It's Been A While . . .

since I've posted anything with "meat on it's bones", so I thought I’d do a post on where we stand today:

ADOPTION NEWS:

As you may recall, we submitted our I-800A application (this is the document that approves you to adopt on the US side of things) to the USCIS back in October 2008 and after a few days we knew something was up and low and behold our initial application was LOST! A month after our initial application was lost, re resubmitted a second application which we delivered to the USCIS by trackable mail and thus we could follow it’s journey to the USCIS. Luckily this one was received and we had our initial review of it on 12/22/08 requesting additional information (funny thing was all the info they wanted was already included in the application, just needed to be pointed out to them) and then in record time - - 48 day - - our I-800A was approved! At the time we resubmitted it was taking 90+ days for approvals, so we were very happy! With our I-800A approval all documents on the US side of things are now current and we simply await our referral.

Speaking of referrals, we have yet to receive ours, but remain hopeful that it will be forthcoming and hopefully soon. March 14th marked our 30 month LID Anniversary, which is really very depressing! On a positive side of things though, we have made some decisions that we are comfortable with and which will change the dynamics of our family should the decision go one way versus the other. Before I reveal the big decision, I’m going to share a bit of background info:

When we began this second adoption over three years ago, Sammie had just turned 2. We were still in the “honeymoon” phase of parenthood and things had gone so smoothly with Sammie’s adoption that when we decided to adopt the second time, going the same route we had with Sammie was the only option for us (China, NSN Program, little girl, AYAP at match). No brainer for us. Needless to say, the China program began to suffer extensive lag time in referrals and as you all know, the wait times continued to grow each and every month. Then in February 2008 Dale and I decided to approach our agency about a possible special needs (SN) adoption through their Pilot Program – United In Hope. We officially began our wait on March 1, 2008. As things continued to change within the China IA Program and our agency’s Pilot Program, our wait continued. Dale and I began discussing other options within the SN Program and decided to increase our requested age for our future daughter. We had also discussed maybe putting either gender down, but at that time, neither one of us was really comfortable with giving up our dream of a second daughter. We again broached this subject a few more times between March 2009 and March 2009. Just this past week, we again began discussing the option of requesting either gender again and Dale and I really didn’t have much of a chance to discuss things in detail, but he had thought about it all week and on Saturday morning said you know what, let’s go for it. Let’s put down either gender and see what happens. So if you haven’t already guessed, our big decision is . . . WE ARE REQUESTING TO ADOPTI A BOY OR A GIRL! We both decided to leave the decision up to God and let Him decide whether or not our future child will be a son or daughter! You know what, ever since we made this decision, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I feel so much at peace with our decision. It just feels like it is the right choice for us. Don’t get me wrong, three years ago, we’d have never considered a SN adoption or an either gender adoption, but as we all know, the plans we have set in our minds do not always match the plans God has for us. We are looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for our family!

As for Sammie, she is excited about the possibility of having a little brother and said if we do get a boy, then she wants to decorate his room in baby jungle animals! I told her we’d certainly be able to do that!

FAMILY NEWS:

Life is good! We had a wonderful Christmas and managed to survive this very cold and snowy Minnesota winter! This past winter was like winters of the past when I was a child. Just wish we would have had more warmer days so that Sammie could of enjoyed playing outside in the snow more.

As you know, we celebrated our 4th Forever Family Day in January. It’s still hard to believe it has been 4 years since Samantha’s adoption. Our little girl is growing up.

In February, she celebrated her 5th birthday ala a Tinkerbell Themed Party! We had the usual crew over and it was a great day! On her actually birthday this year, we went to Chuck E Cheese with our good friends the Maupins and had a great time! Sammie will begin Kindergarten in the fall and we had initial Kindergarten registration at the end of February. We have requested that she be allowed to go to school by her daycare so that we do not need to look for a new daycare provider.

In March we took Sammie to her first Disney On Ice Show and she loved it! Looking forward to doing some future shows.

As for Dale and I, we are doing well. Dale’s work keeps him busy (he’s still in auditing/inventory control) but he’s now doing a new job within the department. He’s had to create procedures for auditing, as well as various reports, etc. It seems to challenge him a bit more, which is good. He’s also been working a lot of overtime again and despite the state of our country’s economy, his work is fairing pretty well! I’m still working for the small law office, but we are also going through some changes. One of the attorneys I worked for has been out of the office on an extended medical leave and I truly believe he will not be returning to the office.

We are looking forward to Spring and Summer. We have quite a few projects that we need to accomplish around the house this year, including redoing our patio in the backyard. This will be a time consuming project but one that needs to be done! We are also hoping to do a lot more family fun things around Minnesota this summer, and are hoping to have our annual summer BBQ again this August.

I hope this post finds you all well.

Hugs ~ Denise