Last Updated:
Oct 31, 2009
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Adoption Makes Hearts & Families Whole The O'Connor Clan Eliza Catherine Yu (Lizzie) Egan Patrick Chaka & waiting for Elinor Margaret Home Pictures Stories Family Guestbook |
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Stories 1/1/06- Happy New Year! I was looking towards this holiday with dread, bringing in another year without any news of Lizzie. Of-course our families made the holidays enjoyable and we had a lot of fun opening Christamas gifts for Lizzie from her cousins Laura and Julia, Grandma and Grandpa O'Connor and Uncky Chris and Aunt Lauren. It meant so much to us that so many people were thinking about her. Then we had the most wonderful conversation with Debby, our social worker. It turns out that things might be picking up again in China and that we should have our referral as early as mid January, February at the latest. After all of the setbacks and preparing ourselves with the fact that our referral was not going to arrive before March, this is great news! It certainly gave us plenty to celebrate about last night with all of our wonderful neighbors who are almost as excited about Lizzie's arrival as we are. After hearing this news we excitedly went to Babies-R-Us and began stroller shopping. We also finished her mural (with a lot of help from Unky Chris) over Christmas break and ordered her new rug for her room. Next weekend Nana is coming to help finish sewing her bed skirt and drapes and we are in business! Now that our referral date is finally in sight I am able to get excited again. But I am also starting to feel the pressure to get some of these projects wrapped up (I'm thinking...um.....the deck....the kitchen.....). But I don't mind the pressure if it means finally being matched to our daughter!!!! P.S. Check out our new "sonogram" photo under our picture link! 11/9/05 - We just got an email from our wonderful social worker, Debby, letting us know that things in China are clogged up and that we will not get our refferal until January. It has nothing to do with us, and it is not a sign that we should be worried or anything is wrong. China is just overwhelmed by the increase in adoption requests (in part due to recent policy revisions and setbacks with international adoptions in Russia and Guatamala). I have to be honest and say that I am really, really bummed. We had hoped to have Lizzie by now, or once we knew we had experienced some initial delays, at least we thought we would have her pictures by the holidays. Everyone who has been through this experience before assures us that once we get Lizzie we will be thankful for the delays because we would be getting a different baby if we got our refferal in December versus January. And once we have her we are sure to know that she was the one meant for us! This one thought is what is keeping me hanging on. So like always, keep us in your prayers and thoughts during these busy holiday as we miss the presence of our daughter more and more :( 10/16/05 - Okay, our one year mark for this whole process has come and gone with little fan-fare or information. When we started we thought we would be back from China by now, but the planets just didn't seem to align themselves that way. What are you going to do? Our hope is to have our referral, which is all of our paperwork including Lizzie's pictures, birthdate and any other information the orphanage has, by early December. That being said, China is experiencing record adoption applications which is clogging the system and resulting in delays. So there is a chance we will not get our referral until January- but that should be at the very latest. Right now our deck is still in the final phases of completion, our kitchen is totally torn up with yet another remodel, and we are begging Uncky Chris each weekend to finish Lizzie's room. So don't worry about us, we've got plenty to keep us busy! (Did we mention that Shannon is teaching two new curriculums this year and is in graduate school AGAIN!) We also passed some of the warm weekends by doing some serious garage saleing. Sean even got in on the act as we have purchased kitchens, playhouses, and basketball nets for our daughter that probably can't even walk yet! Anything to pass the time and help us feel like we are preparing and getting closer to Lizzie's arrival. She needs to get here soon though before our bargain hunting keeps us from being able to walk through her room, the sun room, or the garage- we are really filling up! 7/17/2005 - We love Uncky Chris! Chris and his girlfriend Lauren spent the weekend with us as we finalized sketches and Chris began outlining the mural for the nursery. He was able to finish 95% of the work as Sean slaved away out in the humidity making our new deck. Both men worked their talents and skills to the extreame and by the end of the weekend we were considerably closer to completing both projects. Now we are preparing for our summer travels during the month of August before the new school year begins, so final completion of all projects will have to wait a few weeks! 6/1/2005 - Well it's been a trying couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone who has kept us in their prayers with my step father's hopitalization, and just this week with my mother's hospital stay. I thought I had been managing well with the stress until our social worker called with our Log In Date. We were disappointed to learn that we were not offically logged into China's system until 5/16, several weeks later than we initially expected. Actually disappointed is an understatement. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to have a little cry-fest/personal pity party while driving the belt way. I can only imagine the thoughts of my fellow commuters. Debby does not know why there was a delay, there is a Chinese holiday in early May which could have had an influence- who knows. But, the chances of traveling within this calendar year are starting to look sketchy (one of the contributing factors for pushing me over the edge). So keep us in your prayers... I know this journey has an end, and a happy one at that. It is just the time line for the journey that remains a mystery. 