Fingerprinting

Road Trip to the Department of Homeland Security!

Last Monday Tina and I had our appointment to be fingerprinted as part of the process of getting our I171H. We had to be down in Tukwilla, near the SeaTac airport by 10:00 AM. It was a beautiful day and there was very light traffic on the way down. We made great time and had no trouble finding our way to the place.

We cleared the metal detectors and had our belongings x-rayed, it was just like the airport. Then we got in line with a bunch of people who may have been weak and weary, yearning to breath free, but they mostly just appeared to be very concerned as to wether or not they had the correct forms with them. I didn't see any obvious terrorists, so maybe the system is working.

Anyway, they had some really great hi-tech gear for scanning our fingerprints. Everything was digital, no ink! The whole process from beginning to end only took a half an hour.

We headed back north and stopped in Mount Vernon for lunch at the Skagit River Brewery, then went to the Skagit County Health Dept. to get the second round of our Hep A and B vaccine series.

It was actually a pretty fun day and it felt good to be moving forward in the process again.

They told us that it might be helpful if we contacted the offices in Yakima and let them know that we were adopting a child with special needs. So we waited a few days then emailed them the following note:

We are writing to request that our I600A application be expedited. We

have received official approval from the China Center for Adoption

Affairs to adopt a waiting child with special needs. His name is Dang

Hui, he is living in a Social Welfare Institute (orphanage) in Baoding

China. He is 28 months old, and waiting for medical care at Children's

Hospital in Seattle. We have attached a copy of the letter for your

review.

We were fingerprinted in Seattle on Monday, April 18th for our

application for foreign adoption. Our filing date is March 07, 2005.

Many of the documents we have gathered are already notarized are date

sensitive, and will expire if we do not have our dossier sent to China

by late May.

Can you please let us know the status of our application, and the

anticipated time frame for processing our 171H? We appreciate your time

and help in this matter.

Thank you,

Scott and Christine Ocheltree

We were really surprised when we got the following message back yesterday, Monday 4/26...

Scott & Christine,

I gave your request to Adjudicating Officer and he would like to see a

letter from Children's Hospital explaining the disability of the child, what kind

treatment they will be doing and when the child has an appointment to be

there.

You case should be done in 2 or 3 weeks but if you can get that information

we can do it faster.

Thanks

Adoptions Unit

415 N. 3rd. St.

Yakima, WA 98903

((509) 225-6838 (fax)

+Yakima.Adoptions@DHS.GOV

We're not sure how we are supposed to have an appointment at Children's when we can't get travel approval from China without the document we are waiting for from Yakima, but we are going to have our family doctor write a letter for us to fax in. Either way, this is WAY faster than we had anticipated. So things are moving pretty quickly again!!

Fingerprinting Appointment

I guess it is true: When it Rains, it Pours!

So here is my second post in one day, after weeks of no posting.

When Tina checked the mail today she found a package from the USCIS! They have us scheduled to get our fingerprinting done at 10:00 AM on Monday, April 18th!

This means we won't be driving to Yakima next Thursday. I'm kind of bummed about that a bit now, because Pat McCutcheon had asked me if we would stop by their place on our way. It would have been great to see him and Paula and Jasper. I guess we'll have to wait to see them now.

The good news though is that things are moving forward again. The whole idea of scheduling the review in Yakima was actually in hopes of getting them to move on our application before the appointment, and it worked. This was an idea Tina got from other people on the internet who had done the same thing. Funny, ask for an appointment to find out what's taking so long, and suddenly you get your appointment. Apparently all the cliches are true: "when it rains, it pours", and "the squeaky wheel gets the oil".

So stay tooned, it looks like this blog might be getting more interesting here for a while!

PA Arrived!!

Things are starting to happen again!


Today we received the following document via email from our adoption agency. This is the document from the Chinese government saying they approve of our adoption of Kai (Dang Hui). There had been a big lull in seeing anybody receive these since the Chinese New Year celebration. Suddenly the internet boards were all buzzing yesterday as people started to hear from their agencies that their Prior Approvals were arriving via email from China.

Tina was certain that ours would be here any minute. Then last night our internet connection at the house went out so we couldn't check our email. When I got to work this morning I checked my email, and this had arrived at 6:06 PM last night.










