The pictures have arrived!

The pictures we ordered to celebrate and record the event of our son's adoption have arrived. I hope to get them posted here soon so that you can check them out. :)

Just call me MOM...

My son is "born". LOL I became my son's legal mom November 30, 2007 at 2pm. Here is the hug picture requested by the judge. Just one happy family!

Love you all!

My First Adoption!

6 days and counting! :) Jason's adoption will be finalized in a court hearing on November 30, 2007 at 2:00 pm!!! Whoo hoo!! It's celebration time, come on! Will be going out for a celebration dinner as Jason legally becomes my son. :) :) :)

Those are happy mommy smiles above...LOL

BUH BYE GREY

Well, I finally did it. I decided to dye my hair again. The students at school were calling me "the white haired lady". Sniff... made me sound old! So, here's a picture of the new me courtesy of Nice N Easy Golden Brown! LOL

The Wait...

The wait is horribly long... is this what pregnancy feels like? Just hurry up and let us bring our children home. Sigh... Haven't heard from our attorney in over a month regarding our Vietnam adoption. Jeff and I have both tried contacting her since we received our USCIS approval letter. It was completed July 30, 2007 and mailed to us August 2nd, 2007. That's 2 1/2 months after we filed our application. Red tape... red tape... red tape... paperwork... paperwork... paperwork... it is never ending! We know in our hearts that our children are completely worth it, but in the meantime I hope noone blames me as I blog and contemplate pulling my hair out.

I'm tired of the waiting. I got online today, went to IAAP's website, and downloaded Dossier paperwork. I'm filling in and printing out the appropriate forms. Finally feels like I'm doing something useful. Smile. Everything has to be printed in duplicates.

Signed and dated only: (plus one xerox copy provided to IAAP)

• 2 English versions of Application for Adoption
• 2 Vietnamese versions of Application for Adoption
• 6 English versions of Commitment Form
• 6 Vietnamese versions of Commitment Form
• 2 copies of Acceptance of Referral and POA (Power of Attorney)

Notarized and Certified: (plus one xerox copy provided to IAAP)

• 1 home study (full copy, not summary)
• 1 marriage license (not notarized, only certified)
• 1 Medical letter for both of us on our doctor's letterhead
• 1 Employment letter on employer's letterhead - Jeff
• 1 Employment letter on employer's letterhead - Michelle
• 1 Police clearance letter - Jeff
• 1 Police clearance letter - Michelle
• 1 Passport Copy and 4 Passport Photos - Jeff
• 1 Passport Copy and 4 Passport Photos - Michelle
• 1 copy of the I-171H form from USCIS
• 2 copies of a four paragraph letter from us to the the Department of Intercountry Adoption

Our life has become one large stack of certified, notarized, double checked paper work documents! LOL Too bad birth parents don't have to go through all of this before getting pregnant...

July Updates...

No news from the USCIS yet. We just keep waiting...not always so patiently. :) I emailed them yesterday to ask about our status. Last I heard on July 11th our paperwork was on the desk of the adjuncator for review. Hopefully we will hear something more soon.



Jeff called Marie to check about Jason's adoption. Marie was waiting for us to contact the birthmom and see if she would sign the paperwork. We informed her this wasn't going to happen apparently so to go ahead to the next step in the process.



My professional certification came in the mail.

Paperwork Pregnant

I like the term "paperwork pregnant". I'm experiencing lots of different emotions, ups and downs, successes, etc. that parallel pregnancy. I may not be experiencing morning sickness, but instead I have tons of paperwork, deadlines, and government agencies. I am still waiting and dreaming...when will I get approval from USCIS, will IAAP make the referral or Vietnam, where are my children now, how old will my children be, how soon will I travel to meet them, do I buy toys, slings, baby or toddler things, etc.

To fill in the time, I surf adoption and Vietnam web sites. I also added a timeline of paperwork pregnancy to my blog. I'm exchanging information and fabric with other adopting parents to make a culture quilt for my children. I've applied for the National Board Certification process. And...I wait...

