Chen Chronicles

One of the things Aaron and I have learned to do through this journey is to trust God, no matter what!  He has put this amazing little girl (who looks like both of us) in our lives and we are so grateful!  However, we thought we'd be going over to Vladivostok to have our court date the last week of December of the first week of January 2011 and it turns out that our court date will not be until after the Russian Christmas holidays which are January 7-11th, 2011.   The main reason for this delay is that Vladivostok is the region where the little six year old boy was returned alone on a plane last April to Russia and things were at a standstill in that region, and really all regions for a number of months.  Now, the judges are just more cautious and going over everything with a "fine tooth comb."   This means we have to have our blood work and medical paperwork re-completed, but I did not get any grief from my physician today when I explained the situation (letter in han

We were so incredibly blessed to have TWO baby showers thrown for us and yesterday it was SO exciting to have a friend, Beth and her beautiful daughter Emma, come shopping with me for clothes for Katie.  At our shower we got a lot of stuff that is 24 month size because that's what I originally thought she wore, but she is in more of size 18 month right now, I think, based on her weight.  We found some awesome deals at Target and Toys R' Us on clothing.  I, of course, could NOT resist getting her a lullaby glow worm.  I remember having mine when I was very young and sleeping with it through the 2nd grade before I decided I was too old for it.  Then, I slept with a cabbage patch kid doll.  :-)   I guess I really am aging myself when I mention cabbage patch kids, jelly shoes and New Kids on the Block.  Those were some things I remember from my childhood.  Oh, and let's not forget Full House, Captain Kangaroo, Garfield and Care Bears.  What has happened to those old classic

Today is exactly two months since we last held our little Katie in our arms!!!  It seems like it has been forever because we are in awe at how amazingly smart she is and that God has given us the honor to raise this princess!  This is an honor and responsibility that we will not take lightly! We wanted to ask for your prayers as we don't feel that we can ever have  TOO MANY  people praying for little Katie Allison!  We also want to express our gratitude for all who have supported us and prayed us through the last year of this journey!  We truly feel as if God has ordained this match between us and Katie the entire time because she is relatively healthy (with a few minor issues) and seemed to take to both of us well!!!!  We couldn't be happier!!! Today, we spoke to our adoption coordinator and she said the Russian coordinator was going to be trying her very best to secure a hearing for us to return to Vladivostok, Russia, to complete our adoption before the end of the year (

This week, I had the awesome opportunity to come down to Alabama and visit my family.  It will most likely be the last time I get to see them before we get Katie.  Then, it depends on her adjustment and how well she acclimates to Aaron and I as her parents--how or when we will make a long trip with her.  The great test of her patience and how she will deal with traveling will be when we bring her back to the U.S. from Russia.  That is a 30-hour plane flight when you add up the three to four flights we have to take (Vladivostok to Moscow-about 9-10 hours); (Moscow to New York's JFK is another 9 hours), then with lay overs and such, we would fly from JFK and I HOPE this next time we can get a DIRECT flight from JFK to Dayton (preferably) or Cincinnati. Anyway, because Aaron needs to save up enough leave for us to do some house hunting if we do move after Katie comes home, he will not be able to stay over in Russia the entire time since it will be almost a month--with the court hea

So this whole weekend, I have been here at a friend's house outside Louisville, KY.  I came for a final visit before she and her husband have their second baby and she also was my subject for some maternity shots.  She is such a great friend and honestly, it's hilarious how we all became friends.   So, you may or may not know that my husband, Aaron and I met on E-Harmony.  She met her husband on e-harmony also.  Two weird and funny coincidences happened with this.  MY husband and her were matches and vice versa, her husband and I were matches. It doesn't stop here.  Aaron and Jason served together at their duty stations at Keesler AFB in the Engineering and Installation Squadron, known as the 85th EIS.  Jason went on to honorably discharge from the Air Force and work in the civilian sector after he received his first Master's degree. We've all stayed in touch and I have photographed Annabelle, their first child.  Now, Amber is pregnant with their second baby and

So, I spoke with our agency today and they said they think our documents are in translation as we speak or that they should be in Russia now in our coordinator's hands.  We pray that God will work wonders and get her translations completed so we can go to Vladivostok and bring Katie home.  Just HAVING a court date would give us something concrete to go by.  Please pray it's soon!!!  On Saturday the 13th, my good friend Wendie is hosting an Adoption Shower for Aaron and I and then on Sunday the 14th, they are having a shower for us in Sunday School.  Then, on Monday the 15th through Saturday the 20th, I am flying to visit my family in Alabama while Aaron works on his final paper for this class.  After he completes this class, he only has TWO more 11 week classes left and will have his Master's (Thank God)!!!  He graduates in June of 2011 and said he is DONE officially with education, except for the occasional short-term certification class.  Please pray with us as we await w

