Updates on Warren!

Just when I was about to give up hope that we were going to get an update, today I had an email from the agency with updates on Warren! I really needed them! He has 16 teeth, is 2 ft 8 inches, and weighs 26.4 pounds which is only 4 pounds less than his big sister. They said he is very active and WALKS! This is big news because he has a malformed foot and I was afraid he would not be walking. But our guy is not letting anything slow him down! He is even walking up stairs. The funny part of the update was that they actually put in it that he was naughty! They said he climbs out of his crib. I think we are going to have our hands full with this one! He is going to give Jaden a run for her money!

I really needed these pictures because I have been alittle down about our homestudy. I found out Friday that they were waiting on and FBI and BCI clearance that I was never told to do. Luckily we have a local place that got us in today and we were able to do our fingerprints and it should be back this week. They had also not sent out our letter of recommendation forms to our people. My wonderful social worker talked to her supervisor today and it is now on its way. The home office was so backed up they had not sent it, now of course they had cashed my check! Hopefully it only sets us back a week or two!

Clothes and Homestudies

This past weekend our social worker sent us the rough draft of the homestudy to check over!  There were a few corrections that had to be made but it all looked great.  Now we are waiting on the Ohio Child abuse clearance to come back for both Rusty and myself and then she will send it to our agency to make sure everything is right.  After that it is on to the final place before we can notarize, certify and authenticate everything.  My plan is to walk everything through and then have a courier take it to the consulate.  I am so ready to have this done so we can begin our next big wait. 
In other news we moved the beds around this weekend.  The day bed that was in Warren's room has now been moved to Jaden's room and Jaden's crib that was never used has been moved to Warren's room!  His closets have been cleaned out of all of Jaden's old clothes, and let me just say I am going to make a killing at a garage sell on her clothes!!!  While I have been cleaning out his room I realized that the poor boy has no clothes!  He has two PJ's (one thanks to Amy), three shirts, one pair of pants and one jacket.  I am trying not to do what I did with Jaden.  She had so many clothes that she didn't wear half of them.  Once I get updated measurements though all bets are off, I gotta fill that closet!

I got nothing!

Well I got nothing for you but I just feel like I have to update. I don't want his blog book to be empty while Jaden's has volume after volume! The only thing we have done adoption wise this past week is we had to re-do our Mississippi child abuse clearance request because it was not done on the homestudy agencies letterhead. By now it should be back in Mississippi and I am sure it will be completed soon! Fingers crossed.
One other thing I have done is ordered Warren's bed set. Since his daddy is so into airplanes I decided to go with an airplane theme. I now have the bedset and the curtains ordered. I have also found a few pictures I want to order. Warren will be using Jaden's crib, you know the one that she NEVER slept one day or night in! I want to keep him in the crib until we find out what we will need to do about his foot. He may have other plans and my end up like his big sister and decide he likes sleeping with mommy! I will have no problem with that! Jaden's plan is that she will sleep with Warren, yhea right! All we will have left to get for his room is a dresser and night stand and we will get that soon! I really want his room done! Jaden's first room was done before we were even DTC for her. Her second room (after we moved!) was done two years before she came home! So I am running alittle behind on this room.
So here is a picture of his new bedding set!

I have asked our agency to contact the orphanage to let them know that we do not want Warren to have any surgery done in China just in case they get a whild hair. I am hoping that they will be nice enough to send an updated picture or two. We shall see!

Did I just set a new world record?

I feel like maybe I set a record with this adoption paperchase! Why you ask? Because I am DONE! Yep you read that right. Our homestudy was completed today by our wonderful social worker! Of course she has to write it up and wait for the child abuse clearance to come in. I have done all the paperwork that is needed for them and even all that is needed for our adoption agency. So now we wait for the homestudy report and then it is off to immigration. Once all of that is done everything will be sent to be notarized, certified and authenticated. I plan on walking everything in myself and then having the courier take it to the Consulate in New York!
We were not able to start any of the process other than our LOI until after PA which was 12/6/2011. Then of course the holidays were thrown in there and things just can't get done then. But it took less then 2 months to get it done! I am so happy to have it done. One more step down to our little man!

Moving right along!

