We Have Our LID!!!

LID or Log In Date is a big date that everyone working on a China adoption waits for. This is the date that our file(dossier) was entered into the system in China. Our LID was November 16, 2006. So, fourteen months from November puts us at January of 2008 for our referal and then we would travel around February. That is just a guess, it could be earlier, it could be later, we really have no idea. What we do know is that we still need a lot more money, so the long time for the referal is not too bad. I am having a Creative Memories BenefitCrop February 24th (there is more info on the events page). David is selling original artistic photographs (Check them out and purchase them on our store page.) We are also planning another yard sale for the summer.

There are several ways you can help. You can pray for us and our patience for the long wait. We are still collecting used cell phones and print cartridges. We send them to TX to be recycled in return they send us cash. You can attend my Benefit Crop in February and buy your scrapbook supplies from me at www.mycmsite.com/rachelstolpe . There is a button on the right for a link to paypal. It is a secure and easy way to make a donation. Also, you can send a donation straight to our agencies on our behalf. Just make sure to add a note that the money goes into our file and if you wish to remain anonymous or not. Our agencies said they would just add the donation to our file and use it for the upcoming fees. Below is a breakdown of upcoming fees and the agencies they go to.

1. $600 to have our homestudy updated in the spring of 2007. Homestudies only last a year, so ours will need to be updated. Our local agency that handles this is:
Children's Hope Network
Attn: Sandy Destrampe
1297 Trail Way Drive
Grafton, WI 53024

2. $4600 in fees when we accept our referal and travel to China. These are orphanage fees that our agency will wire to China for us. Our international agency is:
Homeland Adoption Services
Attn: Pam Thomas
121 New York Avenue
Congers, NY 10920

3. $10,000 to $15,000 to travel to China for two to three weeks. There will be four of us traveling to China: Rachel, David, Sam and Grammy Fran. There are some provinces in China that have lenghten the amount of time required in-country to three weeks. Some still only require two weeks. We won't know what province we are going to until we get our referal. So we won't know how long we will be there until then either. There is so much unknown.

Most of all we really need your emotional support, encouragement and prayers. This process is so difficult for so many reasons. It means so much to us to know that our friends and family are behind us, excited for us and walking with us on this journey.

Thank you.

Check back for updates!

The Real Waiting Begins

I just talked to Pam at Homeland (our international agency). She said our dossier started its journey to China at the end of September. We won't know our LID (log in date) until January, but it should be sometime at the end of October that all our paperwork gets entered into the system in China. I guess right now it is being translated. Then we wait for another 14 months. Grandpa Kent suggested we tell everyone that we will travel to China sometime in the spring of 2008. That way, if it is earlier, that is a bonus. On the other hand, if we tell everyone we will travel fall of 07 and then don't then you all think, "What went wrong?" So, if you ask, I will tell you, "We are planning to travel spring of '08."

So here are my thoughts on waiting. When you look back at the past year, it all seemed to go so quickly. In September Sam and I were up at Pike Lake with my parents. I remembered that almost a year ago to the date, my dad and I were sitting by the same camp fire and he asked, "Have you ever thought of adoption?" From that conversation the whole process started and with in the year all our paperwork was already on its way to China. Looking back, it was a very fast year. Why does it seem so long though when you look forward? So I am trying to keep the perspective of looking back and realizing that the next year or year and half will also go very quickly and before we know it, we will be home with our daughter.

We have two other things to help with the wait. The women at our agencies keep reminding me that I have Sam and that he is a great distraction for the wait. In a way, yes. I am so thankful to have him and I can't imagine this wait for my first child. In a way he makes it harder because he asks about his baby sister all the time and always wants to buy her presents and cute clothes. Our other great distraction is that my bother and sister in law are expecting their first baby any time. We are so excited for them and for all of us to have a baby in the family. They are having a girl, so if all the timing works out, our daughters will be about the same age.

