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 heard from our Home Study agency this morning that it will be a "simple fix" to amend our Home Study and they are doing it free of charge! 

On Friday, our Adoption Agency went to bat for us and sent along supporting documentation that we only needed an Amended Home Study (i.e. drop in the new language and send it on out to USCIS).  They had proof that anyone with a valid Home Study would be able to do this - even in NC. 

Today (Monday) we got the word that we can do this. They said, "Oh yes, we've been doing this for people like you whose Home Studies are less than 6 months old)." Really?  Then why has it been 2 weeks now with no word from you UNTIL you go the email from our agency.  Hmmmm. .  And the director wrote to us saying that she hadn't had our file in front of her when she told us that we needed a completely new Home Study update.  If she had known that we were within 6  months, she never would have told us that.  Really?  You always answer definitely when you don't have someone's file? 

In either case, we feel blessed to have a wonderful new agency standing behind us AND blessed to have this obstacle totally removed!!

We're rejoicing!  Onward -- to Travel Approvals and our trip to China!!

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

Our new agency called us and assured us that everything will run smoothly to getting our referral in a few weeks.  Pat and I breathed a big sigh of relief and sent in our transfer fee pronto.

We're still expecting to be in the next batch of referrals and they should begin to arrive within the next 3 weeks. 

In the meantime, we're going to spend some time with my folks at the beautiful Jersey Shore.  I'm not sure how relaxed we'll be as we count down the days, but the sound of the waves, smell of saltwater in the air, and the feeling of sand between our toes, sounds like the best possible way to finish out this long long LONG wait!

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

Swine Flu is apparently holding up referrals because China has stopped sending out referrals or Travel Approvals.  If they continue to match during this time - which is what they did during the SARS epidemic - we might be pleasantly surprised with a referral in June.  If they have totally stopped matching, we are proverbally dead in the water until the situation gets resolved and who knows how long that could take.  So we wait and continue to prepare for our little girl to come home.

On the good news front, all of our paperwork is updated and we are good to go!  We received something called our I171H yesterday which is our governernment's stamp of approval on our adoption.  This was a big relief to us because it was nearly denied!

Here's what happened:  Our former I171H was set to expire on May 5 and we knew we had to submit a new 1600 form before that date (remember that big hullaballo a few months ago of the I600 vs the I800?).  So we sent it in with a week to spare and the day before taking off on a short roadtrip (that would have taken us past the May 5 deadline) we received all of our paperwork back!  They said we hadn't included enough money to cover new fingerprinting and could not process it without that or verification that we were grandfathered in to the old I600 system.  Had this arrived the day following we would not have been able to resubmit and would have been in violation of "abandoning" our petition. This would have meant re-submitting under the I800 which would have meant re-doing our HomeStudy (which we had just done) and gathering way more documentation.  I nearly went into a panic . . .but for God! He had our backs and allowed it to arrive in time to make the necessary corrections.

By the way -- we did send in the extra $160 for fingerprinting even though we had already been fingerprinted in January and didn't need to go through that expense again. But this is the government and they kind of have us over a barrel so we forked over the money anyway. What can you do? 

So here we wait -- it's like we are circling in the air above China waiting to land to receive our referral and the pilot keeps saying, "We are sorry for the unknown delay.  Please stay seated and make yourselves as comfortable as possible. As soon as we have approval to land, we'll let you know." 

As soon as we know that we're out of the holding pattern -- we'll let you know :-)  Thanks for your prayers and your support! 

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

Our 1989 mazda died a natural death the other day - thankfully in its sleep. Sharon and I knew this was inevitable, although we were hoping we could put off the purchase of a new car until late summer.

On the adoption front, we have collected almost all of the family pictures we need, and we are looking forward to getting fingerprinted on January 26th in Charlotte, NC. Following this time, I am going to focus some of my energy on filling out two adoption grant applications. These could provide Sharon and me with an important fraction of the adoption costs, and so we hope each of you is praying specifically for this.

Our social worker was scheduled to be here yesterday afternoon for our last homestudy visit and the one we were a little anxious about - the one in our home. Sharon spent the day cleaning and tidying and getting things looking just right.  About an hour before our appointed time,however, her husband called to let us know that she was taken by ambulance to the hospital. We are in the dark about any details, and so we can only pray - thankfully to the God who knows every detail and who has the power to heal. Our social worker's name is Debbie. Please pray for her! While this may set us back a few days or even a few weeks, the delay is rather inconsequential with all things considered. Our family is gearing up for Christmas, Sharon's parents will be arriving in a few days, and now the house that was cleaned from top to bottom for the social worker is ready for Christmas guests.

Have a wonderful Christmas season. Thank you for your ongoing prayers for Grace and for us through the adoption process. (Pat)