Saturday, December 24, 2011

2nd Trimester!!!! Matched!!!!

We started our Paper Pregnancy January 2011.  There have been a few bumps along the road, but it all lead us to this post right here.  This has turned out to be the most amazing week.  Let me lay out the timeline for you: 
--Monday 12/19--Another adoptive Mom text's me to tell me that rumor has it there is going to be another shared list coming out on Tuesday.  This is a little odd b/c the updated list usually comes out on Monday's. I called the agency to see if they received our LID (Log in Date--this is the confirmation that China received our paperwork and is processing it), they had not received this yet, but sent an email to their in country representative to see if we could get it ASAP.

--12/20--10 am, we received a call from our agency that they had received our LID overnight and would be looking for our Son or Daughter on the new list that was coming out that night.  

--12/20--8:10 pm, opened our email and THERE IT WAS!!!  We were so proud of ourselves for reading thru the entire file first before looking at pictures, but let me just tell you that these pictures are adorable!!!  We immediately emailed the file to our health care professionals that were going to review it for us and waited (not very patiently I might add : )

--12/21--Received feedback from 2 of the people that were reviewing the file for us and they didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  

12/22--Our 4th Wedding Anniversary, we had a specialist review the file and once again they said that they didn't see anything unusual that they would be concerned about.  We went out for a nice anniversary dinner to relax and try to clear our heads, but at approx 9 pm we made the decision to call the agency in the morning and accept the referral. 

12/23--0900, spoke to our caseworker who locked in our Son's file.  Yes that is right, IT'S A BOY!!!!  
We are beyond thrilled.  He has a bilateral cleft lip and unilateral cleft palate.  He is a little bit anemic, which is most likely from malnutrition, but otherwise he looks right on target developmentally and is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!  We won't be able to post any pictures for a week or two, but we couldn't wait to spread the word.  

Thank you to everyone who has supported us up to this point.  It has been a crazy ride and we can't wait to see what is coming next. 

Mark and Ashley 

Monday, November 21, 2011

The Power of Prayer!!!!!!!

For almost 3 months now we have had amazing support and countless prayers from people that this situation with Mark's birth certificate would get resolved quickly.  With no end in site we sent our Dossier to China on 10/28/11 without the birth certificate and then turned our prayers to them just accepting our Dossier without that required form.  I can't tell you how discouraging this has been for us to not know if all these months of home study visits, background checks and paperwork would even pay off or if we would have to start with a different program from scratch.  Well after a very discouraging day in which we found out it would be close to the beginning of the year before we would hear if China would accept our Dossier without Marks birth certificate I proceeded to stop for ice cream on the way home to wallow in my own self pity for a little bit.  Upon returning home I pulled up my email and saw this email from a sender I didn't recognize, but the heading said FS 240 (that is the official name of Mark's birth certificate) so I clicked and...................................................................................................................................................................It was an email from our courier in DC stating that he had FINALLY gotten Mark's birth certificate to go thru the Embassy and he is sending it to our agency today.    Oh My Gosh we are sooooo excited!!!!!  I will call the agency tomorrow to find out exactly how we proceed from here, but the is AWESOME NEWS!!!!  I am seriously considering printing off that email to go in Baby Hendrick's life book.  Thank you to everyone who has supported us thru these last few months.  We had been praying for a sign to let us know what path we were to take from here and I think this email spoke loud and clear what we are supposed to be doing.  If in doubt, then this is a sure example of  how the power of prayer really works.  Thank you all so much.

Mark and Ashley

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Hail Mary Pass!!!!

Anyone that knows us understands that Fall for us means FOOTBALL!!!  We don't care if it is High School, College or NFL, if there is a pig skin involved then we are probably watching it or at least checking the scores.  For those of you that are not as obsessed with our beloved sport let me explain the Hail Mary Pass for you.  This is the last ditch, 3 seconds left on the clock throw to the opposite end of the field while praying that somebody on your team catches it and scores.  It usually has a slim shot of working, but on those rare occasions that it does work it is a beautiful thing to see.  Well this is our Hail Mary Pass.......

