Well yesterday we finally got our notarized homestudy!!! My plan is to mail it out Monday to immigrations. Lately approvals have been running 30-45 days so I am keeping my fingers crossed for 30.
Today I fed-exed our Mississippi paperwork to the courier for the Houston consulate so that is one more thing done!
We are slowly getting there!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
At least the room is coming together!
I wish I could say that I had my homestudy in hand and on its way to immigration but I can't! My SW said we should have had it the first of this week but we don't. We have been told it was mailed so my guess is that when I emailed her yesterday she called the agency and they finally mailed it! I love my SW but I am NOT a fan of the homestudy agency! So when it gets here it will be mailed off to immigrations and our next wait of many will begin!
But while we wait to wait I have been busy trying to get Warren's room in some kind of order. Before this adoption his room was being used as a playroom or toy over flow room for Jaden. For some reason Jaden needs a play area on all three floors.(maybe she has too many toys!) But she did have to loose that one. The plan is to take the couch out of the loft and make that the new upstairs playroom soon!
So we moved Jaden's crib which has NEVER been used to Warren's room. I was going to leave it as a crib but once we got the updates from the orphanage that he climbs out of his crib we just decided to make it a toddler bed! We bought some shelves to put toys and books on and this weekend we bought him a dresser that has not been put together yet. Here is the progress so far!
I am not happy that the crib is white but I am determined not to buy a new one. We have already bought two that have never been used! The first one was a drop side crib that we trashed because they were recalled and then this one was for Jaden but we ended up co-sleeping! So I have to use it! The changing table will not be in his room either but I needed somewhere for it to go while we wait for our neighborhood garage sell, which I plan on making a killing on with all of Jaden's clothes!!! I have also ordered a few pictures and a decal of a plane for the walls that should be here anyday! I just can't wait to see our little guy in the room!
But while we wait to wait I have been busy trying to get Warren's room in some kind of order. Before this adoption his room was being used as a playroom or toy over flow room for Jaden. For some reason Jaden needs a play area on all three floors.(maybe she has too many toys!) But she did have to loose that one. The plan is to take the couch out of the loft and make that the new upstairs playroom soon!
So we moved Jaden's crib which has NEVER been used to Warren's room. I was going to leave it as a crib but once we got the updates from the orphanage that he climbs out of his crib we just decided to make it a toddler bed! We bought some shelves to put toys and books on and this weekend we bought him a dresser that has not been put together yet. Here is the progress so far!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Our Homestudy is done!
I can finally say that our homestudy is done and has been checked by our agency! They had to make a few corrections but it is now perfect. Our social worker said that we should have it in our hands next week after it is signed and notarized. Once we have it in our hands it will be off to immigrations! They are sending me two copies so I can go ahead and have it certified. My plan is to have everything done but the Chinese consulate and then once the I800 comes back I will walk it through and then send it all to the courier! We are getting closer everyday.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
A solution to the shoe problem!
Warren is considered a special needs adoption. Of course to us his only need is that he needs his family! But Warren was born with a special foot. This is the only thing that is different about him. He does not have a club foot or ectrodactyly or anything like that. His foot is just deformed. He has two toes and some others that are there but they decided to grow together. My doctor said it looks like the umbilical cord wrapped around his foot during his growth and affected his foot. He does have a well formed heal. The Dr's we talked to felt like once we are home it could be reconstructed. Worse case would be amputation.
After getting the updates of him last week I feel better about the fact that we may just be doing reconstructive surgery.
Suprisingly I have not been stressed about this. I know that we will handle whatever we are given. But the one thing that has stressed me out and kept me up many nights since seeing his little face, is his shoes! I am not stressed about him being home and what shoes to wear. I am stressed about what he will wear while we are in China. I know how the Chinese come up to you and inspect your baby and I did not want them to look at him and pity him. I knew socks would cover it but I also knew we were going to need something more than socks since he will be 2 when we get to go. All the gripper socks were for younger kids. We need something stretchy because his little gathering of toes is really on the top of the foot. I have looked and looked, stressed and stressed. My good friend Amy knew that it was really stressing me out.
She called me one day to let me know she thought she had a solution to our problem! Yesterday at the girl's gymnastics class she brought Warren his first pairs of shoes! I think they are going to work fine! He will be able to walk around(not that I am going to be putting him down much!)and others will not keep staring at his foot. We get enough stares in China just being white and having Chinese children! So thank you Amy for thinking of our little man and thank you for being such a great friend!
Are these stylish or what? Now I need a little pirate shirt to go with them!!!
After getting the updates of him last week I feel better about the fact that we may just be doing reconstructive surgery.
Suprisingly I have not been stressed about this. I know that we will handle whatever we are given. But the one thing that has stressed me out and kept me up many nights since seeing his little face, is his shoes! I am not stressed about him being home and what shoes to wear. I am stressed about what he will wear while we are in China. I know how the Chinese come up to you and inspect your baby and I did not want them to look at him and pity him. I knew socks would cover it but I also knew we were going to need something more than socks since he will be 2 when we get to go. All the gripper socks were for younger kids. We need something stretchy because his little gathering of toes is really on the top of the foot. I have looked and looked, stressed and stressed. My good friend Amy knew that it was really stressing me out.
She called me one day to let me know she thought she had a solution to our problem! Yesterday at the girl's gymnastics class she brought Warren his first pairs of shoes! I think they are going to work fine! He will be able to walk around(not that I am going to be putting him down much!)and others will not keep staring at his foot. We get enough stares in China just being white and having Chinese children! So thank you Amy for thinking of our little man and thank you for being such a great friend!
Manning up the place!