Mishy

Proud Parents

Jason raced in 4 BMX races this weekend called Oregon's Governor's Cup. He came home with a nifty plaque showing a 1st place in one race and a 2nd place in another race. :) Good job! He raced hard, had fun, and placed too! We are sooooo proud of him! Can't believe it, but he is already 16 and in high school. Just had to brag about my son! :)

Proud Mama,

Mishy

Latest Updates!

My passport arrived a week early...grin...Yay! As of today, Jeff and I went to the Portland USCIS office for fingerprinting as part of our I600 paperwork "Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative". Our appointment was set for 2pm. I had a haircut with my wonderful deaf beautician at 9am in Gresham, so we decided to see if we could get into our appointment at USCIS Portland, OR early. Lucky for us we were able to do so. :) We got to process with the 11am group, and were done before noon.

I've had fingerprints taken before for my teacher background checks, but this time NO INK!! This was the coolest appointment with not having to get yucky, inky fingers that seem to never come clean. They use a computer and a scan pad where they press your fingers. Your fingers are rolled just like the regular way. Your prints show up on the screen, and if they aren't good enough, the technician can immediately take another one.

Jeff was happy to get in earlier, so he could head out on his Harley for a ride. Beautiful sunny weather here right now.

One more step finished on our long yet wonderful journey of the heart. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend!

Mishy

Mother's Day

Today Jason earned money mowing the neighbor's lawn, went on bike rides, and I never once figured out he was up to something. :) He went and bought me a mother's day card. I love my kid! Jeff is still working in Pasco, probably will be home the week of June 4th. However, he sent me a happy mother's day text message even though he is unable to be here and he is sick and on antibiotics. :) Gotta love my men!

Jason and I went out for dinner to IHOP...(he really wanted French toast, and breakfast food sounded good to me!) I had him drive home. First time he's driven me anywhere, and first time he's driven my car. He did a great job! He has his permit and is in driver's education class at school this term. We will wrap up the evening with a piece of Strawberry Passion icecream cake from Coldstone Creamery. Yum!

I called my mom to wish her a happy mother's day. We had a nice chat. She is very excited about the upcoming adoption. I think I passed my impatience on to her. LOL She can't wait to be a grandma! In the meantime, her and Dad are coming down for a visit this summer! I also called my grandmother. We, too, had a good talk. It is always nice to catch up on what's happening with all the various members of my family. I miss them all so much. If there was a way to live in Juneau I would do it!

So, now on my way to answer the icecream cake that is calling my name! Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Mishy

Family

Just sitting here musing about family. Jeff and I are really very lucky. We both have family that are involved in our lives and very supportive. That is why we feel comfortable adopting. We can offer our future children the support, love, and blessing of being surrounded by family. :) And now our family will be increasing when we reach the culmination of this journey and bring home our babies.

Everyone is becoming excited. This Blog has been a huge help in allowing me to put down my thoughts and what's new in the adoption paperchase for all of our family to read. We've had family provide a reference, agree to be guardians if needed, provide monetary support, and just listen to us go on and on and on ... GRIN Thanks to you all! (A little kudos to encourage you to keep listening...LOL)

Right now we are thinking about how to do the traveling. Jason doesn't want to go to Vietnam (long flight, miss his friends, a whole month?, etc.) He will probably still be in school at that time. We are already trying to think ahead about supervision. Jesica, his sister, offered to fly over from Minnesota to take care of him. However, she is a single parent with 2 school age children of her own, so we declined at this time. Instead we have asked Jeff's mom to fly up when the time comes and spend time with Jason. This looks to be a good solution for all involved.

Family... we are so blessed to have all of you...

That's all for now...

Mishy

What's up?

Little bit of an update...

Dropped off the USCIS form I 600a and the $$ for that. Dropped off the first of many fees. Realized that Jeff and I both signed on the wrong side of the form. Luckily we can retype the first page to swap our info to match the signatures, and I don't have to make another trip to Pasco to do it!

Dropped off Jason's form consenting to be adopted. Now to wait and see if his birth mom signed the form sent to her to release her parental rights. When my son called, she said she hadn't gotten around to it. Sigh.

I'm finally slowing down and not being quite so impatient. The adoption process is a long one...nothing a person can do to hurry it up. Just think... soon Jeff and I will be happy parents to 2 more children! I will become a mom to 3 soon! (Jason and the sweeties from Vietnam)

Jeff is sick with a terrible cold. He is wishing for some TLC as he works 12 hour days and loads up on cold meds at night. Poor baby...wish I was able to be there to take care of him.

