The money post!

Adoption is so expensive. I think everyone knows that but they don't understand why. For China it is about 24-30 grand depending on some of the fluid expenses-which are mainly travel and different agencies have different fees. There are fees that are paid to both governments. 

Here is the breakdown for Alex's adoption

Agency fees- 7k and our agency is one of the cheapest and we got a discount for re-using our paperwork. Thankfully this has been paid in full. 

Fees to the US government for immigration. So far it has been 1100. We still have to pay for Alex's visa which is a few hundred I think. 

Fees to the Chinese government- 1500 for our dossier and translation fees for various paperwork.  5800 is what I have to carry with me for the orphanage fee. Last trip I got to wire it ahead. There is also a few hundred for the passport fee in country and for the adoption paperwork. 

That brings us to about 15,800.

But wait- there's more!! We have to go to China and get him!  Visa fee so I can enter the country- 140 plus the courier fee to take it to the Chinese consulate. My travel partner graciously offered to pay her own visa. Plane tickets 2 people there and 3 coming back- we paid 1800 per ticket and 1200 for Claire's. So that's 5800. Hotel, flights in China, etc is being estimated at 3500. Could be more or less. Then we need to eat and we need money for tips etc- 2000 is recommended. 

Travel could be 12,000. Add the orphanage fee and the passport fees for Alex and that is what we need in the next 10 weeks. 

Prayers appreciated.  We will be staying at Marriott hotels so if anyone has a bazillion marriott points they want to transfer to me- let me know. 

I did get a job and hopefully will start soon. Yet our house in GA has not sold- so we are paying mortgage and rent. Prayers it will sell would be great. At this point we will probably lose some money on it- so no big cash will be coming from that to help with expenses. We have no boat or vacation timeshare we can sell. 

And Scott and I are not alone in the "how will we pay these expenses" boat. We have friends that are on their 3rd Ukraine adoption in 18 months. The family of Alex's foster sister adopted from China last year too, and actually this is their 4th China adoption. They will travel in 3 weeks on pennies and prayers! We have friends beginning an adoption journey that needs 6800 in 14 days to continue. If we were independently wealthy it would be so fun to write them anonymous checks. But we aren't.  

So why are we doing this? Because we love Alex. He is our son. This is what it costs to save our child's life. If we are paying it off for the next 20 years it is worth it. 

Here is the link to our Reece's Rainbow page. 

http://reecesrainbow.org/65313/sponsorgilreath

Here is the link to Alex's foster sister's page

http://reecesrainbow.org/63380/sponsorcampbell-2

And here is the link to our friends adopting from the Ukraine again (although last time they ended up bringing home 2- I would not be shocked if they do again!)

http://reecesrainbow.org/70398/sponsorknofczynski-2

If you do help us out- know that we appreciate every single dollar. If you help by praying or sharing our link- we greatly appreciate that too. 

LOA!!!!

We got our LOA yesterday!!!!!!  I played with dates and looks like a 3/17 or 3/24 gotcha day unless we hit snags. Yay!!!

We also got an update on our Alex right after Christmas. We got new measurements, one pic(bringing the total number of pics we have to 4), labs, and they answered some questions I sent. He likes planes and his favorite color is red!!!

Next step is for US immigration to basically pre-approve his visa. This will take about a month probably. Then the paperwork goes to the US consulate in China so they know we will be coming. They add paperwork that basically says they will issue his visa when we get there. Once the Chinese government has that they will invite us to travel (issue our TA). For Claire we were on a plane 4-5 days after TA. 

While we wait on the two governments, I have to get a power of attorney since Scott is not traveling, and my visa to be able to travel. 

Here is the new pic we got!!

We made it to Albany!!

We made it!! Highlights of the 2 day car trip include deciding we do not like Maryland, a trip to the ER in Virginia, scary hotel neighbors, freaked out cats and a sea sick fish!  We are mostly unpacked and are starting to settle in. 

In Maryland we were shot a bird by a random person, and heard a 5 year old drop the F-bomb in chick fla. Niiiiiiiiiice. Maryland is on the bad list of states for us. 

We had a quiet Thanksgiving. We have had some snow, and actually it is snowing now! The kids made snowmen and think its great. 

We went to a tree farm and got our tree! And it is decorated. It is fun to see through Claire's eyes since it is her first Christmas. So far she is carrying around her special ornaments instead of putting them on the tree. 

We got fingerprinted last Wednesday for our NY homestudy update- so that is moving along. 

That is really it for now I guess. 

We have some big news!

