New format

As we get closer to the trip, I've switched to an email list to update the people who I know are interested in our journey.  If you didn't get my email sent 12/23, and would like to get updates, please either email me or post a comment here on the blog, or send me a Facebook message... and I'll add you to the email group :-)

What is in a name?

Things are continuing to progress with the adoption.  We are now in the waiting process with US Immigration.  Any day now we’ll be getting our I-800 Provisional Approval, then we can get going on our visa application, and after a few more forms and approvals, we’ll be on our way to China!

In the meantime, we’ve finalized our son’s new name!  When you adopt a child, you give them a new name.  At minimum, they get your family name, but you can also give them a new first and/or middle name.  Our son’s Chinese name is Wang Yi Nan.  Wang is the last name, Yi Nan is the first name.  We don’t know where this name came from.  In China, abandoning a child is illegal, so there is no indication of who the original family is.  So the local officials typically give the child a name.  Since Yi Nan is just under 18 months old now, he can probably recognize his name, but likely doesn’t have a strong attachment to it yet.  And growing up in the US, we feel it will be easier for him to have a common western first name.  But we also want to honor his Chinese heritage by keeping his Chinese name as a middle name.

So we are pleased to present: Samuel YiNan Weckesser

Samuel is from the Hebrew and can mean “God has heard” (see 1 Samuel 1:20 and note).  This name seemed particularly appropriate since we prayed for years for a second child, so this adoption shows that God heard and answered our prayers.  The Bible also talks about how God hears the cries of the orphan and all who are oppressed.  We know that Samuel YiNan was abandoned when he was just a few days old, and found near a factory entrance.  God heard the cries of this abandoned newborn and caused him to be rescued and brought to a safe place, where he was taken care of, treated for his medical disabilities, and eventually released for international adoption and matched to our family.  Even though this child’s life started in tragedy, the Lord turned this evil into good, and gave him a hope and a future.  We pray that we can be used by God to bring good into this child’s life.

Samuel was also the name of the great Old Testament prophet, who served God his whole life.  Despite growing up apart from his birth family, he trusted God and served Him faithfully.  God even spoke to him directly when he was just a boy and he listened to Him carefully.  We pray our son will learn to trust the Lord, and listen to Him well.

Samuel is also a family name: Gabriel’s maternal grandfather’s last name was Samuelson, and that grandfather’s grandfather’s first name was Samuel.  So as our Samuel is being grafted into the Weckesser-Samuelson-Jerdan-Hagen family tree, he bears the name of one of his adoptive ancestors.

We don’t know if Samuel YiNan’s Chinese name was given him for a particular reason, but it is made up of 2 Chinese characters.  Unlike most western names, which are separate words only used as names, Chinese names are taken from common vocabulary, so they have particular meanings in everyday language.  We were told that Yi means already or afterwards, and Nan is a Chinese Cedar, which is a special kind of tree whose wood is very precious.  We are keeping this combination name that was given him as a newborn, to honor his Chinese identity (and keeping the N capitalized to help westerners pronounce it as 2 separate syllables).

So as our Samuel YiNan grows up, we hope he finds meaning in the significance of both his first and middle names.  We're looking forward to bringing him home soon!

Approved!

This has been an exciting week!  We got word on Monday that our dossier was approved by China!!  It wasn't the official document yet, just an email from our agency saying that they had gotten our "soft LOA" (Letter Of Acceptance) and expected to receive the hard copy within a week or so.  The hard copy is what is needed to file our I800 (the next major paperwork, with USCIS), but the "soft copy" means that the Chinese government has approved us to adopt our son - yeah!

So Monday night we scrambled to finish up the last few forms for our I800 filing.  The way our agency works, we send them all the forms, then when they get the official LOA, they email it to us to sign, scan, email back, then they send the I800 packet to USCIS.  So Tuesday we sent them our packet of I800 paperwork (and a few more big checks!) by priority mail. 