At the beginning of October we tried to send Mark's birth certificate to the Chinese Embassy again for authentication.  Needless to say it was once again rejected.  They say they still have not gotten necessary information and the State Dept. says they have done everything they can do.  Our wonderful agency contacted some other agency's and we think we have come up with a possible solution.  After MUCH discussion we decided to send an authenticated copy of Mark's passport with an authenticated letter explaining our situation and the reason that we are unable to provide this birth certificate.  Basically we respectfully asked that they please accept the passport as proof of Mark's citizenship instead of a birth certificate.  It seems that this has worked for some other agency's that had problems getting documents in the past (couldn't find anyone that had tried it with our specific issue though).  So we were officially Dossier to China on Friday 10/28/11, which means that all of our paperwork is on it's way to China.  We are hoping to get our LID (Log in Date) sometime in the next week.  If we get a LID, then that means they are accepting our paperwork as it is.  If they don't accept it then we should at least hear back from them with a rejection.  Keeping our fingers crossed that this works, because if it doesn't then we are truly stuck.  We will keep you posted as soon as we hear anything.  

Ashley

Friday, October 7, 2011

Shopping Fundraiser!!!!

Check out our Thirty-One fundraiser. The Consultant is going to donate 50% of her commission to our adoption fund, while the other 50% will go to her own adoption fund. You can help 2 little ones get to their forever homes with your purchase. Click on our link below to go directly to our store for purchases. The items will ship directly to you. Fundraiser ends October 21.
http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E1070587&from=DIRECTLINK

Also we are closing our t-shirt fundraiser on October 21 as well.  Proceeds from each sale go directly to our adoption fund.  Check out the link below if you are interested.

http://www.adoptionbug.com/hendricksfamilyadoption/index.htm

Thank you for helping us bring Baby Hendricks home!!!

Mark and Ashley

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Progress, I think?!?!

So last Friday we got a call from a woman at the State Dept. who said that they were assigning us a State Dept.  lawyer to deal with our situation.  I called and talked to him on Tuesday and this is what we found out in a nutshell....  This lawyer has been dealing with this issue for a couple months, a few weeks ago he sent the needed information to the Embassy of China to authenticate the signature on the new form, and hopefully we should have a resolution to this in a few weeks.  I am praying that he is right and this only takes a few weeks, but with the way things have been going I am trying not to get my hopes up.  I know that our baby is out there, I just wish the journey to get to them wasn't so curvy.

Ashley

Friday, September 9, 2011

Good News/Bad News

Got some interesting news today and thought I would share.  We had sent a copy of Mark's original birth certificate with a copy of the new one to the Embassy in DC to see if they would take it. Unfortunately, we found out today that they rejected it.  However they included a letter that stated that they have not gotten the necessary information from the State Department to authenticate this form.  It sounds small, but until now it has just been word of mouth that they wouldn't accept the form b/c of lack of info.   Also we have gotten an email from one of our Senator's office's that they are looking into this.  Even better is that we have spoken to (twice this week) someone at one of our Congressman's office's that has been very active in trying to help us get this resolved.  She said that she actually talked to the Congressional liaison to the Embassy's in DC who knew nothing about this situation.  Here is where the good news comes in.......Now that we have an actual letter from the Embassy about this issue it is going to be given to the liaison in DC so they have something concrete they can follow up on.  It is a small step, but at least it is a step in the right direction.   It really is a huge weight lifted to just know that there are people actively trying to fix this situation.  We are trying to just stay positive and are working on the assumption that OUR baby is just not ready for us yet.  Keep the positive vibes coming.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. 