4/18/2005 - Our social worker Debby finally called with the news we have been waiting for... our paperwork has been officially sent to China!!! This is a little bit later than we expected, but we are still very, very excited. The offical waiting time line starts once our documents have been logged into the Chinese system. This should happen in about 10 days but it could take us up to two months to have that date verified. So here is how we've spent the last six months... 10/15/04- Filed formal appliction, had first "official" interview 10/16/04- FBI fingerprinting 11/10/04- Health inspection 11/11/04- Fire Marshal inspection 11/12/04- Created Lizzie's web site 12/09/04- Mailed I600A (visa application) to INS 1/12/05- Shannon's individual interview 1/14/05- Sean's individual & joint interview 1/15/05- Final homestudy inspection & interview. FBI prints back 1/20/05- As per the Chinese folktale, we attached red threads linking us to Lizzie 1/21/05- INS fingerprinting 1/24/05- First round of immunizations shots needed to travel 1/28/05- Completed homestudy mailed to INS 2/21/05- Second round of immunization shots. Bought crib!!! 3/11/05- INS approval! Great Seal put on dossier- caught police letter error! 3/15/05- New police letter picked up, certified, etc 3/18/05- Dropped off completed dossier at the Bethany Crofton office 3/22/05- Dossier mailed to the Bethany Grand Rapids office. 3/29/05- "Nana" came over to help put the base coat of paint on the nursery. 4/18/05- Dossier back from authentication at the Chinese consulates... Mailed to China-DTC!!! 3/15/2005 - We were thrilled last week when we finally got our paperwork approving Lizzie to enter in the country as our adopted dependent. This was the final document we had been waiting for to send off our dossier packet. But then, we had a disappointing weekend. We excitedly went to the state department Friday 3/11 with our completed dossier only to find out that the police department's notary that certified our police clearance expires next week- thus nullifying the documents! Of-course those would be the only documents that Shannon hadn't checked and double checked a thousand times (we thought that the adoption paperwork specialist at the police station knew better!!!!!) So we will be picking up our new documents today and hopefully the dossier can then be sent out next week. Unfortunately this means we won't be "logged in" to China until April, pushing back our initial timeline by a full month. We still hope to travel in November but this might make December the more likely timeframe, only time will tell. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers- we know we will get there eventually! 1/17/2005 - Finally! We received our FBI fingerprints and completed the last interview and inspection for our homestudy on Saturday 1/15/05 (exactly 3 months after we started--Auggghhh!). This means that we can now start collecting all of the documents specifically needed for China, known as the dossier. Trust me when I say that you wouldn't believe all of the crazy things we have to collect, have notorized, have the clerk of the court certify, then have the secretary of state put his seal on. Small countries can be bought or traded with less effort. But, at least we are on to phase two of this process. If all continues as planned we will go for our BCIS (new title for INS) fingerprinting this Wednesday. Why they don't trust the FBI is beyond me but we hope that we will not have to wait nearly as long for the prints to come back. If we can stay on track (with no unforseen setbacks) we will hopefully have our dossier ready to be sent to China by the end of February. Keep your fingers crossed! 12/23/2004 - Well it's been 10 weeks since we "officially" started our adoption process. I must say that we are a little frustrated that our homestudy (the first hurtle)is still not complete. It seems that the FBI has needed A LOT of time to complete our background check (Does Sean have a secret past that he has been hiding from us all?!) With any luck this step will be completed by early January and we will have all of our documents prepared to be sent to China in February. Of-course as with much of this process, many of the timelines and slowdowns are out of our control. Even though we hope this will be our last Christmas without Lizzie, Shannon has not let her absence slow down the gift buying. So far Lizzie has a teether toy, a snow suit and a Chinese Barbie under the tree! Poppy Bill has bought a wooden "stick horse" for her to ride around when she visits the cabin and Nana has a shamrock bib all ready to go (one of the only age appropriate gifts out of the entire lot!). Even without her in our hands she will most certainly be in our thoughts and in our hearts throughout the holiday. 11/12/2004 - After years of dreaming about having a baby of our own, we have finally started on our journey. On October 15th, we signed our adoption contract with Bethany Christian Services in Crofton. We have now begun a new journey, the arduous task of adopting a baby from China. Having just finished the first round of inspections (and passing with flying colors, WhoooHooo!) we are getting our home in "ship-shape" for the arrival of our little girl, Eliza Catherine, or "Lizzie". We are excitedly planning our trip to China for the Fall of 2005 to pick Lizzie up in person. I am sure the packing list and itinerary will change several times in the months to come, but we will busy ourselves in the meantime by working on the nursery. We are opting for a bug theme with ladybugs (deemed lucky in China) and dragonflies with a few frogs thrown in. Keep checking our website for pictures. And thanks to all of our friends and loved ones who continue to support us on our journey to have Lizzie join our family.
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