Mar

31

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Got our authenticated Home Study today.  Since we are in no hurry now we are going to wait until Becky’s Sister and Brother-in-law arrive to get a family photo for the dossier packet.  Oh we also got the coolest digital camera.  All our photos will be printed out on photo paper for the dossier.

Mar

30

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Got an Email from Caroline; our Washington courier, that our Home Study was Authenticated and on the way back to us.  THANK GOD!!!! and Thank You Caroline.  Just a few more days and then we wait, nothing to do but get prepared for a little Chinese Girl.

Mar

27

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My parents came over and helped out while we removed the old wood from our deck and replaced it with new.  We were concerned that if we had a little one running around outside or on the deck we didn’t want her to get hurt.  Our deck was 10 years old cracking and splintering.  I figured now was a good time to replace it while the weather was nice and we had the time.  We got about half the deck done thanks to Becky and my parents doing all the hard work while I kept screwing down the new boards.  Thanks again Mom & Dad.  Next weekend we will finish it providing the weather remains good.  Hope we didn’t wear out Dad too much.  After the deck we will finish the sprinkler in the back yard.  We have a lot of work to do.

Mar

26

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Got the revised Home Study from June today, Thank You June.  I ran them to the SC Department of State just in time for Mr. Hewitt to certify the document.  As he was typing up the certification letter he told me he was leaving at noon for some much needed time off.  Good thing I made it there before noon, like 11:50, Thank you Mr. Hewitt. By the time I got out of his office I realized that I didn’t know the amount of money needed to give to Caroline in Washington.  Fortunately Becky was close by with all our adoption information. By this time I realized that there was no point going into work for 2 hours.  I ran and got the money orders and stuffed the FedEx envelope in the drop box.  I hope Caroline gets the envelope Monday so that she can start the authentication process.  I hope we don’t have any more costly mistakes.

Mar

25

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Ok, got our documents from Caroline in Washington and there was a flurry of phone calls from everyone today (if you didn’t call well…).  Becky and I took the day off, we weren’t in the mood to work today and it would not have been safe for our coworkers if we had.  After calming down from wanting to strangle anyone associated with GWCA we finally decided to suck it up and eat this one and try to move on.  How can an agency that only deals with one country not know what the proper name is for the country they work with is???  I don’t think I’ll ever get that one.  Apparently my $4500.00 agency fee has been put to good use, still not quite sure what they do for that money but…..   Moving on!!  June is FedExing a revised Home Study to us referencing just “China”.  Thank you June for your quick response and constant communication, it more that we get from GWCA and it is appreciated.  Moving On!!  Anyway, China won’t get our Dossier until the second week of April now.  Elaine, GWCA area rep. actually has been very helpful, and she is easy to contact and get a response from, sorry Abbi.  Caroline is also doing us a great favor, Thank You Caroline.  Got my deck lumber order delivered today, of course it was wrong but Lowe’s admitted it and corrected the problem at no charge to me, Thank you Jeff.  I don’t know Jeff but he was the helpful guy that fixed my lumber order for free.  Wish everyone else would admit when they made a mistake and correct it at no charge, Hint Hint…  Unfortunately adoption seems to be a lot like fertility treatments they are very sorry that things didn’t work out while they are collecting their money.  Do I sound bitter???  GOOD THINGS: we planted our garden, I got Walters chainsaw to start (two thumbs up) and I got my hair cut.  I am pleased that Becky has made another friend (Caroline) that is moving to Lexington with 2 little Chinese girls.  Oh, we made copies of the documents that did get authenticated, Yahoo.  Come to think of it today didn’t suck as bad as I thought,  I did get to spend the day with my wife, what more could I ask for.  Two more weeks and then we are done, soon after that the 8 to 10 month countdown will start.

Mar

24

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I was hoping to make this Journal entry a happy one, but it’s not going to be.  I wanted to say that we just got the email from Caroline our Washington courier saying that all of our documents were approved and they were on their way back from the Chinese Embassy, but they are not.  Apparently our Home Study called China the “Republic of China” and not just “China” or “The People’s Republic of China”.  Apparently the “Republic of China” means Taiwan instead of Mainland China.  Just when you thought you had all your bases covered you get hit with something like this in the mail and now we lost a week and a half or more and more money ($100+).  We are just speechless.  We had GWCA tell us that our Home Study looks fabulous well it turns our that it was only kind of fabulous not quite fabulous enough for “China” or “The People’s Republic of China”.  This means that we won’t make the March 2004 Date To China (DTC).  I’m so down right now I’m going to end this entry now.

