So Now What?

That is a great question! The adoption process includes a lot of hurry up and wait. We are back in a waiting phase. We received official approvals from China allowing us to adopt both Colin and Cora which is HUGE! Back in the winter we were approved through USCIS to bring two children into the US following their adoption in China. This paperwork is to allow family members who are immigrants to enter the US and become US citizens. That approval did not specify which children. Now that we have specific children and approval from China we must submit additional paperwork for approval to USCIS. This application moves through several steps in multiple states before eventually landing on a desk at the US Embassy in China (Guangzhou). Once the US Embassy says we are good to go more paperwork is given back the Chinese adoption authority to prove we have all of our ducks in a row and that the US will allow us to bring our newly adopted children back to the US. Once the adoption authority issues an additional approval (called TA - Travel Approval) we will be able to book our flights! That is a super short summary of a very complicated process that has been nearly a year in the making.

When we adopted Ayla and Isaac their files and approvals were piggybacked meaning everything moved together on one track. China has since changed the way they process adopting two children at once. We submitted our dossier to China in Feb which allowed us to be matched with Colin. We received Cora's referral just days later but had to submit a second dossier to China! Our agency was allowed to use a copy of our original dossier BUT they needed one new piece of paperwork. One piece doesn't sound so bad, right?! BOO! This piece of paper must be generated, approved by the agency, signed, notarized, certified and authenticated and sent to the Chinese Embassy BEFORE being translated and mailed to China. In KY you often have to use the Chinese Embassy in DC since that is our jurisdiction for items notarized in KY but that also means your document must make an additional stop at the Sec of State in DC. The DC process can take up to three weeks once you including mailing times. That wasn't going to cut it for us. We decided to take a little trip to Indianapolis so we could use the Chinese Embassy in Chicago making the whole process MUCH faster. That allowed us to send Cora's dossier to China 2-3 weeks faster. It was a crazy day that included a trip to a bail-bond place but we made it happen for our girl.

We were able to send care packages to both littles in June. We did receive confirmation that they both received them! The agency advises that you limit the items to a fit in a shoe box so we sent small toys, snacks, photos and a little outfit. We know that Colin is living with a Chinese foster family who loves him deeply since fall 2016. He has been living with two foster brothers that are around his age and they all seem to be so happy. We are so thankful for the love they are showing him. I am hopeful we will get to spend some time with them while we are in China. Cora is living in a small foster home in Beijing. It appears she is living with a small group of similar ages children. She also is very loved and is thriving! It really gives me a little peace to know that they are safe, happy and loved. I still want to scoop them up tomorrow but they are getting hugs and kisses today.

It looks like we have another thumb sucker!!

There are just no words for that sweet smile!

Duncan #3 AND #4!!

The last two months have been crazy! I will write another post later about the twists and turns that came our way but now for the good stuff!!

Introducing Colin Jacob!!

Isn't he just precious?!

Introducing Cora Grace!!

Isn't she just precious too?!


Just a little about them.....

We received Colin's referral 5/31 and Cora's referral 6/5. We have since received approval from China to adopt them both! We were blindsided by Cora's referral but that is a story for another day. They both are from Henan province (same as Ayla and Isaac). Colin is 21 months and Cora is 18 months. We hope to travel in 9-11 weeks but there are many steps left to complete that could impact our travel date. We were able to travel a little quicker for Ayla and Isaac but we will run into a holiday this time that could push things back a week or two.

We are SO excited but it's starting to set in how much work we have to do!

Four years!!

We have been a family of four for four years! There may be a little family announcement at the end of this video :)

Family Day

June 3, 2013 was the day we became a family of 4! The kids always ask to watch our family videos from each year around this time so I thought I would share here to celebrate our four years together :)

We are home!


One year home


Two years home


Three years home


Summer 2016 (because it couldn't fit in the three year home video)


Four year home video will be coming soon!

The Process

I realized that not everyone we know was with us on our first (few) adoptions so the process seems confusing. If you know about how international adoption works then feel free to skip this post!

The adoption process can be confusing from the outside. Every agency and country have different referral guidelines, cost, timelines, rules and travel times. After a long journey through domestic and international adoption we landed in China. Our early blog posts can fill you in a little more on our journey and selecting China.

So how does this all work?

Well. We applied (again) to our adoption agency. We were accepted in September 2016 and the paper chase was on after that. We collected documents for two purposes – our homestudy and our dossier. A homestudy is completed by a social worker through interviews, home visits and reviewing piles of documents. The documents include employment letters, criminal checks, FBI clearance, physicals for all of us, bloodwork, pet vaccine records, financial review, reference letters, birth certificates, marriage license, taxes….you get the picture. After that is completed they determine if they feel we are ready to add a member to our family. They provide our agency a homestudy detailing all of the information they have gathered and their recommendation. The dossier is what we send to China asking to be considered to adopt a child. The dossier includes our home study, financial statements, birth certificates, marriage license, employment verification, medical statements, adoption petition, immigration approval and a few other items. The entire dossier must go through a certification process. Each document must be certified by a notary, county clerk, KY Secretary of State, US State Department and the Chinese Embassy before it can be submitted to China. Mixed in there was our immigration approval that we receive from USCIS which is the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That includes an application, our home study and more fingerprints. It took us about five months to complete those steps.