That's all for now...

Mishy

Tired

Long drive to and from Pasco...and VERY boring, the drive that is. I broke it up by stopping for lunch and again for a rest break. Then it wasn't so bad. Still was 3 1/2 to 4 hours each way.

Funny thing happened. When I arrived and asked for Jeff Clark's location, I was escorted there only to tell the person that "that is not our trailer". So, he drove me around. Silly me, hadn't really looked when I pulled in, just went direct to office, and guess what? Our trailer was parked in the row directly across from the office! The guy came back and asked me to go to the office as the manager was confused. Turns out there are 2 Jeff Clarks from Vancouver working a shut-down and staying at that particular RV park. LOL The lady thought her helper got the folders mixed up or something, but nope...there are 2.

So, papers are signed and had a wonderful visit with hubby (even tho it was too short). I'm home now, done dishes and laundry and am TIRED. Time for a nap with the puppies!!!

Will write again when I hear more about the paperwork I'm dropping off on Monday.

That's all for now...

Mishy

Miles of paperwork!

Well I'm off tomorrow to drive 224 miles to Pasco to have my husband sign the paperwork for I-600a. Am I crazy? Maybe. :) But, I can't wait a month to have the papers signed to send them off. Besides, it will be Saturday...and I'll get a visit in with hubby! He's working in Pasco doing a welding job for at least a month and possibly longer. (good money, help pay for adoption, yadda, yadda, yadda...love you sweetheart! I know you check and read this!)

Our adoption application and homestudy have been sent to our agency. As soon as the I-600a is approved, we will get our fingerprinting appointments and start on the next batch of paperwork. (It really IS never ending!)

Everything else is going fine. The dogs are bossing each other around...normal. Jason is being a typical teenager...mostly in the fact that he is on his bike as much as possible and avoids homework as much as possible. My student teacher just had her last day, so my classroom is fully mine again. (Mary, come back! We miss you already! GRIN) I haven't yet decided on National Board Certification. We'll see what Monday brings! In the meantime, it is now officially the weekend...so I'm off to read a book! (on adoption, of course...GRIN)

That's all for now,

Mishy

almost forgot...!

Jason won his first bike race ever this last weekend! He received an AWESOME trophy! I am SOOO PROUD of him!

Just had to share!

Beeming from ear to ear...

Mishy

Dilemma...

Wow! I'm really excited about how we are progressing towards our adoption. However with wait times, children available, and the rest of the paperwork process it could be at least a year before our babies are home.

In the meantime...

I just finished my Professional Certification classes and should see my new teaching certificate arrive in late June or early July. Okay, but the title of this post is "dilemma"... why? Well, I'm researching some about National Board Certification. I'm not sure if it is too late to apply for this upcoming school year or not. This might be the most advantageous time for me to pursue this. NBC tends to have the portfolio due in April which would coincide nicely with our adoption if the timing works the way we expect it to. However, when do things ever go the way you expect it? LOL

My Prof Certification just certifies me for 5 more years during which time I have to pursue 150 clock hours. It does not benefit me with extra pay. NBC, on the other hand, would benefit me by a $5,000 bonus on my pay every year here in Washington. There is also a RUMOR that if the certification for NBC is in math or science, that will be another $5,000. Can you just see the $$$$$ signs lining up in my eyes??? Ka-ching! LOL (remember, only a rumor...bummer!) NBC is a LOT of work...I am not deceiving myself. So I am looking at the dilemma of making this decision. I will pray on it.

I also pray that God will take care of my babies until I can.

That's all for now...

Mishy

Yippee!!!

Today we received our homestudy for adoption from Vietnam! Our social worker is printing and sending copies to our attorney. I feel like I just crossed a huge hurdle in the process. GRIN What a great feeling!

Now we will be waiting for our attorney to send the I600a form, for which we will be issued a fingerprinting appointment. We are getting closer and closer!

Babies, your mama and papa are waiting! :)

Mishy

Time drags by...