Mar

19

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Caroline just emailed us letting us know that our documents are at the Chinese Embassy.

Mar

18

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Got an email from Caroline our courier in Washington DC that she got our documents today and she said that she will start tomorrow at the US Department of State and then the Chinese Embassy, it’s a 4 day process.  She didn’t get the documents in time for the US Department of State walk-in service today.  That meant that we should get our authenticated documents Thursday.  According to GWCA’s Dossier Manuel the documents need to be in their office by Thursday so they can review them and put them in their weekly Friday mailing to China.  Since our documents arrived in DC late we were a day behind so I emailed Abbi.  I explained the situation, that I couldn’t get her the documents Thursday but I could get them to her Friday morning.  In my email I told Abbi that I was willing to bribe her if necessary to get our Dossier on that Friday mailing to China.  Then Becky confided to me that she had her hopes on a little girl, but our adoption letter said boy or girl.  Earlier in the week we had emailed our adoption letter to Abbi and she replied that we had a 90% chance of getting a girl and 10% chance for a boy.  Then during a phone call with Abbi she said that lately China was placing boys with families that listed boy or girl as an option.  So I sent Abbi another email explaining the problem that Becky had her hopes on a little girl and was there anything I could do about it??  I went as far  as to offer Abbi a bribe with flowers and chocolate.  I think it worked, Abbi called Becky and said to rewrite our adoption letter stating that we wanted a little girl and nothing about a little boy. Becky also explained the situation about our authenticated documents, that we won’t get them until Thursday and was there any way to get our Dossier on the Friday mailing to China if our documents got to GWCA the same day.  Abbi is doing us a GREAT Favor by helping us make the Friday China mailing.  We sent a copy of the documents that were getting authenticated to Abbi to review.  We also sent the original revised adoption letter stating that we only want a girl and a nice big check.  No we don’t get a check the check was from us for the remaining GWCA agency fee, China’s dossier processing fee and a fee to wire China the money.  A GREAT BIG Thanks to Fred and LaWanna for notarizing the new  adoption letter and for Fred putting that FedEx package on the plane for us.  The end is near and the waiting time and financial recuperating time is approaching.  We need to make good on our bribe to Abbi.

Mar

17

Documents are on the way to Washington, Yahoooo!!

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We talked to Abbi today to verify that we didn’t need to send her anything before we sent our packet to Washington DC and that some of the information on our documents was ok.  She told us everything sounded good and she gave us some advice about some of our documents.  I got a call from Becky around 2:45 and she asked me if I wanted to try to mail the documents today.  I told her sure, and I got the time off to get the money orders then I met her at the house.  We had a few documents that we needed to copy and in a mad rush we, really Becky, got the documents ready to go.  We just made it before the FedEx pick up.  Now our documents are on their way to Washington for Authentication.  Enclosed in our packet to Washington was the following: Adoption letter, Home Study, Birth certificates, Marriage license, Medical health forms, Employment verification statements, Financial disclosure, Police reports, Copy of our Passports, INS I-171H form and the Chinese Embassy Application.  Right now we are both excited and nervous although I don’t think we have any thing to be nervous about.  I called Caroline and left her a message the documents were on their way and that she should have them sometime tomorrow morning.  Becky emailed her as well.  I hope she can get them processed quickly.  Maybe we can make a March Date To China (DTC)??  Hope so.  Got to get everything ready for when the documents get back.

Mar

16

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Becky and I took some leave time and got our remaining documents certified by the SC Sec of State.  Tomorrow is the scheduled delivery date for my certified birth certificate from PA.  Can’t wait!!  Once we get that, we can send everything to Washington, DC to get authenticated by the US Dept of State and the Chinese Embassy.  Thank You LaWanna for notarizing some of our documents and being a good friend.

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