The next big hurdle still ahead of us is getting the I-171H form from the

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

(USCIS). Now that they are part of the "Department of Homeland Security" this process has become very slow in Washington state.

Tina and I have scheduled an appointment to drive over to Yakima next Thursday to "review our application". Our hope is that we will be able to get them to make some forward movement in the process for us.

Been Waiting For an Update?

well these days it's all about the waiting...

I can't even remember my last post now. The paper work game has kind of mostly wrapped up and we've been waiting to hear back from different government agencies.

I got my birth certificate back from the Garden State with a really official letter explaining that it really is my birth certificate and that it really is from New Jersey. I immediately sent if back to the courier service in New York to get the Chinese Consulate to confirm that it really is my birth certificate and it really is from New Jersey.

We sent our I-600A off to Yakima weeks ago. They sat on it for weeks, then sent it back and said we were supposed to send in the fingerprinting fee with it. We thought we paid that one when we got fingerprinted. So we wrote another check and sent it off again. A little over a week later and it appears they have cashed both our checks so we think that's a good sign. We hope it won't be too long now before we get our fingerprinting appointment so we can get the I-700H and finish assembling our dossier for China.

We are also still waiting to hear back from the CCAA in China. We sent off our LOI (letter of intent) back in early February, and still haven't heard anything there.

We were beginning to feel frustrated with our agency, as we are sitting out here in limbo, so Tina wrote the director an email asking for help, or at least an update. She promptly wrote back a very nice message that basically explained that yes, we are in the hard part of the process now.

It's called waiting.

Who's Idea Was it That I Should be Born in New Jersey?

My parents are in trouble...

I am a Washingtonian! I swear I am. It's the only place I can remember living. Okay, so there's some pretty strong documentation that indicates I spent a bit of time early on in New Jersey, but hey, that was not my fault!

My mother is a native of Washington, shouldn't I get credit for that? My wife and both my kids are native Washingtonians. I like that word, Washingtonian. I like Bellinghamster even better, and since I've lived here longer than anywhere else, I claim that designation too! Hey, are people from Vermont called Vermontsters?

Anyway, my birth certificate has to be "Authenticated" by the Secretary of State of New Jersey's office.

Apparently you can just walk right in there on any business day and they'll take care of it for you while you wait. Isn't that convenient? What a great service! Maybe I'll just head on over there on my lunch break tomorrow and get that thing authenticated. Oh wait, their office is in Trenton!

Time zones, UPS, Return Postage....

Heavy sigh, count to 10

yi
er
san
si
wo
liu
qi
ba
jiu
shi

(that's counting to 10 in Mandarin)

So, I wonder if Kai will think of himself as a Washingtonian? As he grows up, will he remember anything from his life in China? I hope we can visit the SWI where he is living, and that we will meet the "aunties" who are caring for him. I want to have video for him to see as he grows up, so he can see and remember the people who have loved and cared for him.

Hmmm... His birth certificate is going to be from China. Man, I hope that's not a big problem for him when he's 43. I guess I'll quit complaining about the whole New Jersey thing...

Destiny and Adoption

Everything is happening for a reason...

This idea of destiny has really been on our minds a lot lately. This feeling that Kai is meant to be with us and that we are meant to be with him.

The concept of destiny is popular with adoptive families. It is reassuring in many ways. I recently read an article in the magazine "Adoptive Families" by Bonnie Perkel that talked about this, at one point Ms. Perkel says:

"

I spoke with some of my philosophy professors about the theme of adoption and destiny. One said that international adoption may be a new kind of conception, in which “a being may be going through whatever body they can” to arrive in the family and culture where they belong. In other words, destiny will bring them to a new kind of family not based on biology."

When I read this I thought her philosophy professors must be anthroposophists (Waldorf word, sorry). This idea of incarnating souls choosing a path into this world fits right in with their ideas.

Could this be what's happening? What explains all the coincidences and strong feelings we have around this?

I like the quote from the end of the movie, Forrest Gump, where Forrest says, "

I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both, maybe both happening at the same time."

I-600A Is Off To Yakima

Great News From Work!

