Blog move

Please join us on our family blog at:
 Hemmes Family Happenings.
I find I forget to blog here as often as I should!

For those who just want the simple now and then updates I'll post our new stats here.
We received a 36 day LOA on March 11th which is AMAZING!
I sent in our I800 paperwork to Immigration today so things are moving fast which is a blessing.

UPDATE!!!

First thing's first. 

Thank you  SO very much whomever donated $100.00 to John's fund. I couldn't believe my eyes!

We are now above the $1,000 mark!!!!

We will get there and John is so worth it.

 

Speaking of John, here is his latest photo!!

I noticed right away that our sweet boy has a big scratch on his face.

It also makes me very sad seeing him in a coat with pink/purple on it.

Yes, I know he is in an orphanage where all kids dress like this and I totally get that.

However, he goes to school in one of the wealthiest provinces in China.

So here is my son going to school where he already sticks out being a Little Person (Little People in orphanages almost never get to go to school in China)  and then he has to go wearing a girls coat.

I know I shouldn't feel that way but I do because he is my son and I want the best for him and to keep him from feeling like he is less than.

 

We were able to get 10 questions answered and while I am glad we have them I was hoping they would go over the questions with John but I can tell it is just someone who works there giving her answers to the questions as she believes. I really wish she could have spent a bit more time answering them as they are very short and to the point but I'll take it. :)

 

1. Does Hong Jian know we are adopting him and will be there June/July to bring him home?

Yes.

2. What is his favorite subject in school?
Chinese language.

3. What is his favorite color so we may use it in his bedroom?
Red.

4. What things does he like and dislike to eat?
He likes to eat QQ candy (it’s like jelly). He doesn’t like milk.

5. Does he speak any English?
He can say hello.

6. Has he received our photo album and letter about our family?
Yes.

7.Is he OK with us changing his name to John? If not, what would he prefer?
Yes.

8. Does he have anything he is afraid of?
No, he is very brave.

9. Is he able to write/exchange letters with us now or SKYPE on the computer?
Sorry, it is not available.

10. We wish for you to tell him how lucky we feel that he is to be our son and that his brothers and sisters are all very excited to meet him!
Thank you, we have told him and he said he was very excited, too!

11. His updated measurements:
Height: 100cm; Weight: 20kg; Shoe size: 35.

On it's way!

Dossier

To

Ch*na

That's right! Today the last of our paperwork needed to send to China has left our agency and is now on it's way to Ch*na to meet up with our original dossier.

From here the paperwork will need to be logged in, translated, reviewed and accepted.

This typically takes 1-3 months with the number right now being around 55 days for approval.

We are SO thrilled that we are at this point in the process as every bit brings us closer to bringing John home!

Do we know what we are doing?

While we are still awaiting the fliers to announce our BIG fundraiser, ( it's been rescheduled 3 times now and yes I know I promised to tell you by now and I will just as soon as I can. Promise!) I will go on to our second most asked question about our adoptions.

When most people find out we are adopting they have questions.
How much does it cost?
How long does it take?
Why a boy from China, aren't they all girls needing homes there?

And the big one lately that has really thrown me for a loop,
Why adopt a child with special needs?
I've had two people in the past week ask me if we realize what we are doing adopting handicapped children.
REALLY?
You can't possibly be talking about my boys.
I looked up the word handicapped in the dictionary.
hand·i·capped adjective: physically or mentally disabled.
I have to say whoever thinks our boys are disabled are sorely mistaken!
While Liam may not have two legs of equal length he is by no means disabled.
And John may have achondroplasia dwarfism but besides not being as tall as others his age he can pretty much do anything you and I can do.

Why would we choose to adopt these two boys with special needs?

Well to us, their needs are what makes them special to us!
I am inspired daily by ALL of my children who ALL have needs that are different and special than other children just in different variations.

We have three daughters who are 21, 17 and 13 and if you tell me they don't have a lot of needs from us right now, you'd be wrong!

I've been reminded that it isn't the same as we are "older" and taking on children with medical needs.

