Today we got a US Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou and the green light to purchase tickets!   We thought it would be an easy thing to get tickets but it became an all day process. We ended up working through a wonderful travel agent who was recommended to us by our agency and the process got much less complicated at that point. She was familiar with all of the nuances in purchasing a lap ticket for Grace, and getting us a timely connecting flight from Guangzhou to Beijing. If the connecting flights to the city you are flying home from are longer than 12 hours apart, you don't get the international baggage allowance.  And I'm certainly counting on that 2 bag/person allowance to bring home some goodies for us, family, and Grace!  With only  a few flights home it was like a puzzle that had to fit masterfully together and we are happy with the results.

Of course, how happy can you really be when you know you will be traveling for 25.5 hours home with a baby on your laps who you love dearly but who will most likely struggle with that flight as much if not more than us!  We'll be flying into Hong Kong and then home via Beijing. Our travel group has to meet in Hong Kong so unfortunately we won't be able to tour all of the wonderful sites in Beijing - including the Great Wall, Tiannamen Square, and the Forbidden City. We could have come early but it just got too long and complicated to be away from our boys and we really don't feel badly at all. This trip is about Grace and we'll enjoy touring Hong Kong instead which we've heard is a beautiful city!  We'll save Beijing for another year, hopefully on a return journey with Grace to see her homeland.

Then it will be on to Nanchang (within 3 days), which is the capital city of Jiangxi Province where we will pick up Grace. We'll spend about a week there with the Chinese side of the adoption before flying to Guangzhou to handle the American side of the adoption where we will spend our final week. There will be lots to see, lots to eat, and lots to do, but honestly, all we're really excited about at this moment is getting our Grace Lu!

Today in the mail we received the document that has probably brought to us the most consternation over these past 4 years - our I171H. It is called "THE" paper to Adoptive families because of it's importance. This was the same documentation that we sought to have amended to include the wording "healthy or special needs" because you never know what they might find on your little one at the last Dr. visit. If they feel in any way she has or has had a minor correctable problem, your plans to travel home could be delayed by another 2-4 weeks (or more) while you wait for this inclusion of language in your I171H. Little did we know when we set out to add that language that we were working with an I171H that had a clerical error and was invalid to begin with!  So today 2 birds were killed with one stone by getting the one fixed and the wording included on it.  When I saw that manilla envelope in the mailbox my heart skipped a beat. Then I saw the return address of Homeland Security and my heart skipped 2 beats! I ran inside waiving it and saying "Department of Homeland Security!"  I took a deep breath and saw our longed for I171H inside but didn't feel the relief of joy until I had checked over every date - from processing to the inclusion of our fingerprint expiration dates. It was all there and it all looked great!

Sharon

We've been waiting for 4 weeks for news of Travel Approval from China and it finally came!  I'm not really sure why we need this extra approval. Afterall, we got our Visas and isn't that approval from China? It has something to do with the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs confirming that everything is good to go for our little girl -- but again -- shouldn't that have been part of the matching process? I don't understand it, I just know we needed it! 

Meanwhile, we are waiting on our immigration paperwork to be corrected. We did hear from the Raleigh office of USCIS that they sent it out TODAY.  Thankfully, none of that "mess" has kept our adoption agency from requesting a consulate appointment for us which is the next step in the process. Of course, we don't exactly know what the consulate will say when they look at our invalid immigration paperwork but our adoption agency is telling us they will most likely just need for us to sign a waiver that all will be in order when we are present at the appointment.  If I can at least have the approval in my hot little hands I will feel better!

As soon as CCAI receives a consulate appointment for us they will give us firm travel dates and give us the green light to purchase tickets.  Right now they are saying it's going to be Sept 3 - 18 which is just music to our ears!  Our hearts are skipping beats, I'm nesting big-time, and we're whirling around getting everything done in order for our trip to go smoothly AND for the time at home with the kids to go smoothly with their Mom Mom.  That means meals to make, lunches to prepare, schedules to coordinate, carpools to arrange, and packing to be done!  Not to mention getting the house ready for Grace with stations set up with baby toys, diapers, and wipes and being sure to have some formula on hand.  So much to do but quite frankly, we would leave today if we could! We are eager to scoop her up in our arms, tell her we love her, and begin our new life with our baby Grace!