Ashley

Friday, September 2, 2011

Needing some positive vibes

Soooooo.  Got some bad news today.  Here is the short version.  Mark was born in Germany while his father was stationed there.  This means that he has what is know as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad.  This is the birth certificate for anyone born a citizen, but not born on US soil.  We got a new copy of this from the US Department of State a few months ago.  Here is where the problem arises.  This form has changed several times over the years.  The newest version came out at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately the Embassy of China has either not received (not sure if it just hasn't been sent or they didn't know what they were getting) the information needed to authenticate this new form.  We found out that this has been an issue for numerous families in the last 6 months, but nothing has been done to rectify this situation.  The Department of State says they have sent the info and the Embassy of China says they have not gotten what they need to authenticate this new form.  The problem being that this form is a required document in our Dossier.  Essentially:  No form = No Dossier to China and we are at a complete standstill. We have a copy of Mark's original form from years ago so we are trying to send that with a copy of the new form to see if the Embassy will authenticate it that way, but only time will tell.  We have already contacted our local Senator and requested assistance in getting this issue resolved between the Department of State and the Embassy.  We know that it all happens in God's timing and that one day we will look back and laugh, but right now it seems crushing to know we have come so far to be halted by a miscommunication.  Please keep us and the other families involved in your thoughts during these coming days.  Hopefully we can get a quick resolution to this so we can bring our children home to their forever families.

Mark and Ashley

Saturday, August 27, 2011

APPROVED!!!!!

It's official, we just got our USCIS approval in the mail.  Total of 65 days for any of you who are still waiting and trying to keep track of timeframes.  We are SOOOOO excited!!!!  Going to mail everything off to the courier on Monday to take to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication.  We are hoping to be Dossier to China in about 2 weeks!!  We are so close.  Keep checking back in here b/c things will be a little fast paced for a few weeks.

Monday, August 8, 2011

And We Wait.....

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We are on day 48 of our USCIS wait.  From everything we have been seeing it is currently taking approx. 60-70 days for approval, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that it could come any day.  In the meantime we have been sending our paperwork to our caseworker for proof reading.  Once we get approval we will then take everything to a State office for certifications.  Then our entire Dossier (includes: physicals, employement letters, family pictures, financial statements, passport copies, police clearance letters, etc...) will go to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication.  This step should take approx. a week.  Then everything goes to our agency and they send it to China for review/approval.  We are hoping to have everything done and be Dossier to China (DTC) by Sept. 1.  Our caseworker said that once we are DTC they will start looking for a match for us.  How exciting!!!!!  Please keep us in your prayers these next few weeks that everything goes smoothly. 

Mark and Ashley

Monday, July 25, 2011

And the Lucky Winner is................

The lucky winner of our Professional Photography package is....Number 23!!!  Congratulations to the lucky family.  I will be emailing you and the photographer shortly to exchange information.  THANK YOU to everyone who supported us for this fundraiser.  We had a great turnout and are so grateful for all the support.  A special Thank You to Holly Coghlan for donating this amazing package to us.  One step closer to bringing Baby Hendricks home.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Fingerprints!!!!

We are so excited to tell everyone that we drove down to St. Louis on Friday July 15 to get our USCIS fingerprints.  This is a HUGE step for us.  It means that YES, USCIS did get our paperwork, and that now with our fingerprints done they have all the information they need to process said paperwork.. For those of you that have not been following along, as soon as we get our USCIS approval we can get our paperwork approved for our Dossier to be sent to China.  WhoooHooo!!!  Today marks that we are 4 wks into our USCIS wait.  It can take anywhere from 6-10 weeks, but right now seems to be running around 8 wks.  We have been spending the last week making sure we have all the paperwork needed for our Dossier and will be meeting with another couple going thru the process next week so that we can check over each other's paperwork.  We are praying that everything goes smoothly and we get our USCIS approval by mid August so that we can be Dossier to China by Sept. 1.  Another step closer to Baby Hendricks : )

Also wanted to remind everyone about our Photography Package Giveaway.  We will be drawing the lucky winner on Monday evening so if you are interested in purchasing a chance to win check out our previous Photos post for details. 

