Adoption Timeline :)

• April 3, 2014 Submitted Preliminary Application.
• April 6, 2014 Submitted formal Application
• April 7, 2014 Announced on facebook so that friends and family could cover us in prayer.
• April 10, 2014  Talked to  International Intake  Coordinator about our Country options.
• April 17, 2014 Got the call our Formal Application had been approved.
• April 17, 2014 Attended information meeting at Agency. Received homestudy paperwork.
• April 28, 2014 Couples interview for home study.
• May 6, 2014  Picked Hong Kong after God revealed to us that is where our child is.
• May 12, 2014 individual interviews for home study.
• June 5, 2014 Revealed our babys name will start with a C, Began calling him Baby C.
• July 1, 2014   Stephanie has completed 20 of 30 required training hours. Jeremy has completed 10 of 30 required training hours.
• July 10, 2014 Home visit for the home study. 
• October 7, 2014  Asked for more information regarding a little boy we found on waiting list. ( We will call him Kevin ( not really his name)). Received all info for Kevin that same day.
• October 9, 2014 Home Study Approval!
• October 16, 2014 Received more information about Kevin and were asked if we would like to move forward, another family is also moving forward. We let our social worker know we would like to move forward in pursuing Kevin.
• October 20, 2014 Follow Up questions from Kevins case worker. Answered questions and sent them back.
• October 21, 2014 More follow up questions. We answered and sent back.
• October 23, 2014 Received USCIS paperwork to began working on. ( I800A)
• November 15, 2014 Revealed Baby Cs name will be Connor! 
• November 17, 2014 ISS ( Kevins Caseworker) Let us know that we would receive a answer by the first week of December.
• November 20, 2014 Received the news that Hong Kong had chosen the other family for Kevin. ( Heart broken :( but trusting God.)
• December 8, 2015 Fingerprints in Atlanta for Immigration paperwork.
• December 15, 2014 Our case worker let us know they had received info about a one year old boy  with Down syndrome who was waiting and asked if we would be interested. We said yes! 
• December 16, 2014 We let our case worker know we had received the information and would be  review and pray over it. 
• December 16, 2014 Our Case worker let us know about a little  2 year old boy with Down syndrome who had been waiting over a year already, she asked if we would like to see his Child Study ( information about the child).
• December 16, 2014 We said yes we would look over his file as well.
• December 29, 2014 Started gathering documents needed for Dossier. Praying like crazy over both boys and for God to reveal if one of them was our boy.
• January 11, 2015 Let our caseworker know we would like to pursue one of the boys ( the two year old). ( Lets call him Ty)
• January 12, 2015 Our request was sent to ISS in Hong Kong.
• January 13, 2015 Ty was put on "Hold" for our family. Meaning no one could adopt him internationally but he could be adopted domestically.  
• January 19, 2015 Dossier almost finished!
• January 26, 2015 Dossier mailed to our case worker!!
• February  2, 2015 fixed a few mistakes on our Dossier.
• February 3, 2015 Dossier officially finished.
• February 4, 2015 Dossier sent to Hong Kong!!!!!
• March 28, 2015  Stephanie Completed all 30 training hours needed.
• April 2, 2015 Received questions for the AU (Adoption Unit in Hong Kong)
• April 5, 2015 Sent our  answers to questions.
• April 8, 2014 Follow up Question from AU. Answered and sent back.
• April 20, 2015 More questions from AU. 
• April 22, 2015 Answered and sent back.
• May 13, 2015 Jeremy completed all 30 training hours needed.
• May 26, 2015 Received $5000 Show Hope grant!!!
• July 1, 2015 ISS apologizes for the delay and says MA (matching approval) should come soon.
• July 21, 2015 MA!!!! Officially matched!!!!!!!! Ty is our son! Ty is Connor!!!!1
• July 22, 2015 began working on I800 paperwork ( petition to claim Connor as immediate relative.)
• July 29, 2015 Asked ISS a few questions about Connor development and asked for updated pictures.
• July 30, 2015 Received Connors birth certificate!!! 
• August 3, 2015 Sent I800 to USCIS
• August 5, 2015 Sent Connors 1st package to Our case worker.
• August 6, 2015 Received updated pictures!!!
• August 10, 2015 I800 application forwarded to Hague Adoption Unit.
• August 21, 2015 Answers to Questions about Connor.
• August 21, 2015 USCIS provisionally approved our I800.
• August 24, 2015 National Visa Center approved paperwork  and sent case number and invoice id number then sent to Hong Kong.
• September 8, 2015  Approved I800 arrives in Hong Kong. Show Hope and Lifesong adoption grant money arrives  totaling $11,000!
• September 15, 2015 Waiting on Connors passport before we can move onto Article 5, estimated to arrive in 3 weeks.
• September 17, 2015 Happy Third Birthday Connor!! Connor received his video, book, and toys from us sometime this week.
• October 19, 2015 Received photos of Connor looking at his book introducing him to our family and playing with the toys we sent. His passport his been received and ISS is working on article 5, should hear confirmation we have it soon.
•  October 26, 2015 Article 5 is issued! Officially waiting for HCO ( wait time 8-10 weeks). Received updated child study.
• December 8, 2015   Received update about Connor. Were told that HCO was anticipated soon. Told to look at traveling the week of January 11th and to begin looking at plane tickets,
• December 28, 2015  HCO is issued. Travel Dates confirmed. (Connors Visa interview scheduled for dec.30th.)
• January 6, 2016  Received a tentative schedule for our time in Hong Kong.
• January 8, 2016 Leave to fly to Hong Kong.
• January 11, 2016 We meet Connor!!!
• January 11-13, 2016 Spent our days with Connor at Orphanage.
• January 13, 2016 Signed paperwork releasing Connor into our care,
• January 14, 2016 Connor leaves Orphanage, returns to hotel with us.
• January 16, 2016  WELCOME HOME SWEET BOY!!
• February 1, 2016 First home visit with social worker.
• February 19, 2016 Sent all legal documents ( we recieved in HK) to agency 
• March 21, 2016 Second home visit with social worker.
• May 11, 2016 Began working on paperwork to update home study for finalization.
• May 16, 2016 All paperwork for update sent to social worker.
• May 27, 2016 Home Study updated.