I’ll keep you posted on any new developments. Keep sending cell phones and cartridges. Now we need to raise an estimated $15,000 to cover the remaining fees and the travel.

DTC! DTC! DTC!

DTC means, "Dossier to China" This is the magical time that we work so hard for. This is the culmination of all our running around getting paperwork from all corners of the earth, having it notarized, authenticated, approved and who knows what else. This is what we have been working towards for almost a year. Any day now, our dossier (our paperwork) will be on its way to China. We are so excited. Here are two really good things about this process. We don't have to send it! I have read horror stories about people stapeling items and not paperclipping them or putting things in the wrong order and then it was all sent back. We are so lucky, our agency (Homeland Adoption Services) is taking care of all that! Another thing that helped was a generous gift from Elizabeth and Chris Harned to allow us to send our final agency fees to Homeland so they could send the Dossier out. With out the help from the Harneds, we would have been waiting a few more months before we could send the check out.

When I get the exact date of our DTC, I'll be sure to post it. Then the next exciting date we wait for is our LID. That is our Log In Date. The date that we get entered in the system in China. The dossier has to go and be translated first before it goes to China. Then after it enters the system in China, we wait for about a year. Yes, that is not a type-o, I said a year. It is ok, because we will have to raise about $15,000 more, to cover the $600 for our homestudy to be redone (it expires in the spring) $4600 in fees to China when we accept our referal and over $10,000 to travel to China.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support in this process. It means so much to us that there are so many of you out there that care so much for us and our daughter. I can't wait to meet her and I can't wait for you all to meet her too.

Successfull Creative Memories Event

On August 19th, I had a Creative Memories all day crop to benifit our adoption fund. I charged $25 per person, had 10 people, so $250 went into our fund. We held it at Calvary Memorial UCC (where my parents attend) The church let us use the space for free and several of my customers brought the food, so there was no cost to me. I am planning to do another crop in February and hopefully will have more people there. Thanks to everyone that attended and brought food or donated items for the prizes.

Our I-171 Is Here!

On Friday we got our I-171 form. It is the one we were waiting for from the Department of Homeland Security. It means we passed our FBI fingerprinting and background check and we can bring an orphaned child into the USA. So, now we move forward with the Authentication phase that takes about 3 weeks. Then we can send our dossier to China. Things are moving along.

Another Successful Rummage Sale!

Before we give the totals, we want to thank some people that made this yard sale a success. First, Rachel’s parents sacrificed their garage and back shed for the past three months while we were collecting the items. They also worked very hard to sort, set up, and sell the items. Second to thank are all the generous people who donated the items. We had so much stuff to sell and about 90% of it was donated. It was incredible. We had so much that we had to store things in Chummy (Grandma and Grandpa Hadley’s Airstream), in the back yard under tarps, and on Wednesday night before the sale, our van and my parent’s truck was full. We borrowed tables, but still had no room for all the items, so we were still unpacking all day on Thursday as table space opened up. You can check out the list (sorry if we missed anyone) on the Thank You page. Third, we would like to thank Liz Lipp, Leslie Kim and Auntie Bridget Hadley for watching Sam the last three days and giving him fun things to do besides being at the rummage sale. Lastly, we would like to thank all those that came, shopped, bought and those that gave extra to the cause.

Here is the three day total: $1400! We had a great time, the weather was beautiful and the customers were, for the most part, very nice and generous. It was a lot of fun and there were a few customers in particular that made it very memorable. On Thursday before we even opened a local CAN, Wilma came on her way home from work. She bought over $150 worth of items. On Friday she brought her friend Dana back, and they both bought more. David delivered all their items, and Dana even donated a kitchen table to us. Then they both returned on Saturday morning and bought a handful of other items. We also had three men come after working the carnival rides at State Fair. They were so friendly and loved playing with the dogs, especially Opal. They made up a rap song with Opal adding the deep bark right in rhythm. They bought a lot of furniture and put the table and chairs on top of their sedan and drove home (around the block, luckily). We had several customers that told us to keep the change or just gave us 5 or 10 dollars as a donation. We were touched by the response. People wanted to know more about the adoption process, and everyone wished us luck and was so encouraging about our adoption. It helps you to remember that in general people are good. So often, we get caught up in all the bad around us. We just spent three days meeting so many nice and caring people. Thank you to everyone who helped make this a huge success and thanks to God who showed us again that he is in the middle of this journey with us.

