Hallelujah Dossier is on it's way!

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Today was the day we've been waiting for for 7 months now.

7 LONG months of paperwork, waiting, fingerprints, more paperwork and more waiting...

to compile the much anticipated DOSSIER!

THIS is what the Complete Dossier Looks like...

It is made up of 14 documents that have each been Notarized, Sealed by the Secretary of State (in 3 states), Sealed by the Department of State in Washington DC (Hillary Clinton)

 and finally authenticated by the Embassy of China in Washington DC. 

  It is also made up of 3 notarized reference letters (written to CCCWA in Ch*na)by 3 wonderful friends that honored us by writing such beautiful references.  We thank all 3 of you for writing these!  Also included in the final dossier is 6 family pictures, 2 passport photo's each of me and Jeff and a copy of the first page of our passports.  We also had to make and send  a copy of the entire dossier!  After everything was finally put into the Fed Ex box it weighed a whopping....

2.30 Pounds!  That is what 7 months worth of  Adoption paperwork weighs.

Tomorrow morning it will arrive at our agency in California then they will check it over again and then send it to Ch*na!  This is a GIANT step forward in our adoption!  

Now we can sit back and WAIT!  I feel like we've finally hurdled ourselves over that HUGE fence that we've been trying and trying to get over for the last 7 months.  It almost feels like a dream to us.  We can relax a little bit now and keep ourselves busy while we wait this time.  Our stuff is done for now on our side.  Now we wait for a Logged In Date(LID) from the CCCWA. That normally takes anywhere from a week to several weeks. We pray that we get it pretty quick!

After we get our LID we will wait for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA).  The LOA can take anywhere from 1 month to 5 months.   We are praying for and believing in a short LOA wait!

It's HERE!!!

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Our I-797 came in the mail today!!!! Yes, our i800a was just approved on July 26 and today we got the approval in the mail!!!!  BIG DAY for the Phillis family! 

It was a fun day and we got fingerprinted!

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Tuesday was a BIG day for our family and our adoption.  Not only was it Hailee's 9th birthday but we also took a BIG step in our adoption process. We took our chances and traveled to Baltimore to the USCIS to be fingerprinted 2 weeks early.  Our scheduled appointment is not until July 25th but we REALLY want to move things along as FAST as we can!

Since Jeff was off and it was Hailee's birthday we thought we'd give it a try. Couldn't hurt if they told us no because Baltimore is a fun place!  We would just celebrate Hailee's birthday at the National Aquarium and do some site seeing at the Inner Harbor.

Well they told us

We were in and out of there in less than an hour!  

After our fingerprints we went to celebrate Hailee's Birthday at the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

We also went to the National Aquarium!

After touring the Aquarium we ate a celebratory lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

So Tuesday, July 10, 2012 was a GREAT day for our family!  We are excited that things are moving ahead with our adoption!

After our fingerprints and i800a (application to US Citizenship and Immigration for international adoption) are approved, we PRAY that they are approved quickly, then we will be able to send our Dossier to Ch*na!  We are SO much closer now!  It feels good to know we are much further into the process now.   We know God is working and moving mountains for our adoption.  His hands are all over this and we thank Him everyday!  

Children Who Wait....

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Hope is Fading from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.

Busy Summer but things are moving!

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Yesterday our church took our Youth Group to an amusement park for the day.  It was very hot and thankfully they had a water park!  The kids swam and rode the water slides for a couple of hours then we broke for lunch.  After lunch the kids wanted to ride rides.  I am a water park kind of gal so I was not thrilled about the rides especially since it was so HOT!  But the kids had fun!  Hannah and Hailee saw go carts for little one's so they wanted to "drive"!

AND THEY'RE OFF!!!

Hailee is taking the lead....WAIT A MINUTE, THEY ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!

Thankfully no other kids were driving while my crazy driving kids girls were driving.  Jeff certainly has his work cut out for him when he teaches them to drive someday. 

 After some convincing we got Hannah to ride the Ferris Wheel for the first time and she loved it!

I finally talked Hailee into riding it with me and she was not a fan as you can see in this picture!  Mama hates heights too!

We had a good day!  It was fun!  