Sharon

 

Yesterday we got word from our adoption agency that they wanted us to contact our Home Study Agency to get an addendum filled out and sent to USCIS (Dept. of Homeland Security). Evidently, there have been more and more children who when they go to pass through the final medical exam have been found to have something that was missed on the original medical exam. Even if it is simply a mole, or maybe a sickness with a temperature,  instead of being classified as "healthy", they are deemed a child with a "minor correctible problem". IF your Home Study didn't have it written that you were approved for such a child, you had to in the past simply get your Home Study Agency to send out an addendum and it was done in a matter of hours. 

As of July 1, the new director at the Consulate wants the wording on our I171H. In order to do this, you have to get your addendum and have it sent through our Government's channels. This usually takes several weeks. 

To prepare for this eventuality, we were told to get an addendum now because neither our Home Study nor our I171H has this wording.  But when I wrote to our Home Study Agency I was told that the adjudicate in North Carolina refuses to do just an addendum. They feel the law is clear that to change your 171H, you need a completely re-done Home Study. This means an additional fee of $800 at this point (expedited), plus physicals for all of us, criminal reference checks, a child abuse check, interviews in the home, and financial record updates.   All of this would total approximately $1400 and we don't even know if there is time enough to get all of this completed and returned before our Mid-September travel.

We have the option NOT to do the Home Study update and "hope for the best".  What does that mean? Does it mean that we get all the way to the last day in China and find out there is a problem and have to leave our daughter there? Does it mean that we would have to wait until new paperwork goes through our government channels? Would we have to come home and do a Home Study and go back to China again?

We are waiting to hear from our adoption agency about what they would advise next. They are aware of our unemployment situation and know that we are just days from getting our referral.  I have no idea how this is going to play out but I am trusting that God is bigger than China's red tape OR America's red tapel  If he wants us to get our Grace, he will. 

My Mom says this is our labor pains. They are painful, intense, and filled with both tears and longing for our Grace.

Will you pray for us and for our Grace that God would clear any obstacles and work miracles on our behalf and provide generously to meet our financial needs?

And to our dear daughter who will one day read of all of these labor pains -- you are so worth it my child.  You are wanted and dearly loved and we will do all we can to bring you home.

Sharon

Just when you thought you it would be smooth sailing to the end, we got notice that our Adoption Agency in Texas is closing at the end of the week!  What does this all mean for the Fitzpatricks?  We THINK it will mean that we have an additional $1500 transfer fee to pay but that the adoption will continue on course.  We have a call in to the new adoption agency but they are apparently inundated with calls.

These past few months have been like the puzzle of our lives has been turned upside down and the pieces strewn.  Last week it was with great relief that we could feel like we put the adoption piece into the middle and begin to surround it with other little ones to bring some order into our lives.  But here again, the puzzle was upended and we are left wondering what in the world God has up his sleeves. 

I say this, however, with confidence.  We trust in our God for every aspect of our lives -- the ones that look good, and the ones that look bad.  We KNOW that He is faithful and that HE will fit all of the pieces of our lives back together and we will be able to stand back at that time and say, "It is good."

Hopefully this is just a slight blip in the road.  If not, we'll let you know! 

Don't worry Grace, we won't give up on you! We'll scale every mountain to bring you home!

Sharon

Victory!! Hope abounds! We are so excited to report that the US government acted on behalf of the thousands of petition signatures, emails and phone calls and ruled in our favor! Those of us who are poised to re-do our paperwork will be grandfathered in. This means that we do not have to do the new type of paperwork (I800) that would have extended our wait by 6 months and possibly denied us our little girl.

Thank you for acting on our behalf to sign that petition and thank you to those of you who prayed and asked God to grant us a YES! He did answer with a YES and we now can stand at the portal to 2009 with hope that our daughter is just around the bend.

Blessings TO YOU all today for your love and concern for us and blessings FROM GOD TO US as a family who are striving to humbly walk in His way.

Sharon

This is an IMPORTANT update and we need your help with something happening in Washington. We need you to sign an online petition (below) to get the wheels moving on an issue that is poised to affect our adoption greatly. It's so important that I'm going to post it here on our old blog site because I don't want to lose anyone in sending you to our new site!