There is HOPE....

This is to you....Maybe your a newlywed or maybe you have been  married for years. Maybe its been a horrendous few years or only a couple months. You feel lost, overwhelmed, frustrated, and angry. The one thing you want so so so badly is just not happening for you and your lost in a sea of hopelessness and rage. Maybe your battling this silently or maybe your whole family and church knows. You've tried all the old wives tales and nothing has worked. You have prayed and prayed and to be honest your wondering if God is either not listening or somehow punishing you for some past mistake. Your biggest fear is you sometimes think maybe its not meant to be....like ever and that scares you the most. You know that stress doesnt help so your stressed about trying to not stress and you worry and agonized. You beat yourself up constantly. You wonder why your body has failed you. You see other people have no problems or even take the blessing for granted and it gives you a sick feeling in your stomach. Ever month you wonder if this is your month and your convinced you have several symptoms. You have taken more test than you will ever admit and each said the same thing. You threw them away and convinced yourself that you were ok but you cried...hard. Every month you mourn as if you have lost someone and yet what hurts the most is knowing you never had anyone to begin with. 

This letter is to tell you there is hope. The only reason I know is because ive been there. All the above describes me. Most everyone know my story ends with an amazing story of adoption , but before you stop reading let me say I am not here to push adoption on anyone. I am here only  to say there is hope. I cant lie, your story may end in pregnancy and it may not. I have countless friends who have been in this same boat and  I have seen God work amazing miracles, but not all of them  were waddling around with there own little baby bump. Although many were :) I have seen pregnancies, I have seen adoption, I have seen God transform lives. My plea for you today is to lay it all at Gods feet. Dont lay it down and then go back and scoop it all back up later. Im talking totally surrender this burden to Him, trust Him to give you a family in His time and His way. I promise you that regardless whether He gives you a child or not He will change you. He will use you and only He can bring you out of this pit your in and give you victory even if its with empty arms. Our God is that mighty and He is that powerful so lay everything at His feet today.....One thing you will never do is regret it.

Dear Sweet boy

    Dear Sweet boy,
             Mama is dealing with so many unknowns right now that its making her crazy!!! How long will I take off work?? What will my schedule by like once your home?? What days will you have therapy?? I could go on and on and those are only work related worries. I have thirty million other worries, but in the midst of this chaos, worry, and stress there is excitement brewing and I am overwhelm that there is you. There is a Connor Thaddeous Malone and that is you.  You are my little boy. You are  the child I have prayed for, for 7 years. You are what gets Mama through the hard days already even though your half a world away. Your not a reflection of me and yet your my son. The thought that in 5 months I will see your little face in person, we will finally have our first hug and although right now it doesnt seem possible I will fall deeper in love with you. Others wont understand our journey and thats ok but Mama knows that our family is not by chance. Our family was always Gods plan. Long before He created the universe He saw us and He saw you and He had a brilliant plan. We have dreamed of you for so long and yet when we saw your picture we were overwhelmed because you were more perfect than we ever had planned. Those dark brown eyes begged me to love them and I promise I will for the rest of my life. You are a gift from God just like your name says. You are mine and I am yours and you make all the stress and worry disappear. I cannot wait to whisper I love you in your ear and feel the weight of your body in my arms. I cannot wait until their are no more miles in between us. I cannot wait for you and yet I would wait forever for you. You are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined and I cannot wait to show you off to the rest of the world. Hurry home.