Ashley

Monday, June 27, 2011

Photos, Photos, Photos!!!!

Do you have a new baby, a recent engagement or just need to update the family photo from 1990??  If so then this is the fundraiser for you.  We are so blessed to have been gifted with a wonderful photo package to help us raise money to bring home Baby Hendricks. Here is how the fundraiser will work:  we have a grid with numbers 1-100, you can purchase a number for $10 or 3 numbers for $25.   On July 25th we will draw a number at random and that person will win the photo package.  We have set up a seperate email acount that you can email your number requests to. I will try to update the blog every few days letting people know what numbers are still available.    I will send you an email back letting you know that I received your requests and giving you our address so you can mail me the cash or check.  Here is the really good news, if you email me your address with your numbers I will send you a card from the photographer that has a $10 discount on it (so if you don't win and choose to book with her anyway you are getting your $10 back). 

Coghlan Photography will be doing the photo session.  Here is the website for you to check out 
http://www.facebook.com/CoghlanPhoto
http://www.coghlan-photography.photoreflect.com/ 

 Below is what is included if you win the package (a $135 value):
Session fee
1- 11x14 Wall Portrait
5-8x10's
5-5x7's
36 wallets

Once we draw the winner I will send an email to both the Photographer and the winner letting them know the outcome.  The winner will have till October 1, 2011 to schedule their session.  Location options are Taylorville, Springfield or within 45 miles of Springfield.  This is an awesome opportunity for anyone in the area to update their family pictures.  Please help us get one step closer to bringing Baby Hendricks home by purchasing a square. You can email number requests to hendricksadoption@hotmail.com  Include your number choices (please include one alternate #), home address so I can mail you a coupon and your preferred phone number for the photographer to call you.

As of July 20 the numbers 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 18,  21, 23, 25, 28, 30, 44, 55, 81 and 90 are no longer available.

Thank you so much for your support.

Mark and Ashley

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Home Study Approved!!!!

So excited to be able to tell everyone that as of  yesterday we are officially Home Study approved.  Whe are so excited.  I spent last night going over all of our USCIS (Immigration) paperwork and am going to review it again tonight so Mark can mail everything off tomorrow (I can't think of a better birthday present for him than for us to be able to move on to the next step in this process : )  The Immigration process will take approximately 6-10 weeks so we are anxious to get everything moving on that front. We have had some difficulty filling out the paperwork b/c Mark was born in Germany, but not on a military base.  That puts him in the "fuzzy gray area" on the form.  There wasn't really an appropriate box to check, but our agency is awesome and talked to an officer at USCIS to get it all straightened out.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that we have all our ducks in a row and everything goes smoothly. 

Also, we are on to our next big fundraiser.  We are going to be giving away a professional photography package.  This is a great opportunity for anyone in the Springfield area.  I will be posting specific details later this week on how you can sign up.  Don't forget that we are also still selling tshirts thru Adoption Bug.  We will be running this fundraiser thru the end of July so see the link below if you are interested in a tshirt. 

http://www.adoptionbug.com/hendricksfamilyadoption/index.htm

Thanks to everyone who is following us on our journey. 

Ashley

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Home Study, Home Study Where Are You???

Our home study was sent to DCFS on May 16.  Last we heard it was taking approx 3-4 weeks for approval.  We are 24 days into our wait and crossing our fingers that approval comes soon.  Here is a little more information about what the Home Studay entails:

People who adopt have to go through an extensive background check in order to be approved to adopt. The major portion of this background check is called a "home study", where a licensed social worker investigates the family through personal visits, home visits, references, criminal background clearances, health verifications and other related information (such as proof of insurance, birth/marriage certificates, proof income, etc..). Home studies must be done by a licensed social worker or a social worker employed by a licensed agency. In general, home studies are pretty thorough and check out the potential parents with so many checks and balances that any unfavorable information would come out.

