| November 11th, 1999 | We received our phase I application and made the decision to go ahead with the adoption. |
| November 18th, 1999 | We FedExed our completed Phase I application to Hope for Children, Inc. This application was alot of read and sign sort of stuff. Basically understanding what we were about to embark on. We like to think of this as our Great Adventure. Hope for Children, Inc. is the agency we chose to use after talking with them only one time. We spoke with a parent advocate and she made us feel completely at easy from the first step we took. We had looked at several other agency's but just didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling from them. HOPE was a recommendation to us from my boss who had also adopted through them. |
| December 3rd, 1999 | The people we asked to write letters of reference for us got a notice from Hope. HOPE required 5 letters of reference be written on our behalf. We asked The Taylors, The Isbells (who are now adopting from China), The Merlau's, The Moores, and the Beck's to write a letter for us. |
| December 6th, 1999 | We finally received the Phase II application.
-This application was more of a guide to what we needed to do next. This packet of information was about 15-20 pages thick and outlined everything we need to know to prepare our dossier. Chelle's Mom ordered 5 copies of our Marriage license in the state of Colorado
-This is just one of the many documents we had to order to meet the requirements for the US and Chinese Governments. |
| December 7th, 1999 | Had our Passport pictures taken.
-These are MUG shots if I've ever seen them. Ordered 5 copies of Chelle's birth certificate in Colorado
Ordered 5 copies of Jerome's birth certificate in Kansas
-More of the many documents we had to have. |
| December 8th, 1999 | Applied for passport's at the post office in Arlington, Texas. We ordered them rushed back to us so we could take care of some INS paperwork as quickly as possible. The INS would not complete the I600A form, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, without having our passports back. Chelle got her letter of employment from All Vend Management, Corp.
-We are required to have in writing that we do have a job and can support a child. All the documents we collected had to be notarized and then Authenticated with the state seal, from the document's originating state. |
| December 9th, 1999 | Chelle started working a second job at Mardel Christian Office Supply to help with expenses. (Jerome was already teaching two nights a week) Both of us took on two jobs to help save all the money necessary to go get Emily. This was really tough on us! We worked a schedule that did not allow much time together...ever. As of January 2001 I have cut back the second job, and Chelle has quit all together. |
| December 13th, 1999 | First Contact with Eileen Stancukas of Adoption Services, Inc in Fort Worth, TX. Eileen did our home study for us.
-We had no idea how to go about finding a social worker to take care of that step. We lucked out and found Eileen. She was great to work with, and has two kids she's adopted from Korea. Received 5 copies of Jerome's birth certificates from Kansas. These documents were authenticated with the State seal so the People's Republic of China would accept them. |
| December 28th, 1999 | Received 5 copies of our marriage license and 5 copies of Chelle's birth certificate from Chelle's mom in Colorado. Everything has to be Authenticated in the state they came from for China to accept them. All the documents we got this day have been authenticated.
-Chelle's Mother and Step Dad live in Colorado and they were a huge help in getting these documents. I think Mom even walked to the capital building to get the authentication done. |
| December 29th 1999 | Mailed application packet and our Biography's that Eileen wanted for our Home Study.
-Eileen had asked us to write out bio's so she could get to know us better. This was fun for both of us to relive some old memories from our childhood. I'm not sure she knew what she was asking for when she asked us to write about ourselves. Chelle and I are both able and willing to share our lives with our friends. Needless to say, I think she got the information she was looking for. We had to take photo's of our house, and the area around us too. |
| December 31, 1999 | Eileen receives our packet.
-This was our application, first fee, and bio's that she requested before she would meet with us. Jerome and Chelle's 9th Wedding Anniversary |
| January 5th, 2000 | Received Jerome's letter of employment from The Harding Group, Inc. |
| January 12th, 2000 | Chelle has her physical done
-Both of us have to have physical's to make sure we are in good health before China will allow us to adopt a child. |
| January 17th, 2000 | Submitted the I-600A form to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services)
-Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition |
| January 26th, 2000 | First home study meeting with Eileen
-This was something we were not really looking forward to doing. I think we had the wrong impression of what was going to happen. We had visions of a social working sitting there taking note after note, drilling into our personal lives. We were very much relieved to learn we were wrong about that impression. I must say that our bio's helped alot. We just sat and visited with her for about two and a half hours. She knew us very well from reading our bio's. It wasn't much different than sitting and talking with a new friend. Telling her why we wanted to adopted and why we couldn't have children naturally. Very good visit!! |
| January 27th, 2000 | Jerome has his physical completed
-So I'm a few weeks behind Chelle to get this done.....but HEY..I got it done. Drove to North Dallas in an ice storm to make our required appointment with the INS to do our fingerprints.
-The INS required our fingerprints for a federal background check. They sent us a letter after they got our I-600A form giving us a time and date to be at the office to have them done. Really cool computers do that now......no more black ink on your fingers. We had a pretty good layer of ice on the ground and more falling. No fun driving across Dallas to get this done. OH well.......we had to do it so we could go get Emily! Nothing would stop us from that! |
| January 29th, 2000 | Having done all this work already. We just now get a letter from Hope for Children, Inc saying they have approved us to adopt a child from China.
-Can you believe this, we have been working all this time, making phone calls, sending emails, and FINALLY we get approval from HOPE. |
| February 4th, 2000 | Happy Chinese New Year card for HFC
-Crystal (our coordinator) is great. She sends us a post card every time she is in China, and today we get a Happy Chinese New Year card. |
| February 9th, 2000 | Final home study visit with Eileen. She's coming to our townhouse this time.
