Time Line for Adoption

5/06 Decided to adopt
6/10/06 attended AWAA's adoption seminar
7/06 sent in our application to America World Adoption Agency
8/1/06 Received a phone call while eating breakfast at the Cracker Barrel that we were accepted into the China Program.
9/1/08 Began filling out paperwork and collecting documents for our homestudy
*Birth Certificates
*marriage Lic.
*Passports
*Financial forms
*Got physicals
*Got the dogs vet records
*Got our well water tested
*Put up alarms on our front and back door
*put safety netting on our stairway banester
*got a Fire Inspection
*Life Insurance and Car and Home Insurance certificates
*Local Police records
*BCI fingerprints
*FBI fingerprints
*drove to Cleveland to the Dept. Of Homeland Security to get fingerprinted

10/06 drove to findlay to take a 8 hour parenting class
November to December 2006 Had 4 visits (at our house) by our social worker Terese McOwen.
Finished our Homestudy requirements on December 28th, 2006.
Mailed all of the above in and waited 12 long weeks for our approval.

*Received the approval in March 07
* Mailed all the documents to the State Dept. for a fancy seal.
* Then to the Chinese Embassy for another fancy paper
* Then made copies for our records
* Then mailed everything to America World's office in Virginia

*Lauren Barnett reviewed our Dossier (package of all of the above)
3/27/07 our Dossier was mailed to China
**I have a copy of the stops it made with FED EX and who signed for it when received in China!

4/12/07 We are officially Logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs

then the wait!!.............

12/07 we received the Brown envelope from China (not sure why this is important but they say the form they send is good)

still waiting.....................................

15 months waiting and counting.

We have 15 plus months under our waiting belt. Many emotions and feelings about our adoption come and go. We find some days we can hardly talk about Ms. Lucy and other days our every other topic of converstion are about her. Since my last post over 12 months ago all the following have happened in our life.
Lucy's two cousins Bryce Buntyn and Keegan Plunkett were born.
The Mortgage industry has made a major turn for the worst.
Georgene got a job working for a drug and alcohol counseling center (in Paulding Ohio)
John had a mild heart attack and two hernia repairs. (he said that this makes him sound weak so I have to add that he was back to work 2 days later and sparring that same week)
we raised $1500 at our adoption fundraiser (yard sale)
We got a new puppy named Doc Holiday. Abby's new boyfriend.
& we renewed our homestudy (7/25/08) because it expired!

and smaller events like we got Lucy's crib, lots of new books, toys, cloths and our homestudy renewed.

I think at this point the rumor's are that our wait could very well be another year. I hate even imagining that it will take that long. I trust that the lord is preparing us for becoming parents. We are still optimistic and know one day looking back that the wait will be worth it!

for now we look to our support web site set up by America World for encouragement. Video's of Gotcha day and family web pages.

I leave with one thought that often crosses my mind while driving to work or waiting on line....

what will Lucy look like?!! We already love her and can hardly wait to be parents!