Our Timeline of Adoption

  • 1-16-05--Attend the informational meeting at Childrens Hope International.  Still praying over what God wants....
  • 2-4-05--Mark announces we are having a baby!  We sign the contract.
  • 2-5-05--Mail off our application to Childrens Hope International, find our birth certificates buried in the basement. Announce the news to our families.
  • 2-7-05--Have our pictures done for passports.  Sawyer asks if our baby will be kind of like Dora.  He asks, "Since Dora teaches me Spanish, will our baby teach us Chinese?" I tell him she will not be able to really talk because she will be a baby.  "So when she is older she can teach us all Chinese."  Sure!
  • 2-9-05--Get our new address updated on our drivers license.  Pick up copies of our marriage certificate.  Send off for our passports.
  • 2-11-05--Called CHI and they said we are officially approved!  Our packet comes in the mail.  We celebrate with dinner at the Chinese Buffet.  Makenna can't take her eyes off of the waitresses.  She asks, "Will our baby be that beautiful?"  Of course she will! 
  • 2-14-05--Drove to CHI and turned in our adoption agreement.
  • 2-15-05--Found out that since we are lucky residents of Illinois, we have an extra step in our homestudy.  Just a "little" more paperwork?!
  • 2-16-05--Fingerprinted for Illinois portion of homestudy.  Our homestudy packet arrives.  After a little stressful meltdown upon the number of pages, we dive in and start signing.
  • 2-17-05--Shannon's  passport is here. What a mug shot! Schedule our doctor appointments. Request letters from the local police department.
  • 2-18-05--We turn in our autobiographies, more $ and lots of Forms! We almost have all our paperwork gathered. 
  • 3-4-05--First Homestudy visit, at the  Childrens Hope Office. Janiece is wonderful!
  • 3-8-05--Janiece comes to our home to do our 2nd and last homestudy visit.  Said she hopes to be done in a month.
  • 3-19-05--Went to an Easter Egg Hunt for CHI.  Wow! We loved meeting all the parents and seeing all those beautiful children.  Makenna asked"am i the only kid here who is not adopted?" 
  • 4-3-05--Saw my first ladybug in my own yard.
  • 4-11-05--Homestudy is complete!!(one month exactly!!)We are told that we should be getting an invitation to be fingerprinted, and that should all be done in about 5 weeks.
  • 4-14-05--Our new baby cousin Dalayna Elizabeth Aixiu is home to her forever family from China!
  • 4-15-05--Our Fingerprinting invitation is here! 
  • 4-18-05--Fingerprints done, they say average wait for approval is 5 weeks.  Really??
  • 5/6/05-5/15/05--took the kids along with my parents for a week at Disney World!
  • 5-11-05--Our I-171 approval is here!!  Praise the Lord!
  • 5-17-05--Mailed all of our paperwork to Chicago to the Chinese Consulate through a courrier service.  It will all be authenticated, then it should be off to China!
  • 5-27-05--all of our paperwork left Childrens Hope International for China!!  now just waiting for that Log in Date!
  • 7-21-05--WE HAVE LID!!! We received an e-mail that we are officially logged in on June 20th, 2005.  One month already down!!
  • 6-26-06--REFERRAL