As you can see I'm obsessed with the waiting time... Friends tell me that being pregnant takes 9 months so be patient! However, my view is that I've been waiting more than 8 years...that's plenty of "pregnant" time and I want my babies now! :)

The international homestudy was this recent Friday. Everything went well. It didn't last as long as we were prepared for but we had a few things going our way: all preliminary paperwork and question pages were done, we had worked with this same social worker for Jason's homestudy so she was familiar with us, and we communicate with each other. The communication is important, believe me. We had no secrets... we knew details about each other, previous marriages, financial details, etc. This made it easy to have no surprises and be united in our goals. In fact, our social worker left and Jeff asked me "that was supposed to be invasive???" We chuckled and went back to waiting.

The report for the international homestudy should be done some time this week. Our social worker, bless her heart, said she'd be typing on it all weekend. :) Our attourney has our I600a paper and will be sending it off soon to the Yakima office. We will next be expecting to get a paper announcing our fingerprinting appointment which we can accomplish in Portland. Not sure how much more paperwork makes up a Dossier but we are wading through it!

Jason has decided he wants to race his bike. He had 2 free races to try it out, and now is ready to get serious. Jeff and Jason are on their way to a race right now so that Jeff can handle paying the fee and signing Jason up for a membership. Me? I'm staying here to babysit the puppies and do some homework for my professional certification class. I will be done with my class on May 2nd and then just wait to ensure my paperwork passes at the Pullman office and my certification will be on its way to me.

That's all for now...

Mishy

Homestudy

Whew! One homestudy done. We finished the post-adoption homestudy for Jason. Our copy from the social worker just arrived in the mail today. Smile. We are one step closer! The homestudy was not as bad as I had feared. I was prepared to feel really uncomfortable answering invasive questions. It was a fairly painless process, about an hour and a half, sitting around the dining room table and following a list of questions telling how much progress Jason has made and how proud we are of him.

Now for the next one...the Vietnam adoption home study. I thought I'd feel less nervous after the first one was done, but I'm not sure. Our next appointment is on the 20th and is supposed to run about 6 hours long. SIX hours?! That's a lot of talking. Well, I'm praying it will go well and we'll get the report back quickly. I don't like the waiting part of this process...

That's all for now...

Mishy

We are a growing family

Our son, Jason, just turned 16. He is my husband's bio son, has lived with us for 4 years now, and has asked me to become his legal adoptive mom. :) We are in that process now. I posted a picture of him on his bike. He loves to spend any free hours available out riding.

Our Boston Terrier puppies have been "stand in" children while preparing for adoption. Penny is now 3 years old and Button is 2 years old. The two of them are sweet yet mischievious. Button is laying on the Papsan chair right now watching me type. :) They are never far from my side.

As to the growing part...with me soon being Jason's legal mom, we are all looking forward to two children from Vietnam joining the family hopefully some time early this next year.

That's all for now...

Mishy

Settling in for the long haul

The process to adding to your family through adoption is a long one I've been told. I hoped to try to shorten the process, but so far it has involved a lot of waiting. I mean...come on...I've already waited 25 years!

During the 8 years Jeff and I have been together we've discussed adoption many times. When we visited an adoption attourney on March 6th and discussed Vietnam as a possibility, we both became so excited.

Since that first meeting we've requested and received 4 copies of each important certificate required. I thought... okay... that wasn't bad... this timeline thing will be a cinch to beat! I applied for my Passport (Jeff already has one) and it will arrive on May 25th! Jeff had his physical on April 4th and mine is scheduled for April 16th. Our homestudy is scheduled for April 20th. Ackk...already 2 months now... guess the timeline isn't a cinch after all. The waiting is so hard and we've only just begun to wait!!!! I can't imagine what I'll be thinking/feeling next year as it gets closer to the day we will meet and bring home our children.

In the meantime... Jeff has been looking at websites about Vietnam. He is really excited about traveling. He loves photography and is dreaming about the picture taking already. I have been join listservs, buying adoption magazines, reading blogs, and TRYING to be patient... ha ha. AND... life goes on. I teach middle school science and am overwhelmed with lesson planning, grades, end of the quarter, etc. Jeff is working for 2 weeks with a local company. Our 2 adorable Boston Terriers beg for attention. :)

That's all for now...

Mishy