Happy news, Horrible news

Well-the happy news is that I received my immigration paper on Tuesday and it's at the Vietnam consulate today. Taht was a huge stressor lately-it got hung up in the Portland office with several others from my agency. And we all needed to have it in Vietnam ASAP . . .

And then the news this morning-one of the babies belonging to another family from my agency died from pnemonia. This is the third baby to die in a week in the orphanges over there from pnemonia-although the first from one of the orphanges my agency is affiliated with. They were supposed to be traveling soon too. I'm so sad for them-even though they never held her or saw her other than in pictures-she was a member of their family. I know this-because that's how i feel about Josie. I know my family feels that same way. In a way-we all feel a loss-because it could've been any one of our babies. And now-we're all scared to death for the welfare of our children-we have no idea how they are.

Makes my worry over a silly piece of paper seem ridiculous now . . .


Rest in peace-little Faith . . .I hope you felt how much you were loved.

You'll either Love it or Hate it . . .

If you know me at all-you know how much I love bright colors. I finished painting the nursery and also painted flowers on the walls. I'm almost done with the flowers, but we set up the crib yesterday and I wanted to put down the rug and see how it was all coming together. The cats love the rug-I couldn't even get it all the way rolled out before they were rolling on it like it was covered in cat nip or something . . .

Mom walked in and said "It's like summer in here!" Yeah-that about sums it up. I really hope Josie likes bright colors. Otherwise-she'll have a very troubled childhood;)

So-I still need curtains and I have to finish some of the flowers. So-a preview . .

I love this rug-I based the color and flower theme of the room around this rug. Roxie likes it too.

Mom's favorite flower-



How cute are these containers? $20 at Linens and Things for the set.



My favorite-



The color's a bit off on these, but you get the idea . .

yes-still some more . . .

Why you shouldn't let your cat stay in the room you are painting.

You can see the trail in front of the futon . . .



Toby apparently put his paws on the wall to get down from the windowill. There was a trail all the way to the litter box in the bathroom. Thank God it was latex paint . . .

The details

Wow-what a crazy week it's been. I don't think I've stopped smiling yet! Last Wednesday, I had my appointment with immigration to be fingerprinted. This will be the last major piece of paper that I need. Anyway-I talked myself out of going to the gym afterward and went home instead. Boy-I'm glad I did. It would've been another hour or so that I didn't know about Josie.

The Fed Ex envelope was wedged between the door and screen door. I saw that it was from PLAN-but I knew that my dossier had just been sent to Vietnam the day before. I figured that they had made a copy of my file or something to send to me. I didn't open it immediately-I came in the house, petted the kitties, put my stuff away and came back to it about 10 minutes later. I open it up and I swear-my heart stopped beating for a few seconds when I read this:

Congratulations on the official referral of your darling daughter!!!

I freaked out. No, seriously-you'd have thought someone died or something. Hysterical happy crying/shrieking is virtually indistinguishable from sad hysterical crying/shrieking. As I'm doing this, I'm thinking "Pictures. There has to be pictures in here somewhere. I started flinging papers around til i find them. And their she is. Absolutely beautiful. But-how old is she? What's her name? A million questions are flying around in my brain and i'm trying to find the answers while I'm hyperventilating and digging with one hand in my purse for my cell phone.

I find the phone-and the answers to my questions . . . .Nguyen Thi Mai (Mai-pronounced My-is her first name) born June 17, 2006. So she's currently about 6 1/2 months old. Abandoned at birth in Hanoi at a medical clinic. No info on the mother.

I want to call mom-but I can't talk yet. So-I pace around trying to take deep breaths while staring at the pictures, memorizing that sweet face. I'd had 3 names picked out-Josephine, Lucy or Veroncia-and when I first saw the pictures-I knew she was a Josie.

When I think I can talk-I try to call mom-at home, at work, on her cell. I try Dad's cell. No answer. I called Marie to see if she knew where Mom was-but she didn't. She also knew something was up. I was DYING to tell someone-so I did. I had planned to tell Mom first-but jeez-answer the phone, willya! So-Marie of course, was excited and told me to chill while she tracked mom down. Apparently mom was at the pool and the staff there eventually saw her and told her to call me on my cell. So-by this point mom and i are actually trying to call each other at the same time. So-she finally got through and I guess she was in the parking lot. When I told her-well, let's just say we are definately related:) Then-more phone calls. Finally got through to Dad, Kathy, Chris and Shula. I was basically on the phone for the next 2 hours. When I wasn't on the phone-I was pacing the house and looking at the referral packet and pictures.

