Lucky 13

This is something a friend gave me in July 2010. We had just found out that we were logged in with Nepal and we were number 13. I think that was the day I dropped my guard and really allowed myself to start believing that we were really adopting from Nepal. When things fell apart with Nepal, I wanted to throw this away, but I hid it away with the other paperwork for Nepal.
When I started to realize that we might be DTC on May 13th, I remembered this card. I haven't looked at this since everything with Nepal fell apart. How amazing that today I can pull it back out again! It was so special when I first got it. It felt so good to have someone acknowledge that there was alittle girl out there waiting for me. Thanks Tonya! This card is still apart of this journey. It is time to celebrate!!!

It's Done!!!

I just finished mounting my photos and copying my passport pages. I used some of the same photos that I sent to Nepal, but I couldn't use the ones that had our dog in the picture or the ones where we didn't have shoes on in the house. Crazy! I am not going to try to figure it out. I just took some more pictures today. I have checked every document off the list. I have everything!!
Yesterday I went back to Chicago to pick up my authenticated documents. Seriously! Alot of money for a sticker on the back of each document. I showed someone my expensive sticker and they said that they always thought their creative memories stickers were expensive. So next time you go to purchase your scrapbooking stickers, you cant tell yourself that it is way cheaper than authentication stickers. So buy them without guilt. :)
Here is a picture of my husband and I after I had the documents safely back in my hands.

After the mess up when I went to get the documents certified I got a little nervous that there would be a problem with the authentication. What a relief to see everything complete. It was much busier than last week. The line for the pick up window was the longest I had seen it. I was afraid we wouldn't get to the window before they closed for lunch, but we were out of the building by 11:50. I was so thankful, but sad because it would have been perfect timing to meet up with a blog friend for the first time, but she was very sick and not able to meet me. There was nothing she could do about it. I really wanted to celebrate with her. I knew she would completely understand what I was feeling. Hopefully later this summer we can meet. Hope you are feeling better my fellow blogger.

We walked abound Chicago until dinner time when we were able to connect with two very special people. I may not have been able to adopt a little girl from Nepal, but I do have an adopted daughter and son-in-law. Soney and Shankar took us out to eat at the Curry House where we first met Soney almost two years ago. We had a wonderful time! Here are some pictures of us.

So now I will FedEx it tomorrow to my agency and wait. I will stop saying when I will be DTC. I am nervous that I will need to do something else before it can be mailed to China. But I will celebrate this next step. I am surprised that someone hasn't made up letters for the letter game when your dossier is mailed to agency. (maybe there is and I don't know about it) So tomorrow will I be MTA? :)

Chicago

Success!! Besides the several hours of waiting, the day went well. Had a wonderful day with my friend in Chicago going in and out of stores and ending our day eating at the Curry House! Yum! Yum! We went there for the first time 2 years ago after we had started the process to adopt from Nepal. I have not lost my love for Curry, nor my love for the people of Nepal. I so loved being at the Curry House. So many memories of that first day there and the Nepal friends that we have from making a contact with a wonderful waitress. She is very special to us. I look forward to hopefully seeing her when we go to pick up our documents on May 3rd.
Now to catch up on everything around the house since I was gone for 3 days with all my trips to the big cities!

Indy

Certification done! Traveling to Chicago Monday!! I like this saying. I swing between these two emotions so much right now. I just need to continue to adjust my attitude!

Adoption World

Ever wonder why there isn't a wii game called Adoption World? No one would buy it! Oh wait, I guess all of us on an adoption journey did. The makers would have had so much fun making it. I can see them all sitting around laughing as they created the game, saying, "Oh wait, here is a good one...Ha ha, sorry they missed placed your paper work, go back to the waiting room." Then someone else would say, "No wait, here's a better one...Your notary screwed up your paper work. You lose all you saved in this level. Go back to level 4 and get paper worked fixed." Another (very sick person) would say, "I've got it! You're going to love this one. Sorry the government closed your country. You lose all the levels you saved. Go back to the beginning of the game."(This really isn't funny, but that is the sick game I feel like I have been in) The second guys comment messed up my world today! Yes, two different notaries that signed my paper work screwed up! I drove 3 hours to Indy and three hours home. Tomorrow, I have to go back to two places and have them redo the paperwork! Then go back to Indy to try again! Isn't that special?! One completely forgot to sign the document! Why I didn't see it, I don't know. There was a signiture, but that was the person who prepared the document. I thought the person who filled out the form also did their own notary and didn't check to see if the names matched. I know all of you who are in process are going to check your paper work now. The other one, her stamp used only her first and last name. She sign her first and last name, but when the secretary of State office looked her up on the computer she had her middle name on the form. Therefore her signature was not valid becasue she didn't sign her middle name. The stamp didn't have her middle name. Seriously! When I looked at the paper work more closely I realized that she also had whited something out! You can't do that on adoption paper work, so it would not have worked anyway, so in a way I was spared future damage.
Breathe!!!!! (That is what my blog friend just told me to do. Thanks!)
So why don't I just use a courier to do the work for me? I guess I just don't want to have to wait on anyone anymore. If I had mailed these documents I would have waited a couple of weeks to get them back and then I would have had to corrected them and mailed them again, waited 2 more weeks. I just can't do it. I am close enough to each city, I will just do it myself. I am very stuborn. I was still going to try to make everything work so I could be DTC on April 29. I so had things planned out, but it is not to be. I will go to Chicago on Monday and then the following week go back and pick it up and hopefully be DTC by May 6th. That is only a week later. I have just had in my head that I would get everything done by the end of April. It's ok. It will be better weather in Chicago on Monday, right? Right!! :) I will enjoy this journey! I refuse to let it get the best of me. It is not just a game with random events happening. The things I have learned and the people I have met along the way I wouldn't trade for anything.

It's Here!!!!

Ok, what a complainer I am! We were fingerprinted on March 18. I went to get the mail today (April 18th) and there it was! I-797!! Exactly a month!! Really, I know that this is wonderful timing for the government. What a whiner I am!
Now the hard work happens,(We have had the waiting now comes the hurry up part again) because as you can tell from my impatients, I will not sit still when I can do it myself. As long as we can get everything notarized tommorrow morning, I am off to Indy tomorrow to get my documents certified. Then Weds. I am riding the Lake Shore to Chicago and going to the Chinese Consulate to have everything authenticated. Then I will have to go home and wait 4 business days and go back to Chicago to pick the documents up. Well at least I get to spend two days in Chicago. I think I can find somethings to do the two days I travel there.
If all goes as planned, then we can finally be DTC April 29th!

Sigh.....

Tomorrow is one month since our fingerprint appointment. Our I-797 is not here yet. Last time we got our form in less than a month after we got our fingerprints done, so I am disappointed. I know that this is normal to wait this long or longer, but we are so close! I have been waiting to post anything new until I had something new to post. Sigh...

So I will show off some of my sons creativity. My oldest son takes a computer graphics class and has decided that this is what he wants to major in when he goes to college. This first one is a collage of traffic signs he put together. The second picture is is not lines, but made by typing letters.

Well, I wanted to post some pictures drawn by my next oldest son, but it won't let me, so I will try another time.