We are super excited because things are FINALLY moving with our adoption.  Last Wednesday we overnighted our i800a application to the USCIS and on Monday I got an email and text from the USCIS saying that they received it along with our reciept number.  Today I got the i797C in the mail which told us that they received our i800a on June 14, 2012.  It also tells what the next steps are.  The USCIS will schedule a biometrics (fingerprint) appointment for us at our USCIS Application Support Center.  We will get this by mail and hopefully soon!!!  We are hoping we get to go to Charleston, WV for it because they are suppose to be fairly quick.  And we want quick!  The quicker the better!  After the fingerprints we will wait for form 797 which means we were approved by the United States Government, Homeland Security to adopt!  Then we can send our Dossier to C*na!  Oh how I dream of THAT day!  

Meiya, we are working as fast as we possibly can to come and get you!  We know you are in loving hands with your foster mama!  God is watching over you!

The Ball is Rolling...FINALLY!

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Hallelujah!!!!! Our Home Study has been approved by our adoption agency!  

So glad to have this part of our adoption process complete and we are SO READY to start the next step!  

We have several steps left in our adoption process and now that our Home Study has been formally approved by our adoption agency (or placing agency) now we can get the ball rolling! 

So you may be wondering...

After we get original, notarized, signed copies of our Home Study we will submit an application to the USCIS.  This application is called the i800a and the USCIS, aka homeland security, will review it along with our home study and schedule Jeff and I to be fingerprinted at their office.  We PRAY that we are blessed with a USCIS officer that has a true heart for adoption so we can get our process with them done quickly.  After we get our i800a approval then we will send all of our documents to be certified by the Secretary of State and authenticated by the Ch*n*se consulate.  When that is all complete then we will send ALL of those documents to Ch*n* also known as DTC.

  We are really excited to get DTC!!!! Once we have that then we can relax 

a little!

One other great blessing with having our home study approved by our adoption agency is that when it is in our hands we can start applying for grants!  Praise the Lord for those awesome organizations that offer grants to adoptive families!  It will be a while before we hear anything on them, I've heard it can take several months to hear if you've been approved for them.

For now we are plugging away at our FUNDRAISING!  We are still selling these COOL t- shirts:  Proceeds for EACH shirt sold will go towards our adoption fund!  Click on the box below to go to our store and see all of the other amazing styles we offer!

We currently need to raise $4,020 to get our next step accomplished!  We are doing EVERYTHING we can do to raise this money for Meiya.  We are having a garage sale on June 8 and 9th to raise funds. If you live in our area and have stuff you'd like to donate to our sale we would really appreciate it.  Please email me if you live in the Martinsburg area for directions.  We appreciate any prayers and help that we can get.  It means a lot to us!  We are grateful to all of you who have prayed for our adoption and for Meiya.  We are also grateful to all of you who have supported us through giving and through our fundraisers.  Our dream and prayer is to get Meiya home THIS year!!!  Nothing is impossible for God!  He is in FULL control of everything in this world because this is HIS world not ours!  He can change the hearts of kings, He can move mountains! We are fully trusting in Him to see us through!

BEAUTIFUL!

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I am in LOVE with THIS print!  I want it!  

I am doing a lot of research and asking a lot of my adoption friends if they know what the name of this beautiful print is and where can I get it.  I've never seen a print like this of Jesus with Asian children before.  I LOVE it! If anyone knows the name of it or where I can buy it PLEASE let me know!

Sweet Frog Spirit Night!

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On Monday, we had our second Spirit Night Fundraiser. 

This time at Sweet Frog!

If you are not familiar with Sweet Frog it is a frozen yogurt cafe.  So YUMMY!

Hannah and Hailee wore their new T-shirts that say "I Love my sister in Ch*na" with their Mieya red thread bracelets.

All in all we had a pretty good turn out!  I think we did pretty well!  We met a lot of sweet people who loved the fact that we are adopting and they commented on how adorable Meiya is, who can blame them?  Have you seen this precious face?  She gives me goosies every time I look at her pictures! 

As far as our process, we are hoping to get our home study turned in to our agency NOW THIS week!  Yes, we are still waiting on it (84 days to be exact) but we know it will happen.  It MUST happen this week.  I am running out of patience!  We should have our DTC right now but sadly, we do not!  Nobody's fault!   Just the devil throwing wrenches and God is always right there throwing them back at him.  God is in control, this I know!  
He will make a way!

I LOVE this!  I need to tattoo it on my forehead hang it up all over my house because I am so guilty of feeling alone and defeated.  I get angry!  I won't lie!  I get really angry because of how things are moving at a snails pace!  I see other's who started the adoption process when we did and already have DTC!  We do not even have our stinkin home study turned into our agency yet!  It is frustrating!  But God keeps reminding me that this is HIS world and HE is in control of everything!  Nothing is impossible for Him!  He will see to it that we get our sweet Meiya home soon!  He knows what she needs.  She is His child created in His image. I need to trust Him and let Him take the wheel.  It is going to happen in His timing.

