Makes me feel like Dancin'....Dancin'

Whooo HOOOO!!!




Finally a break of sorts. Most everyone in the adoption community knows this little tid bit. But I thought I'd put it out there for everyone who's following our journey and is NOT engrossed in the adoption community on a daily basis. Yesterday, USCIS announced their new fee schedule. On this new schedule you are allotted one extension of your Orphan Petition, free of charge. This is such a relief. Seriously, the idea of just having to fill out some extension form without forking out more money really is a stress buster. And since we just redid our fingerprints on Friday, hopefully we won't have to do anything else besides extend our Petition. This is really good news. So for all of us that are affected by this news, now is the time. Please take a moment, push your chair back, and do a little dance!!!

We are RE-DONE

Fingerprints-Check-Check-AGAIN!! We left pretty early this morning to get to the USCIS office when they opened. When we got there 10 minutes after they opened, the parking lot was packed, the lobby was packed. I asked the guard about this. He told me that they had 182 appointments for fingerprints today alone. We were not one of them. He told me they opened the doors almost an hour before. BUT that was not the listed hours that were on our form. I was a little nervous that we were in for a very long wait. But for some reason I think the pink form we had, must have put us in an expedited line, because again they said "good luck on your adoption" and we were in and out in a hour. Whew!! Done again. We then had plenty of time to go to an early showing of SpiderMan3 and take a walk around the mall before Jon collapsed in bed after not having had any sleep. While we were there there was this cute little Asian boy around 16 months sitting behind us. He kept tappin us on the shoulder, smiling and flirting. He was sooooo cute. Maybe it was a sign!! Stay tuned....we'll revisit this day in about 6 months, but by then hopefully we'll know about our child. Tootles!!

Book club verses some zzzzz's

Today I thought I would take a little nap before the book club. I jumped into bed for a 20 minute nap.....and oops 3 hours later I had missed the book club for adoptive parents...DARNIT. Of course now at 11:15pm I am WIDE awake.

I don't know how it would have gone since I only read one of the two books up for discussion. But I had planned on going anyways. The one book I did read though was Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother. I read this one in a couple of hours and I really liked it. The author really goes through a lot of emotions that a lot of families-or at least some of the things I think about and just don't say. I'm still waiting for the library to get the other book for me. Oh well at least I'll be reading them and next time I'll try not nap. But our bed is ohhh so nice, it sucks you in and then that's all there is, you're off into never never land.

Tomorrow we'll be getting our fingerprints re-done. Our USCIS office didn't give us an appointment, just gave us their hours like last time. So basically we go there and wait...and wait...and wait. I probably should've done that appointment pass thing, but I was afraid that it would take too long to get an appointment and our fingerprints expire at the end of June. Plus work gave me Friday off(YAY!!) We're going to try and get their early. We'll see. Hopefully no "match" problems like last time. I told Jon not to cut his fingers at work tonight. He told me that I should have NEVER said that because now he's going to be paranoid and something's going to happen and he'll chop off all his fingertips. Wouldn't that be our luck.

2 posts, one day!!

We're getting all sorts of culture. Val would be so proud that Jon and I went to yet another show, MAMMA MIA . That's two shows in two months, we're not yelling redneck anymore.....we's sophisticated folk now. My MIL couldn't use her tickets so asked us if we wanted to go. OF COURSE!! The seats were amazing, three rows from the stage. I sorta felt rich we were so close. I could actually see the sweat coming from the dancers. I wasn't sure what to expect since I didn't know much about the show. But it was so high energy and the singers were amazing. It really was a fun show to watch.

I am dumbfounded though that Jon didn't know who ABBA was. Now seriously I am NOT a music buff, but even I know who ABBA is. I kept turning to him during the show asking

"do you recognize this song"

"what about this song"

"seriously, you have to recognize this song"

I had to stop because I could tell he was getting annoyed with me.

Anyways great night, great fun!!

NOPE...the wait's not getting to him either..

So I have been informed that it's been over a week since I last posted! Thanks Sarah...I've been slacking.

Not much to post. But just in case you were wondering now Jon is having messed up dreams. He told me about his dream last night...

We were in a store and I saw a couple with a Chinese baby. I told him I was tired of waiting and that we're adopting too...then I proceeded to do something(in his dream) that I would NEVER do. I grabbed the baby!!!

Now apparently the Father of said baby was a big burly man.

And instead of Jon saying "Ann that's not a good idea"

He yells...."RUN!!!"

And so we run with baby in my arms and Big Burly Dad running after us!!

Nope no stress here.

Finally at the Minimum

Can you believe that we are at 14 months? I can't believe that we are still waiting. But we made it to this point and we're on the down slide now(hey haven't I said that before?)