School Specialty Announced a New Adoption Assistance Benefit Program.

This is one of those amazing things that comes along and makes you think, "maybe we are supposed to be doing this now!"

Today at work I got an email with the following information in it:

School Specialty, Inc. has established an Adoption Assistance Plan to reimburse Associates for all or a portion of the cost of adopting a child. The Plan will apply to adoptions that become finalized on/after February 1, 2005. The maximum aggregate amount that will be reimbursed for the adoption of any one child under this Plan, less applicable withholdings, is $5,000.00.

WOOO HOOOO!!!

This is SO cool!! Major kudo's to School Specialty Inc.!! Which is a pretty amazing thing coming from me as I usually have a pretty good rant on the evils of this corporation. So anyway, in recognition of their potential help with bringing Kai home, here's their logo:

And it's even linked to their corporate website. If you'd like to check them out, click away!

We Finished Our Home Study!

Monday was our home visit, and the boys officially gave their permission for us to adopt.

It's been pretty busy, so the blogging is slowing down a little.

Yesterday was Monday, and we had our home visit with our social worker, JoAnn. She has really been a great resource for us as she has so much personal experience. She has three adopted children of her own: a 24 year old son from Colombia, a 20 year old daughter from Korea, and a 15 year old son from Colorado.

She's very easy to talk with, and I know she's on our side, but I still would feel somewhat anxious when thinking about our interviews beforehand. When we actually did the interviews, I focused on relaxing and just being as honest and open. It was actually a very interesting process. It's kind of cathartic to talk to someone about your life. At times I would get somewhat self conscious, as the conversation seemed kind of one sided. I like talking about myself, but I usually try to keep things balanced, and ask questions about the other person. That's now how these conversations go.

Anyway, she came to our house on Tuesday afternoon. We had cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! I don't think she cared much about the cleaning though. She had us show her around, and she was very nice and complementary. Tina thought that she really liked our house. I think she probably did, but I know that she probably looks as lots of people's homes so the cynic in me can't help but think she might just have been being nice. She did want to see the labyrinth because she had read about it here on the blog. We talked to her about the neighborhood, and showed her the different things we had done to the house. We even dragged her into our bedroom closet to see how amazing it is. I think that it's hard to appreciate though if you haven't lived with it in it's prior condition for years and years.

She didn't seem concerned by the fact that there is no obvious nursery. She asked to see the fire extinguisher, and that we demonstrate a working smoke detector. Thankfully she had warned us she would need to see these. We had a working smoke detector, but we didn't have a fire extinguisher before, so we had picked one up over the weekend. we also had replaced the battery in the smoke detector, just to make sure. And we added two more smoke detectors: one in the kitchen, and one in the garage. Our friends Alex and Kim will be so proud of us!

All that left was her interviews with Cam and Ben. We still don't know exactly what she asked in those conversations, but they each lasted about 15 minutes, one on one, in the other room with the door closed. JoAnn told us that she asked each boy if we had their permission to adopt. This is a requirement of China's. She told us they both said yes.

I was really glad that this was part of the process. Because no matter how much time and energy the boys see us focusing on this, I worried that to them this might still be just some abstract dinnertime conversation. I think that having an outside third person take them aside and directly ask what they think about it makes it much more concrete and real for them.

So that's done! she will be sending the final draft of her report to the agency later this week. It will be translated and put into our dossier for China. Now that we have completed this we can apply for the I-600A, make appointments to be fingerprinted, and even apply for some grants.

And lastly, we asked JoAnn what she thought our schedule might be looking like now, She said we might be traveling as soon as May or June!

Nesting - or... Closet Excavation

A very busy weekend

On Friday Tina and I each met with our SW individually. We both felt like our meetings went well. JoAnn is very easy to talk to, and has been very helpful in providing information and perspective on international adoption. She scheduled her home visit for Tuesday; she'll meet with each of the boys at that time.

Now so you know, I think we keep the house pretty clean. We're not as compulsive about it as my sister, and we don't use a housecleaning service like my brother, so the place isn't spotless, but considering the amount of stuff we've got in the amount (or lack thereof) space we have, it's pretty clean. Okay, so that being said, a home visit from a social worker doing a "study" is probably more than enough motivation to kick the weekend chores into overdrive.