We also found out we were missing some classes for our adoption parent training!  Our adoption agency (CCAI) had told us at the beginning that since Illinois has special training requirements, we couldn't take their online training but had to go through our home study agency.  Our home study provided 1 day of training in Chicago, but said we had to buy some online classes to complete the rest of the 14 hours of required training.  We discussed with our social worker what classes to take and took them last April.  But we didn't realize we still needed to send all our training certificates to CCAI, until they told us they needed those before filing our I800 paperwork.  So we emailed them all our certificates, and they told us we need to take 3 more classes!  They were only 30min each, so we were able to finish them Thursday night and send the certificates Friday- phew!

Then on Thursday we also got an email from our agency with the actual hard copy of the LOA!!  It is a very official looking document, written in both Chinese characters and English, stating that we are officially matched with this child, and asking us to confirm our acceptance of the match.  We signed it and emailed it back yesterday (Friday).  The packet we had emailed also arrived yesterday, so our agency was able to file our I800: that starts the final 9-12 week countdown to our trip!  So we could now be looking at early January!  Yikes - this seems to be accelerating!  ...Reminds me a bit of a certain baby girl that arrived in early September instead of mid October... except this time we do get a bit more advance notice :-)

Our agency mentioned this week that once they got the official LOA, we'd start getting a lot of emails from them - and we got 6 yesterday alone!  So I guess we're getting to crunch time.  I have a feeling these next 2 months are going to fly by!  Not long now until we meet our little boy :-)

Dossier in China

A lot has happened in the last month!  First of all, once we received our I800A approval, we got our dossier to China in record time:

• Saturday 9/12: I800A approval came in the mail
• Monday 9/14: I took it to work to get it notarized, then Gabriel took the day off to drive it into Chicago and got it certified by the Secretary of State (walk-in service) and dropped it off at the Chinese Consulate for authentication (and payed for the expedited 2-day service)
• Wednesday 9/16: I switched my work schedule and Jessica’s preschool schedule and we took the train into Chicago for the day.  We picked up the authenticated I800A form, made copies, and sent it off to CCAI (our adoption agency) by overnight mail.  We then spent the afternoon at Lincoln Park Zoo with a college friend of mine who just moved back to the area, and then met up with another another friend who commutes downtown for the train ride home, so we made the most of our day in Chicago :-)
• Thursday 9/17: CCAI confirmed that they received the I800A and that our dossier was now complete and was being prepared to be mailed to China within a few days
•  Friday 9/18: CCAI told us our dossier had been sent to China!  They said to expect it would arrive at the CCCWA (Chinese government agency for international adoption) within 3-5 business days and that they usually get dossiers logged in within 3 weeks.
•  Monday 9/21: We got word that our dossier had been delivered to the CCCWA!
• Friday 9/25: Our dossier was logged in!!!

What this means is that first of all, all our dossier documents are valid, so we’re done with the dossier part – phew!  Secondly, we have a little better idea of timeline: we’ve been told to expect to travel 4-6 months after our LID (Log In Date).  Since our LID is 9/25/15, that means we’re looking at late January to late March!  There are 2 main phases before that happens:

• The CCCWA needs to review and approve our dossier. We’ll know that’s done when we receive our LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  We’ve been told that phase takes 2-3 months.
•  Once we have our LOA, we can file our I800 with US Immigration, a process that takes 9-12 weeks.

So we are very thankful the dossier part of the process is behind us!  God knew our dossier needed to be in China before October 16 (when the 1^st doc would have expired) and He made it happen!!  I am yet again reminded of His Great Faithfulness.  Every time I start to doubt, He reminds us that He’s got this under control!  Not only that, but He graciously provided us with more reassurance about this little boy He’s chosen for us… 

At the same time as all this was happening, we got an update from the orphanage caring for our Chinese son (through CCAI):  this included a paragraph answering some of the questions we had asked last July when we were reviewing his file, and some new photos, and 2 videos!!  Some of our concerns last July had to do with how far behind he was developmentally (not sitting up yet by 10 months, not making sounds or responding).  This update relieved many of our concerns: he can now sit up, pull up to standing, and crawl!  He also interacts with others and seems aware of what is going on around him.  He also looks adorable, and has the cutest smile :-)   We are so thankful for this extra info we’ve been given while we wait for him!

Now that it’s getting closer, we’ve been talking more with Jessica about her little brother, and how she’ll be able to play with him and help him to learn things.  We’ve also been setting up his bedroom, and talking about sharing toys and books with him.  And we continue to pray for him daily.

