Cute story

Toddlers never amaze me. Ahlyana is proving to be so smart for 2 1/2. Smart and caring that is.

With Christmas coming, I thought now would be a good time to go through her old toys, and donate some to charity or remove those all together that have fallen to the bottom of the bins or toy box. So yesterday we sat down in her play area and went though them. Most of the items she pulled out and said "I keep these, OK?" A few she would say "let's donate". One thing in particular stood out. As we got to a pink little bunny that had been tied to her crib, (you pull on it and it plays a song) - she picks it up and says - "save for baby sister" - runs into her bedroom and places it in her closet!

WOW - she really is understanding what is happening. It actually brought me to tears, but I have been strangely emotional this past week. She knows her sibling could be a boy or a girl, but when she refers to them in a conversation it's always a sister - hmmmmm.

Happy Holidays, May God bless everyone.

We've moved up on the list!

We just found out that we have moved up one position on the waiting list to #6. We're not sure at this point how it happened. We've been told there haven't been any new referrals, so maybe someone switched countries??? Not sure, but very thankful to have moved up a spot on the list.

It's hard for us to imagine that we could potentially have a referral by April and be traveling by fall. Which would mean two little ones running around at this time next year! That is of course the best case scenario and anything can happen. We are very hopeful that God will choose the correct timing for all of this.

Michele

This past weekend we were able to attend a local Diwali festival.


Diwali is a five day Hindu festival which occurs on the fifteenth day of Kartika. Diwali means "rows of lighted lamps" and the celebration is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. During this time, homes are thoroughly cleaned and windows are opened to welcome Laksmi, goddess of wealth. Candles and lamps are lit as a greeting to Laksmi. Gifts are exchanged and festive meals are prepared during Diwali. The celebration means as much to Hindus as Christmas does to Christians.


Because it is our local hunting season - Todd was unable to attend, so my Mom went with me and Ahly. Needless to say we had a wonderful time. The food was great (we don't have a local Indian restaurant, so it was a real treat) We really enjoyed the music and Ahly had a blast with the children, dancing until she could hardly hold her head-up. It's definitely some thing we will be making an annual event.

As for referral status, nothing has happened in the last 2 months. Mainly because of all the holidays, but we've been told that things should begin picking up in the next few weeks with some referrals. I don't think we'll be lucky enough to be in on this round of referrals, but we should move up on the list.

WE ARE ON THE LIST!

I received an e-mail from Tami at Dillon today, they have received our dossier. We are officially on the waiting list for our next child. It feels so good to have all the paperwork and legal stuff behind us for now. Now we try and wait patiently. I am actually glad it's around the holidays so time goes fast.

As a side note, we are #7 on the list. Which ironically is exactly where we started with Ahly - - - Todd and I both said - Lucky #7 :)

We will definitely keep everyone posted.

Off to Dillon it Goes......!

Everything is together, notarized and apostilled. Off to Dillon it went at 2PM today. With any luck it will be at Dillon Monday or Tuesday. (I had to send it registered, and was told that could extend the delivery time :(

So I think we are officially in waiting mode. Nothing better than the holidays to make time fly!

Pray a little boy or girl is out there for us soon!

Michele

Update

Fingerprints were done on 9/29 - without a hitch. Todds finger injury did cause some question, but everything worked out in the end. We have gathered all our information for the Dossier. Today it has been sent to the Secretary of State for the Apostille. (FEDEX man please be nice - don't lose the documents). Once this is return to us, should be 5-7 days, we will send everything to Dillon and we'lll officially be on the waiting list!

There have been many babies coming home lately and more being granted guardianship, with hopes to travel really soon. So hopefully this means more referrals will be coming. We are really hoping the wait won't be to long before we know whether Ahly will have a brother or a sister.

More updates as it happens :)

Fingerprints here we come

We were informed last week that we are to the point in the process that the fingerprints can be taken. We are so glad that they were able to get both Todd and I in at the same time and on a Saturday, so we didn't have to miss work and use up vacation time we need to save.

So Saturday off to the Cities we go. We're hoping things go as smooth as last time. Our only concern is since last time Todd has had a little accident with a table saw. So we're hoping that the scaring on two fingers won't be a problem with the fingerprint scanners - Say a prayer that these go through!

Onto The Dossier

We received our packet of information from Dillon. We are now full force onto our Dossier information. Things have sure changed in the last 3 years. More information and more "security checks". Not just notarized, but sent to the Secretary of State to be apostilled. As soon as all this is submitted to Dillon - Waiting list here we come :)

Home Study Approved

We received word that our home study is approved and in route to Home Land Security. Once this is received, we will be going for our fingerprinting in The Cities. Next Step then getting all our legal documenation notiarized and ORGANIZED to send to India and finally be on the official waiting list! Still a rather short list from what it was last time. We may not wait long.... :)

Michele

By the way our girl is now 2 1/2 - time sure is flying

I forgot to mention this with the last post of our final home study.

I think it was so cute I just have to share. To set the scene, we have been telling our Ahlyana about our Social Worker, Andrea. That she is coming over to help Mommy and Daddy bring home a new baby brother or sister for her. For all the visits she seemed to have understood what they were about. The day of our last visit, I was yet again telling her that Andrea was coming over to help us bring a baby brother or sister home. At the end of the meeting I was walking Andrea to the door and Ahlyana jumped on Dad's lap and started to cry - when I asked what was wrong she said " No, baby sister?????' We think she thought that Andrea was suppose to actually be bringing the baby with her and leaving the baby with us. It really was an "Oh how adorable moments".

