Getting Ready to Welcome A BIG Year

As 2009 comes to an end, I know that 2010 will bring about a lot of fun and exciting changes. A new home, new church, friends and best of all a new baby! I am hoping that we will get to travel in March again for the cherry blossom season. Wouldn't that be wonderful! We keep praying for our new baby and for the new birthmother every day. Can't wait to meet him or her! Hope to meet you soon baby of mine!

The Photo Book

I heard from Lesley that our photo book is in Japan now. It arrived on November 30th! And now we wait.................................................................................................................................................!

What Kaori Thinks....

Being that Kaori is only 22 months old, she does not truly understand that we are having another baby. Especially since she cannot see the baby grow in Mommy's tummy, which usually helps little kids understand. But, we tell her often of her new baby brother or sister and ask her if she wants one. Sometimes she says yes and sometimes she says no. We know that her little world is going to be rocked when Mommy and Daddy return home with a tiny baby! We have asked her many times to say the names that we have picked out and she always says Sayuri and Akio the best. She says them both very clearly! So, who knows, maybe one of those will be the name.

I am hoping that our book is in Japan now, or at least on its way! Once the book arrives, I am just praying that a birthmother will look at it and feel peace and comfort and a connection to our family. Hopefully Kaori's pictures will help settle her fear of sending her tiny baby across the world. Kaori has the best smile! Thinking of you sweet baby!

Thankful

This Thanksgiving I am thankful to have completed all of our paperwork and be in the waiting stage for baby #2. Can't wait to meet you sweet baby #2!!!

Update

We heard from Lesley this week that our photo book will be making its way to Japan in the first part of December. So, I am excited about that!! She also said that currently there are no birthmothers at this time. Keeping that in mind, we are setting our minds for the long haul. I look forward to the day when our family can live in the same state again! We miss Dave every week when he is gone. So chin up, we can do this!!! Kaori calls him on her pretend phone about 100 times a day, it is so sweet. She loves to see him come home every Friday. She misses him. Here's to hoping a birthmother connects with our family soon!

On My Heart

The past few days I can feel myself getting very excited about meeting baby 2. I am wondering about him or her everyday. Is he/she close to entering our world, growing normally, being loved? I find myself thinking of him/her mostly at night when I am falling asleep. Just remembering how wonderful meeting Kaori was makes me so excited to meet baby 2. I am trying very hard to treasure these days when it is just Kaori and I for I know that once we receive that phone call, our life will forever change! But, nevertheless I am so excited to complete our family. I am already thinking of all the things I need to get baby 2 so that he/she will be caught up with the rest of us. I have enjoyed filling out the baby book. It brings me much joy. But, now that our paperwork is complete and we have truly entered the waiting stage everything is totally out of my hands. There is nothing else that I can do except wait. Anyway, I know that one day when baby 2 gets older, he/she will read this and I just want him/her to know how special he/she is and how excited I am to meet you. We pray for you and for your birthmother everyday and ask for peace and courage. I love you baby 2. Love, Mama

Photo Album Sent

I am mailing our photo book tomorrow to our agency. This is the final piece of "paperwork" that we had to complete! So, I am excited to be finished as well as to hear that our album has made it to Japan. I have no idea when that will happen, but I have asked to be informed when it is going. Here are a few pics that we included in the book. I always think it is funny that we have to include pictures of our car. We took that pic at about 8:00 am in the driveway, right before Dave left town. I was in my pajamas and Kaori was sitting in the passenger side. She got quite upset when it was time for her to get out of the car because I let her sit there while I pulled the car back into the garage and she thought that was a blast!! Enjoy the pics!

Dear Birthmother Letter

Yesterday I sent in our final copy of our letter to our birthmother. We are really pleased with it and feel that it is a good reflection of our family. My prayer is that when she reads it and looks at our book, she will connect with us right away and feel peace. Hopefully Kaori's smiling face will help ease her fears. It is quite a task to put on one page why you want to adopt someone's baby and why you are the best choice. But, it came much easier for me this time than it did the first. I guess because now I am speaking from a mother's perspective this time! Who knows! For those of you who are keeping our journey in your prayers, I ask that you remember the birthmother too.

All that is left is to send our photo book. I am waiting to get it in the mail. I made a hardback book online this time. I am excited to see it! I have also purchased a copy to save for baby 2 to see when he/she gets older. I think that would be a special thing for him or her.

First Baby Clothing Purchase

Ashley and I were at the mall last week and I saw this onesie and just HAD to buy it! It is perfect for baby 2 and I cannot wait to see him or her in it!

Dossier Received

I heard from Lesley last night that she received our dossier, so that is good news. We are still waiting to hear back from Taz concerning our Birthmother letter and our photo album. I am so ready to get everything complete and turned in. I know she is busy, so we just have to wait to hear from her.

Last night I made my first purchase for our new baby! I got the same exact baby memory book that we got for Kaori. It is perfect for our family and I have enjoyed Kaori's so much. I just decided to get matching ones so that one day when the kids grow up they cannot complain that one is prettier than the other! I cannot wait to get it in the mail and start filling it out! I also started looking at double strollers! Wow, that is can be overwhelming! But I am enjoying planning for the new baby a little bit at a time.

