Dossier to China - her we come!

We did it!!  We aren't quite DTC (dossier to China) but our agency will have all of our paperwork on Monday and then they will send it to the Chinese Consulate.  Once this is certified? then our paperwork will be on it's way!!

Why is this such a huge deal - because when we started this journey I didn't think there was anyway we could have DTC by our deadline of August 17, 2011.  Mind you when we found our sweet little FeiFei we had NOTHING done.  We didn't even have passports!  Now we should be DTC almost 6 weeks early!  THe sad part is that we could have been two months early except for a few glitches.

Our journey is long but as with a pregnancy - the day will soon be here and we will hold our babies in our arms.  Ok I know they aren't babies but close enough!!  The wait begins but atleast it is now fully in God's hands and His timing.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!! I800-A

We got it!  After a very long wait for our I800-A and an RFE because our agency forgot to include our marriage certificate we got the approval today in the mail!  I do have to say though that they allowed us to email our marriage certificate and got the approval apparently all on the same day!!  Thanks USCIS!

Received April 14, 2011
Notice April 19, 2011
Fingerprints May 16, 2011
RFE received June 18, 2011
Approval June 20, 2011
Received June 23, 2011

And this is how I feel about this part of our trip!

Tomorrow to Denver to get our authentication and then Fedex to our agency!

The 60% upgrade & Father's Day

What is a 60% upgrade - our adoption.  My darling husband who at one time was a very reluctant husband refers to our new additions simply as our 60% upgrade.  Three current kids, and adding 2 equals about 60% increase in children.  It is so funny and so him!  Now mind you this is a man who plans on coming home from China with the little ones and telling HIS friends that they were to cute to leave behind.  He lives a very zen life - as opposed to my OCD planned life!  That being said he is the most amazing father.  What has surprised me is how much adopting has brought us even closer together and more head over heels for him.  The best I can relate this to is when we were young and expecting out first child.  He is truly an amazing man and such an incredible father.

Lightness in the dark

We have been desperately  patiently waiting for our I800-A approval.  I have never been a patient person - in fact I am a world class present rewrapper!  I can't even think how many Christmas's that I did not know my presents atleast a week before the holiday.  Hmmm now that I actually verbalize this - I am realizing this might be why God keeps trying to teach me patience LOL!!

Anyhow, I800-A's are taking atleast 60 days right now.  An excrutiating amount of time for an unpatient person.  I think the hardest is that Cav so desperately needs to be home and have surgery on his little legs.  It breaks my heart to think of our sweet 3 year old boy who can only walk on his knees waiting a day longer than necessary.

ANyhow, I finally broke down and called the homeland security number on the 15th of June.  Once I found out we had an officer I chickened and didn't ask to speak to them.  So today I received the nice little homeland security envelope but the letter was pink :0(  Sure enough we were RFE'd for nothing less than our marriage certificate.  WHAT - our agency #1 in colorado sent everything in - apparently they missed something!  Ugh the only saving grace is I got the mail at 3:30 pm and the last mail pickup is 4:15.  I made it with one minute to spare!!  Sent an original certificate via priority mail so it should arrive Monday.

This and a not so supportive text this morning were more than enough to put me over the edge.  Well that and a 12 year old who is hitting puberty full force and some wild freaking children.  This was the proverbial last straw.  I went up to my room and laid down.  I wanted to jsut hide in my bed but then thought, this is a perfect time to read from the bible.  Unfortunately, Fortunately, my bible was downstairs but then I thought of my favorite app on my phone!  The my bible app has not jsut the bible, but is searchable as well as a bible study mode.  I started reading verses about orphans - this made me feel a little better.  Then on to adoption - there are a lot of verses on this one!  Lastly, I searched Matthias - we decided after church a few weeks ago tis was the perfect middle name for Cavanaugh.  Then I decided to look at the bible studies and chose the life application study bible.  I chose the personal life one and what came up? Psalm 6:6 - Here is what it said - "


Pouring out his heart with tears, David was completely honest with God. We can be honest with God even when we are filled with anger or despair because God knows us thoroughly and wants the very best for us. Anger may result in rash outward acts or turning inward towards depression. But because we trust in our all-powerful God, we don't have to be victims of circumstance or be weighted down by the guilt of sin. Be honest with God, and he will help you turn your attention from yourself to him and his mercy."

