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!!!!