 26.4 pounds
Height: 33.49 inches
Teeth: 19
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We had Andrew's whole family in for Fathers day weekend and after breakfast on Sunday morning we told hime family. We are trying to get our updates now so we can apply for our I-800. We hope to be traveling by Christmas!
As Always Be Good & Be Safe
Labels: referral
| posted by Unknown at 4:09 PM
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