Mama

The special necklace....

   I wanted to get my Mamaw something different for Christmas. I decided to get her a grandmothers necklace but for the great grandkids. So to Etsy I went to customize the perfect necklace. I found one I liked but I needed a birthstone for Connor. We hadn't been matched with and weren't even pursuing a certain child so I chose to pick between December or September birthstone since they are blue and one thing I knew for sure is we were adopting a boy.  I went back and forth for awhile but I ended up going with September just because it's a darker blue.
I love how God works things out.....Connors birthday is September 17th.

 The necklace turned out to be more special than anyone could have ever dreamed. 

Much more meaningful years later...

    When Jeremys parents went to China several years ago on a business trip. They brought us back pictures with our names in Chinese.

  We loved them, but had no idea how much more special they would be to us years later! Recently they surprised us with another name in Chinese.....

  We love it and are so thankful God is allowing us to have the family we have prayer so long for through the beauty of adoption.

Show Hope, Support Adoption

     When your adopting having support is so IMPORTANT!! Jeremy and I have been EXTREMELY BLESSED with family and friends who are so incredibly supportive!!! We know that others dont have this so we try ourselves to be there for them. I was very fortunate to find a support group on facebook of other adoptive parents who adopted, or are adopting from Hong Kong. It has been amazing and helped me so much. To be able to talk to those who truly understand the mountain of paperwork you feel literally buried under, the stress and at times frustration, and the true emotion of the joy you feel when you reach each milestone even if its the tiny ones and not the major ones.

Now those mountains of paperwork are behind us and we are in the home stretch and nearing the moment when our arms can finally wrap around our baby. Im sure I dont need to say that we can hardly wait!!!

We know that this journey would have been very different had we not had the support and love from friends and from the bottom of our hearts we want to thank you!!! Your support has not only helped us financially, but emotionally.  This journey has not always been easy, but when we look at our sons picture  we know without a doubt it has been completely worth it.

We had so many who saw our shirts and said they would like to have one that we are selling them again!!
Click here to order your shirt today.  All money raised will go towards our travel to Hong Kong!!!!

Im ready....

We received new photos of Connor this week. I cannot explain to you what I felt when I opened the file and looked into those beautiful brown eyes. I studied his little face and fell deeper in love than before. I examined his features and obviously I saw the traits, but none of that matter because I saw Him. Obviously seeing him means seeing traces of Down syndrome, and I dont wanna change that. Because thats my Connor, however  he is so much more than that . I pray daily that God will make him the man He wants him to be. Not what we want, but what He wants. No  matter how hard the road ahead will be that is my prayer.

Connor is fearfully and wonderfully made and God has a plan for his future. I dont know what that plan looks like, but I know regardless He will touch lives. He has already changed mine.


When I looked into those deep brown eyes, I felt love. I instantly wanted to protect him, My arms ached to hold him and kiss his sweet face. I became ready. I instantly forgot that I dont know what im doing, or what our future will look like. I forgot that I dont know very much about him or his likes and dislikes. I fell so deep in love that all the fear washed away, and  Im ready to be his mother.

Three Words

   Next two steps complete!!!

We sent our I-800 to the USCIS ( United States Citizenship  and Immigration services). It should have arrived yesterday!!! Please pray that it is approved and can be sent onto Hong Kong and approved there too. We also sent Connors first care package!!!! EEEEKKKK im really really excited about this. We were required to make a photobook of our family and  video introducing ourselves and showing Connor his room. We kept our photo book very simple since Connor is so young. In our video we showed Connor his room bed, toys, clothes the whole nine yards. Jeremy played my great grandpas guitar and we sang Deep and Wide ( with hand motions), Old Macdonald, and You are My Sunshine. We sent toys along also, today that package is on its way and I am so excited and cannot wait for him to get his things and catch a tiny glimpse of who we are, and how much we love him!!! Although I doubt He will understand any of it, I know He will love the toys!!! haha.

Now that we are caught up the next step is to wait. I know this sounds horrible and it is hard at times however his journey so far has been rush rush rush , finish this , fill out that, and now its all done and I cant even believe it!!

I cant even tell you all the ways Gods fingerprints have been on this journey from day one, I cant explain to you how he has carried us through, and I myself cannot grasp the ways he has worked miracle over and over.

Jeremy and I finally have the family we have prayed so long for and only three words can do justice and explain our adoption journey......

GOD is FAITHFUL!!!!