Poor Rusty has been surrounding by girls now for 10 years! At first it was me and our three girl dogs! Then almost three years ago we added Jaden! Rusty never stood a chance. So as you can guess he is VERY excited to be adding some testosterone into our little world! As a matter of fact I used the lack of testosterone to squeeze in this second adoption! Truth be told Rusty would have been ok with one child. I on the other hand knew there was another little someone out there waiting for us.
When I saw Warren's picture I put my plan in action! I took that picture and email it to Rusty at work and put in the header "Can you be my daddy?" I also pointed out that here is his boy that he could share his hobbies with. I was shocked and very happy to get the response back to "call the agency!" And the rest is history. So now we have a boy coming into our family and I am so not prepared!
I have really enjoyed dressing Jaden! My obsession with her clothes started 7 years ago when we started the process. I would buy clothes I saw that were on sale. Her closet was packed years before she came home! Her closet became so packed that we put a closet system in there and then when we outgrew that she spilled over to the guest bedroom! Once Jaden came home I was faced with problem of having an amazon child with no butt! Because of this I tought myself how to sew so that I could sew her clothes that were really cute and that would not fall of her tiny hiney! I also learned that leggings are a God send for kiddos like Jaden!
Now I am faced with a new delimma! How do you dress a boy?
I don't think I can make him pants with ruffles on them. I don't think Rusty would like it one bit. I also don't think that wearing his big sister's leggings is going to make him popular on the play yard. I am hoping that our little man is going to have a little meat to his hiney so his pants dont fall right off his body! I am hoping that we will be able to buy clothes right off the rack and they actually fit! As for now I am too scared to buy him any pants for fear that he will never wear them. Jaden had tons of pants she never wore because by the time she grew into them width wise they were 3 inches to short!
The funny thing is that I compared Warren's updates with Jaden's from the same time and they are exactly the same, I mean to the 1/4 in. in height! His weight is 2 lbs higher then hers but you got to count the 2 lbs of clothes he is wearing. So I think I may be facing the tiny hiney battle again!
So for now we are manning up his wardrobe with some very manly t's. I myself think they would look great with his big sister's brown and black leggings!
I figure by the time we go to China, Warren's closet will be 1/4 of the way full!!!
When I saw Warren's picture I put my plan in action! I took that picture and email it to Rusty at work and put in the header "Can you be my daddy?" I also pointed out that here is his boy that he could share his hobbies with. I was shocked and very happy to get the response back to "call the agency!" And the rest is history. So now we have a boy coming into our family and I am so not prepared!
I have really enjoyed dressing Jaden! My obsession with her clothes started 7 years ago when we started the process. I would buy clothes I saw that were on sale. Her closet was packed years before she came home! Her closet became so packed that we put a closet system in there and then when we outgrew that she spilled over to the guest bedroom! Once Jaden came home I was faced with problem of having an amazon child with no butt! Because of this I tought myself how to sew so that I could sew her clothes that were really cute and that would not fall of her tiny hiney! I also learned that leggings are a God send for kiddos like Jaden!
Now I am faced with a new delimma! How do you dress a boy?
I don't think I can make him pants with ruffles on them. I don't think Rusty would like it one bit. I also don't think that wearing his big sister's leggings is going to make him popular on the play yard. I am hoping that our little man is going to have a little meat to his hiney so his pants dont fall right off his body! I am hoping that we will be able to buy clothes right off the rack and they actually fit! As for now I am too scared to buy him any pants for fear that he will never wear them. Jaden had tons of pants she never wore because by the time she grew into them width wise they were 3 inches to short!
The funny thing is that I compared Warren's updates with Jaden's from the same time and they are exactly the same, I mean to the 1/4 in. in height! His weight is 2 lbs higher then hers but you got to count the 2 lbs of clothes he is wearing. So I think I may be facing the tiny hiney battle again!
So for now we are manning up his wardrobe with some very manly t's. I myself think they would look great with his big sister's brown and black leggings!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
FINALLY!!!
Well our homestudy is finally at our agency to be checked before it goes to immigration! So the homestudy agencies little mess up only cost us a little less than a week. Not too bad. I am just glad that I asked out social worker about it all or I guess we would still be waiting! Love my social worker but I am not in love with the agency for the homestudy. But once again its not like we had a choice since there are only two Hague accredited agencies in Ohio that we could choose from. So I am hoping in the next week or two we can send off our I800. One more step closer to our little guy!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Big Sis gets a passport!
Ok she didn't get her passport but she did get her passport picture done! I just didn't think that would make for a good title!
I took Jaden today to have her passport picture taken. It was a last minute decision and because of that I am only going to show you her picture and not mine since I was looking pretty rough! Jaden on the other hand was looking cute like always. I of course took a picture of Jaden getting her passport taken! I explained to the guy that I take pictures of everything that she does!
It doesn't matter how cute you are passport pictures just do not look good!
I was just happy she looked at the camera. I told her we could not go to China unless she looked right at the camera. After the picture was taken she thought we were leaving for China! I guess she feels the same as her mommy and she is ready to finally hold her little brother! Unlike me I am afraid she will be ready to send him back after a while!
I took Jaden today to have her passport picture taken. It was a last minute decision and because of that I am only going to show you her picture and not mine since I was looking pretty rough! Jaden on the other hand was looking cute like always. I of course took a picture of Jaden getting her passport taken! I explained to the guy that I take pictures of everything that she does!
I was just happy she looked at the camera. I told her we could not go to China unless she looked right at the camera. After the picture was taken she thought we were leaving for China! I guess she feels the same as her mommy and she is ready to finally hold her little brother! Unlike me I am afraid she will be ready to send him back after a while!
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