Adopted Woodchip

Dossier in Transit

I sent out the dossier to the Grand Rapids agency office yesterday, Tuesday. 6 months of document processing, class session, telephone calls too numerous to count, physical exams, FBI Investigation, Immigrations processing, Orange County Sherriff's approval, blood tests, birth certificate requests, marriage certificate requests, personal referrals, results of 20 online courses, reports on 3 books on international adoption, 3 home studies (and their results), 3 french hens, 2 turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree ----- are now in the hands of the US Post Office. Hard to part with with all of these original documents ..... I almost felt an attachment to them ........ if they mess up on delivery, we're going to go somewhare far away and ......... well, I probably better not say ....... could impede the adoption procedure. I'll post it when it's received..............

Dossier.........done !!!

We have equated the last 9 months of our lives with the period of time that the couple does all the right things (not that we've been doing the wrong things) to have a child. You wait, you hope....are we pregnant? Then there's that bridge of time when you're unsure that it took. That's where we are now in this adoption scheme of things. We have just reviewed our dossier with our case worker and everything's in order (even the last document which we received today.) The whole pack of papers is ready to be sent off to our agency's home office in Grand Rapids, Michigan where it is re-read and then sent to China for translation. When the package is received in China, it is given a registry date and then the 9 - 11 month waiting period starts.

During that period, postings will probably consist of articles we've come across and pleas for prayer for patience and anxiety relief. This will probably be a most difficult time, so if you have been keeping up with the Schafhausers via this blog, please leave us a response to this post and tell us you'll be praying for us and have us in your thoughts. We'll read them frequently and get strength from them. Thank you for sticking with us.........let the pregnancy begin.......Don & Be

Immigrations: Approved!

We received word from the Department of Immigrations that we have been approved for China adoption! The document is already on file with the Kim Wu Chinese Restaurant and Adoption Agency (I'm bizarre I know but I truly don't know what the agency is called), so we have only one more document to be certified in Tallahassee (our agency's license) and all of the items for our dossier will be in order. The final one should come this week, Praise God!
Thanks for your prayerful support during this waiting period.......................Don

It's Official - Don Really Was Born

We received Don's birth certificate from the Secretary of State of the Great State of New Jersey. Don was beginning to doubt his existence. Now, we are waiting for Tallahassee to certify our agency's license along with the Immigrations clearance (processing began in July). Then the dossier will be ready for forwarding to the home office for translation and expediting to China. Anyone have a spare kid out there? This paperwork is getting ridiculous.

3rd Time Is A Charm

We have just been assigned our 3rd adoption case worker. Due to personnel movement within our agency, this is apparently a necessary move, no reflection on our adoption eligibility. Unfortunately, a ball or 2 got dropped in the process causing delay in some of the paperwork needed for our dossier. We have also been informed that the Chinese government has extended the waiting period for placement of a child to 6 - 8 months after the dossier is received in China. We are obviously disappointed with this latest development, however we are confident of the soverignty of God in the whole picture (read the 2x4 posting).
The Great State of New Jersey actually doubled up on the original request for a certified birth certificate - so now we have multiple documents, but none which have been approved by the secretary of state (original request on Dec 12 - I'm cutting them some slack due to Christmas vacations).
So, that's the latest.....more updates when we have some news....pray for us for patience and anxiety levels.....God bless........Don