Yes.
We know.
We CHOSE these boys for all they have to offer this world.
We CHOSE them because they are wonderfully and perfectly made.
We CHOSE them because they will be a gift to our family and to so many others whose lives they touch.

I always welcome questions about our adoption.

I only hope that by my answers, others may understand how these children are NOT a burden to us and our family but a true GIFT.

APPROVED!!!

Whew!
After two, yes TWO RFE (Request For Evidence) we were finally approved today through Immigration!

What's next.
I hope to receive the approval in the mail on Friday.
It then needs to be copied, notarized, certified and then taken to the Secretary of State for State Certification.
Once that is done I will send that and the other two necessary documents (home study and CCCWA letter) to a courier who will take them to the Chinese Consulate to be Authenticated.

After this we send all of our paperwork to our agency who looks it over and will send it to China!
This is big because we are reusing our dossier we only have until March 7th for these documents to be logged into China.
Once we are DTC (Dossier to China) it can take 1-4 weeks to be logged in.
I think we can make it and I will remain hopeful!

John is loved!

I am unable to know who is adding precious funds to John's account but I want you to know it means the world to us.
Every time I see the funds rise I want to tell John, "See how much you are loved!"
There are so many people that have been praying for John and truly helping us bring him home and I wish he could know that.
If you have donated or prayed and want to make yourself known, please leave a comment below as I'd love to add you to MY prayer list!

We should have the last bit of information Immigration needs to our Officer by Monday so we hope we are approved this week.
From there I will rush around getting all the necessary papers notarized, certified and authenticated before they are sent to our agency to check over and send to China.
Please pray that this next step is one without bumps as we have a deadline for reusing our Dossier and we don't want anything to keep us from our son one day longer than necessary.

Small setback

Well it seems that walking in for fingerprinting early didn't save us any time at all.
It was worth a try!
Our actual fingerprinting date was Dec 27th and that day came and went without an Immigration Officer for our case.
I called again yesterday and we had just been given an Officer who was looking over our paperwork.
Unfortunately we got a RFE (request for evidence).
This will slow us down but not by much we hope!
Our home study agency is working on fixing the error now and we will have the corrected paperwork to USCIS hopefully today!

I thought a lot about John over the holidays and how next year he will be with us.
There are so many firsts we can't wait to share with John.
Step number one is to get our boy home!
Thank you so very much for all your love and support.
It truly means alot to know John has so many people that want him home as much as we do!

I was down and then I was up!

Today was a good reminder for me to look around and not focus on what is not happening in John's adoption but what is happening.
I have been waiting for our Immigration approval so we can move onto the next step in John's adoption which is getting the paperwork to the Secretary of State and then onto the Consulate.
After that we are DTC or Dossier to China!!!!

I called Immigration today since we walked in for our fingerprinting appointments weeks early.
We even went back in when my Mother's prints failed.
The 27th was our actual appointment date but still we have no Officer assigned to us to even look at our application.
I felt a bit down thinking it is taking too long and my sweet boy is waiting and waiting.
However, someone. Some dear sweet soul was also thinking of my little boy!

I was checking the timeline of my Immigration paperwork when I scrolled through and thought I saw the donation amount for John's fund have an 8 in it.
No, it had been at $568 for so long now.
I scrolled back up and I stared at the screen, blinking.
It read $818.00!My eyes didn't see much more for a few minutes as I became all weepy but I just want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart whoever you are, John's special angel.

Happy New Year from the Hemmes' with love!

Fingerprints ~ Check!

I was surprised and thrilled to have received our fingerprinting appointment letter in the mail last Monday.
The appointment date was for Dec 27th although once you are in the system you can walk-in if your particular office allows it.
My family was all on board for this and we made plans to leave the next day.
I had heard the Atlanta office was good about this so I hoped for the best as we drove the two hours to their office.
DH was still in his military uniform as an extra incentive to let us fingerprint ahead of appointment as I had heard active duty military don't need an appointment.
In the end we walked right in and everyone there was so pleasant and helpful.
We were in and out in under 30 minutes!
I've since called USCIS to let them know we walked in early and let's hope this speeds things up.
With Christmas right around the corner I am wishing that our approval comes in time to have it sent to the Chinese Consulate before the week's break.
My timeline is not always His timeline so I know to be patient but always hopeful.

