Incompetence with a Happy Ending

9:30 am:  call Supervisor at USCIS(immigration, but I have some optional other names), get routed to voicemail, left a message
10:30am: get a return call from Supervisor at USCIS
11:15am: get an email with the wrong approval
11:16am: call back and speak to a thoroughly confused Supervisor
12:05pm:  send an email pleading for the correct approval
12:37pm: call and get routed to voicemail, left a message
1:30pm:  call, and get routed to voicemail again, left a louder message
1:30pm:  get a return call from Supervisor at USCIS stating all the reasons why I don't have this approval  yet, I heard her say:  "blah, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, blah, blah".
1:50pm:  get an email with the actual approval in it, WITH THE NAME SPELLED WRONG
1:51pm:  call back and speak/cry to Supervisor at USCIS teller her my daughter-to-be's name is spelled wrong
2:09pm:  get an email with the actual and correct approval.  They will mail the original.
2:37pm:  ship necessary documents to Bethany Christian Services Grand Rapids, MI
2:45pm: order a Venti Sugar Free Caramel Frappuccino, ahhhhhh--thank you Jesus!

I feel like I have been beaten with a bat.

So the happy ending is that this day is over, paperworkwise, and I am at home with my beautiful family and I don't have to cook dinner because I have a wonderful husband who is amazing and I am blessed.  How's that for Choosing Joy?  Confession time:  Joy went out of the picture for much of my day!

The papers will be on their way to China this week......and thankfully we have yet another governmental redundancy to contend with, but the margin for error is very slim.  They will be delivered to the US Consulate to begin the application for Jadyn's immigration visa, after they match up all our paperwork, Bethany will get them to the Chinese govt, who will then issue our travel approval.  A few weeks for the first part and then a few more weeks to get travel approval.

Deb

One more piece of paper down!

Just a little ways to go!  We got our file moved to China!!  We are still waiting on the actual I800 copy, though.  Hopefully they can get us a copy so we can submit our papers to meet up with our file in China.  Goodnight Irene, I am so over this paperwork.

Come on USPS!!

Deb

The Sqeaky Wheel

After submitting the new documents to immigration and hearing nothing since Thursday, after calling and calling and emailing repeatedly and finally insisting on speaking to someone higher up--I am THRILLED to report that we got a call from a supervisor telling me that our officer approved our immigration application to bring Jadyn home!! 

In my excitement, I did not remember to ask her what date we were approved, so I would know when to expect the approval in the mail.  I have forgotton worse before.

I was tempted to continue my conversation with her and try to analyze why no one would call me back, and why my officer had to have such a lousy attitude with me, and why she was so friendly--she was genuinely nice, she was not just courteous, but humorous and pleasant and nice.  Anyway, I decided not to "beat a dead horse" and figured she realized he had issues because she was calling me on his behalf.  Done.

This approval will be sent to us and our case will be forwarded to the NVC--National Visa Center.  Once we get confirmation from NVC, we (our agency) will forward Jadyn's visa application packet to the US Consulate in China, who will process her application and then it will get sent to Beijing to be verified that we have done all the aforementioned steps and they will issue travel approval.  Is your head spinning yet?  Keep in mind these are just the last few steps and this whole process has been like this.

While, word of our I800 approval is fantastic news, we have a little ways to go.  I had my heart set on September travel, but it's not looking good at this point.  October is a tough month to travel because of the Holiday and Trade Fair. 

Please pray for smooth paperwork processing for these next few steps!  We know God answers prayers and we are so thankful!

I had a lesson in anxiety a few days back and it went like this:

We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps.

Proverbs 16:9 (New Living Translation)

I'll leave you with that thought for today.

Deb

A little movement........

Praise God, we got new papers today!  They have been forwarded to our officer and, of course, we are hoping that they get approved a second later.  Keep praying us through this!

Here's a few more pictures from the other day.

I love that she is playing with things! 

Austin and I picked up a fun, packable toy for Jadyn.  Three Little Pigs Toy  It looks pretty fun, and of course developmental.