How do you get a referral?

China is responsible for generating the files of children available for adoption. The file includes information about the child – developmental history, age, weight, special needs and other information. Following the completion of a file China has a few options of how to match families and children. I will skip to how we will most likely be matched. Our agency has partnerships with many orphanages and those files are assigned to our agency. Our agency will then work through their process to join families and children. We are now waiting for the call!

Is this adoption through the special needs program?

Our first adoption from China was completed through the special needs adoption program and this one will be as well. At this time we don’t know what medical need our child will have but have discussed many needs with our social worker and agency. The range of needs is wide including very mild to much more significant.

Why is adoption so costly?

Many people ask this question because it can be hard to understand the fees associated with adoption. Adoption from China ranges from $27,000 to $45,000+ depending on your agency, time of year you travel, cost in your home state for services, etc. We anticipate being on the lower end of that range. A specific break down of costs can be found on our agencies website if you are interested in adoption. The fees go to many different places including the placing agency, home study agency, USCIS, certification process, police checks, medical fees, China travel expenses, orphanage fee (nearly $6,000), visas, passports (for your adopted child), courier fees, shipping and more. The steps for adoption are complex, involve many people and have expenses associated with each step.

How long until you travel after you accept a referral?

Once we get a referral we will submit a letter of intent to adopt to the Chinese government. There are many steps after that including approval to adopt, additional USCIS approval, travel approval from China, setting up US embassy appointments and about 10 other steps. Long story short I would say following accepting our referral we will travel in 3-4 months. For Ayla and Isaac the travel time was 6 months but I suspect it will be faster this time.

Let me know if you have any other questions about the process!

We are growing!!

Our family is growing! Hopefully we will be headed back to China this year! Years ago, before we had kids, we thought we would have tons of children. Then we had children and decided that was crazy talk. For a long time we thought that our family was complete. We have loved our time as a family of four and it just seemed right. At the end of last summer we felt that maybe we were wrong and our family had a missing piece so we decided to jump back into adoption. There was no question that we would go back to China for this adoption.

We started this adoption in September 2016 and have been completing many steps along the way including gathering documents, doctor appointments, employment letters, fingerprints and a host of other things. Our documents were compiled into a dossier which completed many steps including a trip to DC for a few fancy stamps and seals. Our dossier was logged into the Chinese system in February which now allows us to be matched! We don’t know when we will be matched with a sweet little face but we are hoping to travel this year.

A few questions we often get...

Are we using the same agency? Yes. We are using CCAI again. They are AMAZING!

Will this child be from the same province as Ayla and Isaac? Most likely. Our agency has many partnerships in Henan province so we anticipate Duncan #3 will be living in Henan.

Do you know the gender of Duncan #3? Nope! It will be a surprise.

How old will he/she be? We don't know the exact age but he/she will be younger than Ayla and Isaac.

When did you tell the kids? We told the kids about a week ago. The first seven to eight months are filled with paperwork so we decided to wait until closer to the good stuff!

When do you think you will receive your referral? We don't exactly know. There are many variables that impact when we will get the call but we anticipate traveling to China this year.

More details to come!!

Home 7 weeks!

The babies are doing AMAZING! They are playing, happy and growing! Ayla has gained 2 pounds! Isaac is walking all over. Ayla is sleeping through the night more often. Isaac is talking and signing more. They are changing every single day. It really is amazing to watch.

Ayla has gained weight and is growing out of clothes! She loves to give kisses to me, Jake, Isaac....and Chase! (the big black dog that terrified her when she was first home). She will chase Isaac down to hug him, pat him on his back when he cries and help him put his shoes on. She is talking more every day and gives you the cutest little head nod when you ask her if she understands. She totally doesn't but it's still cute. She will eat almost anything you put in front of her which is awesome.

Isaac is walking so much further each day. Today he was walking room to room while carrying a large ball over his head! He smiles SO big when he does something he is proud of. He is signing more, can point to a bunch of body parts and using more words. He loves to put stuff on - hats, glasses, necklaces, put his arms through straps on bags and carry them around. If there is a bag to carry around he is your man! He loves to climb in and out of boxes, storage bins in the playroom, laundry baskets and just about anything else he can fit in to. He is still a dancing machine.

They are just amazing. I can't get over how much they belong together. They have bonded much faster and deeper than I ever could have hoped for for the short time they have been together.

Last but not least...those kids are SOOO cute!