Our ultimate goal right now of course is to convert our "extra" room into a nursery. The problem with this is that this room is not really "extra". There is no extra space in the house. We don't call the room the "extra" room, we call it "The Green Room", because when we remodeled about 10 years ago, we wallpapered one of the walls dark green and decorated with green colors. We started jokingly referring to it as The Green Room. It eventually stuck, and now it is The Green Room. And that Green Room is used for everything!

Now pretty much everything has to come out of there. But where will it go? Time to rethink all the other storage spaces in the house. Step one, Scott & Tina's closet. This was a crazy idea, but it did need to happen. We bought 2 of these ClosetMAID Systems. Then we took everything (I mean EVERYTHING) out of our closet so we could install them. When we got everything out of that closet we rediscovered the walls had needed painting when we moved into that closet 18 years ago. Se we went and got spackle and paint. Good thing we got up early.

While the paint was drying we took the old dog house to the dump, and the old dresser out of our closet to GoodWill. We were ready to start installing the closet systems by about 4:00PM.

I wonder which of the language sets on the instruction sheet has all the instructions? It's not the English set. Since we had two full sets to install we actually did the second set correctly the first time through. We planned to sleep in the living room if we didn't finish the project in one day, but we pressed on through, till 1:00AM and got the whole thing put back together, and slept in our own bed. I have to say, it was worth it! Tina and I both go in the closet now and marvel at the space. It is very different than before. We took a second huge load to GoodWill the next day, and got through most of the housework. Thank goodness the SW's home visit isn't till Tuesday!

We are going to do pantry and the coat closet too. We are hoping that we will gain some more space there for relocating stuff out of The Green Room.

Soon to be "Kai's Room"!!

A Complete Set...

Cam's passport came today so now we have all four!

LOI in Translation! - Plus Nesting & Hand-Me-Downs,

We got an e-mail from Stefani, boxes from friends, and managed to dig a bit out...

We received the following email today:

From: Stefani
Date: February 3, 2005 10:58:52 AM PST
To: Tina Ocheltree <

tocheltree@mac.com

>
Subject: Re: LOI

Charlene is translating the LOI now so hopefully we'll see it off to China in the next couple of days. So glad the other Christine Ocheltree didn't hold you up and we are off and running right on schedule.

Stefani Ellison
China Program Coordinator
Children's House International

http://www.childrenshouseinternational.com

Fully Licensed in Florida, Utah, and Washington
Read about my incredible daughter Taisha at

http://www.waitingchild.org/taisha.html

This feels big, like it's really happening now. Someone is translating our letter into Chinese and it's going to be sent to the CCAA. I know that the wheels have really been in motion from the moment we sent in our application, but now the little steps we've been taking are starting to add up!

We have also begun to receive unsolicited hand-me-downs. One of Tina's pre-school parents brought her a box of clothes yesterday, and a woman I'm friends with at work brought me a bag of clothes her grandson has outgrown. It's funny looking through piles of little boy clothes.

We cleaned out a dresser to make room for the clothes. We are beginning to purge areas to make room. I think I'm going to try to take before and after pictures of the reclamation process in the "green room".

We ended our evening by watching some videos on China. We're down to the dregs of the library's collection. I'm going to have to start reading books now.

What Matters Most

I have really been enjoying writing this blog. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, and I'm glad people are taking an interest in it.

In reading through the last several entries, some of them sound to me like I'm complaining. There is a lot of anxiety around the waiting, and the paper chase. It's easy to get caught up in the little petty details and lose perspective. Sometimes I forget what it must be like for Kai, and all the other little ones on the other side of this process.

Tina forwarded the following text to me. Our agency administrator, Stefani Ellison wrote this and posted it on a website. It makes me stop and think about why we are doing this, and helps me remember that bureaucratic mix-ups, walk-in clinic fees, and closet space doesn't matter. These are all just the little steps along the way. If we're going to get there, we need to keep focused on the goal, and not let the little stumbles along the way distract us.

So if I haven't made you cry while reading this for a while, I'll let someone else take a shot at it. This is from the perspective of someone who has been through the process of international adoption...
.

