Finally - an update

I know, I'm really boring and never post anything.  Well, there really hasn't been any news to post.  We were in waiting mode for what seemed like an endless time.  I am a little behind now though.   We had court on November 5th and he became an official member of our family.   Ilian Jacob is a Harris!!

On Wednesday this week, I woke up to find an e-mail titled "Travel Dates".  Wow, that was a surprise.  I could hardly believe it.  I really didn't think we'd see that for another week or two.  I actually had to try not to get too excited before I confirmed it wasn't really meant for another family.  My husband and 13 year old daughter will head out on November 29th (one day after Ilian's b-day) and be in country for only a week.  That could have ended up being 2 weeks.  What a blessing.  I can't wait to post pictures from the trip and of course the home coming.  My husband thinks it will be best for us to meet them at the house instead of the airport.   I can't wait.

I had been buying his clothes, new bedding, etc.  Now, we are in a little bit of a time crunch to make sure we have everything and get packed.

Praying for a smooth transition for Ilian.

The visits are finished.  Jerry is currently on the middle leg of the trip home on a flight from Munich to Chicago.   As it turns out, he is on that same flight with a couple of other families who just finished up their first visits as well.  It is bitter sweet.  It will be nice to have Jerry home, but I will sure miss hearing the news from each visit and of course the pictures.  Everything went very well.  I don't have a lot of pictures to share because I had a lot of problems getting them copied out of the emails and onto our computer.  So, now we start our 2nd stage paperwork and more waiting.  It should be about 4-6 months until the pick up trip.

"Troy" (I still can't use his real name) was a little timid at first and then warmed up.  I actually think that is a good sign for his ability to bond.  He doesn't speak at this point, but seems to understand everything that is said to him.  I just can't wait to meet him and have him home.

Here are a few pictures from the week.  I may have more to share once they are downloaded from the camera.  Jerry took a most of the pictures himself, so we have several with Yavor, the guide and translator.  Jerry taught him thumb's up, so there are a number of those.

 Fun with Yavor

 Two thumbs up

 Thumbs up on the first day

He likes to be held.  He is waving for the camera

 He loves to eat these things, they are similar to Cheetos.

My favorite, what a cutie.  This is from the last visit. 

 Seeing his new car, it was a big hit

Preparing for the visa picture

Well, there has obviously been updates for me to post, but I have been very lax about getting it done.  Jerry left the house at 3:30 am on Friday for a 6:30 flight.  After stops in Newark, NJ and Frankfurt Germany, he arrived in country at about 1:00 PM, their time, on Saturday afternoon.  It has been really nice for him as there are 3 other families also there on their first visit.  No pictures to post just yet.  As this is our 2nd time there, we pretty much have a bunch of pictures from the capitol city.   He will be leaving on Monday morning for our boys town.  Hopefully, there will be much more to post once he arrives there.  I believe he will have his first visit before I even get up on Monday.  Can't wait.

Time here with just me and our kids has been fine so far.  We have been able to Skype with Jerry, so that is nice.

No News

We were really hoping to get news today that we received our official signature that would allow us to get our travel dates.  It was a long week of waiting and hoping, looking for that email every day.  I didn't expect to see it until Friday, but kept looking just in case.  Well, Friday came, I've never been so excited to wake up at 5:15 for work.  I was so sure the email would be there this morning.  The very first thing I did was go to my phone to check the email.....nothing.  Nobody has received notice of a signature this week.  There have been some changes in the government in our boy's country.  Not sure how or even if it will affect our process.  Hoping we get the much coveted signature next week.

Waiting for signature

Let's get this straight.  I'm sure you have noticed, but I am really not a blogger.  I would love to have new and exciting things to share everyday.  Truth be told, I just don't think our life is all that interesting. I do like to keep up to date on what is happening on the adoption process, which has actually been nothing.  The adoption process is a whole lot of waiting.  We did receive our verbal approval on April 24.  Now we are waiting for the written referral which will give us the go ahead to travel.  It looks like the people that received their verbal approval about a week ahead of us have received their written.  Hoping for next week.  I'm am thinking travel will happen the last week of May or the 1st week of June.  Can't wait to "meet" him.  Jerry will be travelling alone, so for me it will be virtual.

We have spent considerable time trying to decide what we will name him.  Should we change his name or not?  Our daughter liked his Reeces Rainbow name "Troy".  We went with that for quite awhile, but it just really wasn't working for me. We considered a number of different names, but it looks like we will just be keeping his birthname. I don't think we can share it yet, but it's kind of a nice name.

SUBMITTED

Things are moving along on the adoption front, albeit not as fast as we'd like.  Our dossier was submitted last Friday.  We will be reviewed at Thursdays meeting and hopefully receive our verbal referral then.  A theme of mine - it sure will be hard to wait.  Then it will be another few weeks before we receive the much sought after, official signature needed for travel.  We are really hoping that first trip will be in May.  Jerry will be travelling alone like he did during our last adoption.  It will be really hard not to be there, but I'll expect lots of updates and pictures.  Troy has been reported to have a hearing problem and in need of a hearing aid.  We don't really know the extent of the problem or if he has received the hearing aid yet.  We are looking at putting together a photo book through Costco for Jerry to take to give to Troy.  Might be nice for him to have pictures to learn about his new family.

