I800 Approval!

We are so excited to announce another major milestone in our adoption!  We received I800 approval today.  This form is a petition to classify the adoptee (Noah) as an immediate relative.  Our form was accepted by the United States Immigration Department and now goes to the Consolate in Hong Kong for final approval, which should come in 2-4 weeks, called Article 5.  This will be the last major hurdle before we receive High Court Order and travel dates.  I'll explain all that as we move forward in the next few months.

I was a little discouraged last week when we thought our process was going on the back burner for a couple weeks until Jake gets fingerprinted after his birthday.  Everyone who is 18 or older in the house has to be fingerprinted and have a background check.  Jake will make the 4th one in the house to have this done.  Thankfully, the Lord has other plans, and it seems that our adoption is still right on time!  My projected date of travel is the week of March 12, 2013!  I will be very excited to see how close we actually get to that date :)  Thank you for continuing to pray for us!  Please keep it up :)

Matching Approval!!

This was a pivotal day in our adoption process.  The day we received matching approval.  What does this mean?  It means that Yeh-Sui Ye (Noah) is officially the son of Mark and Amanda Price.  Hong Kong has granted approval for us to become the legal parents of Noah.  We have been waiting 21 weeks and 2 days for this sacred approval.  As Mark and I were enjoying our celebratory glass of wine, I was reminiscing over the last several weeks.  I had become obsessed with checking my emails in between patient appointments.  I believe this was instigating my ever increasing discouragement that it wasn't coming in a timely fashion.  Today would change all that thinking.  I didn't check the email until around 3:00 this afternoon, but it was like any other email check between patients.  When I opened my email, that coveted phrase "noreply  Bethany..." was in bold print at the top of my list.  Suddenly...I couldn't even breathe.  I was surrounded by coworkers as I excitedly opened the email.  It was official... We had the approval I had been waiting on for so long!!!  I find it such a God wink that we received the approval on the 1st day of National Adoption Awareness month!  Wow, God!!!  You are so Awesome!  Incidentally,  we just finished National Down Syndrome month.  I can't help but think how perfect God's timing really is as we progress from DS month to Adoption month, and, right in the middle of it, we get our matching approval of our super awesome kiddo from Hong Kong with Down Syndrome.  Officially.....he is no longer an orphan, but finally has a mommy and a daddy!!!  I couldn't be more honored......AND EXCITED!!!!!!

Empowered to Connect conference!!!!

Mark and I got back last night from the Empower to Connect conference in Nashville, sponsored by Show Hope, and can I tell you....it was simply AWESOME!!!  We both agreed as we reflected over our weekend how grateful we are to learn ways of connecting with our adopted child before we actually get him.  I'm hoping I'll retain some of the strategies that Karyn Purvis talked about in regards to building a trust based relationship.  I had no idea how complicated bonding can be in a child who is not biologically yours.  I found myself debating whether or not any of this would really apply to our adoption.  After all, Noah had a normal pregnancy, normal delivery, and his mom tried to take care of him for about 5 months.  The only issue he had was spending 17 days in NICU right after he was born.  I guess you never really know until you get your child home and see how it goes.  At risk of major transparency, I also let it cross my mind that, because my child has Down Syndrome, I'm definitely not going to have to worry about reactive attachment disorder.  They're just too loving....right??  I have no idea.  But this is what went through my mind as I was sitting there listening to testimonies from couples that had dealt with this.  None of them had adopted a child with Down Syndrome.  Maybe we have eluded this undesirable area of the adoptive world.  Here's what I will take away from this conference...
1.  Spend more time nurturing my children, I have too much of a dismissive attachment parenting style
2.  Give my children probiotics and less antibiotics so that dopamine levels don't rise  (this is complicated to try to explain, but I will be doing research on this topic and using it in my everyday advise to parents that bring their children to the clinic).
3.  There are LOTS of resources for adoptive families.  Empower to Connect is a great starting point.

While we were at the conference, we met several wonderful people.  I'd like to give a shout out to my new friends Angie, Laura, and Melanie!!!  Hey girls!!!!!  Angie and Laura were at the conference with us and we randomly met and decided to go to lunch together.  Here we come Chile Burrito (wonderful food by the way).  While we were there, Mark noticed a couple at a table with 2 children with Down Syndrome.  Naturally, we had to get the story.  This is where we were blessed by the story of Melanie and Chappy Hollis!!!  They just adopted their little boy and are a member of a middle Tennessee support group.  Not sure if it's a support group for adoption or DS, but sounds Awesome!!!!  And, she even knew a mutual friend!!  Small world for sure!  Now we're all facebook friends forever (FFF)!!!

Nonetheless, it was a great trip, Karyn Purvis is wonderful, Michael and Amy Monroe are wonderful, Dan and Terri Coley are wonderful, and Debbie Jones is wonderful (and Tanner ;)).  If you have an adopted child...it is so worth going to this conference, you would not regret it!

On a side note, please pray that we hear from Hong Kong this coming week.  Tuesday will be exactly 3 months and 2 weeks since our dossier was received.  We are so close!!!