Mom came up to Portland that nite with Jeff, Marie and the kids. No way were they waiting 3 days to see the pictures. Or even one day for me to scan them and email them. They came with bags of clothes and bibs and socks they had been buying (even though they weren't supposed to until we knew how old she was!). Marie also brought me a beer and a pack of cookie dough. Backstory: In the hospital, after she'd had her first child-she told me she wanted a beer and cookie dough. So-I went out and got her some. So-it's a little family joke!

We went out to dinner and found a Kinko's to make copies of the pictures. It was a nice little celebration. I shared the name I 'd chosen and it took all of 10 seconds for the kids to come up with this:



Josie






+ Toby
+ Roxie
= Josie
and the Pussycats!

It's a GIRL!

I'd like you to meet Josephine Mai Carroll-born June 17, 2006 . . . details to follow.

Things are happening . . .

My paperwork has returned from San Fransisco and the wonderful folks at PLAN will put together my dossier and send it to Vietnam to be translated where it will wait for the I-171H. Speaking of, I have a fingerprinting appointment for the 3rd-then I will just have to wait for it to come in the mail (no clue how long that takes) and when it does I get to make another trip to Salem for certification (I think) and it will have to go to the Consulate in San Fran too before it can be sent to Vietnam.

Whether I'll make the cut for the old referral process is still up in the air. We'll see . . .

I've been trying to work on getting the nursery ready (not buying anything yet). But I need to clear it out, paint the trim, clean up the baseboards, etc. I bought a small desk for my bedroom today so I can move the computer in there. I've taken 4 carloads of stuff to ARC. The purging is good. Have to get rid of most of my crafting supplies-but I've got plenty of crafty family members to donate that stuff to. With a small 2 bedroom condo-I'm going to have to learn to live a bit more simply.

Whew!

What a week! I picked up my homestudy at PLAN this morning, got everything certified in Salem, and sent off my documents to be authenticated to the Consulate of Vietnam in San Fransisco. This really looks like it's going to happen! I know what I'm doing with my Christmas vacation-getting the nursery ready. Yay!

What a relief! I need a drink . . .where's the rum?

Stress level: HIGH!

Wow-so a lot's happened in the last week or so. Seems that Vietnam is going to be changing the way they do the referrals. Right now-babies and families are matched up by the orphanages that the agency is licensed to work with. But they are going to centralized the referral process (matching up babies and families) by having the files on the babies and the dossiers of the families go to one place and all referrals will be made by this one office.

So-what does that mean for me? Well-no one really knows if it will hold up the process or have no effect. But, common sense tells us that any change in a government policy is likely to result in delays-at least at first.


Until January 15th-any dossiers coming in will be handled the way they are going right now. After that-the new procedure. I was a little bummed hearing this-but, what can I do? I thought there was no way that I could have my dossier (with the I-171H from immigration) done by then. However, on Monday I discover that they want us who are close to go ahead and finish everything else in the dossier, get it certified and authenticated and send it to Vietnam. They will then start translating and wait for the I-171H.

And then there's my dear friend Shula-who calls me over the weekend to apparently COMPLETLTY FREAK ME OUT BECAUSE OMG! THERE WILL BE HUGE DELAYS! I'LL BE CHILDLESS FOREVER! THE SKY IS FALLING! (okay, I'm exaggerating. But-honestly, I was pretty calm about the whole thing until she decided to light a fire under me! And I'm really glad she did-but, man, I sure don't want to have my blood pressure taken right now!) Seriously Shu-you know I love you!!! ;)

Holy cow-let the paperchase begin! I've gotten 13 documents notarized so far this week, with at least 2 more to go. Here's a list of what I had to gather and fill out:

2 Homestudies (no longer than 4 pages)

4 Vietnam applications for adoption (yes-4 orignals of exactly the same thing!)

4 Commitments (same deal-a commitment is basically a contract with Vietnam stating I will provide yearly updates with phots of the child until she (he) is 18.