Just sitting around waiting

These days we are just sitting around waiting on our fingerprinting appointment for Immigration.
It should be within the next two weeks and then we will drive to Atlanta to be fingerprinted early.
Sometimes it speeds up the process and sometimes it doesn't.
We'll pray it does!
Since we are reusing our dossier we only have a few documents this time to be notarized, certified and authenticated.
Our home study which I had to mail away to another county to be certified, our Letter of Commitment which is already done and then once our Immigration approval comes, a copy of that will need to be notarized and certified as well.
Then those 3 papers will need to be sent by courier to the Chinese Embassy to be authenticated.
I am going to guess that all will take about a month, so just after the new year we should have all our paperwork ready to send to China to meet up with our dossier which is already there.
I'll go into more detail as things happen but that's a quick version of where we are.

We still have our BIG fundraiser reveal but sadly I can't give out any more clues until our funds go up.
Just $20.00 will get you one more clue and $32.00 will reveal the entire secret!
A teaser I will throw out there, the actual fundraiser will be on January 25th and it is going to be in the newspapers and t.v.
Now don't you want to know more?

No news is good news I hope!

My paperwork was received at the Immigration office P.O Box on Saturday.
We included the form that will notify us via Text and E-mail when the form is received by someone in the office.
That has yet to happen and it's got me worried since that is what happened the last time I sent it in without proper postage.
This time I sent it via Priority Mail so I know it has the correct postage, but maybe I forgot to include something???
Yes, I'll be driving myself crazy until I hear something!

I also want to thank someone for my smile as I noted John's adoption fund rose by $15.00 today.
THANK YOU so much!

Clue and some news

Well the good news is that we are moving forward!
We finally received our notarized home study today and I turned around and sent it to Immigration for our I-800a approval.
The I-800a is an Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country.
This part of the process will take typically 30-80 days but we are going to walk in when we receive our fingerprinting appointments and we hope that will speed things up!

Now I promised you another clue the other day, the LAST ONE until John's fund hits $500.00
The final clue until the BIG announcement is........................................................................

Clues for you!

I get so excited when I see John's fund rise because it means you all are just as happy and excited for him to come home as we are and that means A LOT!
Thank you SO very much for caring about John and our family.

Today was a rainy, dreary day here.
Not many of those since we moved here 4 short months ago.
The kids were off of school for Veteran's Day so they enjoyed the extra time to sleep in and play games.
I have a little boy who finally has outgrown his 18 month clothes so I spent most of the day, taking photos, pricing and posting them on a Facebook virtual garage sale.
It's great because the money I make for the clothing sold went to a bulk lot of 2T clothing I bought on Ebay of gently used tops, bottoms and pajamas.
Winter wardrobe problem solved!

Ok , now for today's clues.
I apologize for the missing clue as I AM keeping track of all your heartfelt donations so there will be two clues today!

Since yet another donation was made today there will be one more clue tomorrow!
That will be the last clue for awhile unless the fund jumps again.
I love it when that happens!

Another clue and a sincere thank you!

I came online tonight to post the third clue and was so touched to see someone has yet again donated to John's fund.
I sincerely THANK YOU, whoever you are.
We are not able to see who donates to our fund so while I would normally send a thank you note, I apologize for this non personal, yet heartfelt thank you!

Along with tonight's clue I will share with you John's newest photos that we received today!
If you remember me telling you we sent him a cake to celebrate that he now has a family.

His smile is so precious in these photos and I hope that means he is thinking of us as we are thinking of him.

Ok, now that you have had your dose of sweetness for tonight onto the clue!

Your next clue is...................many celebrities!!!!

A clue! A clue!

So I promised to give a clue to the BIG secret for every $25.00 that was donated to John's adoption.
I figured little by little I would give out clues as it would take awhile for that to happen.
This evening however, John's adoption fund jumped by $100.00.
WOW!
Whoever you are that donated, we appreciate you!
To bring an orphan home is expensive and while it's our choice to do so, you have decided it's important to you as well and for that we will be forever grateful.