Got the last dossier doc!

Thank you to all those who have been praying!  We got our I800A Approval in the mail yesterday!!  This was the last piece we need to submit our dossier.  So I'll take it to work in the morning to get it notarized, then Gabriel will drive it into Chicago to get it certified by the Secretary of State and drop it off at the Chinese Consulate to get it authenticated.  That's a minimum 2-day process, so I'll plan to go in on Wednesday to pick it up and send it by overnight mail to our placing agency in Colorado.  Then they can finalize our dossier and send it to China.  It's now looking like we'll be able to get it over there by early October, before any of our documents expire :-)

Once we get confirmation that our dossier has been "logged in" by the Chinese Government agency in charge of adoptions, we'll need to wait 2-3 months while they review it.  Then once we get their official "Letter of Acceptance", we can file the next form with US immigration (I800) and once we get that back we can go get our son!  Hoping for late winter/early spring.  We haven't gotten any updates from our little guy, so hoping he's doing ok and looking forward to meeting him!

An Announcement!

A lot has happened since my last blog post!  First of all, after a few more delays, we finally received our approved/signed/notarized home study report on 7/30/15, and mailed it the same day to USCIS with our I800A application.  We had our fingerprinting appointment on 8/28/15, so we know our file is being reviewed.  We’re now waiting to get the approved I800A back in the mail.  We’re praying that happens in the next couple weeks, so we can quickly get it notarized + certified + authenticated + mailed to our agency so they can finalize our dossier and send it to China by the beginning of October!  They said it takes up to 2 weeks for China to log in the dossiers they receive, so they won’t send it any later than the beginning of October (since my medical exam expires October 16).  I do have another physical scheduled for October 7 just in case, but I’m really hoping I don’t need to redo the medical form since it was such a long and frustrating process (both for me and for my doctor) to get it done right the 1^st time around.  So please pray with us that USCIS quickly finishes their review and sends us their approval.

But the big news is we have been matched with a child!!!  This came as a big surprise as we didn’t expect a referral until after our dossier was in China.  But the way our agency manages their waiting list is based on the date a family files their Medical Conditions Checklist, not when their dossier is logged in.  We submitted ours in July 2014, so we apparently are now close enough to the top of the list that our name came up when they searched for a family open to the particulars of this child’s file.  This file was also labeled “Special Focus”, which meant it could be matched with a family whose dossier wasn’t logged in yet.

It’s a little boy, just over a year old, with chubby cheeks and a cute smile.  He has club foot, for which he wears special braces on his feet.  There are some unknowns, but after discussing his file with several doctors and adoptive parents, and much discussion and prayer, we decided to say yes!

This reminds me of the 20-week ultrasound during our daughter’s pregnancy: we now know the gender of our next child and a little bit about him, and this whole thing has just become a lot more “real” :-)

So… IT'S A BOY!!   

We are now setting up his bedroom, we have his picture on our refrigerator, and we pray for him every day.  Our daughter is excited to have a little brother, and we talk with her about what it’s going to be like to be a big sister.  Once our dossier is in China, it will be another 4-6 months before we travel.  So IF we can get our dossier logged in by early October, we expect to go pick up our son around February-April 2016!

SIGNED!!!

Hurray! Praise the Lord!  Governor Rauner finally signed the bill eliminating the DCFS approval requirement yesterday (7/15), so today our social worker officially sent it to CCAI.  So we’re moving forward again!!  Thank you to all those who have been praying for this, and to those who have called the governor’s office and signed the petition!!

Since we’ve been stuck for nearly 2 months, and since it's getting really tight to get our dossier to China before our documents start expiring (all docs need to be dated within 12 months when they get to China, and we’ve still got 2-3 months’ worth of steps before then, and the 1st doc is my medical exam on 10/16/14), I did send CCAI our home study early last week “unofficially”, and asked them to start reviewing it.  I checked with them today and it sounds like they’re almost through the review and will be able to send the changes back to our social worker in the next few days – yeah!  (They explained they always have a few minor wording changes.)  Then the social worker will need to send them a corrected copy to review (which should only take a few days).  Then they’ll issue an approval letter to our social worker and we’ll need to get the finalized home study and letter and include them with our I800A application.  That is the federal application to adopt a child internationally, which we need to send to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services).  We’ve heard they typically take 50-60 days to issue their approval, which is the last piece we’ll need to get notarized/certified/authenticated and then send to CCAI to include in our dossier.  Then CCAI will do a final review of our whole dossier, translate it, and send it to China… hopefully all before 10/16/15!!