We are hoping to get our approval letter any day so we can send everything off to USCIS (Immigration).   That process takes approx 6-10 weeks so we are eager to get it started.  We have run into a few snags filling out our USCIS paperwork, but our agency is awesome and has figured it all out for us. 

I also wanted to update everyone on the 5k Run my friend Kate and I did last week.  We finished, I was still standing upright and I didn't get any injuries. WhooHoo!! We had a great time (despite the oppressive humidity at 8 am : )  Thank you to everyone who supported us in our Run for Baby Hendricks. 

Ashley

Monday, May 16, 2011

Running to Baby Hendricks......

Anyone who has ever met me knows that I am NOT a runner.  In fact, if you look up klutz in the dictionary you would see a picture of me surrounded by what could be my own medical supply store.  You name it and I have sprained, strained, pulled or broken it.  It really is amazing that I have lived to the ripe old age of........well maybe we won't go there : ) 

To the point of the matter.  My friend Kate and I are running in the In His Hands Orphans Outreach 5k on June 4th at Rochester Park.  This is a wonderful organization that helps orphans all over the world. Since Mark and I are actively adopting you can make a pledge for the 5k by addressing the check to In His Hands Orphans Outreach and putting Hendricks Family in the memo section.  They will keep track of pledges made to us and the proceeds will go towards our adoption.  If you send me a message I can add you to my pledge sheet and give you my address for you to send a check.  If you prefer to donate to the organization directly please do so.  What this organization does is something Mark and I feel very strongly about and we will not be offended if you want the money to go to the organization for further projects.  Also if you are in the area and want to participate in the Run/Walk that is even better.  Please see there website below for more information about the 5k and In His Hands Orphans Outreach mission. 

http://www.inhishandsorphans.org/

Ashley

P.S.  Home Study went off to DCFS today.  WhooooHoooo!!!  So excited. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Thank You!!!

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who showed up this weekend to support us.  Whether you donated items, helped price/set up, came to shop or just came to offer support we want to thank you. We also want to say a huge Thank You to my Mother-Leanna and our friends Kate and Brian.  You have all donated countless hours these last few months helping us get ready for this and we could never have pulled it off without you.  So how did we do????  Awesome!!!! We were blessed with beautiful weather despite the forecast of rain and we surpassed our goals by leaps and bounds.   We were able to meet several other families from our area that have adopted or are in the process of adopting.  We are so lucky to be living in such a supportive community.  There are a couple other fundraisers we are working on setting up and will keep you posted as things progress. 

In other news, we signed off on our Home Study on Friday and it should be going to DCFS for approval this week.  WHOOOHOOO!!!!  That is one huge check mark on the list.  We are currently working on getting our documents together and filling out our paperwork for USCIS (Immigration).  Planning on having everything ready so we can send it off as soon as we get the approval from DCFS. 

Ashley



                                   Mark and Ashley enjoying a couple minutes of downtime

                                                
                                               Garage Sale Mania!!!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Walmart size Garage and Bake sale!!!

We are officially only 40 hrs away from the biggest garage sale of the year.  We have had over 25 seperate families donate.  We have clothes of every shape and size, electronics, hundreds of books, a queen size mattress set, dresser set, collectibles and much, much more.  We also will have an assortment of baked goods and cold drinks for purchase as well.  Let me know if you need our address.  The sale is Friday May 6 from 1-7 pm and Saturday May 7 from 8-12.  We will post pictures after the sale and let everyone know how it went.  Wish us luck!!!

Ashley

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Where are we now??