A progress update: We are waiting for Dillon to approve the final home study then we'll be on to the Dossier...... Keep it coming :)

Michele

Last Home Study Visit

We are done with our last home study. In a couple of weeks the final document should be on its way to Dillon. Once that is done and our I600A, with fingerprints are done - we will be doing our final gathering of legal documents for the Dossier - and we'll be on the waiting list. We're getting there! Keep us in your prayers that this continues to move.

Michele

2nd Home Study done.

Well last night was #2 of the 3 home studies. One more to go(Wednesday) and we can check another step off. We are hoping it goes as smooth as our last one, which would mean it should be back to our agency by the end of August. Then onto our Dossier. Which we can hopefully get done by the end of September! Officially waiting by the end of October - oh how nice that will be, when it's down to just the wait of the referral.

As for us we are holding our own. Ahly has cut her two year molars, so we hope we're done with the running nose and fevers that she seems to get with them.

This also should have been the week that we were in Oklahoma for the India Heritage Camp with a lot of Ahly's little crib mates. But because of Todds broken leg, we were unable to make it. Maybe next year we'll have "two" - - could it be possible. We can't wait to hear how it went! We were even a little more disappointed because we heard that the director of the orphanage, Anju, was also suppose to be there.

More as it happens.....

Thursday, July 26th, 2007.

We met with our Social Worker today, for the first of three home visits. She also helped us with our first adoption so it's almost like working with an old friend. So much of this process has remained the same however the State has implemented some new laws which are going to make things a little more complicated. These are always to be expected, but we'll have to wait and see how much, if any, of a delay this may cause. Otherwise we are holding our own, maybe even getting a little anxious too!

Scheduded visits

Hope everyone is having a very enjoyable summer. We certainly are! We have a little water bug on our hands which is GREAT!

We have our visits for the home study scheduled. Keep us in your prayers for 7/28, 8/2 and 8/8. Looks like we should be well on our way for having this completed by the end of August.

As for the family we are all doing fine. Ahly is growing more and more and definitely hitting the terrible two's. As bad as they may be at times, I wouldn't trade them for the world. Sometimes we even catch ourselves laughing - just because it was something we never knew we were missing :)

Started Home Study

The home study application has been submitted, one more thing checked off. Our homestudy will take visits. One as a family then each of us individually. Hopefully we can get this completed by the end of the month, so we can start our Dossier and actually get on the waiting list for our newest little one :)

Application 2 Approved!

We just received notification from our caseworker that applicaiton #2 is complete - - Yippee!!
Now onto the homestudy process. Hopefully, with us having already done this, it won't take 3 months like last time.

As a side note, Todd has had his cast removed and is on his way back to normal. Wednesday will be his first day back to work in 7 weeks!

We'll keep you posted as more happens.

Application part 2

Whew! Application part 2 is complete and in route to Dillon. This part took longer than expected, thanks to a major unexpected delay. Most of you have heard by now that Todd broke his leg Mid-May, which made some of the running around a little more difficult. But in any case it's in the mail. Hopefully we'll hear in the next two weeks that the approval is complete and that we can proceed with our home study. Our Case Worker is already aware of us needing another one, and with our past home study already on file it should go quicker. (Let's hope.) Hopefully by August we will be getting our Dossier (legal paperwork for the government of India) together. Only when this step is done, will we actually be on the waiting list for our newest addition. Thanks for everyones well wishes and prayers while we wait patiently for this process to run its course.

Update: Medical appointments done - financials done - Just waiting for our pictures to be notarized so we can get the entire application in the mail. By the end of the week we'll be done with this next phase.

Another reason I wanted to post, was to let you know what's happening in Calcutta. We just received word, that the Judge that over-sees the signing of the legal papers for the children to come home is yet again, being difficult. (the last group of children that came home had waited about 10 months in the court system) When we traveled last, we were in court for a little over 2 months. If this Judge continues to sit on the bench when our legals come due, we could be in for this same, unnecessary wait. We've heard that he is not fond of adoption, whether it be domestic or international. So please, anyone that's reading this, please pray for the Judge to be realistic and not keep the children from their intended parents any longer than truly necessary.

More info as it comes.

Status

Today, being very dreary and overcast really got me thinking. We are so exicted to get this process going, yet here we are in a holding pattern just with our medical appointments. Plus I have been hearing of others that started their process about two weeks before ours and they are already onto their homestudies - - I know that soon enough that will be us. . . . . Just thought I'd share the feelings of the day. I am so looking forward to seeing Ahly's eyes tonight - they are always such a pick-me-up!

Update

Well we found out that our Medical appointments can first be scheduled for May. So until then our 2nd application cannot be submitted. This is just one of many different delays we will run into I'm sure. As always, we tell ourselves that God has a reason for every delay - they are all so when our referral number comes up the child that is meant for us is the one being referred.

Michele

Part 2 of the application process

Monday March 26th 2007, the packet has finally arrived. We are now gathering documents, scheduling doctor appointments and taking pictures. There are even more needed items, since we initially did this back in 2004. We are definitely not complaining, we know only to well what the outcome of this process will be. It will be oh so worth it and oh so forgotten once our child is in our arms.

We'll post more as it happens, but this is definitely the slower part.

Michele

The Beginning

Yesterday we received word that our first application to our 2nd Blessing From India was approved. We now wait the 2nd application and all the paperwork that goes along with it.