Speaking for Aaron and myself, words do not even express how much it means to us that you would take a moment out of your day to pray for our court hearing to be this year so we can bring granny rose her grand daughter and bring our baby girl home. She might be two years old, but to us, she is our baby girl and ALWAYS will be....even though she's more of a toddler. We just want to get her home ASAP so we can bond with her, show her what individual LOVE is about and show her God's love. These are things we American children take for granted every day: being rocked to sleep, having mommy or daddy kiss your bobos, story time, bath time, time at the park, reading time at the library...all these things we can't WAIT to experience and teach her. We are getting an excellent age and for the most part she is in good health. But I am going to say that it took EVERY ounce of strength I had to leave her in Russia, come back and work on that 2nd dossier....which is on its way to Russia

Well, it does not guarantee us a hearing before the end of the year...but we sent our second dossier to BBAS today overnight and they should have it to get it to Vladivostok by November 4th! I'm am SO glad that it appears it is done, for now.  They tell us to expect that additional documents might be requested and that we should know soon.  Although, they know everything there is to know about us.  So, if you're considering an international adoption, be ready to reveal anything and everything!  I don't know what else they could possibly ask for, but this has been stressful.  I think BEING a parent will be easier than this paper chase.  We have a friend planning us an adoption shower on November 13th and we've already gotten a couple gifts!  :-)  We have Katie's car seat and a cute little umbrella stroller for her, though I really want a jogging stroller at some point.  Her room is now done, but has served as a storage place for clean laundry and I'll be done wit

If you're reading this and you have never completed an international adoption and/or dealt with USCIS, consider yourself blessed.  I am venting and this is the place where I do it...so this blog contains happy and sad moments.  I guess it's like real life.  So, we were promised that USCIS would have our I-171H amendment fed exed to us on the 20th, meaning that it should have gotten here by the the 21st (yesterday), and at the VERY latest today.  After it did not come today, I decided to check our their story.  I have two emails from USCIS stating that we'd have the document by today....one from a supervisor and one from a case officer.   So, after it did NOT come today, I called Federal Express and I had them do a search on recent shipments to and FROM us and basically check out account activity.  I guess USCIS thinks I am stupid because I verified that NOTHING has been initiated by USCIS through Fed Ex.  I don't know if they sent it regular mail (which is a possibil

I know this blog should really only pertain to all things adoption, but I have to write about this somewhere or I might really scream!  Does anyone else feel like they have it all together and then one things happens out of our ordinary patterns and we kind of freak out?  Well, that is what happened tonight.  I had been talking to my maternal grandmother (who basically raised me, as my mom was a teen mother and with my brother's health problems, she had to take care of him mostly!   Anyway, this wonderful grandmother of mine had what she thought was a stomach virus all this week.  She got SO dehydrated that my grandfather had to force her to go to the emergency room this evening.  Well, she is a type II Diabetic and that makes things worse for her also.  He basically had to drag/carry her to get her there.  She had some blood work taken and the ER doctor sent her home with medication to treat her pyelonephritis (kidney infection) and she will see the specialist on Monday. Please

At this point, I feel honestly like we could be experts on what NOT to do on dossier documents.  Wow, it seems like we have had every hurdle thrown at us, but it seems to be calming down now and maybe we can breathe easy for a little while.  When friends told us it was going to be like an emotional and frustrating rollercoaster ride, I believed them.  But I guess I never realized (figuratively speaking), that we would cross over one loop only to be stranded at the top with several documents.  I think I could write a manual for military parents to be who are adopting internationally.  We've had to have our physicians complete our documentation three separate times because they either put ditto marks or arrows somewhere on it or unnecessary information.  And, oh, don't EVEN get me started on the whole how do we get the licenses on our medical providers.  That took an act of the Hospital Legal Department and they STILL would not release them.  So, apparently this has happened to a

Dear Katie, Today (well, 10/10/2010) is your second birthday (but it is technically already 10/10/2010 in Vladivostok)!  We wish we were spending it with you and though it has only been a week since we last held you in our arms, it seems like forever since we've been gone.  We're working feverishly on paperwork that WE can complete for dossier #2 and just praying we get our court date before the end of the year.  There is SOME comfort in knowing you're in a decent orphanage, but we just can't wait to bring you home and relish all the attention in the world on you.  So, our promise to you: Gotcha Day and your third birthday will be a HUGE bash!!!!  Don't forget how much your whole family, other than us...Mommy & Daddy....love you!  We'll be back as soon as we can to bring you home to your forever family.  Happy Second Birthday, Princess!

So, this week has been a hard week and I would even say that it has been harder than actually being a parent to our little one when we actually get her home!!!  It seems like the Devil has been trying to put up EVERY possible road block to our adoption.  First, we did our fingerprints that are "rolled," and it seems pretty straightforward, right?  Not exactly!  I had to go BACK to the Greene County Sheriff's department to have them add the city and state of the Place of Birth .  It is SO hard to make sure every t is dotted and every "i" is dotted!!! This is frustration to the max.  OK, so this seems it MIGHT be fixed.  Our most frustrations have been getting the medical forms completed and the necessary laboratory work done for our dossier (which, by the way, is ONLY good for three months).  After a four hour "sit-in," I finally got a result and we were told that they WILL have our paperwork to us for my medical by next Thursday, the 14th.  I am ho

Enjoy this video~!!  She loves music!!!  