Dossier Complete

Tomorrow I am mailing in our dossier! This means that our work is complete. ALl the paperwork is finished and now we simply wait. We wait for the precious phone call announcing the birth of our child! We are sooooooooo excited. We are sooooooooo nervous. Oh, the thought of having two is exciting and scary at the same time. Kaori keeps me so busy and occupies so much of my time, it is hard to imagine another baby in our family. But, I am sure that is normal. Our friend, Yuriko who was at our house the other day has a 7 week old son. The same age as Kaori was when we brought her home. He was so tiny!! Holding him brought back so many precious memories of holding little Kaori. It made me feel very excited to hold our new little one in my arms. We pray for our baby and the birthmother everyday. It is likely that she is pregnant now and is trying to decide what to do. May God bless her with peace and courage. We pray that when she sees our album, she will feel a strong connection with our family. My heart races just thinking of her.

171-H

I am so happy to announce that our approval form came in the mail today!!! This whole process is happening so fast, it is a bit overwhelming! But, we are thankful. In one way we think the sooner the better, so that our family can live together all the time and in another way we think, "not to fast!" So, in His time.

This is an exciting day! It is also Kaori's 20 month birthday!

Names

We have selected the names for our baby and I wanted to share them with you.

The Girl Names Are:
Sayuri, which means little lilly

Emiko which means blessed and beautiful child.

The Boy Names Are:
Matsu, which means pine, (a Japanese symbol of celebration)

Akio, which means bright boy

We love these names and will be happy with any that are used!

More Evidence

We received a letter in the mail yesterday from USCIS requesting more evidence regarding our criminal history and an itemized list of our monthly expenditures. When we applied for permission to adopt the first time, they requested further evidence regarding our criminal history. (which is odd, because neither one of us have a criminal history!) but they did not request anything else. I just wonder, what makes them ask these questions? However, Carolyn is taking care of it as soon as possible. So, hopefully it will not set us back to much!

Homestudy Finalized

As of September 18, USCIS has our completed application to bring a foreign child into the United States. They have our application, our fingerprints and our notarized home study. Many thanks to Carolyn for accomplishing the task of updating our home study so quickly. I was looking over back over Kaori's timeline and it took 2.5 months to finalize the home study. This time it took 1.5 months. So, we are ahead of schedule! Also, for Kaori's I600-A, we submitted in June and did not receive our approval until November! I hope it does not as long this time as it did last time. We received a form in the mail that said the processing time for the application is 8 weeks. We submitted on August 12th, so that puts us at October 7th if they hold true to the 8 week timeline. That is not far away at all! We still have a lot to do!

We had a fun time at JapanFest. We learned that Fukuoka, (where Kaori was born ) and Atlanta are sister cities! That is really cool. We enjoyed the entertainment, crafts, displays, Sapporo and Bubble Tea!

JapanFest

This weekend we are going to JapanFest in Atlanta. I am very excited to see what all it has to offer. I am hoping to pick up a few things for the new baby! Maybe something for the nursery or an outfit. I am sure Kaori will see lots of things that she would like to have! Me too, for that matter! I am looking forward to hearing the drummers and seeing some dance performances as well. Let's just hope Kaori will be in a good mood and not refuse her stroller all day!!!

FBI Prints: Check!

Yesterday was a crazy day of driving! Kaori and left for Nashville at 8:00 am to meet up with Dave to get our prints done. I dropped Kaori off at Ryan's house and then headed for the USCIS office. They were very fast and efficient, the whole ordeal took less than an hour. We went back to Ryan's and loaded up Kaori, Mary Paul and Ellie Jane into my car and hit the road back to Knoxville. The trip was loud as ever and not relaxing in any way. We arrived at Ashley's and met up with the rest of the family. Ashley had all kinds of yummy foods set out and we all visited with each other. Even Mom and Doug, (Pop) were there. This was the first time that Doug has met the husbands and the kids, so it was a big day. But, I am so excited to have the prints complete! Just one more step closer to our sweet baby!!!

Homestudy Update

This morning I woke to find the final draft of our homestudy in our inbox! So, that is great news. Next it will be mailed to USCIS in Memphis to join our I600-A application. This Friday is our FBI fingerprints, so once they are done everything is complete for the I600-A process. Now we just wait for them to approve it and send us the 171-H form which allows us to bring a foreign child into the states. So, I am thrilled with our progress! I am going to begin work on our dossier today!

FBI Prints

We received our appointment notice for our FBI finger prints to be done in Nashville. We are having them done on September 11. Things are moving along so very quickly! The fingerprints are part of the I600-A application process. They are required in order to do a complete background check on both of us to see if we have a criminal history or not. Thankfully, neither of us do! All that is left is to complete the dossier paperwork, which will take some time as well as create a photo album to send to Japan for birth mothers to look at. We also need to finalize the homestudy and write a Dear Birthmother letter. So, we still have a quite a bit of paperwork left to do, but that is okay!