The good thing about 14 months is that we are now officially at the minimum wait time frame. NOT that I think we're much closer as I anticipate at least an 18 month wait. But!!! Before when we were waiting, any time that we would get close to the minimum, they would change it. Then we would creep up on the new minimum and it would change again. NOW we are caught up....it didn't get away from us this time!!

I've heard stories of families waiting 20 plus months. I just hope that that doesn't become us. So now that we are at the minimum I am asking a favor from all of you. Please say a prayer for us that we learn of our child very soon.

Deep breaths!!

Breath in.....Breath out...okay, so, my anxiety ridden rant is now officially over. Thank you all for your support.

The best advice I got..you know the kind of advice that makes you go "okay, I get it",

"cry today, smile tomorrow, and move on".

So that's what I did.

Jon and I are never in a panic state of mind at the same time. Funny how that works out. He even asked me why I was getting so upset about fingerprints. I tried to explain to him that it's not the fingerprinting fee that we would have to pay a total of three times, but the principal of the whole ordeal. But the more I tried to explain to him, the sillier it sounded. If we have to pay the fee another two times, well we'll do it. I have learned that there is some discrepancy with USCIS offices. Some let the redo fingerprints count towards the refile of the I171H. Some do not. And you just never know how it's going to go when it's your turn. Our country coordinator even said that she has seen differences in the same USCIS office. So I'm still not sure if we're just going to let our fingerprints expire, then redo it all at the same time: Or redo them now in hopes that we won't have to redo them again in November. Oh well....moved on. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight.

{{hugs}} to you all for your love and support!!

Need answers

Okay everyone. For those that have been there done that: I know I posted to the yahoo group, but I just saw something that again gave me a sinking feeling in my gut. We are about to redo our fingerprints. While I'm still trying to figure out how to do this: someone posted that when we have to redo the actual immigration form that we will AGAIN have to be fingerprinted, along with all the birth certificates, marriage licenses..etc..etc..etc.. Please tell me that this isn't true. And why wouldn't our fingerprints be good from June to November. I mean we're going to have to pay another $140.00 this month-or whatever the fees are now. And now we're going to have to pay that fee again in 4 flippin' months plus the increased immigration which is somewhere around $600. And if we have to submit all our certificates and licenses can they be copies of the ones we just got last year or do we have to have fresh copies of those too. I mean seriously we already had copies of all that, but they couldn't be more than a year old when we did all this stuff last year so we had to pay to get fresh certified copies of certified copies we already had. And obviously they'll be older then a year NOW!!! So please for those that have had to redo the actual immigration form(I 171H) tell me what the deal is!!

Seriously I am so angry right now. I could deal with having to redo our fingerprints, kinda sorta understand that. I can understand having to redo our immigration, it sucks, but I can sorta understand that too. BUT to have to redo our fingerprints a third effin time 4 months after we just redid them, pisses me off. No nice way to put that. It really pisses me off. It makes no damn sense and is just an effed up way to run things. Sucks the money right out of our pockets. Hey here's an idea, lets pay in excess of $140 each time to do our fingerprints 3 times. Because we all know that my fingerprints have this funny way of changing things up a bit every couple of months. Funny how they do that. Twists the knife on the fact we can't have children. Makes me want to give up. There have been very few moments that I have wanted to throw in the towel. But when I hear something like that I just want to say EFF YOU to them all.

God's hand in our lives

Sometimes the realization comes at such a mundane moment. I have never doubted God's hand in my life everyday. But sometimes I seem to forget the timing of everything and am reminded of it in such a simple way.

I never get off of work early. NEVER. But today I did and I was feeling quite "beat" by this wait. I was tired and was going to go home and take a nap. I debated going to the library again(which is FARRRRR from where I live-but that's another story). I blew it off yesterday, but was invited to an adoption/book club thingy and needed to get the books. So I reluctantly went to the FARRRR away library to get the books I needed. They only had one. But that was okay. I went to check out and the woman checking me out asked me if I was doing a research paper(so I liked this women for thinking I was still in school). "no" I told her. Then she asked if we were adopting. "yes"(okay this is looking better). She then told me she was "jealous" and started to reluctantly ask me questions.

I could tell she was upset. She told me a little bit of her story and how she had researched adoption, but it cost too much....etc... I talked to her for about 30 minutes, all about adoption, how the money just works itself out...I told her not to give up on her dreams just because of finances..etc...etc...etc. I ended up giving her my number and email address so she could contact me with all her questions. I could tell she felt beat, but now she had met someone with information. She told me that she would email me if that was okay. I could tell she needed some support. As I left and was sitting in my car, I had this overwhelming sense of goodness. I knew that I was supposed to be there at that moment, on this day, to cross paths with her. And it also was a huge reminder to me that the timing of this whole thing will be right, no matter how long it takes. I don't know if she'll email me, I hope she does. And even though this meeting seems so incidental , I KNOW it was God's hand at work; if not for her, then as a reminder for me.