Stay tuned for when our I800 approval comes in!

Deb

Another Update

We got another update today about Jadyn.  I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be sent together with the pictures, but in China Adoption, things tend to get jumbled up sometimes.  I am so proud of my good attitude!  (note:  good attitude follows after complete meltdown last night.)

No new pictures, but it was reported that she did indeed have her cleft palate repaired at the end of May.

She had cleft palate repair surgery at the Shiyan City People’s Hospital on 5/28/2010. She entered the hospital on 5/19/2010. She left the hospital on 6/18/2010 when she recovered completely. The surgery is successful and she is in foster care family now. She is on antibiotic, and is told to keep her mouth clean. She is drinking milk and liquid. She can take solid food two months later.

She was very cooperative at the hospital. She did not cry or make a fuss, so when she was in the hospital, doctors and nurses all praised her as a well-behaved child. She is cleaver and lovely, likes to go outside. When she looks at the cartoon on TV she is very happy and would move her body with the music, and hum with the songs. She likes to read simple picture book and imitate, e.g. she would fly kiss to you for good-bye. When you put her clothes on she would raise her arms up. She understands simple name of the stuff, e.g. shoes, bottles, cars. She will choose colorful toys to play. She knows who she is familiar with. She can say grandma, big brother, baba. If you call her name she will turn around to look for you and smile at you. When it is time for meals she is very excited when caretakers bring food in front of her. She likes toys with music. She likes to go outside to play.

This is only a little bit of information, but it is a HUGE piece of good news for this waiting Mama and Baba.

Not afraid of dogs......that is also good news!

Happy Tuesday!!

Deb

Awwww, How Cute!

Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a distant land.

Proverbs 25:25

Jadyn 15 months

It's not what we were expecting, but sometimes the Lord has ways of answering prayers, that we just don't understand.  I'm choosing JOY, or at least trying to during the wait for documents and senseless beaurocratic stubbornness. 

I woke up to 7 new pictures of Jadyn in my inbox.  I love waking up to good email!  I cannot even describe how thankful I am to have these new pictures--the only other ones we have are from last December.

Help me figure out what size she is.....I'm guessing 18 months.  Keep in mind she is not a huge Dutch baby and throw what averages you may know out the window and just give me an estimate from the pictures.  Does the camera add 10 lbs for babies too? 

Did I say I love these pictures?  I cannot wait to hold this girl!  I have been given a peace that she is OK while we work through the mountains of.....let's call it--the wait for documents and senseless beaurocratic stubbornness.  One of the things that gives me hope is when I finally get to hold her, I won't remember a single thing about the difficulty getting there. 

Have a good weekend!  I know I will!

Care Package and Roadblocks

This is what we sent to Jadyn 2 weeks ago.

It's candy, cookies, a letter to her caregivers--whomever they may be--and a small baby photo album with 5 pictures.

I have heard good things about where she is living, that the nannies do prepare the children well.  How well can you prepare a toddler for her whole world to turn upside down.  Imagine your child's feelings if they were taken away from you at 18 months.  Now, it's not exactly the same, because your child is in a wonderful nurturing environment, however, Jadyn's world is all she knows.  I am trying to prepare myself for a traumatized baby, I know she will be, to at lease some extent.  Words of wisdom:   prepare for the worst, hope for the best.......trusting in God.

The ROADBLOCK we have come up against is related to our I800 application and unreadable copies.  The Chinese documents we (and our agency) received were scanned copies put into a zip file.  They are fuzzy and hard to read--although disagreeing with our US Immigration Entity, they are FINE.  They are like many others who have received approvals with the same type/quality of documents.  This could be fixed in a day, week, or month.  Like it or not, this process has to be completed before we can be invited to travel.  The kicker is that we submitted a sworn statement that these documents were issued from Chinese government and were translated accordingly, apparently in the US that is no longer good enough.  Forgive my cynical attitude, it's only a few weeks so far, but that could lead to a few weeks of me not holding my daughter.  Thanks for letting me vent.