If we are not referred our daughter by March (which is likely) we will need to update our paperwork a third time. We have been expecting this. However, what we have not understood until now, is that new Hague treaty compliance laws have gone into effect and there is a debate with Homeland Security over which form we (and those like us) should use: the one we started with (I600) and so be grandfathered in? Or a new one (I800) that complies with the new laws? If we are required to do the I600, other than having to pay another $800, it will not slow us down. If, however, we are asked to complete the I800, there is an additional 6 months to wait due to slower processing of these particular forms. This means that we may have to actually turn down our referral!

We would get to the front of the line after 3 years only to have to turn down the referral we have waited for. Then what? Wait and hope that China allows us to wait for this little one whose picture is now in our hands and in our hearts? Will China give us another referral? When? It is all not clear to anyone in the adoption program nor in Homeland Security at this time what will happen. Pat and I are in the first batch of people that this affects and with the economy taking precedence at the moment, unless some muscle of voices is put behind these efforts, it may not get resolved in time for us.

God is in control of this and I know that if this is what we have to go through, then no matter how painful 2009 will be for us, we will still be able to say 'God is Good'. He is sovereign and in control of every aspect of our lives and we will trust his loving hand.

However, we all can act and we all can do something while this issue is 'hot on the table' in Washington. At the very least, we can all add our names to a petition. They want to have at least 10,000 names by Oct 18 and they have about 8000 at this writing.

At the very minimum, please sign your name at:  http://www.gopetition.com/online/22112.html

If you want to do something further, you could also visit here for a few other easy ways to help us and others:  http://jcics.org/5WaystoHelp.htm

Thanks for your help. Pray for this situation and pray for us to have the strength and grace to cross this new hurdle.

Sharon

We PASSED! Today we learned that our dossier has completed the review process! That means that there was no problem with our paperwork and that the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs has given us the green light to adopt a child from their country! This is the next big step after being Logged In and we are thrilled! It's a big load off our minds. If you get stuck in the review room, then your file is taken out of the pile and NOT put back where it was taken out! It stays stuck in limbo until you fix the problem with your paperwork which can take months sometimes.

Somewhere far away our family's story and pictures were scrutinized, the file was stamped with ACCEPTANCE, and someone picked "us" up and carried us down the hall to the Matching Room. And I didn't feel a thing! HA! It's a cool thought though!

Now our file is waiting for someone else to pick it up and match it with our little girl. We've sort of just gotten pregant (AGAIN) because it will probably be 9 months before that happens. Then when they match us, they send the photos and file to our adoption agency and we get the call that we have a daughter!

Maybe that's more info than you needed to hear, but it's wonderful news for us. It means there's actually been some movement in this turtle race we're in. We're one step closer!!

Sharon

Several days ago we received verification that our dossier has arrived in China. Our official LID (Log-in-date) is March 21 - yeah for springtime!!

Over the past few months we have been establishing a friendship with a family in our church that is also adopting a girl from China through the same Texas adoption agency. They were LID one week earlier. Because of the nearness of our two dates, it is possible that we will receive our referrals at the same time since they tend to bundle referrals to the same adoption agency. If we receive referrals in the same batch, these will be girls from the same province and, more than likely, from the same orphanage. The best blessing in all of this is the possibility that we may have a chance of traveling together!

In addition to waiting for our LID we were also waiting for news from a North Carolina Christian Adoption Foundation. The board met in April and passed on us, but their e-mail response to us was sweet and holds some promise. They will be reconvening later in the year and their hope is that they will be able to provide one or two additional adoption grants.

God is faithful. It has been strikingly clear to us that He wants us to adopt, and we rest in Him that we will have the resources to make it happen!

Yeah! We found out yesterday that our dossier - all of the formal and necessary paperwork - was sent to China. We are officially "DTC" - which simply means "Dossier to China."

Our next waiting period begins now and includes two milestones - China's reciept of the dossier (which is referred to as the "Log in Date" or LID) and the answer to an adoption grant application through a North Carolina Christian Adoption Foundation.

Thank you for your continued prayers! (Pat)