2 letters of employment

2 local police clearences

2 medical certificates

2 !-171H (preapproval from immigration)

2 color copies of passport

2 passport size photos

2 pictures (one of me, one of front of home)

All the documents have to be notarized, certified by the state, and then sent to the Vietnam consulate in San Fransisco to be authenticated. I will have to pay extra to have them expedited.

I have everything but the medical form (have an appointment today), the homestudy (the agency is going to have it ready for me to pick up Friday morning, and the I-171H.

So-Friday-I'll pick up the homestudy and take everything to Salem to be certified, then head back to the PLAN (McMinnville) and they will send out everything to be authenticated on the 26th. The homestudy will also be sent to immigration. When it is received by INS-they will call me to set up an appointment to be fingerprinted. Luckily that's here in downtown Portland. Then-supposedly it takes a few weeks to get the I-171H-which will then have to be certified and authenticated too.

The local police clearance was a bear to get. I went to the police station first and they wouldn't even help me. Tried to make me order a background check through the state which isn't what I needed. I left there pretty ticked. Had better luck yesterday at the sheriff's office-although it took awhile and a lot of talking to get them to understand what I needed.

Now I'm hoping that all my notarizations are in order. There's a whole list of instructions to give the notaries and everything has to be "just so". Otherwise, I won't be able to certify them. I just faxed 2 of my forms to PLAN so they can look at the notarizations and see if they'll pass muster. Fingers crossed!

So-if you actually got through all that-you're probably tired now. I know I need another cup of coffee . . .

The homestudy . . .

was yesterday. I think it went pretty well-though some of the questions were difficult to answer because they were so broad.

Q. How would you handle a needy child?

My answer? "Aren't all babies needy?"

There were also a bunch of questions dealing with situations that wouldn't occur until the child was school-age or older . . .It's hard to know how you'll deal with something until it actually happens. I mean, really, you do what you have to do. It's not like I'm going to return the child as defective or something . . . .

The report will be done within a couple of weeks. And then the Dept of Homeland Security will (hopefully) contact me to set up an appointment to be fingerprinted.

Stupidest Thing I've Had To Do So Far . . . .

So on the I600-A form for INS there is a section on marital status:

I checked the box saying that I am not married AND I checked the box that said I have never BEEN married.

Apparently that's not good enough . . .

I get a letter from Homeland Security (so weird to see Dept of Homeland Security in the return address!) that said I needed to send back a letter that states that I have never been married.

So-I actually had to type this up (verbatim-well, except for the name part-not sure I really want my full name floating out there on internet-land):



10-19-06

To Whom It May Concern:

It has been requested that I submit a statement regarding my unmarried status to complete the filing of my I600A. Enclosed is a copy of the request.

I, Jules, have never been married.

(signature here)


Jules


I don't know how people can work for the government, you know, making sure people cross their T's and dot their i's even when it is overkill . . . . . The idea of it makes me want to stab a fork in my eye.

Edited to add: You know, now that I think of it-I wish I'd jazzed up the letter a bit. How's this?

Dear whoever:

I have never been married. I have, however, been engaged and was lucky enough to get cheated on, stolen from, and heartbroken so that I didn't marry the jerk and end up supporting his sorry a#$ while he sat around watching movies and playing playstation.



Probably good I didn't send something like this: If the person reading didn't have a sense of humor, I might have been labeled a whackjob and been put on the DO NOT FLY list . . . .

Everybody's doing it . . .

Creating a blog to document their adoption process that is ;)

I'm such a joiner.

Anyway-so here's the deal. I've contracted with PLAN Loving Adoptions, Now to adopt a baby from Vietnam. I've gotten all my paperwork in to begin the homestudy, and as soon as the rest of my references come in from my friends I'll be contacted by a social worker.

And-I also got my first gift for the baby the other day from my neighbor Patricia. So sweet of her. Her daughter had gotten a bazillon baby blankets when she had her daughter last year-so she tucked a few away for just such an occasion. It's an adorable yellow crocheted baby afghan.