There is a reason that we call this an adoption journey. It’s because it is process and there is actually no end. Yes, the adoption is completed but its effects last a lifetime. Your mind is changed, your heart is changed, and you are no longer the person you were when you began.

So, when you come home and you don't fit in, you are right... you don't. No longer can you sit through pointless social gatherings and you become glassy eyed at the long spirited conversation your neighbors have about whose dog upset the trash can like it really matters. THINGS and the chasing, collecting and maintaining of those THINGS lose their glitter when you think of the sparkle that could be put on the face of a child for mere donated pennies or some of our time tying blankets. You lose patience with those who cannot understand the urgency of the task before you.... that children are crying. Children are dying. And the world keeps on shopping. Spending billions of dollars on things... that... don't.... matter...

When you look into the eyes of a child in the SWI you visit, your eyes never see the world the same again. Most of the world "doesn't get it" and to those that do, we must stick together because otherwise it’s a lonely place. For those of us who continually hear in the back of our minds the crying of the children left behind, we cannot rest because we cannot forget. There is no silence. Our friends, families, spouses may not understand and we ourselves may not understand why we cannot make the crying stop or make the urgency end. So we do what we can do. We give what we can give. And often, we join in the crying.

Tell Me Why, I Don't Like Mondays...

This was a Monday all right,
a Monday with a hammer in it's hand...

Okay, so we were really streaking along there, weren't we? As my sister Kris said, our feet were barely touching the ground. The wind was at our backs and we were checking off the checkboxes.

There's bound to be some little glitches along the way...

I got to work late this morning because Cameron didn't have jazz band, and I had installed a new phone system at the Waldorf school Friday night, so I wanted to be there to show the staff how to use it. When I did finally get to work I had people waiting at my desk, so I didn't check my voicemail right away. When I finally did check it I discovered our adoption social worker (SW) had left a message that she was trying to get a hold of Tina or me, but our home phone had been disconnected.

What?

I called home...

Dang, she was right. Our phone had been disconnected!

I call the phone company.

Apparently you have to pay them regularly to keep the service in place.

I give them my debit card number over the phone and they promise it'll be back up in 24 to 48 hours.

"is there anyway to expedite that?" I ask.

"I'm sorry, no," she says.

Okay, so nothing more to do there. I try calling the SW. Get the answering machine. I leave a message with my cell phone number. I call Tina's cell phone. It's turned off.

Anxious about the SW finding our phone has been disconnected, and not being able to get back to her, or contact Tina, I start stressing out.

At 4:00 I left work to go to the dentist. Yes the dentist. A Monday like this wouldn't be complete without getting a filling too.

I call Tina again from my cell phone on my way, and finally get ahold of her. She had spoken to the SW and there is a problem.

Tina's background check shows that CPS has a file on her. Yes, that's CPS, as in

Child Protection Services

. Tina is in tears. This makes no sense. Neither of us understand. While we're talking Tina is interrupted by the doorbell and I have to go get drilled.

Incomprehensible levels of stress!!

I get home and Tina is still in tears. Neither of us have ever had any transactions with CPS!

Wait, that's not true. Tina had to report a family in her preschool 10 years ago when she was worried about multiple incidents of suspicious injuries and marks on a little boy. Could this have been misfiled somehow and associated with Tina's name? The SW didn't seem to think so.

How could this be? It makes absolutely no sense!

Then Tina says, "What if it's someone eise? There used to be another Christine Ocheltree out in the county."

I don't specifically remember this, but I fire up the ol' laptop and go to "peoplefinders.com".

A search for "Christine Ocheltree" in Washington state comes back with not only my one and only, but a

doppleganger

in Snohomish county!

I quickly wrote our SW the following email:

Hi JoAnn,

Tina and I are very upset about the news that CPS has a file on Tina. This came as a huge surprise and shock to us both. As she told you, the only interaction either of us has had with CPS is when she reported a concern she had regarding one of her students at the co-op preschool.

Is there some way we can follow up on this with CPS to clear up whatever kind of mistake has been made? We want to remove this obstacle as quickly as possible. Would her filing of a report make her name show up this way, or does it mean CPS made a mistake in how the file was made?