Scott found a new job!!!!! At a different college!!!  In Albany NY!!!!  I am pretty sure there is this stuff called snow there. He starts 11-20. We are actually in Albany right now house hunting. It will not really affect the adoption- we have to submit extra paperwork to USCIS at the next time we send them stuff. So we will be working on that while China processes our Dossier. 

So Albany. It is beautiful. The trees are trunking colors. ( Who knew they did this for real in some parts of the country!!). It is between mountains so  I can see mountains off in the distance. There is a Trader Joe's. I am a bit disappointed that the New Yorkers here seem to want to be southern. I spied a Popeye's Chicken. There is a Cracker Barrell. Tons of. BBQ places that have both Memphis and Carolina style- and we southerners know the difference ;). 

Here is a pic of where Scott will be working. 

The Big Update

I know I have not updated the blog much. So here goes. 

June 2013- Claire had surgery. She had an intracapsullar tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and tubes placed in her ears. She did great!!! We stayed in the hospital overnight, and went home the next day. I also started a new job after her surgery. 

July- the cousins came to visit. 

August brought the beginning of First grade for Noah, and the beginning of Alex's adoption. 

So Alex. I first saw his picture back in March. After lots of praying, we decided we needed to see if we could get his file. He was on another agency's designated list- which meant they may not be willing to transfer his file. We wanted to stick with our agency, CCAI, because they are wonderful and we would get to re-use a lot of the dossier paperwork. Instead of needed to get 13 different things sealed, we only need to get 3 done. So I called the agency who had him. They said they wanted to keep his file one more week, and if they did not have a family come forward then they would transfer the file. That was on Wed. On Tuesday they transferred his file to CCAI!!  Then a whirlwind of paperwork began. We were in a time crunch because our fingerprints from Claire's adoption expired on 9-7. If we submitted brand new paperwork to USCIS, it would take forever. The current wait time for that approval is running 70ish days. They just approved those with receipt dates of 7/24. So we quickly filed an extension (our receipt date is 9/5!). We had to get our homestudy done quickly because USCIS requires it to get that approval. We were fingerprinted 2 Fridays ago, and our homestudy was delivered to them on Thursday. I am hoping for approval this week!!!!

Then we send our 3 documents to the Secretary of State (they are open!!) and then to the Chinese Consulate in Houston. Then we send it to our agency. They will double check it and send everything to China. DTC (Dossier To China). I am thinking that will happen the firt part of November. 

Then we wait on LOA (Letter of Acceptance). Last year for Claire we waited over 100 days. 109 very very long days. Even Noah remembers. He told me the other day that he hopes the LOA does not take forever this time. Right now it is actually running faster. About 30-45 days. LOA to travel is 8-10 weeks. For Claire we were on the plane 9 weeks after LOA. 

So when will we travel?? If things go fast I guess Feb. if things go slow- April. Chinese New Year is the end of jam this year (nothing happens for adoptions for 10 days, and travel is stopped for 2 weeks). 

And that's our news! You are now all caught up :)

Happy Anniversary!! Look at what we got each other!!!

This Friday makes 16 years of marriage for Scott and I. 

Last year for our anniversary we got Claire!!!

This year we would like to introduce our new son. 

Alexander ChenTing. He just turned 6 at the end of July. He is waiting for us in China.  We have started the paperwork and should travel to get him in late spring if the paperwork goes well. 

3 months home!!!

We got home exactly 3 months ago from China. Claire has adjusted great and it seems like she has been with us forever. She is adding new English words often. She just asked for string cheese actually. The boys love her and Aiden told me today that he want 5 brothers and 5 sisters. Ha!!

Medically she has gained a bit of weight- but is still wearing 18m size clothes. She does indeed have sleep apnea so she will have surgery for tubes, adenoids, and tonsils in mid-June. It will be in Charleston and will be one night (hopefully that is all) in the hospital over. The surgeon will also scope her nose to get a good look at her septum which will help for future surgeries.

I know I have not blogged much but life has been busy! And 3 kids make a ton of laundry!! Here is a cute pic from yesterday.

I have also been praying a lot for a certain group of kiddos in China. Through ELIM kids charity I have learned that kiddos and even adults in China who are HIV positive are shunned. They are ignored. They are not touched for fear of HIV spreading through simple contact (which we all know is not true!!) they are isolated. ELIM kids is a charity started by two Aussie physicians. They help raise awareness, they pay for foster care for these kids, and they will support kids and parents who are HIV positive by paying for meds and such to keep these kids in their own families. They are on FB and have a website. It is only 40 dollars a month to sponsor a kid- and they are my new favorite charity. Can you imagine never being touched by another human unless they wear gloves? It is heartbreaking.