So, we had limited bandwidth while in Vladivostok.  So, I get to post video(s) since we're home.  Now, we have to move as fast as possible to get our dossier #2 submitted so that we can get a court date before the end of the year.  Our trip was wonderful, but the jet lag is catching up with us both!!  Our world has basically turned upside down with two ten hour flights back to back and a 15 hour time difference between here and Vladivostok.  We stayed in NYC Sunday night near the JFK airport and basically "fell" into bed out of sheer exhaustion.  We used Aaron's Marriott points and the room was SO much cheaper.  Thank God for those points!!!  Over the next few days, we will be posting more.  :-)      Katie's First words to us...Mama and Papa (Listen closely) 

Today, we spent about an hour and a half with Katie and it was late when we got to the orphanage because our coordinator had court today with another family.  She wasn't in the greatest of moods when we first arrived, but Aaron and I were able to calm her.  I did the calming part and Aaron is just the BIG kid and made her laugh so much!  At first she wouldn't even go to him until he started to play the piano with her.  She really, really loves music and when we get home we will post video of her singing with her daddy.  So, just hang on a couple months little Princess Katie and mommy & daddy will be back to take you home to your forever family! Her smile is contagious! That smile makes me melt everytime and especially when she reaches out her little hand for Mommy!!! Mom's the comforter and daddy's the BIG kid!!! She also LOVES being thrown in the air and played with a lot!!! Katie LOVES music!!!  She was singing with daddy here.   We have video of

Today, we got to witness a miracle!  It's amazing that they state that our child has significant, so-called "psycho-motor speech delay."  During our visit today, we witnessed her music time and they did the Russian version of the Hokey Pokey & some other songs we didn't recognize, but she imitates others well and she does babble/sing (we're not sure if she's actually singing since it's in Russian), but feel VERY confident in her language skills.  Yes, we are realistic and know she will have a lot of catching up to do, but we FINALLY got an accurate weight and knew she was tiny, but she isn't as underweight as I thought.  She weighs 21lbs currently and is 2 1/2 ft tall.   She did SO well (oh and RUNS across the room) and she doesn't even turn two until October 10th.  Katie, we will celebrate with you in spirit, baby girl!  Just wait til' Gotcha Day and Christmas!!!  Perhaps Russia's loss is our gain!  In fact, I would say it definitely

Today, we visited Katie again at the baby home in Ussirysk and returned to find out that the entire city of 800,000 in Vladivostok has no water today.  They turned it off apparently to fix pipes before the cold season.  This is really roughing it for us! No showers tonight and no laundry either.  I was going to wash some clothes, but we will just have to do without tonight.  Often, as Americans, I think we forget some of the luxuries we are afforded when others in this world, like our Katie are not so lucky.  But WE are the ones who are eternally blessed that God allowed this match between us to happen. Here are some photos from today.  We will have to save the videos to upload when we return next week.  The internet is just too slow here.   Ussirysk Baby Home #3 Waiting for them to bring her to us today... She LOVES bananas!!!!  She already really loves walking around holding BOTH our hands... My favorite little grin  :-) Our little musician in tra

There are not enough words to describe how much we already love this little girl.  We took video of her first words to us in English today.  She called us Momma and Papa.  We really think she knows who we are because she went right to us when we entered the visiting area at the orphanage.  We would love to post the video, but we can't because we do not have enough bandwidth, but will post them all when we get home.  Tomorrow, we will visit her again and also Thursday and Friday.  Then, it will be so sad on Sunday when we have to leave to come back without her, but all the more incentive to get the remaining paperwork completed. Here are a couple photos from today.   We have the same face shape!!!  She already loves her daddy!!!

We'll let you judge for yourself because I'm so tired and Aaron has already gone to bed.  It's late over here, but we will let you judge for yourselves how beautiful our new daughter is!  We absolutely can't wait to see her again tomorrow.  Here are pictures from today's visit.  It was an amazing first visit.  Our Miss T didn't even cry one bit and came to BOTH of us with open acceptance.  She's so laid back and what's even more amazing that makes me know that this is THE child God has chosen for us is because she looks like she would be our child.  Enjoy!  Oh, and one final comment....she ALREADY has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger.  All that talk about being gruff and tough lasted about 0.5 milliseconds.  Ha!  Granny Rose, his dad and Granny Judy all had him pegged!  He's in love and so am I, for that matter.  We'll get to see her again tomorrow!!!!!  We have an early day so we must go to bed for real.  By the way, you can click on t