Is it possible that they have confused her with another Christine Ocheltree? Tina recalls another Christine Ocheltree who used to live out in the county. Doing a "peoplefinder.com" search shows a 37 year old Christine Ocheltree who has lived in a number of small Snohomish County towns; is a mix-up like this possible?

Again, we are both very distressed by this, and Tina is just beside herself. I know you are doing everything you can on our behalf, but if there is anything we can be doing to try and clarify this problem as soon as possible please let us know.

I am trying really hard to not come across as the overprotective or pushy husband, but it is so upsetting to see Tina this distraught over incorrect records/confused identities, or whatever it is. Our biggest concern though, is that this might mean even more time before we are able to bring Dang Hui home.

Please keep us posted as to what the status of this issue is and what we can do to help solve it.

Thanks,

Scott Ocheltree

She called me on the phone about 20 minutes later. She thinks there could very possibly be a mixup of identities going on. She promised to find out first thing tomorrow and let us know.

Still, she says this could add several weeks to the process. Our Letter Of Intent (LOI) is on hold and is not being translated or sent to China until this is resolved. The home study can't be completed and our SW is going on vacation for two weeks, so now it may not be finished until March!

So it goes.

We know this will get straightened out, but... AAargghh! ! !




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SO THIS IS TUESDAY NOW

I just couldn't post that entry until we had some resolution to this...

I got to work late again today because I was finishing up the installation of the phone system at the Waldorf school.

When I finally did get in to my office I had a new voicemail from JoAnn, our SW.

It's all straightened out!

It WAS the other Christine Ocheltree!!

How weird is that??!! (I need to find an evil Scott Ocheltree I can blame everything on!)

JoAnn had already talked to Tina, and emails have been moving back and forth between the agency directors. Our LOI is being translated! JoAnn promised she will finish our home study before she leaves on vacation! She said on the voicemail, "It's full steam ahead!"

I think I feel the wind at our backs again, it's starting to pick up...


Dang! It's going to be a late night digging out those closets!

Starting to Make Room

So today we made some progress towards figuring out where Kai will actually fit into our house. We love our tiny little house, but the idea of adding another person is making it seem even smaller! The plan is to convert our spare room into a nursery. The problem is that this room currently functions as our guest room, holds all my magic gear, Tina's teaching gear, misc storage, sewing, etc.

We are starting by trying to maximize the functionality of all our other closets. Pack it in tighter!! Tina and I went to Lowe's and bought ClosetMAID shelf systems for our bedroom closet and the laundry closet. We got the laundry closet ones installed and they look pretty good. We've got a ways to go, but I think it's going to work. Heck, it's got to work!

After dinner, Tina and I watched one of the documentaries we got at the library yesterday. This one was on the time from 1976 to 1992, so from Mao's death to just after the student uprising in Tiananmen Square. We were curious to see what it said about the one child per family policy, and were amazed when they barely noted it, and didn't address the effects this has had on the country or the issue of abandoned children. Most of the documentaries we've watched so far have been on the history up through Mao's life, so maybe we'll find some that deal more with this.

The boys were watching a movie over at the neighbors house, but came home in time to see the army move into disperse the students from Tiananmen square. They were pretty shocked by the images. I want them to see more of these documentaries before we travel so that they will have an understanding of the significance behind the places we will get to visit.

There was a brief passage on a modern rock singer who performed protest music which was quite popular in China. The boys asked about the drinking age in China. They are hoping they will get to go to some clubs and see live music while we're there.

A Long Saturday

Weekends in our house are for sleeping in. On most weekday mornings Cam and I start at 5:30 AM. So on the weekends Tina and I like to do our impression of the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

Today though, Cameron had his Solo & Ensemble violin competition at the high school. He played at 8:00 AM. I wanted him to have plenty of time to practice before we went, so we were all up at 6:00. I made oatmeal (the old fashioned way). Cam played beautifully! He got really nice comments from the judge.

When we got home, Tina and I watched the video "Adopting From China: a Video Survival Guide". Tina was hoping it would be better, but it was about what I expected. It's a relatively low budget production, but pretty nicely done. A lot of the info we already knew, but it seems to feel good hearing it again. I guess it's reassuring that you are moving in the right direction. It had good information about what to pack. Though they seemed to recommend bringing an entire pharmacy along. If we bring everything on the list, the first aid kit will be its own suitcase.