Things are moving right along on the dossier front! We had our first homestudy visit Sunday and we have the second one tonight and the final one will be a week from today! I am so shocked that they are getting it done so fast but I am not complaining. This time has not been as bad as the first adoption. It seemed to take so much longer to get everything together for the dossier. But some how or another I am pretty much DONE with our dossier for Warren! I have checked and rechecked to make sure everything is done because I feel like I am forgetting something, but I am not! We just have to finish up these visits and the social worker has to do our child abuse clearances and get our letters of recommendation back and then we send off for our I800.
Jaden was a real show off for our first homestudy visit. The SW asked if she was excited about her baby brother and she said no! because he will take her toys! Nice! Leave it to Jaden!
Unfortunatly we have no pictures of Warren to post and I hate to do post without pictures so I took pictures of our paperwork from Mississippi! They were awesome because I got it all back less than a week after I sent it! Lets hope Ohio can do it just as fast!

Being powerless sucks!

Since Jaden's adoption was a while ago I had forgotten the feeling of being powerless that comes with International adoption. I like to have control of my life but you can't do that with adoption. These past few weeks have been a big reminder to me that this is not in my control. I have done everything that I can to get this paperwork done! The birth certificates have been ordered, (we can't us the extra certificates we ordered for Jaden's adoption because they have to have been issued in the last 6 months!)the adoption petition has been written, the police clearance has been done, the Hague training has been done, etc. But we had to put a hold on the medicals and anything having to do with the homestudy has been at a stand still! Why you may ask? Well because I was having to wait for our homestudy agency to assign us a social worker! And of course due to all the holidays no one has been working! (but they sure cashed my check fast!) I asked if they could just send me the paperwork so I could get started with the medicals because of course our adoption agency and our homestudy agency has seperate forms that have to be done. I was told no because NOTHING can be done before I am assigned a social worker. It doesn't matter to them that there is a little boy in China who is spending more days away from his mom and dad.
I was not happy but what could I do? Nothing! Its not like I could switch homsestudy agencies because there are no others to switch too! I had resigned myself to not getting anymore done until next month! But low and behild I was WRONG!!!
I finally got a call today from my wonderful social worker ready to set up our first visit! I know I haven't met her yet but she seems nice and has small children. And a plus is she is not the same social worked my friend was assigned because she is giving them a hard time! So now our first visit is set for a week from this Sunday! She wanted to do this Sunday but we have plans and can't do it! So that means soon I can get to work on the other paperwork I have to do! There should only be two visits after the first one is done and I am hoping she can do them all in a month!
This time is so much different from Jaden. There is ALOT more paperwork for one thing! The other thing is we actually have a picture of our child and we know he is sitting there waiting for us! It does not make it easy at all! I just want to go over there and bring him home! This is finally a step in the right direction!

A little more paperwork done!

I am happy to say that we have done a little more of the paperwork needed to bring Warren home! The adoption petition is done along with my letter of non-employment. Today we went to our local police department to get our police clearance forms. They were happy to inform us that they couldn't do our forms because we lived outside the city. Whatever, they did it last time! So then we had to head to the county sheriff's department and try our luck there. Things were not looking so good there either! The lady was new and did not understand that she could not sign the form and then notarize her own signature! Seriously!!! Finally she signed it and had someone else notarize it! Yhea us!
We also finished our Hague training online through our agency. We had to finish this before our homestudy agency will even come out! So now we have our physicals and a few other things to do and of course wait for our wonderful homestudy agency!
I am also going nuts not having any information on Warren's orphanage! Jaden was from one of the biggest orphanages in China if not the biggest, so there were pictures galore! Of course she was not in any of the pictures because she was in a foster home but at least I had something! This time there is zilch on Warren's orphanage. I have been told they just started international adoptions last year. I have actually started a yahoo group for his orphanage and we have a total of 6 members! Jaden's yahoo group has 922 members! I really just want to see what the orphanage looks like! And of course I want to see pictures of our son. I think this is going to be a long hard wait!
I am also sad that I wont be with our China family! You know the family we made on Jaden's trip. There are 7 families who are pretty close and I just don't feel right not having them there! I have tried and tried to get them to adopt too but so far there is always a reluctant spouse! (no mentioning names Gary and Madeline!) How I will get through China without them I don't know! I know there will be other families and who knows they may be just as great as our first China family! But I doubt it, we all clicked so well. And I am sad that I wont get to see them this year because our reunion is in the summer and that might be travel to China time. So I think they should make the reunion in China this year! That sounds like a good idea to me!!!