Home Study Update

I just heard from Carolyn that our estimated time frame for completing the homestudy is September 1. That is super fast! Less than a month. Normally a home study can take anywhere from 3-4 months. Because she did our study for Kaori's adoption, all that needs to be done is to update a few things. That is awesome!

Other than that, I have begun to compile some photos for our photo album that we will send to Japan for bio-mom's to look at. We have a trip planned to Kansas City for the end of the month and I am planning on getting some recent pictures of all of our family who live there to include in the album. Things are moving along rather quickly. Much faster than round one! But, Taz said that it would!

I600-A

Today I mailed our I600-A to USCIS in Memphis! Although it is not complete as we are waiting on the homestudy to be completed and then mailed off to join our application, we are excited to get that paperwork complete and mailed off. It usually takes up to 12 weeks for the application to be processed, so we have awhile to wait. But, that gives us time to complete our dossier and photo album and our Dear Birthmother letter. We have plenty to keep us busy during that 12 weeks. We also have to come up with 2 Japanese girl names and 2 Japanese boy names. I love this part! We already have one of each, but I will wait and share those until we have all four. For those of you who do not remember why we have to give our baby a Japanese name, I will re-explain. Kaori has dual citizenship, US and Japanese. When she turns 18 she can decide if she wants to maintain her Japanese citizenship. If she wants to, she has to have a Japanese name. Also, if something were to ever happen and we needed medical care for Kaori that we could not get in the US, she would receive free medical care in Japan. Also, she can attend college for free in Japan if she wants to. So, their are a lot of positive things about maintaining her Japanese citizenship!

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First Home Study Visit

We have such a great, easy going social worker. We just completed our first and hopefully one home visit. Because it is our 2nd adoption and Carolyn has been with us throughout Kaori's adoption, she feels comfortable just coming once to our house. So, that would be great considering that Dave would need to come back from ATL in order to be here each time. Kaori was as personable and fun-loving as always. She entertained us all with her words and laughter. We turned in our first set of paperwork and now I am ready to get started on our I600-A form, application to bring a foreign child into the United States. We are very excited at all the exciting things happening in our life and are so blessed with Dave's job and the ability to adopt again. Next up, paperwork!

New Job

It is official. Dave was offered a job in Atlanta yesterday. We are very thankful that this has finally come to end and we can continue on with our plans knowing exactly what we are dealing with. Because we are in the midst of our adoption, we are going to be traveling back and forth from TN to GA quite a bit. We are of course very thankful that Dave still has a job and that we are still able to live close to family. We will keep you posted as things progress. We are not exactly sure when Dave will begin to work in Atlanta full time yet. Still trying to figure things out!

Less Than A Week

Now that we have begun our adoption process, time will no longer fly! I am starting to count down the days for upcoming events just like I did before. Our first home study visit is this coming Thursday and I am so excited to get started! I have almost all of our documents gathered, just waiting on a few things. We have already been discussing names that we like and we both said tonight that we think it will be a girl. Don't know why, we just do! We do not have a preference either way, we are just so thankful to have this rare opportunity. Ashley and Mom are hoping for a boy! Our friend Penny has predicted a boy! (and Penny knows things that we don't...she has this way about her!)

On another note, today we were at the mall and we just so happened to meet a family who is from Japan and have little kids close to Kaori's age! I was very excited but tried to remain calm and collected so as not to scare them away. We ended up swapping info and she said that there are about 15 Japanese families in her circle of friends, so I am excited to get to know them and for Kaori to have some fellow Japanese playmates.

Making Progress

This week has been very productive as far as our paperwork is concerned. We have answered the six pages long parenting questionnaire, filled out the home study application, gotten Kaori's immunization records from the doctor's office and our credit report! We have also asked some good friends to write letters of reference for us. Next week I am having my medical exam and having our local background checks completed. Luckily, we do not have to do another autobiography! We can use the same one from our first adoption. So, I am pleased with our progress. We still have a lot to do, but at least a lot of our paper work is complete for our first home study visit with our social worker.

Big News!

We are happy to announce that we are beginning the adoption process again! A few months ago we received a phone call from Taz, our adoption facilitator asking us if we would like to adopt from Japan again. We knew that this offer was not extended to everyone. The rule is that only families with no children are allowed to adopt from Japan. However, we are the third family that an exception has been made for. We feel very blessed and honored to be given this opportunity to adopt from Japan again. So, without question we said yes! Which brings us to today. We are just beginning our home study, so we have a long way to go. We are hoping to travel in 2010 to bring our baby home. We ask for your prayers for our baby and for our family as we embark on this journey again. Just like with Kaori's adoption, we are not allowed to specify a gender. But, we are fine with that. This blog will follow our progress. We ask that you do not leave comments on our "Adopting From Japan" blog that have anything to do with our second adoption. We were told by our agency to keep this adoption quiet because not every family is given this opportunity. So, we have only shared this with a select group of people and despite our desire to shout it to the world that we are having another baby, we are respecting ATWA's wishes and keeping it quiet. Thank you for your support!!