Realization that my baby is probably out there

Jeremiah 1:5 – “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.”

Yesterday we decided to make a break for the beach so my kids, Ooney and JonJon and one of the most lovely people I know, my niece Sarah who just graduated from college packed up the SUV and headed off.  While on our drive Sarah was asking about the adoption and the time-lines and paused to think it over and she said, "well that means your baby is about to be conceived in a month or so".  I can't believe I have been so busy that I didn't really think about this yet.  

This morning I went onto the facebook group I am part of that is made up of families using our adoption agency and did a little research on those who have traveled recently, when their home studies went to Korean, their travel calls and the age of the babies when they traveled to get them.  I then went on to google calendars and printed out a calendar that went from now to 2014 did the math and assuming that our home study will go to Korea some time next month -  then sure enough our baby was more than likely conceived this month.  Now as everyone who is familiar with adoption process knows this is completely unpredictable anything could happen to the program and cause a delay but still what a thought.....

You start this process and you know you baby is not event born or probably not event conceived and the wait is so long that it just feels endless.  But it feels so much more real now.  

My baby is more than likely out there.  His mother more than likely doesn't know she is even pregnant,  and is about to be faced with the the biggest decisions of her life.  She will more than likely consider abortion and out of love for her baby give him life.  She will be faced with the social shame of pregnancy out of wedlock, faced with the pain of telling her family or if she chooses not to hiding this for months.  She will be faced with the challenges of altering a possible lifestyle that would be unhealthy for the baby she carries....but most of all she will be faced with the pain of seeing her baby after he is born and giving him away. 

She is now part of me.  I feel love for this woman I don't even know and probably never will.  My prayers have begun and will continue.  

Thank you for choosing to give life to this little boy that is yours and will one day be mine.

Ah this is taking so long

I don't want to complain because I do feel so thankful that God worked out the details and we are able to send our home study to Korea (HSTK) without the delay of waiting for the boys to get fingerprinted but  IT IS TAKING FOREVER FOR OUR HOME STUDY TO GET DONE.

We sent out application the very beginning of January and I never expected it to take this long to just get the home study done.   I was thinking like 3-4 months.   I did my part the best I could I gathered all my paperwork and got all our appointments done in 3 weeks....I guess it is just hard to wait for others to do their part.

Feeling better already from the capital letter home study vent and truly am thankful for all God has done to get us to this place.

Light at the end of the tunnel

At the beginning of this week it looked as though we would definitely be delayed in sending HSTK (Home study to Korea)  and now it appears things might have turned around and we may be able to move forward

Earlier this week I received the case number for my I-600 along with the phone number for the adoption department at USCIS.  I made the call hoping for the best and was told that more than likely things would not move forward without the home study.  I felt deflated.  I knew it was a long shot but was really hoping it would work. 

It still might have helped because it takes 10-12 days for the application to go from the processing branch in Texas to adoption office in Missouri and the nice woman who helped me from USCIS gave me the address where I can overnight our home study when that is finalized straight to Missouri so at least we are not wasting time.  Before I would have still been waiting on our home study to be finalized and then send in and wait those 2-3 weeks as it was processed so at least now it is moving to the right places and I can catch my home study up overnight directly to Missouri.

I am hoping that if my home study is finalized and approved within the next two weeks if I overnight it the USCIS branch in Missouri I we might still be able to get the boys prints done before they leave but who knows.  I was told I could call when the home study caught up and they could possibly fax my documents to our local USCIS branch for fingerprinting.

So I was disappointed but then came the good news....

Today my agency called and there may still be a way to move forward while we are waiting on the boys to get printed in Korea.  I feel super happy and hope this works out ok.  With the 2 year wait from when our home study finally goes to Korea I really didn't want to delay almost another 4 more months.

New baby for my baby!

Today I started a new baby at my daycare.  I did not plan to take a new baby, I get so many baby calls and it has gotten easy to say no lately....but after sending the adoption application in and praying God would help us fund this adoption one of the kindergarten teachers stopped me in the hall at school one day and ask me if I had an opening for her baby that was due in a few weeks.  If I ever was going to take a new baby it would have to be a teachers baby so I didn't add more here to my summers and schools out days. I told her I would think about it and they came for a visit. 

I really felt this was God's way of helping us pay for this adoptions so I agreed and here we are.  It is hard work, very hard work, but I work hard for Banana and Carrot so I feel like out new baby will be worth the hard work.

I was not feeling confident this a.m. since I did not know his schedule but am feeling like I have this now.  I have successfully fed this new little guy two bottles and he ate them all and he is on his 3rd nap. He will be here for 5 weeks then back home with his mama for the summer and back in the fall which will be perfect because then my two preschooler girls will be in school and it will just be the baby and a 2 year after the before and afterschool kids get on the bus....ideal.

I am truly thankful God has heard our prayers and has sent us part of the answer by sending this baby to help finance the adoption.....it also helps that this baby is so cute :)

I600A sent early....will it work?

After the home study the next step is to apply for an I-600A which is the application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.  This is suppose to be sent along with some identification documents and the completed home study.  They then assign you a case number and send you appointments for FBI fingerprinting at your local USCIS office (both of which are 45 minutes away)

We do not have a completed home study report yet and probably won't until close to the end of May which then will not allow time for JonJon and Ooney to get fingerprinted before they leave for Korea so here is what I am attempting to do.

I have sent in our application with a cover letter explaining the situations about the boys returning to Korea for the summer along with everything but the home study.  I state that the home study would follow ASAP in late May or early June and I ask them if they would please send the boys for their biometrics appointments before they leave.....please pray this works. 

I know this is a long shot and I understand I may need to wait....but I don't want too.  I know I'm in for such a long wait as it is after HSTK I want to do what I can now to just get to that point.

A very nice woman at the USCIS department sugguested I try this.  What will happen is they will get my documents and must assign it a case number.  After that it would really just sit until they get all the paperwork but with the case number I am then allowed to call the adoption department and petition them to print the boys and hold the prints until the home study follow.

So we will see what happens.  I know God has a special little boy out there for me and if there is a delay it was meant to be so that I was match with the little guy He wanted me to mother, but my mamma's heart wants to do what it can now to move things along as fast as I can because I really feel that a 3 month delay on top of an already 24 month wait will hurt a little.

Thank you friend

A big thank you to my good friend who missed her son's baseball game to do our reference interview.  I know that was a sacrifice to miss seeing your son's game.  I am very thankful for your friendship.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings. ~Henry David Thoreau