On the home front, last week Meghan announced that he had lost recess for a day at school.  She didn't really want to fess up about what she had done.  I managed to get out of her that she was laughing because Kaden was being silly in class.  Not sure I received the whole story, but no word from the teacher so it must not have been too bad.  

I-800A Approval!!

YAY, we've been watching the mail for our decoder ring and it has arrived - the I-800A approval.  We received it yesterday about 4 days after our fingerprint appointment.  We did our our fingerprints on Tuesday morning.   Within the hour, we were on our way to the bank to have everything notarized.   The notary was a young woman who was new at being a notary and was a little bit nervous about the cover letter  for most of the documents.  But, we did get it done.  On Monday, Jerry will take all of the documents to Olympia, the capitol, about and hour and 1/2 to 2 hours away to get everything apostilled.  By Monday evening, the comleted dossier should be on it's way via Fed Ex.  Then we wait some more :(   I really don't do that part well.  We are hoping for the first trip in May.

Our stateside facilitator suggested that after the first trip, we may want to hire a local to give Troy english lessons to prepare him for the transission.  Apparently, this isn't too expensive and could really help.  We didn't do that with Kaden and Meghan.  Would love to hear from anyone who may have done this.

On a side note, we received an email last night from one of the workers at Kaden's orphanage.  She is wanting to hear about him and his family.  Can't wait to tell her how well he is doing and send over some pictures.

With our dreary weather during the winter, we have mostly been held up in the house annoying each other.  The first day of spring we got about 3 inches of snow (this is Seattle, mostly rain).  Can't wait for the weather to get nicer so we can get out and take some pictures we can share.  I know how people like pictures.

Still Waiting

There really hasn't been anything to report on the adoption front lately.  We are still waiting for our I-800A approval.  We do have a fingerprint appoint on the 19th.  They had some problems getting good prints for me last time.  I am doing lots of lotion in preparation.  Let's hope there are no problems.  We have been assigned on officer and found out that we didn't send in a copy of our home study with the application.  Silly me.  We sent that back yesterday.  Hoping for a very quick response after our prints are done.

Dossier is almost complete.  Waiting for just a couple of things back from our Social worker today and then our medical clearances should be done next week.  Last item of business is getting those family pictures printed out.

Jerry will be travelling alone to go visit Troy.  Can't wait for that to happen.  I am excited to hear about him.

Making Progess

I am excited to say that we are making some progress now.  I am really no good at waiting and that is the definition of the adoption process - hurry up and WAIT.  This past week we received our completed home study back and have sent off the I-800A to the USCIS.  Here's hoping for a quick response.  I am really not sure how long it is currently taking.  If anyone has any idea, it would be nice to hear.

Now we start on our dossier.  That will give us something to accomplish while we wait.  This week we also received our FBI clearances back.  We mailed them off to be appostilled.

Back to finances again - We have had so many unexpected expenses in the past couple of weeks.  Seems like it will never end.  Our newest big impending expense seems to be a new water heater.  Ours seems to be dieing.  We have six people in the house and are having problems getting through one long shower with warm water.  So now is the time to mention something I never have before.  We don't do fundraisers or ask for help financially.  But, if any of the very few of our reader find it in their hearts to donate something, it would really be appreciated.  Anything would help at this point.  Thanks to those who have already donated to Troy's fund.

Unexpected Financial Snag

Yesterday, we received some very unexpected financial news.  Our adoption agency discovered that somehow we show $6,000 short on our fees from our last adoption.  Boy, we sure didn't figure that into our expenses for this adoption.  I'm not sure where the funds will come from, but we are committed to moving forward and hoping everything will work out.  Can't wait for that tax refund to come.

No updates on the adoption process at this point.  We are still waiting for the home study to come back.

We have started

This really isn't much of a post, but I am excited to say that we have started the process. 

• We have emailed our commitment papers.  Waiting for the apostilled ones to come back so that we can mail those in.  Hopefully, we will have the official match before too long. 
• We sent in our fingerprints to the FBI, those were received by them on 1/10.
• We started on home study.  I think that will actually go pretty quickly since it is mostly just an update.  Can't wait to mail in our I-800A.

I am really hoping we get through this process faster than we did with our last adoption.  Patience is definately not my greatest virtue.


I still owe you further updates on Kaden and Meghan.  That will come soon.

Back To The Beginning

I never got around to updating the blog after Meghan and Kaden's home coming, so I will give you a picture update going back to the beginning.   Their adjustment has been amazing.  There really haven't been any issues at all.   Meghan is a stubbon little girl.  Likes to get her own way.  From a girl, really?  

There will be more updates to come as we work our way up to current. 

This was taken in the hotel room on gotcha day

Here is Kaden chillin' in the hotel room

Our 2 older kids made this sign for Meghan and Kaden



Here are all 4 of our kids at the park



First easter egg hunt at Aunties house.  This was the day after they arrived home and after their first day at church.



Ready for the 1st day of school. Since their adjustment was going so well, we didn't wait too long before they started school.



Here is Kaden on the bus the first day.  Not exactly sure what he's doing here.