T-Shirts Fundraiser!

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Today we are so excited because our AdoptionBug T-shirt store is open and ready for business!  This is our first official fundraiser that we have started for our adoption. Please click on the box below and it will take you directly to our store.  This is an awesome opportunity for you to help us bring Meiya home! Oh and the shirts are cool!  We have 6 different styles to choose from!  Did I mention how cool they are?

We need YOUR help!

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As many of you may know the federal adoption tax credit is due to expire at the end of this year.  Families that adopt children from foster care, through domestic infant adoption, or through intercountry adoption are eligible for this tax credit! President Obama has proposed that it becomes permanent starting in 2013 but your help is needed to encourage Congress to pass the act. 

"Congress must act NOW to pass legislation that will protect and extend the adoption tax credit and encourage the right of every child to grow up SAFE and LOVED in a FAMILY for their OWN" - Adoption Tax Credit Working Group

 To help I URGE you to go to http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate/. On this site your will see step by step instructions of what YOU can do to HELP save this much needed tax credit for adoptive families. Today I emailed 2 of our state's Representatives and 2 of our states Senators. I just copied and pasted the sample email that http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate/ has so graciously written for us to use and customize. Here is is the sample letter that YOU may use.  Please remember to customize it! 

Dear Senator/Representative (NAME):

I am writing to ask you to support the adoption tax credit, which is set to expire on December 31, 2012. Since 1997, the adoption tax credit has helped tens of thousands of parents offset the high cost of adoption, making it possible for them to provide children with loving, permanent families.

The adoption tax credit is especially important to me and my family because… (Tell Congress why you care. Your Members of Congress value your voice!)

If Congress does not take action, the current adoption tax credit will expire at the end of 2012. The credit will be reduced to $6,000, and will only benefit the few families that adopt children with special needs and have qualified adoption expenses. Most families adopting children from foster care, intercountry adoption, and domestic infant adoption will not receive any benefit. Without the adoption tax credit, many parents hoping to adopt will be unable to do so, and others will face great financial hardship. The adoption tax credit is essential to ensuring that as many children as possible find the forever families they deserve and ensuring that those families are in a more stable financial position to provide an environment where children can thrive.

The adoption tax credit must be extended to help as many children as possible find the permanent, loving family they need and deserve. And for 2012 it should be made refundable again so that most adoptive families will benefit from it. The best adoption tax credit would be permanent, refundable, inclusive of all types of adoption, and remain a “flat” tax for children with special needs. Enclosed, for your reference, is a factsheet with more information about the adoption tax credit.

On behalf of the countless children waiting to be adopted, and the many thousands of families that stand to benefit from the adoption tax credit, thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,

NAME

CITY, STATE

EMAIL ADDRESS / PHONE NUMBER

Again, all you have to do it copy and paste this letter, customize it and email it to your state Senator's and Representatives. Encourage your family and friends to do the same!

To find out who your state Senators are click on THIS link : http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

To find out who your state Representatives are click on THIS link:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Thank you for helping!  Everyone has a voice and everyone needs to be heard.  Every child deserves to be loved, feel safe and have a family of their own.  Together we can save this much needed tax credit for adoptive families.  Think about all of the children that this tax credit will help!  

She is stunning!

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Got this today....

And I must say.....

She takes our breath away.....

We love her! 

We love her foster mama who is taking such wonderful care of her.  She looks so happy and healthy.

  We can tell that she is loved.

Thank you Lord for blessing our baby girl with such a loving foster family!

Meiya Lin, we are trying our hardest to get things moving so we can bring you home sweet girl!

Baby be Blessed... FREE Friday!!!

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I LOVE Baby be Blessed dolls!

These dolls are not only adorable but they spread the Word of God.  Each handmade doll has scripture stitched onto their cute, little tummies.

Cute right?  

Well the amazing people at Baby be Blessed are having a FREE GIVEAWAY!

To Enter go to this link http://babybeblessed.blogspot.com/2012/04/yayfree-friday_20.html

Follow the directions and you are automatically entered!  Yes, it is THAT easy!

They are not so bad after all!