Tina had a preschool function in the afternoon, so while she was gone I cleaned out our labyrinth garden in the front yard.

A parent from the Waldorf school called yesterday and wanted to know if she could bring a Campfire group over tomorrow to walk it. I broke in the little leaf blower my mom gave me for Christmas. I used to think I didn't want to use power tools in my labyrinth, but it really worked great! My sister-in-law, Kyle took the picture above about two years ago. It looked pretty much the same today, which is weird because one night two weeks ago it looked like this:


So after Tina got back, she and I went to the library and raided their video section for tapes on China again. I think we've pretty much worked through their collection now.

After that we headed out to the mall to pay our Mervyn's bill and look at baby stuff. High chairs, car seats, toys, strollers. It's funny doing this again after some time away from parenting young children. We don't quite fit in with the other shoppers. We're too old to be having babies, but suspiciously young to be grandparents. We were just window shopping until we hit the toddler clothes at Mervyn's and they had these little play outfits with VW Beetles and vans on them. The size thing is a major puzzle? How big is he? How big will he be when we get him? Well even if this stuff doesn't fit, we had to have it. Hey, they were on sale!

When we got home we were relaxing in the living room and I got a phone call from a magic friend of mine named Paul. I had posted about our adoption on a magic email list I belong to. Paul works with an international engineering firm. He was in Shanghai when he read my news. His wife is Chinese and he had emailed me saying that if we needed anything translated she would be glad to do it for us. So anyway, I thought it was really neat that he called me on the phone. He seemed very excited for us and wanted to help. He is very knowledgeable about Japan and China. He felt we should really work hard to preserve and develop Kai's ability to speak Mandarin. He thinks it will be a very powerful and useful skill for him to have.

Travel Vaccines

Do I really have to pay $190 to watch a "professional" do a Google search?

Tina and I are still working through the process. Yesterday's big project was trying to figure out exactly what vaccines we need to travel to China. Hepatitis A and B are big concerns among the families who post on a couple websites we read.

Tina asked our doctor about Hep B vaccine. He said he didn't provide it, but we could get them from the public health department. Tina called the public health department. They said they didn't provide travel vaccines and suggested we go to a walk-in clinic.

We went to the walk-in clinic by the hospital. They explained that we would have to pay $95 each for a travel consultation with a doctor. Then we would get the vaccines recommended based on this consultation. The vaccines would cost up to $100 each. Then she said she couldn't bill our insurance provider. She called another walk-in clinic and found out they could bill our provider for us. So we drove over to the other clinic.

On the way to the other clinic I began getting skeptical regarding the value of the "consultation". Shouldn't the recommended and required vaccinations for traveling to China be easily accessible public information? I said to Tina, "Can't we just look up the info on the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website?"

So we get to the other clinic, and as we are checking in we commented on the expense. The receptionist said, "Yes, it can be quite expensive depending what the doctor finds on the CDC website during the consultation."

"The CDC website?" I blurted out, "I know the URL for the CDC website!" And I called it off. I couldn't pay $190 to have a doctor look up a website for me.

I would tell you what shots are required or recommended for traveling to China, but I'll need your credit card first. If you really want to know, you can click

HERE

to see the CDC's webpage with information on it.

Visit to the Sheriff's Office and Stuff from Amazon.com

More little steps along the path.

Today Tina and I met at the Bellingham City Police Station to get a "Letter of Goodness" as Tina likes to call it. We had to get a notarized letter stating we have no criminal history. When we got to the police station, they informed us that since our house is just out of the city limits we needed to go to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Fortunately it was just down the street and they let us leave our cars in their lot. The sheriff's office was pretty quiet. We payed $15 a piece, then walked down to the Mount Bakery to get some coffee and croissants. We came back 15 minutes later and she gave us some very nice looking letters on letterhead that she had notarized stating that they weren't aware of any illegal activities on our part.

I also sent our letter of intent (LOI) in to the agency. I shipped it from work in a UPS next day letter package. It's nice having a fully stocked UPS shipping station right outside my office door! It will be translated and sent to China. We're itching now because the director posted on their website that her e-mail is down today. We want to ask her how long it will take to hear back. I'm sure we'll find out how long the wait will take soon, but we want to bug her for an answer now!

