Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Alex told Santa that he would like trains and train tracks for Christmas. :-) Happy Holidays everyone.

East Meets West China Adoption Conference

We spent the weekend in Tampa Bay, Florida for Great Wall of China's East Meets West China Adoption Conference. We learned a lot and had a great time. Alex spent the weekend with his Gema and GDad in College Station where he got to see Paul and Linda win state awards at an NAACP reception. Oscar and Hobo had lots of play time spending with weekend with Grandma and Bapa. We are happy to be home again.

The East Meets West China Adoption Conference is held twice a year and each time the conference is held in a different state hoping to bring adoption education to as much of the country as possible. A unique conference, EMW provides insightful perspective from families, medical, legal and financial planning professionals, award winning authors, Chinese officials and many other experts in the field of adoption.

Upon completion of the conference, you will receive a certificate stating your completion of 8 hours of Hague-mandated training.

Attendee Benefits:

* Exposure to THE experts on International adoption (medical, legal, Chinese officials, social workers, community leaders, adoption agency workers, etc.)
* Interaction with other families in various stages of the adoption process
* Resolve questions about adoption vs. natural child birth
* Face to face contact with Chinese officials
* Meet an orphanage director who gives his/her personal account of life in an orphanage
* Receive a parent training certificate to use for state requirement
* Make professional contacts in the field of adoption
* Learn about Chinese adoption policy
* Get an in-depth knowledge of Chinese adoption and culture
* Satisfy 8 hours of HAGUE training

Malia - we are saving all of Alex's Halloween costumes in case you like them too! Year 1: dinosaur. Year 2: bug. Year 3: duck.

How about Molly?

Alex thinks it would be a good idea for Malia's nickname to be Molly since it's also one of his favorite train's name from Thomas the Train. :o) His previous nickname for Malia was Cheerios.

San Antonio Mailer is out the door

The document gathering process is a long a tedious one. It's a long train of certification in which starting one task depends upon finishing another.

Our Mailer #1 is already in to Great Wall. Mailer #2 is being prepared as we speak. In between those two is a separate mailer to the Department of Homeland Security branch office in San Antonio. We just mailed it in last night.

The San Antonio Mailer requires a number of documents (birth & marriage certs, for example) from Mailer #2, plus a final copy of our home study. After weeks of waiting, we finally got it.

Now we wait. After 30-90 days, we will likely be approved by DHS to continue. The approval itself is a requirement for Mailer #2 to Great Wall (it's always a train), which will be ready to be mailed by the time we are approved. Also, at some point before DHS approval we will have to travel to San Antonio for fingerprinting.

Long story short, the document gathering process is nearing an end. Woohoo! One more Mailer to go, and then the "Long March" to Malia can begin. :)

Home Study Approved

Here's an email we just got from our adoption social worker. We are another step closer to getting Malia. :-)

OK, the homestudy has been approved. I've given a copy to Great Wall and your copies were dropped in the mail yesterday. Good luck, guys! Keep me updated on how things are going!

Thanks

Amy

Thomas the Train

Malia - when you get here, I'll teach you all about trains. Here I am riding on Thomas the Train. First, make sure Gem'a is holding you so you don't fall out of the window when you are looking around. I am now an official Junior Engineer! Love, Alex

Since we don't have any new news about the adoption, here are some
family pictures of McGregor Founder's Day, celebrating year 125, the
other weekend. Malia's future great grandmother, Frances Hudson, known as GG to her great grandchildren, lives in McGregor, and
it's where Linda (Marc's mom) grew up.

Dossier Specialist

Our Dossier Specialist at Great Wall China Adoption, Stephanie, just emailed us this wonderful update:

Hi Marc and Dianne,

All of your mailer 1 documents have come back from the Secretary of State! I am forwarding them to the Chinese consulate in Houston for the final authentication today. I should have them back and complete in approximately 3 weeks!

Hope all is well!

The I-171H

If you want to read the details of the next document we need to process
for the adoption of our daughter, read on...
The I-171H: “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application
for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”
This form is the U.S. Government’s approval for your family to adopt a child internationally. When we filed the I-600A form, we were applying to receive the I-171H. The I-171H is the last document to complete our dossier. Most families receive their I-171H within 90 days of CIS
receiving their I-600A with all supporting documents, fingerprints, and
favorable Home Study report.
The I-171H form will list our names as “Petitioner” and “Petitioner’s
Spouse” and include our address and date of filing and completion. The
I-171H form has an expiration date of 18 months from the time of
completion. We will need the I-171H for our dossier; however we will
not use the original form for our dossier. The original I-171H will be
carried with us to China. To prepare the I-171H for our dossier:
· Make a copy of the original I-171H form.
· Attach a notarial statement to the I-171H, stating that the attached
form is a true copy of the original.
· The notarial statement is the document you are actually having notarized. Take the I-171H with the notarial statement attached to a notary.
· If our fingerprint expiration dates are included on a separate page from the actual I-171H, make a photocopy of the fingerprint page for our dossier. Attach this to the notarial statement and photocopy of the
I-171H.
We must keep the original to take with us to China. The completion date on the I-171H cannot be more than 9 months old when our dossier is sent to China. The I-171H is only good for 18 months from the date of completion. If the I-171H expires before we travel, then we must renew it.

Our First Big Mailer

We just Fed Ex'ed our first big mailer to Great Wall China Adoption Agency. Next we will work on the I-171H Form, “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”.

The I-171H is a document you ultimately receive from the INS after filing form I-600A - Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, along with the application fee and all required documents. You begin as early as possible because it takes a while. Specifically, the fingerprint check through the FBI can take up to 3 months (and possibly longer). It doesn't always take this long, and seems to vary considerably state by state, but, to be safe, you get this particular ball rolling right away.

Marc, Alex, and I went to South Padre Island for Labor Day Weekend. I'm attaching some pictures. In the first picture, we went to see the Port Isabel Lighthouse, but it wasn't open yet, so we rolled down the grassy hill and sang Wiggles songs many times.

More paperwork completed

We got copies of Alex's birth certificate and filled out our financial statement. Now we need to get the financial statement notarized and send everything off to Great Wall China Adoption and to our adoption social worker, Amy. Next up: CIS report (complete with federal fingerprinting done in San Antonio). The first two pictures are of Alex, Dianne, and Dianne's sister Kate at the Oasis. Kate is waving in the second picture. You can also see the new part Oasis built after lightning and fire damage. Marc took the third picture of his Austin College buds after a weekend retreat to Lake Conroe.

The Marriage certificate has been retrieved from Travis County. All that waits before Mailer #1 is a financial statement. Then we move on to Department of Homeland Security requirements.

Dianne noticed that those families who submitted their dossiers in November 2005 just now received their "stork" notices, so we can expect at least 18 months of waiting after we are done with the paper chase.

That may be an excruciating wait for those wanting their first child. For Dianne & I, with our hands already full of that loveable ball of energy known as Alex, it will be, uh, a bit more tolerable. :)

Me too!

I just got the result back from my physical. All clear! It's party time Marc, Alex, Hobo and Oscar! Love, Dianne (Momma)

Physicals

Marc had his physical on Wednesday and got a clean bill of health. I have mine this afternoon. Here are some random photos of 5k's, 10k's, half-marathons, relays and triathlons we've done. There's also a picture of Marc and his brother, Gavin, playing in a tennis tournament, and one picture of Alex bowling.