-Eileen met with both of us for about 2 hours tonight, more talking as friends. We had to show her around the townhouse and talk about safety issues. She then met with each of us alone for a while. We talk about our childhood more, and about our spouse. We have our local back ground checks completed today.
-Actually we didn't have to have full background checks run. We had to make sure and get proof that we did not have any local warrants for our arrest out. WE PASSED! |
| February 24th, 2000 | Got a post card from Crystal, our contact at HFC in China. FedExed documents to the State of Texas today for authentication
-I don't recall exactly what this bunch of documents was, but I would guess it was our bank letter, employment letter, anything that originated in the State of Texas. |
| March 3rd, 2000 | Fedexed a few more forms to the State of Texas for authentication |
| March 8th, 2000 | FINALLY we got approval from the INS |
| March 9th, 2000 | FedExed everything to HFC. All of our marriages licenses, birth certificates, letters of employment, bank statements, back ground checks, I-171H from the INS, etc |
| March 24th, 2000 | FedExed our Program fee to HFC, let's just say it's the largest check I'd ever written to this point. We moved into our new home. We decided we wanted a home to bring Emily home to. |
| April 10-15th, 2000 | Sometime this week our Dossier finally made it to China. All this work to collect all the forms, get them authenticated, home study, INS, and now we wait. |
| April 27th, 2000 | Received a bill from HFC for the document translation and dossier fee. |
| May 12th, 2000 | Paid that bill for the document and dossier fee. |
| June 2000 | WAITING |
| July 2000 | WAITING |
| August 2nd, 2000 | Baseball for Babies at Turnpike. The 4th and 5th graders played a baseball game and all the proceeds were split between us and Brent and Melinda to help with adoption costs. This was a great time for everybody involved. It was incredibility hot that day (August in Texas), but we still have a good turnout to support the kids. We even had a reporter from the Arlington Morning News interview us and the Isbell's for a huge article in the paper.
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| September 2000 | WAITING Labor Day weekend my sister (Aunt Anita) came down to visit and we worked on the nursery. We finished up some of the painting, painted shelves for the walls, and Chelle placed the teddy bears everywhere. September 11th, Chelle turned 31!!!!! |
| October 2000 | WAITING |
| November 2000 | 1 year ago we started the process.....more WAITING |
| December 2000 | WAITING December 31st, We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary |
| January 2001 | WAITING |
| February 2001 | WE ARE NEXT to get our referral from China!!!! We could get a call any day |
| March 2001 | We are still waiting. We are now in our 11th month of just sitting and waiting. At this point, we need prayers to help us get through every day. |
| March 19th, 2001 | We got a call from HOPE today. We were told we could expect to hear something in the next 3-4 weeks. They told us we were more than likely through the "matching" process. FINALLY.....a glimmer of Good NEWS!! |
| March 28th, 2001 11:15 CST | WE GOT OUR REFERRAL TODAY!!!!!!!! |
| March 29th, 2001 | We received the official letter of acceptance today. It took us about 30 minutes to accept and send it back to HOPE. |
| March 30th, 2001 | HOPE received our acceptance letter back. |
| March 31st, 2001 | We received our packet with our VISA applications and general information. |
| April 1st, 2001 | We FINALLY got to rejoice with our Church family about our referral. |
| Aril 4th, 2001 | FedExed our VISA applications and passports to HOPE for processing. |
| April 5th, 2001 | Eileen from Adoption Services came to the house to do a Home Study update for the State of Texas. |
| April 6th, 2001 | We got MORE pictures of Emily!! We found a site on the web called Zhuzhou Adoptive Families. This is basically a support group for families that have adopted children from the orphanage that Emily is in. The directory of ZAF has been to the orphanage and has SEEN Emily. She was very kind and emailed us the pictures. What a God Send!! |
| April 10th, 2001 | Conference call with HOPE and all the families we will travel with. We found out that we leave on May 11th to get our Daughter!!! We are SO excited about making the plans for this trip. We should get Emily on May 14th in China, which is May 13th in the US, which is Mothers Day!! |
| April 20th, 2001 | The company Jerome is contracted to, Sabre, had a baby shower for us. This was a lot of fun, and we got a TON of stuff. Chelle wrote thank you notes for three days because we got so much stuff she couldn't do it in one night. |
| April 25th, 2001 | Found out that we can lock our travel plans in place. We were waiting to see when we got our appointment with the consulate in Guangzhou. We now know that we will leave China on the 23rd on May and be back in Dallas on the 24th of May. We used Lotus Tours to make our travel arrangements from LA and back. We locked this information in place today and know we will fly Business Class!!! We paid $3,038.00 for the travel package to Lotus. See the travel page for more details. We also got locked into our Inner China travel arrangements. We are paying $2,120.00 for our first weeks hotel, breakfast, transportation, inner-China airfare and our translator for the first week. See travel page for details. |
| May 11th, 2001 | We leave on our Great Adventure to met our daughter for the first time. We leave LAX at midnight and land in Guangzhou on the 13th. The afternoon of the 13th we will fly to Changsha to met our babies. |
| May 13th, 2001 | Met Emily at the Hunan Bestride Hotel in Changsha, China. We had been at the hotel about 30 minutes when we met her. |
| May 14th, 2001 | Adoption Day!!!! |
| May 21st, 2001 | Appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China |
| May 24th, 2001 | Back in Dallas!!! |
| June 3rd, 2001 | Baby dedication at Church. Emily was introduced to her church family for the first time. |
| June 9th, 2001 | Welcome home reception at the Church. This was a shower/welcome home party all in one. Emily got to meet most of her grandparents along with lots of church members. |