We are reaching the home stretch in preparing our dossier to submit to China, so hurrah! This past weekend, we prepped more paperwork, got lots of bloodwork tests done for our medical reports, got passport-sized pictures for our dossier application, and we covered our entire pub table in forms and documents. Continue reading
Monday morning, I woke up to Our Government’s version of a wuphf.
If you don’t get the reference, check out this great video clip below from The Office:
Yes sir, I was greeted at 12:01 AM by both an email and an SMS from “Do Not Reply” indicating that our big packet-o-immigration papers for Uncle Sam was received and is now comfortably sitting in the National Benefits Center Lockbox. I have no idea what “the lockbox” is, but I do know that it is a magical place that assesses us as appropriate parents and our future child as a good future citizen– and all of this in 90 days or less! (Let’s hope for less!) And just in case I didn’t get my text or email, we’ll get a paper copy of the exactly same thing in 7-10 business days. Hopefully, along with the receipt or a few days after, we’ll get an “invitation” for a biometrics appointment at our local USCIS Office to be fingerprinted a second time for the FBI. You can’t say they aren’t thorough.
In the meantime, I’ll let you all know if I get a Facebook friend request from “Do Not Reply.”
Our lack in posting means only one thing– yes, we were on location at another wedding. This time, our travels took us to Portland, Oregon to witness the beautiful wedding of Brian’s sister Rachel to our new brother-in-law Jon. Aside from getting to visit with family, the trip out west was a great break from all the paperwork drama. There’s something about mountains and trees that seem to make even the greatest stresses disappear.
While we were in the City of Roses, we took the opportunity to visit the Lan Su Garden with Brian’s parents and some friends of the family. We were all in awe of the striking architecture, decorative silk paintings, and the careful thought that went into even the way water was diverted from the eaves of structures. Even though my own gardening style is English cottage (where more is more!), I loved the careful editing of every aspect of these gardens.
A beautiful lotus in bloom at the Lan Su gardens
We took advantage of a guided tour by a very knowledgeable guide who explained to us the philosophy of Chinese gardens– rock, water, plant, architecture, and poetry. Though I was surprised at the last element, I had my *aha* moment by the end of the tour. The classical texts combined with the lush atmosphere did really complete the experience.
The single highlight of the visit to the garden for me was meeting a Chinese calligrapher in one of the buildings. Although it’s been a few years since I’ve dusted off my calligraphy pens, I felt at home with the Chinese brush and ink stick. We talked a little about the stylization of characters, and he let me give it a go. Now, at home several days later, I’ve found that practicing the calligraphy is really helping me learn the characters! I’m focusing primarily on the simple pictograms (like water, sun, moon, person, etc), but I think it’s a good start. I’m on my way!
A great view at the Lan Su garden
Well, I promised stories and I have stories! Today amid a flurry of packing for Brian’s sister’s upcoming wedding, we ran a ton of adoption-related errands. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment for us, however, was getting a packet of reference letters sealed by the Secretary of State’s office downtown. We agreed to be guinea pigs in a new process for our agency which helps streamline the process of sealing and authenticating and cuts down on cost for adoptive families. If it worked, we’ll have helped set a new precedent. If it didn’t, well… we’ll be back to square one on a few forms. I went into the city this morning with a stack of dossier documents, not really knowing how many of them, if any, the State would deem valid. Continue reading
Aside from celebrating seven wonderful years of marriage today, we also prepared a ton of paperwork to be (hopefully) sealed by the Secretary of State’s office tomorrow morning. Brian’s running a ton of other dossier documents around in addition to his CCAA physical, and I’m headed downtown to get stuff sealed. Either I’ll have really good news or I’ll be ready for a break. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, and let’s hope that all goes well tomorrow for both of us! In any case, I’m sure I’ll have an interesting story to share with you all.
After slogging through what seems like an endless stack of forms, clearances, and documentation, we have now encountered the holy grail of adoption paperwork for China– the dossier. For the pre-application, application, and home study, we easily racked up over 75 pages of forms, if not more. That pales in comparison to the documentation required for the final packet submitted to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Equal in importance to the contents of the dossier is the multiple levels of certification that prove the documents submitted are authentic and valid. Continue reading
Very good news today! I got word today from our agency that our recommendation letter from Illinois DCFS arrived.
We’ve been approved! Our homestudy is now officially recognized by the State of Illinois. Now, on to the dreaded I-800A and Biometrics interview for US Customs and Immigration…
Pardon our recent bit of radio silence, as we just returned from a whirlwind trip to Pittsburgh to see my dad married off in style. During the past few days, Brian and I have had the joy of reconnecting with much of my family we don’t see very often. Part of that included getting to share our plans to adopt a child.
Something I find really notable about sharing our own adoption story is that it seems almost everyone knows of someone whose life has been impacted by adoption. I look forward to our own journey being added to this collection of stories of love, hope, and eager anticipation, and that it might open someone else’s heart to the idea of adoption.
One thing that stood out this weekend though was my own realization of how excited I am to share my own childhood experiences and cultural traditions with our child. We are trying very hard to better understand our child’s ethnic heritage, but this weekend was a nice reminder of all the traditions, memories, and experiences we’ll be able to introduce to him or her– the wonder of a Pittsburgh wedding cookie table, the delight of polka-ing with family, hearing about family outings to Kennywood, the Strip, and countless casual references to perogies (I stopped counting at 10…).
Who knows if they’ll ever want or be able to ride the Thunderbolt some day, but if I can (almost) teach Brian to polka, I can teach anyone!
The cookie table is an essential part of any Pittsburgh wedding. This photo is from our wedding in 2005– compliments of the baking expertise of my extended family. Son or daughter, wherever you are out there, I hope you like cookies. And dancing.
As far as updates go, our paperwork is still stuck in Springfield (insert sad trombone sound here), but we’ve been given the green light to gather our final documentation for our dossier.
There’s no avoiding it. We’re going to encounter some major culture shock when we arrive in China. While we’re plowing through paperwork, we’re also trying to learn a little more about cultural practices and etiquette so we can be gracious visitors and better understand the homeland of our child.
I read this article a while back, and I don’t think I can do any better than the author’s explanation of this pervasive trend in institutionalized children. Although I am trying to steel myself for having many well-meaning “advisors” guiding me on how to dress my child, I know that it’ll still be quite the experience. From all the stories I’ve read thus far, I think it’s impossible to avoid at least one comment of “Put some clothing on that child!”
The single most frequently-asked question we have gotten since announcing our adoption plans- “So when are you going to China???”
Short question. Long answer. Continue reading