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Yesterday I sent SAFRAN MorphoTrust a complaint email because it took them so long to let us know that my prints were rejected. In my earlier post I mentioned that my prints have been rejected twice and I disliked them for taking so long. Well this morning I got a phone call from them responding to my email. The nice, young lady on the other end told me that she was sorry for it taking so long and they were going to do all they could to make things right with me. They are going to skip making me do another fingerprinting session (YAY!) and instead they are going to do the Name Based Search. This is awesome news because we were told I would have to be rejected 3 times before that could be done but their policy says 2 times. I will go with THEIR policy. ;)

So now I want to say that I recant my statement saying that I dislike SAFRAN MorphoTrust. They seen to be not so bad after all!

Now I just have to send them copies of the TWO rejection letters, my full name, DOB and SSN and then my check will be done. YAY!

Grace & Hope For Children

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Friday morning I woke up feeling down because our home-study is STILL not complete. Yes, we are finished with all of our visits from our SW but we are still waiting on a good bit of documents that our SW requires. My fingerprints have not came back yet so we are still waiting to see if they get accepted the second time around. Our tax forms from 2011 have not came back yet but that is Jeff's fault because he keeps forgetting to call our accountant and give him his mileage from last year so our accountant can finish them. Jeff promises to call first him first thing in the morning.

I WILL remind him! :)

Friday, March 30 is my Birthday and the only thing I want more than anything is for EVERYTHING to be turned in to our Social Worker so that she can write up our home-study!

PLEASE

Anyway like I said I was feeling down Friday morning. We REALLY want Meiya home THIS year! The Summer would actually be ideal for us to travel to Ch*na because Jeff wouldn't miss any work from School Bus driving. We will take whatever date we are given though. The sooner the better in our eyes because we REALLY want our baby girl home!

Friday evening I got an email from a coordinator from Grace & Hope For Children. She told me that Meiya is in their foster care program! Grace & Hope For Children is a Christian Foster Care program that recruits and trains foster families in Ch*na while supporting them. The children are supported by faithful sponsors who pledge a certain amount each month to keep them in the program. From what we've heard from other families who's own children were in this program it is AWESOME!!! The children are placed in loving, Christian foster homes where they are taught, nurtured and loved. Each year they send their staff to Ch*na to visit the various orphanages and foster families that they work with. This year they happen to be going to Meiya's city and province. YAY God! See I know He has His hands in ALL of this! Here is a video explaining a little bit about them. One of the American women in this video is the woman who contacted me!

This video explains the importance of foster care through Grace & Hope For Children.

Needless to say hearing this great news about Meiya lifted my spirits! I am so excited that she is in this program getting the love and care she deserves, the love and care we long to give her. We are so VERY thankful for her faithful sponsor who pays to keep her in this program. Whoever you are please know that we feel that YOU are a part of our family now! God bless you!!! Words can not express how thankful we are for you. We were told that when we come to Ch*na to get Meiya we will be given her foster care reports as well as pictures which will be hand delivered to our hotel room. Knowing that Meiya is in such excellent care really means a lot to us. But knowing she is in a Christian home where she is learning about Christ and His love for her is priceless to us! I know we still have a good wait ahead of us but knowing all of this makes the waiting a little bit easier!

Chick fil a Spirit Night and home-study is done!

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Last night we had our Spirit Night at the Chick-fil a in Martinsburg. We had such great time meeting so many new people and meeting families who have adopted or who, like us, are in the process of adopting. We made a lot of new friends last night! We really felt blessed and encouraged from meeting everyone. We feel humbled by the outpouring of support and generosity from the community! We actually raised a good bit of money from this Spirit Night! We are so thankful to Kendra, the owner at this location, for allowing us to have our Spirit Night for our adoption!

The girls and I made a display board for our adoption. They had a lot of fun helping me make it. The pictures of our precious Meiya were a hit with folks. We even put the pictures out of Meiya that Hannah and Hailee drew.

A lot of people from our church came out and helped us out with wiping down tables and helping us with the girls. Hailee got sick while we were there and Jingles and Linda, a very sweet, loving couple from our church took the girls home with them so she could rest. LO and BEHOLD that child made a miraculous recovery once she got to their house. Linda said she perked up and wanted to eat. lol! We want to thank our church family for everything they did for us last night. Especially Linda and Jingles for taking our 'sick' little Hailee and Hannah home with them. We are glad Hailee is feeling better. She is such a stinker!