Ok, to make this extra suspenseful I will drop a clue one night for the next four nights or as long as the $25 donations come in until it reaches $500.00
If for some reason tomorrow I were to awake and his fund was at $500.00 then as promised I won't keep you in suspense any longer and I will tell the entire HUGE secret.
(No, it's not Steve from Blue's Clue's. He's just here to help with the first clue)

Tonight's clue about John's adoption is .........  International Movie Star!

Moving along and a surprise!

Yesterday we received the draft of our home study.
With only a few little fixes we gave it the OK and it is now at our adoption placing agency for their review.
Once they give their approval then it goes to the director of our home study agency to approve, sign and notarize and then it's done!

From there we take the home study and have state certified and then Chinese authenticated for our dossier.

We have one more step before we can send our dossier which is the I800a ~ Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country.
This brings me to the earlier slip up on my part.
I was trying to get an extension of our last I800a from our March adoption which would have saved us time and money right now.
However, since I didn't put the required postage on the letter we now have to start from scratch.
Please, please pray that it doesn't take the 3 months time that it has been taking.
We truly need to get things moving along in order to make our deadline for the dossier reuse.

We have a BIG, BIG surprise coming up that I will tell you all about regarding John's adoption.
This surprise will be as big a shock to you as it was to us.
Want to know more?
For each $25 that is donated towards John's adoption fund I will reveal a clue.
Once his fund gets to $500 I will give you all the exciting details!

4th and final home study visit and a hiccup

Last night was our fourth and final home study visit. Yay!
For this visit our Social worker came in and asked us if we had any questions for her which our only question was when will the home study be ready?
She told us to expect the rough draft to look over on Friday.
We were asked a few final easy peasy questions about our insurance and how the military works and then we were done!

That was the nice part of the day.
The hiccup occurred due to my error which really makes my upset.
I sent off our I800a Immigration paperwork first extension supp 3 on the 17th.
It had a due date of the 28th.
Yesterday on the 30th it came back to me lacking 45 cents postage.
I can't believe it.
They received it on time but refused to pay the 45 cents which is their right and it was too late to come back to me by the time it came two days after the deadline.
I immediately called USCIS but they said there is absolutely nothing they can do.
A deadline is a deadline and they can not bend the rules.
I even spoke to the supervisor after my Officer transferred me after I began sobbing.
I am just so mad at myself for not adding enough postage.
The post office has a machine which I weighed it on and entered the zip code and it spit out the needed postage.
However, a friend just let me know the reason why is that I put it in an 8X10 envelope to avoid folding which always requires more postage.
Good to know. Now that I messed that up big time.
This means we now have to pay the $720 Immigration fee plus $85 X 4 for our fingerprints now instead of when we receive our LOA in about 5 months.
That $1,060 will be due here in a few weeks and I have no idea where it will come from.
It's always something with adoption but this mess up was my fault and I feel just terrible. :(

3rd home study visit and update!

Sunday was our 3rd of 4 home study visits for John's adoption.
For this visit the social worker went over all of our paperwork necessary for an international adoption.

Certified copies of all of our birth certificates.
Certified copy of your marriage certificate  
Verification of employment on company letterhead
Income verification (usually copies of your federal tax returns for the last three years)
Proof of life insurance, including the names of beneficiaries
Proof of health insurance;
Verification of all monetary assets on institution letterhead (including checking account, savings account, 401k balance, stocks, money market accounts, mutual funds, etc.)
Debt information (balances on your credit cards, cars, house, etc.)
Mortgage or rent information (amount of monthly payment and amount of equity you have if you own your home).
Results of a recent physical exam's for everyone in the home.
Results of a criminal background check for everyone over 18 in the home.
Fire safety inspection
Letter from your veterinarian stating that all your pets are healthy and current on their vaccinations
Photographs of you, your spouse, and any children already living in your home
Photographs of the front, back, and inside of your home
Copy of any previous home study (if applicable)
8 notarized written references

As you can see we are glad to be almost done with this part of the process as it's a lot of work!
For this visit the social worker came into the dinning room only our home.
She interviewed our children, asking them how they felt about having another brother and how general chit chat to get to know them better.
Since my parents live with us she also interviewed them asking more or less the same questions but with more time spent on their health issues.

