Hough Stuff

I took the chance and moved the blog over to blogger.  Please check out the new Hough Stuff at:

 

As you know we have been working on completing our paperwork for a second adoption and I can tell you that we do have it all done.  Well, with the exception of it being received at USCIS (immigration)/National Benefits Commision (NBC).  Danielle went to the local Department of Homeland Security today to file the paperwork for immigration and we forgot that today is Patriot Day, so National offices were closed.  So back to Boise tomorrow to file.

 

On bigger news, last week we were on vacation on the Oregon Coast and we received a phone call from our adoption agency.  WE HAVE BEEN PREAPROVED TO ADOPT!   Which means that Danielle and I identified a girl last month and sent a request to China for approval to pursue adopting her, the finally came back to us and agreed.  So we now have 90 days (from September 5th) to get our paperwork to China.  We are under the gun now to complete it all, well we are now waiting on the US government to approve us.  

 

 

Our daughters Chinese name is Yang Cheng Xia, she is one year onld today!!! September 11, 2007 is her birthday.  She is located at the Gutian Welfare Institute in the Fujian Province.  Cheng Xia has a heart condition that is called pulmonary stenosis.  Essentially it is a narrowing of the pulmonary vein from the heart to the lungs, she will require a surgery once we are back in the US.  We have decided to give her the American name of Kate Ann Cheng Xia Hough.  Needless to say we are over the moon about the news.  The picture above is of Danielle on the phone with adoption agency the moment we go the call about Yang Cheng Xia.

 

We have a ways to go still, as of today we are down to 84 days before we have to have our dossier to China and from what we can tell it is taking about 80 days for the Government to give it's blessing, we are going to be down to the wire.  After we get the dossier to China it will take about another three months for China to sign off officially.  Then probably about another two months for travel, so it will be about 7-9 months.

 

The biggest challenge will be the timeline for documents to China.  So please keep in our prayers and thoughts.

 

I hate to tell you this but I do not have any photos that I can attach of our new daughter.  However I can put some pictures up of our recent vacation to the Oregon Coast.

 

 

So here is the low down on where we are for paperwork on our adoption.

 

Danielle is now on her third request for employement verification work.  My question is really, how helpful is HR if it takes (hopefully) three times to provide a basic verification letter?  First one actually had someone elses name in the body of the better, so it mentioned Danielle in the first and last paragraph, but mentioned someone named Michelle in two other paragraphs. NICE!!  The second letter actually had Danielle's name but was not then notarized.  NICE!!  On top of it all they will not send the verification letter directly to Danielle they say they must send it to a third party.  In this case we have deemed the homestudy agency our third paryt even though they are not the ones that want the letter the letter is for China.  Danielle has been having to drive out of her way to retreive bad paperwork.  So we are now having our social worker contact Danielle's company directly and walking through the process with the woman (same woman each time).  Very frustraiting.

 

On the new required Child Abuse Registry/Police Background Checks.  We have received background checks from Idaho, Oregon and Washington so that takes care of the US.  We have requested my background check from Australia.  We have confirmation that Australia does not maintain a Child Abuse Registry but we have been recommended to receive a background check anyhow.  Generally a statement in the homestudy that simply states Australia does not maintain a Child Abuse Registry would suffice, but after contacting the USCIS, they recommended a background check as well.  The hoops for an Australian background check went a little like this.  Receive application through the Australian Federal Police by downloading, go to our bank and convert US funds to Australian dollars.  The Australian dollars has to be in cheque form and affiliated with an Australian bank.  So for an AUS$32 check it cost us roughly US$70 by the time the bank charges are included.  On top of it we Fedex'ed the cheque and application to Australia and for a mere cost of $65 we got it to Australia in 4 days.  So it cost a total of $130 and now we wait for a response.  Hopefully the application is correct and there will be no hold ups.  In the mean time we contacted an online chat group in Australia to ask about the application as online the process is supposed to only take 15 business days.  Our contacts have said anywhere from one week to 5, so we have our fingers crossed for one week. 

 

Once we get the background check and Danielle's verification letter we will have our homestudy done.  Then it is off to applying for our I800 (immigration paperwork and Federal fingerprinting).  My understanding that the I800 process is a long process as well.  So our timeline of having all paperwork completed by November 1st may be cutting it close.

 

We will keep you posted.

So what is new with us?  I think I have mentioned that we are headed down the road of adoption again.  I must say that things have really changed since we did all the paperwork in 2005!  Side note, if Danielle and I would not have switched to special needs we would still be waiting for an adoption.  God truly has a larger plan for all of us, we cannot imagine life with out Jessica.  According to all records China has only placed children that have familiies that logged in thru January 25th 2006.  We logged in March 13th 2006.  So by all calculations we would be waiting through probably September of this year before we would have received a placement for a "healthy child".  Which would have been 2 1/2 years, then of course we would have been waiting for travel approval which would probably put us a total wait of 3 years.

