Where The Adoption Is Right Now
The last time we adopted from China I swore I would never do it again unless it was the perfect circumstances. In October we had a post placement visit with our social worker that is required by China. At that time I told her we wouldn't be going back to China because we didn't want to start over with a new social worker. For those of you that have not had to get a homestudy, just know that it is very invasive. The questions asked, information needed and paperwork to be done is outrageous. We are required to allow someone that went to school for 4 years and may have no other experience in life than just that pry into every aspect of our lives so they can decide if we are fit parents and then pay them exorbitant fees for it. Whoever came up with this system in crazy. Anyway, back to the point. China had changed the rules after we were in process of the last adoption. The social workers now have to have a specific license that is very costly. Our social worker does not have that license. Next, I did not want to redo a dossier for China. It is time consuming and costly. I figured all said and done the last dossier cost well over $1,000 to compile and countless hours of work. Last but not least, I knew we could not endure a year of opposition that WILL come while in the process of adopting. Satan can't let these children have homes so he messes with our lives as much as he can so we will quite. Trust me, we almost quite twice last time.
This could be a long story but for times sake I will give highlights. We found an agency that could do our homestudy and get it done in about a month. I figured we would see it mid December. After a lack of communication we laid it on the line and then asked if our current social worker could sign an agreement to do our homestudy under their license. A few days later they confirmed, yes they could do that. We now are just doing an update to what has already been done so we don't have to wait for all the state background clearances and fill out a 1" thick stack of paperwork. We also no longer have to do all the hours of education they wanted us to redo. I got into gear quickly and started ordering birth certificates and making appointments to get the dossier paperwork done. In a record 2 weeks we had all the paperwork in hand and notarized ready to go. That same day I was told by our placing agency, Agape Adoptions, that we were given permission to re use the dossier from our previous adoption. This was a miracle for several reasons. If you want to know just contact me and I can fill you in. With the ability to re use the dossier we now had a reduction in fees from the agency and one of the governments. This will help quite a bit. The agency we chose to use has also been a miracle. We have loved them and at this point will recommend them to everyone. They have done things for our benefit and our sons benefit that is not the most lucrative for them. They are also very humble and professional people. I can't say enough good about them. I think the biggest miracles are still in progress. Every agency has a facilitator in China to do the paperwork on that side. Agape's facilitator happens to be the medical coordinator for the organization that is supporting our son. He knew who the child was and talked with the CCCWA about expediting the process to get him home for immediate medical care. He is sure they will be doing this for us. It is amazing that we have direct access to how our child is doing. Having this connection is nothing short of a miracle. One last miracle to share. We needed a letter from a cardiologist stating that this child needed medical care immediately. This letter is to go to the USCIS as proof of the need to expedite the adoption. We talked with several doctors about the file but didn't really have luck in getting someone to write the letter. One doctor went as far to tell me to leave this child there and get a child that can be fixed and will have a long life. I'll need to expound on that in another post. We have a friend that was a specialist on some equipment used in surgery for a group of Cardiologists. He was able to connect us up with a good friend of his that was very supportive of the adoption and willing to write a letter. We didn't see the letter so after a few days we just decided that if this was supposed to happen it would come in the right time. The day we heard all the good news about the dossier re use, finishing the dossier (getting the doctor letter was a big pain), a reduction of fees and a large reduction in another fee we got the letter we needed in our email. It all fell into place at one time.
There have been so many other evidences of God's hand in this process. Many little ones and numerous large miracles. We have been supported emotionally through the firestorm we have been placed in. Satan started the sifting process even before we knew we would be adopting again. My very valuable time is being increased and I am getting more done than expected. Christmas is almost done and a week ago we hadn't even thought about it. I have no doubt that we will put together a very nice reception without much trouble. Now we just pray to be patient in our Father's timing but if it is His will we would like to go get our boy some time in February. This is a dangerous time of year for these children. He needs to come home.
We are now waiting on the final homestudy so we can submit our I800-A application to the USCIS for approval. We have a direct contact there that is waiting for the package. Hopefully that means they will push it through. As soon as our I800-A goes in I will let everyone know. I am excited to see what comes next.
This could be a long story but for times sake I will give highlights. We found an agency that could do our homestudy and get it done in about a month. I figured we would see it mid December. After a lack of communication we laid it on the line and then asked if our current social worker could sign an agreement to do our homestudy under their license. A few days later they confirmed, yes they could do that. We now are just doing an update to what has already been done so we don't have to wait for all the state background clearances and fill out a 1" thick stack of paperwork. We also no longer have to do all the hours of education they wanted us to redo. I got into gear quickly and started ordering birth certificates and making appointments to get the dossier paperwork done. In a record 2 weeks we had all the paperwork in hand and notarized ready to go. That same day I was told by our placing agency, Agape Adoptions, that we were given permission to re use the dossier from our previous adoption. This was a miracle for several reasons. If you want to know just contact me and I can fill you in. With the ability to re use the dossier we now had a reduction in fees from the agency and one of the governments. This will help quite a bit. The agency we chose to use has also been a miracle. We have loved them and at this point will recommend them to everyone. They have done things for our benefit and our sons benefit that is not the most lucrative for them. They are also very humble and professional people. I can't say enough good about them. I think the biggest miracles are still in progress. Every agency has a facilitator in China to do the paperwork on that side. Agape's facilitator happens to be the medical coordinator for the organization that is supporting our son. He knew who the child was and talked with the CCCWA about expediting the process to get him home for immediate medical care. He is sure they will be doing this for us. It is amazing that we have direct access to how our child is doing. Having this connection is nothing short of a miracle. One last miracle to share. We needed a letter from a cardiologist stating that this child needed medical care immediately. This letter is to go to the USCIS as proof of the need to expedite the adoption. We talked with several doctors about the file but didn't really have luck in getting someone to write the letter. One doctor went as far to tell me to leave this child there and get a child that can be fixed and will have a long life. I'll need to expound on that in another post. We have a friend that was a specialist on some equipment used in surgery for a group of Cardiologists. He was able to connect us up with a good friend of his that was very supportive of the adoption and willing to write a letter. We didn't see the letter so after a few days we just decided that if this was supposed to happen it would come in the right time. The day we heard all the good news about the dossier re use, finishing the dossier (getting the doctor letter was a big pain), a reduction of fees and a large reduction in another fee we got the letter we needed in our email. It all fell into place at one time.
There have been so many other evidences of God's hand in this process. Many little ones and numerous large miracles. We have been supported emotionally through the firestorm we have been placed in. Satan started the sifting process even before we knew we would be adopting again. My very valuable time is being increased and I am getting more done than expected. Christmas is almost done and a week ago we hadn't even thought about it. I have no doubt that we will put together a very nice reception without much trouble. Now we just pray to be patient in our Father's timing but if it is His will we would like to go get our boy some time in February. This is a dangerous time of year for these children. He needs to come home.
We are now waiting on the final homestudy so we can submit our I800-A application to the USCIS for approval. We have a direct contact there that is waiting for the package. Hopefully that means they will push it through. As soon as our I800-A goes in I will let everyone know. I am excited to see what comes next.
I get goosebumps reading this post!!! So exciting to see Heavenly Father at work. ;-)
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