I was starting to think there’s no way we’re going to have our dossier ready in time (especially with the budget crisis in the IL legislature at the moment), and now it’s looking possible again!  Yet again I am reminded that the Lord has this whole process under control.  Early on (while we were still just researching options), we were told to “only adopt if you’re sure God is calling you to”.  At the time, we struggled with that, because we weren’t sure if we were “called to adopt”.  Eventually, we did come to sense that this was something God was leading us to do, and moving forward became a matter of obedience.  I understand that better now: this is such a difficult, frustrating, sometimes illogical, often inefficient process, that we probably would have given up by now if we didn’t feel this is what God wants us to do.  And there have been several times now that I’ve come to the end of myself, of what I can humanly do or "make happen", and then God comes through, and shows that He is Master over all!  So yes it’s hard, and often frustrating at a human level, but God is working even through the broken processes and bureaucracies of this world, and it’s exciting to be part of it and to catch glimpses of His Hand at work!

We knew when we started down the path of adoption that it wouldn’t be easy.  Adoption starts with tragedy and brokenness.  But we also trusted that God would walk the path with us, and equip us for what he had for us.  He’s been teaching us already about patience and trust and His Faithfulness, and I suspect we’ll need what we learn from those lessons for what lies ahead…

On the governor's desk

So our homestudy is still waiting DCFS approval, and I recently found out there is a new wrinkle to that... Illinois is one of only a handful of states that requires this approval step (in most states, once the social worker approves the homestudy, it’s done), and there have been several attempts to do away with it.  This past winter, a bill was introduced in the Illinois legislature to streamline adoption in Illinois, including eliminating the whole DCFS approval step (actually doing away with the whole office in charge of approving intercountry adoptions).  It UNANIMOUSLY passed the house in April AND the senate in May and the joint version was finalized and passed 5/31/15!  Since then it’s been sitting on Governor Rauner’s desk, waiting for his signature.   

I checked with our social worker today to see if she had heard anything from DCFS (no) and what this bill means for us.  Most likely: if it’s signed, the DCFS approval requirement is gone, and our homestudy can immediately go on to our placing agency for review and then we can file our I800A form.  BUT the governor has 60 days to sign a bill sent to him (or veto it). 

And in the meantime, the DCFS approval process has slowed down tremendously.  The other homestudy approval our social worker had been waiting for when she sent ours in, has now been waiting for about 2 months!  When contacted, the DCFS office says they have too much to do and not enough time.

So our best hope at this point is for the governor to sign the bill soon.  If he waits the full 60 days, that’s going to be really tight to get our dossier to China before the documents start expiring (the 1^st being my medical exam!).

Those of you in Illinois can take a couple easy steps to encourage our governor to sign this bill (HB 3079):

• Sign this an online petition asking the governor to sign the bill (another site that linked to this explained that “Every signature forwards an email to his office announcing another supporter”):  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gov-rauner-sign-hb-3079?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend
• Call his office:  Springfield is 217/782-0244 or Chicago is 312/814-2121.  I called the Chicago office and explained I wanted to urge Governor Rauner to sign bill HB 3079 on streamlining adoption in Illinois.  The woman answering the phone was very friendly and just wanted to confirm which bill number it was and that I was in support of it.
• Or submit an email through his website: https://www.illinois.gov/gov/ContactUs/Pages/VoiceAnOpinion.aspx

Here are a couple additional links if you want to find out more about the bill:

http://adoption.com/adoption-reform-bill-seeks-to-streamline-adoption-in-illinois

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?GA=99&DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=3079&GAID=13&SessionID=88&LegID=89209

http://www.reddit.com/r/Adoption/comments/396wbc/illinois_intercountry_adoption_home_studies_are/