I 800A approval

We had a super busy week this week!! My dad and stepmom flew up from Florida to attend John and Ben's baptism and first communion. Our tenant moved out of the cottage, and I spent several days cleaning and getting ready for the grandparents' visit. It's also Father's Day weekend. To top it all off, the three youngest boys had a taekwondo tournament all day on Saturday, and next week we are flying to California so that they can compete in the Junior Olympics. To celebrate all these events, we had a big family and friends cookout on Sunday at the cottage. It was wonderful to see all the kids together and happy! Then, on Monday, we received our I-800A approval. I think this is the last document we need before WACAP can send our dossier to China. Hopefully, China will accept all of the paperwork from the dossier we used in 2010. This will make it much easier on us, and a little less expensive.

what's in a name?

Here we go again!! Yes, I've been re-thinking the name Logan. For six months we've been calling KangChao his new American name, Logan. But lately I've had second thoughts about the name. First of all, we had a foster child whose name was Logan. We love him dearly, and I still entertain the idea that he may, someday, somehow, wind up back in our home. God works in mysterious ways, and I am certain, deep-down, that Logan will come home eventually. Also, Logan is not a Biblical name. I know that Austin and Connor are also not Biblical names, but adoption is guided entirely by faith, and I want our sons who are adopted to have names from the Bible. When I had Austin and Connor we didn't even attend church, so it wasn't as important then. Anyway, we tossed around names again at dinner. Boy, our dinner table is LOUD. On another note, I just read the book "20 and Counting" It's a book about a family who has 18 children!!! They are extremely organized, religious, home-schooling and fun!! I read the entire book in one day. How exciting to have such a big family!!

The answer is no

Yesterday, we went to our biometrics appointment in Buffalo. The whole appointment, from start to finish, was less than 15 minutes, and we were home by 11:30. On the way to Buffalo, I asked David once again if he thought we should adopt two children this trip. He said, "No." He worries that we won't be able to give KangChao enough attention. I really think that he remembers that John was NOT nice to Ben when we adopted them together, and David is afraid a similar situation will occur if we again adopt two at once. Later, David said that we can consider adopting two more boys after Austin graduates from high school. I will be 50 years old by then, so maybe we'll decide against it, but for now I guess we are going to just concentrate on bringing KangChao home. I have a feeling that this topic will be revisited though. David takes awhile to warm up to my brilliant ideas!

Memorial Weekend 2011

This weekend we went to Washington DC to see our nation's capitol. While we were there, we were lucky enough to be able to coordinate a visit with a family who adopted a boy that is one of John's friends!! They haven't seen each other in 18 months, and it was a nice reunion for everyone. This family adopted four children from China over the years, and they brought five (of their 9) children to see us in Washington. Collectively, our two families had 9 children, six of whom were adopted from China, and we managed to feed them all dinner and watch them swim without any trouble at all. We told the family about our upcoming adoption of KangChao (Logan) and we think he lives in the same orphanage that their daughter Emma lived before her adoption. What a small world! We also went to the National Zoo to see the two panda bears that are on loan from China. Ben was so excited! We tried to see pandas in the Guangzhou Zoo, but for some reason they weren't in their cage that day. Overall, it was a fabulous weekend.

Biometrics appointment

We finally received the Appointment Notice from the Department of Homeland Securty U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office. Our "biometrics" (a fancy way of saying fingerprints) appointment is June 6th at 9am. Darn. I was supposed to go on a field trip with Ben's school to the zoo that day. Obviously, I'll have to let the teacher know that I can't go anymore. We can't reschedule the appointment again. We lost almost two months by rescheduling the first appointment. Luckily, we have done this once before, and we know that no matter what we do or how much we hurry, the adoption will take over a year to finalize. That's just how long it takes, period.

No progress

It's been over a month since I sent the notice to the Dept. of Homeland Security asking them to reschedule our finger-print appointment, and we still haven't heard anything back. I've called them twice and left two messages, with no response. In the meantime, I booked our next cruise vacation for Feb. 2012, and we reserved a room large enough to include Logan too, just in case we have him home by then. I've been reading a blog lately, entitled two tots and a teen, and the family just adopted two more adorable little boys from China, ages 3.5 and 18 months. Yes, it made me wonder if we should adopt two more boys again. We have the room, and six is a nice even number. Three teens and three little ones...hmmm. I mentioned the idea to David, and he is thinking about it now too. Elizabeth Rose is in China right now, visiting two orphanages in the Shandong province, where Logan is currently residing. When Elizabeth Rose gets back, maybe she'll have new information about Logan, and maybe she will send us more videos of little boys!

USCIS fingerprints

Well, we finally received the USCIS letter notifying us of our "appointment" to get our biometrics (yes, fingerprints again!) complete at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Buffalo. Wouldn't you know it, the appointment is for when we are on vacation so we have to reschedule. I called the number on the notice to try to reschedule, but I was told I had to return the official Notice of Action with the box checked "Request for Rescheduling." I asked the woman if she could check to see when the next appointment is, so that I can mark it on the calendar, and she said no. We can only ask for a reschedule one time, and we MUST go to that appointment or we'll be denied the next time. Uh oh. We can only hope that the next appointment date that they send us works ok with our calendar. If not, we'll have to move mountains to make the appointment anyway. On another note, the same day that we received the notice for our fingerprint appointment, we also received the form to apply for John and Ben's birth-certificate. Just over a year after our adoption was finalized, I am able to complete the very last form to prove that they are our sons. The birth-certificate will show me as Mother and David as Father!