I was floored, and it definately brought me out of my despair and back focused on Him.  This is definately a journey created by Him - to be sure of this all I have to remember is the story of finding Cav.  

"Pouring out his heart with tears, David was completely honest with God. We can be honest with God even when we are filled with anger or despair because God knows us thoroughly and wants the very best for us. Anger may result in rash outward acts or turning inward towards depression. But because we trust in our all-powerful God, we don't have to be victims of circumstance or be weighted down by the guilt of sin. Be honest with God, and he will help you turn your attention from yourself to him and his mercy."

Links to various special needs blogs

Ran across this awesome blog that asked parents that have blogs to post what special need they are dealing with.  What a phenomenal resource for parents!

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2011/06/show-us-your-life-special-needs.html

Chickens!

Ok since I have no new adoption news, I have some fun pictures of our Sunday project!

We (as in my husband & the boys) finally got the run built so our fast growing chicks have a place outside to play & eat!  The darling yellow house was a great find off of craigslist!  It has been HOT around here and even with the windows open I was afraid we would have boiled chickens of they didn't get a run soon!

Little man decided he was in charge of feeding the chickens - ONE kernel at a time LOL!!  Everyone had a ball.  We have a variety of chickens including dwarfs so that everyone has chickens they can relate to!!  Little man's is the little dark one called Batman!  Now little man loves the chickens - Batman . . . um not so much!

History on the chickens.  We had 5 last year when the school did the Honk musical.  We brought 5 babies home.  One ended up being a rooster so he had to go since we lived in the middle of town.  And yes most places let you have up to 10 chickens in your backyard.  They make great pets, the kids love them, and they eat the bugs out of your lawn.  Then we MOVED!  Yes we moved the chickns, and about the time they started laying the most beautiful eggs a dog came and got them all :0(  This was late fall/ early winter.  

So this spring we bought a variety of chicks from numerous feed stores.  We had a really hard time finding easter eggers (americauna's) because they lay blue, green and sometimes pink eggs!  We also found some Bantams which are dwarf chickens.  So now we have 14 chickens, and still trying to figure out if we have any roosters.  

THis little guy is a turken which I thought were SOOO cute - everyone else not so much!  You can also see the old aquarium we left the babies in until they were fully feathered.  So there are our chickens.  In perspective, they should be laying eggs about 2 months before we travel to China - We HOPE!!

Not much new!

Everyone is wondering how the progress is going, and unfortunately SLOW!  It's like watching paint dry.  We are patiently waiting for our I800-A approval to come through so that we can get our Documents to China.  The process can take up to 90 days.  We are hoping we are about 60 days but we will see.  June 14th will be the 2 month mark.  We have everything else ready to go so I will take the documents up to denver to have them notarized and then sent to our agency.  This should cut out about 10 days.  I jsut want these sweet babies HOME!

Getting ready for 5!

No new news, and although we have a friend who works for homeland security he doesn't know anyone with the I800-A group.  Bummer, I would love to light a fire . . . oh wait I am failing my patience journey!

So instead we are using the summer to clean out and get ready for our '60%' increase!  We have decided that the two girls will share rooms and the two little boys.  This will leave us with a guest bedroom / recuperation room for when the kids want to get away and feel like a vacation in a hotel room including a TV!  BUT we really need to clean out the rooms and figure out logistics.

We were going to do bunk beds but for the little boys I was worried that it might be a little dangerous.  Both little boys are very strong upper body and not so much lower body.  Can you jsut see them swinging from a bunk bed!!  Sooo, luckily we have a pottery barn bed for little man so we will be using a trundle and his twin bed for a while.  Hopefully this will work.  The girls will also have the same twin and trundle combination.  This should maximize space as well as being close to the floor for our little ones.

Little Mans train table will take over my scrapbooking area.  I don't think I will have much time for my love of all things Stampin' Up once I have 3 little ones.  I am not getting rid of it completely, just parring down.  Thankfully they have My Digital Studio so I can still scrapbook without needing tons of stuff and space.  It's all digital and AWESOME!!

Anyhow, continued prayers that we get this approval SOON!