Chen Chronicles

I thought I would also share our interesting trip to get fingerprints done or *biometrics* as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) calls them. First off, the morning was kind of a bad morning to be on the roads (but thank God for taking care of us on the way there and on the way back). Out of all the mornings of nice weather we've had lately, it decided to snow last night....but first it rained, which meant icy and dangerous roads. I don't know what it is about I-675, but that road is ALWAYS bad when it ices up around here. So, we made it just in time for our appointments to get fingerprinted. That process was rather painless and easy, actually. The people working in that office seemed really clueless though, and that kind of bothered me. We were both really tired because we had an early morning appointment and then afterward as we were heading back we stopped into Starbucks so Aaron could get some coffee. Now, recently, I've gotten ...

So, my mom wanted some thoughts written about adopting and this anticipation....and some historical perspective.  Here is what resulted.  I guess I like to journal a lot more than I originally thought.  We finished some photos of Katie Allison's nursery this weekend when she came up to visit.  A few of those are also posted below as well as a photo of my mom and I and one of Aaron and I when we went out to dinner.  *************************************************************************************************** In the past year, Aaron and I have learned that God does not always grant us what we THINK we DESERVE in life. It has been a year filled with highs and lows as often happens in life! We both feel we are SO incredibly blessed to be in love and have the love of each other AND that this love has held steady through many trials and tribulations in our short three and a half years of marriage. Last year, we found out our chances of having biolog...

Well, I just talked to Aaron and it appears we are possibly safe for now from a deployment.  His commander agreed to recognize our adoption as something that could not continue without Aaron being here and basically said he would hold off one for him until January.  While this is no guarantee (because some higher-up could trump this decision), it does appear to be a small victory and a reason, for the moment to breathe easy.  Though, I am not sure you really ever do breathe easy with life in the Air Force.  It comes with many, many benefits and that one huge downside that could mean long separations.  It's something I am not sure any military wife would be accustomed to at all, but certainly something we TRY to get used to (the operative word being, TRY).  :-)  Please keep praying for us and our family....that we can become a family of three sometime this year and that there are no snags in our adoption plans.

Today is exactly three months since we started our adoption process.  I decided to do a little detective work today and emailed the person responsible for Ohio's Central Child Abuse Registry.  See, our Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana clearances were already received by our agency and all we have been waiting on to conclude our home study are the clearances from Ohio.  I did not know her email address, but found another person's with Ohio's Job and Family Services and decided to formulate the email in the same way (hoping that was the correct email address).  She actually responded saying that our clearances would be put in this afternoon's mail!  YAY!  Finally!!!!  As soon as we get them, we will forward them to our agency so that they can finalize our home study.  It seems like life lately has been a huge paper chase and looking ahead at what's to come in doing our dossier packets, this is JUST the beginning!   Meanwhile, life has ...

Well, so far....so good!  Our home study is very close to being complete.  It seems like this is taking FOREVER.  We're finished with our part and now just waiting on our agency to receive Ohio and Mississippi state child abuse registry clearances.  The Ohio ones are supposedly the ones that will take the longest (that's what we're being told) and it appears so!  Yesterday, I spoke to the lady who is over the ones in Mississippi and she informed me that they mailed them this past Monday (so our agency should have those soon).  Alabama faxed mine and it was received today.  Louisiana has already sent Aaron's and now we're just waiting on Ohio to send us ours so they can be forwarded to our agency.  Over the next few months, we also have to raise quite a bit of money so please be in prayers for us about this and on an unrelated (but somewhat related note), Aaron takes the GRE tomorrow and is applying to AFIT (Air Force Institute of Technology)....

So, I know we might be a little early in doing this, but some friends of ours (military friends) who are moving soon had some awesome 12-18 month clothes and toys for a little girl who were barely used!  In fact, a couple of the outfits have tags on them and they're from Baby GAP and Gymboree (which I think are expensive stores).  :-)  Anyway, we also ordered our furniture for the baby's room from AAFES (gotta love the Air Force...tax free good deals on a baby crib and dresser)!! Again all this is probably a bit premature, but my mom will be in town March 18th-March 21st (yay for frequent flyer miles) and she's making the toppers and the comforter and stuff for the crib too (out of Winnie the Pooh & Tigger stuff too)!!  We have our next meeting with our social worker next Sunday the 28th of February and we're anticipating more waiting as we are waiting on the state registries to come back.  And, of course we are still nervously praying that Aaron does not ge...

So, now we've done our part of the home study except for my medical form (which is this Wednesday).  I'm venting (already) because it seems like Aaron and I really pushed to get through the material and what else? bureaucracy slows things down.  No, it's not our agency....THEY are awesome!  It's the states we had to request clearances from that Aaron and I are not child perpetrators.  All have responded except, guess where?  OHIO!!!!  Geez, I thought the old adage was that the South was slow, but Louisiana responded within a week and Alabama and Mississippi responded asap too with their correct forms (our agency had to request those formally).  Sometimes I think God is doing this to teach me especially a lesson in patience.  I think Aaron has more patience than I do, personally.  What really made me sad today was our social worker said the last clearances from Ohio took TWELVE weeks!!!!  That's three months the last time I checked...and ...