Then after dinner tonight I found where Ben hid the mail. Actually it was in plain sight, but not where it goes. Anyway, there were two videos I had ordered from Amazon.com last weekend:

Adopting From China: A Video Survival Guide

and

Big Bird In China!

We've been looking over the Amazon store; they have tons of stuff on adopting from China. This adoption video got pretty good reviews. I'll try to post what I think of it. It was only $19, and since Amazon gives you free freight if your order is over $25 I threw in the Big Bird video because it's on DVD and was only $10. I've heard it's pretty good and since it was made in 1983 I think it qualifies as "old school" Sesame Street material. Besides, most of the Chinese culture videos we've been getting at the library are pretty dry. I'm ready to see Big Bird's spin on it.

Letter of Intent

This is the text of our letter of intent (LOI) we have written to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) . We hope they will grant us a Placement Approval (PA).

We are hoping with all of our hearts that we may be allowed to bring Dang Hui into our home and family. He was born the 20 of December, 2002, and has been well cared for at the Boading City SWI since the 30 of December, 2002. The SWI's growth report record describes Dang Hui as a sweet, inward boy who loves music and is quick to smile. He is very healthy and his development is excellent. When we first saw Dang Hui and read about his personality and interests, we felt very strongly that he would be a wonderful addition to our family. We have a deep love of music, with two older boys who play many instruments, and relatives who are music teachers.

Dang Hui was born with a deformity of his left hand, but his growth report indicates he is able to accommodate well for his disability. While we cannot tell what specific corrective measures may be necessary at this time to accommodate his needs, we know he will require physical therapy, and possibly surgery, to optimize the mobility of motion, and use of his hand.

We have a young nephew living nearby who was born with similar, though much more extensive birth defects. When we realized Dang Hui's disability was his hand, we knew we had the experience and ability to help, and the understanding for this particular special need. Our nephew was born with a condition called Arthrogryposis, meaning fixed joints and loss of muscle. This condition affects all of his limbs. Because our families live near Children's Hospital in Seattle, Washington, our nephew has received the very best care for these conditions available in the world. He has had many surgeries, gone through physical therapy and has learned to adapt. He is 10 now, and runs, rides a bike, swims, writes, and does almost everything any boy his age can do. He is very bright and attends school in a regular classroom.

Because of this experience with our nephew, we knew immediately that we have the resources to support Dang Hui's needs. Children's Hospital in Seattle is only 90 miles from our home. We also have outstanding pediatric medical care, neurological care, and early childhood special needs programs in the town where we live.

Dang Hui will have full medical insurance coverage for all of his medical needs from the moment his adoption is complete in China. His needs will be immediately assessed and met through the resources mentioned.

We realize that even with the very best medical attention, Dang Hui's hand will most likely always be different. While we hope medical treatments can help his hand to function the very best that it can, we will always love him even if nothing can ever be done and he stays just as he is. We will love him whether his hand can be treated or not. Our extended family has always treasured, loved and supported our nephew, and we know they will provide the same love and support for Dang Hui.

Christine is a preschool teacher, and works with our local school district and special needs students. She helps to identify needs, develop educational programs for these children, and works closely with their parents.

We plan to have a parent at home at all times, so Dang Hui will not be going to daycare or cared for by another person outside of our family. We have provided private school education for our two older sons, and will give Dang Hui the same opportunity. We will see that he has the very best opportunities available to meet his educational needs.

We have begun taking Chinese language classes to help us better communicate with a child who will be over the age of 2, and to be able to communicate when we travel to China. We have a very active Chinese School and community where we live; it has been an exciting privilege to be a part of it. We will continue this cultural education and connection so Dang Hui will learn to honor his native country and culture.

We would be honored to be allowed to adopt Dang Hui. We can offer him a happy, loving home with older brothers, music and outstanding educational opportunities. We will raise him to be aware and proud of his Chinese heritage. We will always be thankful for the gift of raising this child.

First Pictures First Pictures First Pictures

These are the pictures that our agency had posted on their Waiting Children website.