 

Now current update, some have asked us about what adoption agency we are using this go round.  We have chosen a smaller adoption agency that is Hague accredited.  Bay Area Adoption Services (BAAS) is located in San Fransico and traditionally dedicated to Bay Area Families and specifically families that are Chinese Heritage.  When Danielle spoke with the Chinese coordinator she has mentioned that she is getting a lot more inquires from all over the US, and as Danielle said, the woman basically interviewed us and our intentions.  For me, I thought that was a good move, that she was really interested in our goals.

 

So to date, for paper work, we have completed our birth certificates, marriage certificate.  Homestudy interviews, together and individual, now we have our home visit on Thursday, also our letters of reference.  We have our physicals completed.  Our Idaho fingerprints, and local police reports.  One of the challenges that we have now with China being a member of The Hague adoption world ( whole new set of challenges) we have to receive police clearances from each State that we have lived in as well as every country.  So since I grew up in Washington State I ordered, and received, my clear police record.  Danielle and have both lived in Oregon and we have fingerprints appointments for Oregon clearance (Washington does not require finger prints, Oregon does).  Also, I lived in Australia for 7 months on an exchange in College.  So now we have contacted the Austrailian Federal Police (AFP) and will have to get my clearance from there (by the way the AFP does not take credit/debit cards for payments, so I have to find a bank that will issue funds in Australian currency in order to pay for my background check).  Keep in mind all of these records have to be notarized.

 

I have to say that Danielle is awesome with the paperwork.  I am so out of it this go round that she just tells me where I have to be, what I have to sign and what documents I need to request (on certain documents I am the only one that can make the request).

 

So what do we have left to do, well I am not really sure.  We are awaiting our homestudy which all of the background checks have to be completed before the social worker can complete her job.  Financial statement and verification is another one....I am sure I am forgeting other documents.  That is the final document before we submit all documents to the various Secretary of States for authentification.  From there we sent it back to Condi Rice to complete her signatures then the the Chinese consulate.  Our goal is to have all paperwork done before November 1st, so we will see. 

 

The other major challenge will be the new immigration paperwork.  I won't get into all the details (because I just don't know), but with Jessica we received our I600 in only a couple of months.  Now due to The Hague rules (thanks to the World Court) we will get some sort of different immigration paperwork called an I800, which from what we have been reading takes any where from four weeks to several months.  Who knows when we will get that done. 

 

I think my goal is to have our homestudy and all documents gathered and verified the various States by the end of July.  So as you can see we have been busy and swamped with paperwork.  It is definately more of a challenge this time, but we know there is an end, and I can already see an end in sight.

 

Here is a quick update on Jessica, she is Awesome!  She is doing great and continues to be a happy girl.  Not much of an update, but no news is good news right?  I am putting additional pictures up and a new slideshow on the left.

 

 

Is it bad to say that I am blogging while watching American Idol?  Perhaps it is bad to say that I have been sucked in once again. 

 

Another update, Danielle's laptop took a crap.  So after many back and forth visits to the computer repair shop, we made the decision to scrap the old one and update to a new one.  Problem was that we really didn't do a whole lot of research before we went to Best Buy.  Our research consisted of visitng dell.com and building what we thought we would want them comparing computers at Best Buy.  Needless to say the geek squad member was really unimpressed with what we researched.  So we eneded up with a HP Pavilion with blah, blah, blah.  Which means I don't speak tech talk.

 

With the change of computer we stilll have all of our music, pics, etc. on the old one that need to be removed and either added to the new computer or perhaps put them on an external hard drive and keep them seperate.  So any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I will say that that Jessica is done very well in her daycare.  She comes home singing new songs, I even find myself playing ring-a-around the rosey with her.  She is so much fun and developing a great sense of humor and personality.  I have to say she is one the best things, best decisions that I have ever done in my life!!!

 

An update for us.  Some of you have followed us in earlier posts, and I have to say we are moving strong towards our second adoption.  We have a ways to go but the paperwork has begun.  We have ordered our birth certificates, marriage license, we have our physcials scheduled for next Friday.  We have also began our parenting classes, those are for the next 5 weeks. 

 

Danielle and I have chosen not to go with our previous adotion agency America World.  We are using a West Coast agency that is smaller, we have already noticed that they are not going to hold our hands the way America World did.  We are very thankful for what America World did for us the first time, because we are so comfortable going this without the help we received earlier.   It is very exciting for us as we are working this alone and making it happen.  I realize that the biggest challenge will be getting our homestudy done, but we are giving ourselves until November to get everything completed. 

 

I will keep you posted!!!