Finally today was our last home-study! YIPEE! We are so thrilled that part is over! Our wonderful Social Worker said that she will have it done in a few days then it will be reviewed by her supervisor then off to our adoption agency for their (fingers crossed) approval! We believe they will approve it because she followed their directions to a T! Now we start focusing on the dossier! I once saw an adoption T-shirt that says "So far no morning sickness but the paper cuts are terrible!" I need that T-shirt!

Here she is!!!

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We got PA (Permission to Adopt) last week and I was waiting for the go ahead on posting pictures of our little girl. Well I was given the go ahead last night and now I would like to introduce you to our little girl. We do not have a name picked out just yet but we are close in our decision. We love Meiya which is Chinese and it means Beautiful Grace. It is pronounced May yah. We may make that her middle name. We are praying that God will help us make this decision very soon. But for now we will call her Meiya.

Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com


Scrapbooking Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

We are very excited to finally be able to share her pictures with you all. We thank you all for all of the kind words, gifts and prayers! Please continue to keep our adoption of Meiya in your prayers. We know God is working in this adoption. He has proven Himself over and over to us how He is in control and He has the final say in everything. He opens doors that man can not shut!

Home-study Homework

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As a lot of you who have adopted know there is a ton of paperwork involved. This week we started our home-study process and our social worker gave us 'homework' to do. Jeff and I each had to write our own autobiographies. We then had to do a Self Evaluation form.

Jeff working diligently on his homework.

Me working on my homework in my pink tinkerbell pj's (no laughing)...ok, it is funny!

Hannah and Hailee were SO excited to get to do their homework. They have been watching us do all of the paperwork and always ask if they can help. Boy were they thrilled when they got to fill out their 'paperwork!

Hannah working on her home-study homework. (Yes she is tired in this pic it was a long day)

Hailee working on her home-study homework. She was still wide awake at 11pm. lol

Today during the home-study the girls had their individual interviews and got to hand our Social Worker their 'homework'. They both said "It was so much fun!" Silly mommy forgot to make copies of their 'homework'. Maybe our sw will give us copies for the babies scrapbook.

WE GOT PA!!!!

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Today we found out that we got PA from China. PA means Permission to Adopt! We are beyond thrilled and thankful to God for everything he is doing in this adoption. Praise Him!

Quick Update on our adoption.

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I want to let everyone know where we are at in our adoption journey because so much has happened lately that I haven't had time to blog. Well we were officially approved to adopt through our agency last week and now we are waiting to get PA from China. PA means Permission to Adopt our little girl. She is 1 and she is absolutely precious. We are all so in love with her and we pray we get PA to adopt her this week.

Monday 2/6 was such a busy day for us. First we had our FBI fingerprints done then we had our first official home-study with our social worker, which went very well. We also got our state fingerprints done. With everything we did on Monday we feel like we are a giant step closer to bringing her home. We have our second home-study this Friday. We are so excited that everything is moving so fast. We can feel Gods hands in this entire adoption. According to our social worker our home-study should be complete by mid-March. Then it will go to our adoption agency for approval. After that more paperwork will need to be done on our part. It is a long process and we are learning that each step of the way and it is a lot of paperwork! But it is all worth it because she is worth it!

On Thursday of this week we have our Pampered Chef Fundraiser. A very sweet girl in our church sells it and she called us and offered to do this for us in her home. We are praying for a successful fundraiser. She is taking online orders through this link if you are interested.

http://www.pamperedchef.biz/jennifercloud?page=host-search-results&showId=3499621

Then on February 20 we have a Spirit Night fundraiser for our adoption at Chick-fil a in Martinsburg. We are praying for a huge turnout for it. We are advertising it as much as we can.

We of course still have our ongoing fundraiser through A Charity Project through the link below.

http://www.acharityproject.com/f/10for10LittleToes

Like I said we can definitely feel God all over this adoption. He has moved so many mountains and blessed us so much that we are just amazed constantly at how faithful and awesome He is!!!

Gods Heart: Adoption

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Today in this world there are nearly 150 MILLION orphans!!!

Most will never find a family.

Those children will risk facing; homelessness, being prostituted, drug abuse and suicide.

Who will take care of them???

Caring for Orphans is what Christians are commanded to do.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for Orphans

James 1:27

We can care for orphans in many ways by; praying for them, adopting, becoming foster parents, supporting missions who work with orphans, financially supporting orphanages and adoptions.

It is by Adoption that we call God... FATHER.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" John 14:18

(Before you play this video please turn off my music at the bottom of the blog)

Song on video: Orphans of God by Avalon