Meanwhile in Hawaii...
My wife is amazing...somehow she is managing to play single parent while working the hectic and long hours of an OB/GYN. She has been handling the situation masterfully despite the recent struggles with our strong-willed "almost 4 year old". But, that doesn't mean there aren't tough days...today was one of those days. And here I sit 5000 miles away not able to do much. So, I thought I'd try to do something to cheer up my beautiful wife. Maybe it will help, maybe not.
This blog started back in 2007 primarily to chronicle our journey through the world of adoption to reach our beautiful little Juneau. Emilie did an amazing job creating a record of this important component of our family history but one ill-fated day, due to an update by blogger, we lost the important timeline that use to grace the sidebar of our blog. We thought it was lost forever until I was able this past summer to gain access to the archived version of the blog - the archived version being a hard copy printout of pretty much the entire blog that my parents have hand delivered to Grandma Nova over the last 3 years so that she can follow the blog without having a computer. Grandma Nova then dutifully puts each printout in a 3 ring binder and provides the most old-fashioned version of backing up a hard drive ever! I've had plans to sit down and recreate the timeline for Emilie for several months as a surprise and hopefully doing it today will provide a little pick-me-up after a rough couple of days.
Our Journey to Juneau Timeline:
October 15, 2006: We submitted our application for adoption to Hawaii International Child
December 15, 2006: We complete our first Homestudy visit at HIC with Amy
December 21, 2006: We officially submit our "Advance Application for Adoption of an Infant" (I600-A) with the USCIS and get fingerprinted
January 10, 2007: Amy comes to our house to complete our second Homestudy visit.
January 17, 2007: Our Homestudy is approved
January 27, 2007: We receive our I-171H - the document saying that the US Government has approved us to adopt an international baby
January 30, 2007: Our complete dossier (huge pile of important documents) completed and delivered to HIC
February 12, 2007: We receive our dossier back from the State of Hawaii, now certified by the Secretary of State
February 13, 2007: On Grandma Stickley's birthday, our certified dossier is Fed-exed to the Vietnamese embassy in Washington D.C. and we are officially on our way.
March 6, 2007: Our authenticated dossier is sent from Washington D.C. to Vietnam
May 29, 2007: We received an initial referral of a baby girl
September 15, 2007: Our positive pregnancy test that caused a panic attack for the ages.
September 21, 2007: Before we even knew it, our little girl was born in Vietnam
November, 2007: Due to a paperwork error, we lost our initial referral and were devastated to be set back 8 months worth of waiting. We could never have known at that time that our amazing little Juneau, not even 2 months old at that time, was out there waiting for us.
January 23, 2008: We receive our referral for the little girl we have come to love more than we could have ever imagined
My wife is amazing...somehow she is managing to play single parent while working the hectic and long hours of an OB/GYN. She has been handling the situation masterfully despite the recent struggles with our strong-willed "almost 4 year old". But, that doesn't mean there aren't tough days...today was one of those days. And here I sit 5000 miles away not able to do much. So, I thought I'd try to do something to cheer up my beautiful wife. Maybe it will help, maybe not.
This blog started back in 2007 primarily to chronicle our journey through the world of adoption to reach our beautiful little Juneau. Emilie did an amazing job creating a record of this important component of our family history but one ill-fated day, due to an update by blogger, we lost the important timeline that use to grace the sidebar of our blog. We thought it was lost forever until I was able this past summer to gain access to the archived version of the blog - the archived version being a hard copy printout of pretty much the entire blog that my parents have hand delivered to Grandma Nova over the last 3 years so that she can follow the blog without having a computer. Grandma Nova then dutifully puts each printout in a 3 ring binder and provides the most old-fashioned version of backing up a hard drive ever! I've had plans to sit down and recreate the timeline for Emilie for several months as a surprise and hopefully doing it today will provide a little pick-me-up after a rough couple of days.
Our Journey to Juneau Timeline:
October 15, 2006: We submitted our application for adoption to Hawaii International Child
December 15, 2006: We complete our first Homestudy visit at HIC with Amy
December 21, 2006: We officially submit our "Advance Application for Adoption of an Infant" (I600-A) with the USCIS and get fingerprinted
January 10, 2007: Amy comes to our house to complete our second Homestudy visit.
January 17, 2007: Our Homestudy is approved
January 27, 2007: We receive our I-171H - the document saying that the US Government has approved us to adopt an international baby
January 30, 2007: Our complete dossier (huge pile of important documents) completed and delivered to HIC
February 12, 2007: We receive our dossier back from the State of Hawaii, now certified by the Secretary of State
February 13, 2007: On Grandma Stickley's birthday, our certified dossier is Fed-exed to the Vietnamese embassy in Washington D.C. and we are officially on our way.
March 6, 2007: Our authenticated dossier is sent from Washington D.C. to Vietnam
May 29, 2007: We received an initial referral of a baby girl
September 15, 2007: Our positive pregnancy test that caused a panic attack for the ages.
September 21, 2007: Before we even knew it, our little girl was born in Vietnam
November, 2007: Due to a paperwork error, we lost our initial referral and were devastated to be set back 8 months worth of waiting. We could never have known at that time that our amazing little Juneau, not even 2 months old at that time, was out there waiting for us.
January 23, 2008: We receive our referral for the little girl we have come to love more than we could have ever imagined
Juneau at 4 monthsMarch 24, 2008: Our I600 is sent to Vientam
Juneau at 6 months
April 2, 2008: USCIS acknowledges receipt of our I-600. We are now in the queue waiting for approval to travel to Vietnam to bring Juneau home.
May 4, 2008: Little sister Nova joins the family
Juneau at 8 months - about the time Nova was born
June 5, 2008: We recieved approval of our I-600 from USCIS and permission to travel to Vietnam
July 11, 2008: Cris, Karen and Dennis board a plane in Honolulu headed for Juneau
July 13, 2008: Juneau and her daddy meet for the first time
July 14, 2008: At our Giving & Receiving Ceremony, our Journey to Juneau is complete as the government of Vietnam officially recognizes who Juneau's family is
July 25, 2008: Juneau comes home to Hawaii
August 15, 2008: Juneau finally meets her mommy and her little sister.
Our Family Finally Together for the First Time
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