Questions from ISS

I know it has taken me a while to post something new, but we have been in a period of stand-still for a couple months.  We kept ourselves busy with a vacation to Orange Beach and working Camp Barnabas.  I was blessed yet again by the amazing opportunity to serve such awesome children.  I wish it hadn't been nearly so hot for their sake, but hopefully, next year the camp will be in June and a lot more tolerable.  As many of you already know, we finally received a portal message from the social worker with Noah's child study and questions from International Social Services (ISS).  These are preliminary questions that come before the  official questions from the AU (Adoption Unit, not Adoption Underwriting as my insurance broker husband assumed).  This means that ISS is anticipating that these are the questions they will want to know, so they go ahead and ask them.  I'm grateful that they do that, because I might be able to elude the official questions.  That has been known to happen on rare occasions.  Will that speed up the process?  I'm going to optimistically say, "Absolutely!!"  Will it really???  NO!  We are still planning our trip somewhere between January and March.  Our goal is to be able to take Mary and Jake with us.  What a lifetime experience that would be.  But if it cuts into their schooling too much, it won't work.  Ideally, I would like to go over there in December while they're on Christmas break and have him back before Christmas, which, by the way, is his birthday!  How many people can say they have 2 kids born on Jesus' birthday??  Thank you for the prayers!  Please continue to pray that Noah stays healthy, and the adoption process will miraculously speed up in these last few months!  I am NOT dismissing the fact that God has perfect timing!  I would just be more inclined to agree with him if we got Noah before the end of the year!  HeeHee!  But I'll take whatever He gives me :)

Tshirt fundraiser

I'm so excited to tell you that my dossier is finally in Hong Kong.  I am told that they will review it and have questions as they are going through it with a fine tooth comb.  Please pray that this process will not take long at all.  In the meantime, my friends at Bartlett Sports have finished screening my t-shirt design and are now printing shirts.  I can't wait to see how much God is going to bless us through this fundraiser.  I would like to share that I came up with this idea while I was sitting in church service, listening to the sermon, which had nothing to do with adoption or orphans.  I'm minding my own business, when all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart "One Less Orphan" and that we as a family would be eliminating one less orphan from the world.  Then I started doodling one less orphan on my sermon notes until I came up with 1< orphan, and to make the "o" the Hong Kong emblem.  I couldn't concentrate on anything else from that moment on.  I give all the credit to the Holy Sprit for this idea because I am not that creative.  Therefore, I know God is going to bless this one big time!!!

Dossier Has Been Mailed!

I am so excited to report, that our dossier has been officially mailed today.  My social worker said she sent it 2 day air, which means it will arrive in Hong Kong by May 30th!  This is a HUGE step in our adoption process.  I have been told that from the time it is mailed, we are looking at traveling to Hong Kong anywhere from 5-10 months.  So that means we could get him as early as October, but at the latest...March!  So we will shoot for March and be pleasantly surprised if we get to go early.  I think pretty soon, we will start making family videos and pictures to send over to Noah, so he can start recognizing who we are.  All of a sudden, all the waiting and paperwork hasn't seemed like such a big deal!  Funny how you can easily forget all the stress involved in the paperwork process when it's finally done!

On another note, my friends at Bartlett Sports (love you guys!) are almost done designing the adoption t-shirts that I will sell for a fundraiser.  You will love these shirts, they send such an awesome message.  I will post pictures as soon as I can.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!!

I800A Approved!!

Today ended on a good note!  I was going through my mail, and there, before my eyes was something from the Department of Homeland Security!  Did you ever know you could get so excited about seeing an envelope from them?  I am excited to tell you that it was my approval to adopt in Hong Kong!  I guess they think Mark and I are normal enough!  Yea!!!  The next step is to apply for the I800, which is the form that will approve us to adopt Sui, who resides in Hong Kong.  Now, does that get submitted with the dossier, I'm not sure, but Debby will tell me soon!  I feel like this is a big step forward and I couldn't wait to let you all know.  Please continue praying for our family and for Sui.  As far as other fundraising ideas, I am in the process of figuring our a T-shirt design so I can start selling shirts.  I want them to be really awesome, so I'm taking my time to create the perfect design!

Yard Sale Fundraiser

Today has been an incredibly exhausting day, but God has blessed us through our efforts.  We awoke at 3:30 this morning to get last minute things together before we drove 2 trucks with trailers packed full of stuff up to the church to unload.  We got to church at about 4:45 and the first people showed up around 6am.  I had many friends who helped, as well as family.  Thank you to Donna and Tommy Edwards, Shane and Jennifer Taylor, Marie and Tom Burriss, Tripp and Nhung Hurst, Nikki Young, Barry Young, his friend, and Alyssa Young, Laura Reynolds, Keith Smith, Jake, and Bhakti for all helping make this possible.  And for all those that donated things, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  This yard sale was a huge success.  Lots of people heard about the yard sale on the WCRV radio and came out to look around and give donations for the cause!  That is so awesome!  Thank you Byron Tyler for being willing to advertise our yard sale on the radio to fund our adoption!  God has pulled together amazing people and it makes me feel even more confident that we will get Noah home!!!  Not that I had any doubt in the first place, but I love seeing God at work.

We have an appointment with the USCIS office for digital fingerprinting on April 24th...that is the next step.  I will keep you informed as to what's next.

HOME STUDY IS DONE!!!

We are so excited to report that our home study is finally done!  It has taught me a lot of patience over the last several months, but I am so happy this part of the adoption process is finally over and we can move on to the next thing, the I-800A (whatever that really is, I'm not sure).  I have been praying for my social worker as often as I think about her because I know she is incredibly overworked and doing the best she can to get our stuff done.  I have to continuously remind myself that everything is in God's timing, even when I want it all to be in Amanda's timing.  We will receive our child in the perfect time, even if that time is the year 2013 (but we hope not).  The finished home study was about a 14 page document that outlined our entire lives.  It described the characteristics of us, our marriage, our children, our parents, our ex-spouses, our neighborhood and our financial status.  Hopefully, the editing process will take no time and we can put this behind us.  Will keep you informed as new stuff happens!!!!  How excited are we, though, to have just this little part done!