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We have been crazy busy these last few weeks.  Here is what is happening now.  We had our final home study visit on 4/1/11, so now we are just waiting on the final word that we are approved.  Many of you have asked, "What is involved in a home study?"  Firstly they get a very detailed history from each of us.  They also want to find out about our parenting styles and how we have/are preparing for this baby.  They do background checks and speak to references.  Then they do both individual and couple interviews, before moving on to the physical home inspection.  Baxter tried to help us out here by trying to lick our poor social worker to death.  Thankfully she likes dogs or we could have been in trouble : )  As far as the in home part they just want to make sure you have enough physical space for baby.  You also have to show basic safety measures (ex: fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, meds and cleaning supplies our of reach, etc...). Overall we feel like things went pretty well and are just waiting on the final report to be done. 

Secondly we are in full swing planning our HUGE Garage/Bake sale for next weekend.  The sale is going to be at our house (sorry I just am not ready to put address' on the internet just yet, but feel free to email or call if you want the address).  At last count we have had donations from at least 17 different families and I lovingly refer to our home as the "Hendricks Family Thrift Store" right now.  Seriously though we are so grateful to all the people who have donated and helped us organize all of this. The sale will be Friday May 6, from 1-7 pm and Sat. May 7 from 8-12.  

We have also started selling t-shirts on Adoption Bug.  A portion of each t-shirt sold will go straight to our adoption fund.  Fell free to check out the link below if you are interesting in buying a t-shirt.  Hoping to have more good news to pass along soon.  If you hang in with us I promise we will get the hang of this whole blogging thing : )
 http://www.adoptionbug.com/hendricksfamilyadoption/index.htm

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Generous Hearts

Today I find myself humbled by the generousity of strangers.  As many of you know, we are planning a huge garage sale and bake sale in May to help pay for our next set of fees for the adoption.  For months our truly amazing family and friends have been donating to our cause.  We have been diligently sorting and pricing as things come in, and trying to keep things a little bit organized.  Today we stopped by the garage sale of a co-worker to pick up her leftover things and found ourselves with alot more than we could ever have imagined.  Keep in mind that this was a mulit-family sale and I was only anticipating picking up the few things my co-worker had left.  After we arrived other family's realized what we were taking things for and eagerly started adding things to our pile.  These are strangers to us, but they were willing to donate their things (which they could have potentially made money on at another date) to us for our garage sale next month. By the end we filled up 1 truck and 2 SUV's, and I mean we could not fit one more piece of paper in them kind of full.  I feel so blessed to have come into contact with so many amazing people.  For everyone who has helped us during this journey, whether thru donation, time or prayers, we Thank You. 

Mark and Ashley

Sunday, April 3, 2011

WE ARE PAPER PREGNANT!!!!!

Welcome and Thank You for visiting!!  For those of you who may not know Mark and I have decided to expand our family thru adoption.  We have always considered adoption as an option for us, and after many months of discussion and research the decision has been made.  On January 22, 2011 we mailed off our initial application to Madison Adoption Associates.  On February 2, 2011 we officially started the adoption process by mailing off our signed contract.  We have applied to adopt a Waiting Child from China.  By adopting a Waiting Child that means that the child will have some form of special need.  These needs can vary from minor to severe including such things as cleft lip/palate, deformity of limbs, developmental delays, etc....  We have researched the needs we feel comfortable with and will discuss these with our caseworker as things progress.  Rest assured that this is a decision we did not come to lightly.  We have spent a great deal of time considering all of our options and feel that this is the path that is best for our family. 

Some of you may ask where the name of our blog came from.  "Gotcha Day" is the phrase used to describe the day you actually have your child in your arms.  So, we are now counting down to Gotcha Day, and praying it will be a short wait. 

Just to give everyone an idea of time frame you should know that adoption is a paper chase.  That is why we are "paper pregnant."  Much like a normal Mother/Father would come to their child thru Dr.'s appointments and ultrasounds, we too are on a journey to our child, only our journey is with paper work and home visits.  Each step is exciting and brings us one step closer to bringing our child home.  We are hoping to have all of our paperwork together and ready to turn in on my 30th birthday in July (both parents have to be 30 to adopt from China). 

We will post frequently to keep everyone updated on where we are on this journey, so check back often.

Ashley