Good News-Bad News

Well the good news is that we completed our last home study visit on Wednesday. Also, our child abuse clearances came back. The bad news---I just found out this afternoon that my fingerprints for my criminal clearance were not processed and bounced back due to "poor quality". This means I have to be re-fingerprinted!!! You would think that the person doing the fingerprinting would have know if the quality was OK, but guess not. This will set us back at least a couple of weeks :( Brian's criminal clearances did come today. The funny thing is, the same precint charged Brian to be fingerprinted and later the same day did mine for free. I guess you get what you pay for!! I am so disappointed, but always believe that everything happens for a reason. Don't know why it happened, probably will never know, but there's nothing I can do about it now except get new fingerprints done and in the mail ASAP, and trust that everything will happen on God's timeline. So, as soon as we get my clearances back our social worker can input that date into our home study and we can move to the next step of filing an I-800A with USCIS (immigration). Then wait again!! USCIS changed their filing procedures as on April 1st (perfect timing) and I'm am hoping and praying that our wait for approval from them is not going to be longer than the four weeks we expected. Hold on Wen, we're coming---eventually!!!!

Ladybugs, Ladybugs, Everywhere!!!

For those of you who don't know Ladybugs are a symbol of good luck in China. Last night our friend Kim presented me, Michelle (Meaghan Grace's mom), Joanne (Mia's mom), and Lisa (Paige's mom), each with a precious little ceramic Ladybug. It was such a thoughtful gesture! I came home and put her on the window sill in my kitchen where I can see her everyday. Thank you Kim :)


Then this morning something so weird happened. We all sitting down for breakfast (that's weird enough--that we were ALL eating breakfast together!!!). I looked up and saw what I thought was a ladybug in between the window and the screen. I got up to look and there were 6 ladybugs between the window and the screen!!! One for each of us--Me, Brian, Brianna, Jason, Ella, and "Wen". I'm still getting tears in my eyes thinking about it! Thank you God for your never ending confirmation of what I already know--we were all meant to be a family.

Ladybug from Kim
One of the Ladybuds climbing on the inside of the window
We opened the window and took out the screen to set them free. If you look closely there are three of them in this picture.
One flew onto Ella and was crawling on her PJ's. Can you see her on Dora?
They're all free!!

Third Home Study Visit Complete!!

Today I met with our social worker for our third visit. Everything went very smoothly. Leslie is very down to earth and non-threatening!! Thank you for that, Leslie. I only had a couple of documents left to give her, and she now has everything she requested from us. Hopefully the Home Study will be completed very soon and we can move on to the next step which is filing an I-800A form (Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country) with Immigration. In the past New York has in the past been pretty quick in approving this form, usually in about 4 weeks. However there have been recent changes in regulations as of today, April 1st, that I am hoping won't slow things down. I am forever confident in God's timing, but sincerely hoping that he wants this adoption to happen quickly!!!