We hope our 4th and final visit will be either Tuesday or Thursday of this week.
Then our social worker will write up the home study including all the information in the letters and interviews.
When that is done she will send a copy to us, our adoption agency and the home study office to make sure it's all correct.
Finally when we have all ok'd the home study it will be notarized and we will receive copies as well as one to send to USCIS (Immigration) for our I800a authorization to bring an child into the county.
This can take up to 3 months for the USCIS to be approved so we are trying to hurry things through to meet our dossier reuse deadline.

Last week we were lucky enough to receive an update on John.
The director said the following;
"John" is going to school, in first grade now. He is a smart boy. His personality is outgoing. He is healthy and happy. They just hope you are able to come get him soon. They appreciate you adopt him. The orphanage has staff takes him to school and help him with school work after school.

We were SO happy to get the update and know he is doing so well!

2 down, 2 to go!

We have finished our second of four home study visits for John's adoption.
On Sunday our social worker came over and sat at our dinning room table and conducted our personal interviews.
We also went over the financial statement since we wrote it up wrong last time not including any assets and had our income listed with the amount after taxes instead of before.
It looks much better now!
For those of you who are curious about the home study portion (I know we were) our social worker didn't go any farther than the dinning room table for this visit.
For our next visit she will interview the rest of the family.
This interview was supposed to be tomorrow and I was very excited she was speeding things along for us.
However, we are still awaiting my husband's birth certificate that is taking FOREVER and the agency won't agree to any more visits until that arrives which should be in TWO WEEKS.
My advice is as soon as you know you are going to adopt, order those certified copies of your birth certificates. I would hate for anyone else to be held up in the process like we are.

When I heard that yesterday I was upset and sad and I didn't want to be in that place in my mind.
SO, I did something positive and sent John his first care package.
We have sent a message to the orphanage through our agency, asking if John knows he is being adopted but they never answered.
This package could be a very big surprise for him then if he doesn't already know!
In it we have a letter translated into Chinese tell him all about us and our life and how very much we want him for our son.
We also included photos of us and our home and his room.
Just for an added touch of love we included money for the orphanage to buy him a celebratory cake.
He has seen many of his friends receive cakes for their birthdays that their adoptive families have bought for them.
NOW he is getting his own cake to celebrate not only his birthday we missed in August but the fact that he has a family.

One last bit of positive news is our adoption fund.
Did you notice that to the right?
It is now almost $300!
While we have a long way to go it is such a gift to know people truly care about helping us bring John home and into our family.
THANK YOU!

1st Home Study Visit

Today was our first home study visit for John.
We were familiar with the social worker because she had just been here to do our 6 month post adoption report on our son we brought home from Ch*na in March of this year.
She arrived on time and stayed just shy of an hour and a half.
For those of you that wonder what a home study visit is like I can tell you how ours went.
The visit consisted of her taking notes on our views of family and discipline.
We went over finances and made sure there was no criminal history.
The tour of the house was quick. She looked for smoke detectors, made sure we had fire extinguishers, medicines out of reach and cleaners locked up.
I love to keep a tidy house, ok I am somewhat anal about cleaning but even if I we not she only peeked in rooms and did no looking in closets, under beds and never saw the underneath of my sparkly clean toilet seat. (Ha!)
So while it makes you feel better to have your home spotless, it isn't really going to matter.
What's going to matter is that you have a safe home with room enough for your newest family member.
I would like to say that after her visit next Sunday she will be done and ready to write up the report.
However, we are thinking it will be a 4 visit home study which is different from our previous home study in another state.
We are hoping and praying to reuse our dossier from our last adoption but that has a timeline and we are pushing the limit to get this done.
Please keep us in your prayers that we can accomplish this and keep on our timeline to bring John home early summer.
We received an e-mail from a mom that visited John in his orphanage and while she said he is healthy and being cared for he needs to come home soon so if you could please pray for John we would appreciate that.