Thanks for your cell phone and print cartridge donations.

So far we have raised over $425 from your generosity in donating phones and cartridges. This has proven to be an extremely easy and succsseful effort. It seems people feel like they can be a part of our adoption by contributing their old phones and cartridges (what might otherwise be trash or clutter), without too much effort. We have had so many people donate their old phones, friends, family, colleagues and complete strangers alike. Grandma Fran has been very sucessful spreading the word at the YMCA and gets a phone almost daily. There are several people who have even started their own phone and cartridge drives. Donna Pierce has collected close to 20 phones, even getting her own kids to canvas their neghborhood. Kathy Zietler has collected about 10 phones and 20 plus print cartridges from her office. Uncle Howie and Aunt Jeni brought a box of phones and cartridges out to us. Dennis Franklin has fascilitated access to a huge volume of cartridges and phones through his employer. Beth and Dave Stauff just donated about 30 phones from his company. There is also a collection drive going on in Dallas TX, headed by David's dad. A list of all known donators appears on the Thank You Page.
We greatly appreciate every phone and cartridge. Each one gets us one step closer to meeting our daughter.
Thanks for your support. Keep them coming, there is still a long way to go.

Department of Homeland Security Trip

Today was a big day for us. David and I went to the Department of Homeland Security office in downtown Milwaukee. We went to be fingerprinted so they can run an FBI background check on us. If all goes well with the background check, we get a form for the dossier and then we are almost ready to send things to China. It should take a few weeks to get that form back.

I wish I had something exciting to tell about the trip, but it was really easy and quick. I picked David up at work at 10:15 and we headed downtown. The office was really easy to find; grey, non-descript government office building. I got a parking spot right across the street so we went in and even got through the metal detector just fine. They took us right away and we were on our way to lunch by 11:10. Here is the highlight, we ate at Cubanitos. It is a Cuban restaurant on Milwaukee Ave. The restaurant is very yummy and we highly recommend it.

The exciting part was how they took our finger prints. They scanned them into the computer, no old fashioned ink. It was sort of like being in a CSI lab, but no attractive workers or fancy rooms.

The next step for us is the authentication step. I am not sure what Debbie, our authenticator, does in this step, but I know it costs $1000. We will keep you all posted. Thanks for all the cell phones, print cartridges, and yard sale donations, keep them coming!

Longer?!

I just talked to the director at Brightside, which is now Homeland, our international agency. (She called to check on things, they are so nice there)She said China is taking longer with their referals. In the past it had been about 10 months from the time you sent in your dossier to when you got your referal (the picture of your daughter). Now it is take a year or longer. She said China does not want to be seen as a third world country that can't take care of its children, so they are slowing down. Plus they don't want to be the country that adopts the most babies out (which they currently are). So you ask, why not switch countries? All the countries take about this long, China was just moving a bit faster before. The only countries that may be a bit faster are some African countries. So for now, we will "stay the course" with China. In the big picture, it does not really matter, a few more months, if in the end we have our daughter home, that is all that matters.

Just thought I would share that update with you all. Wednesday we go to be fingerprinted by the FBI! I will be sure to post about that.

Rummage Sale Success

Our rummage sale was a big success. We raised $500. Now that may not seem like much, but it was about 45 degrees and rainy the two days we had the sale. We thought that we were pretty successful. We are planning to have another one in August. We will post the date as soon as we decide on one. Hopefully in August we will have better weather. We want to thank everyone for generosity in donating items and for buying items.

Where we are now

We made a big step and sent paper work to the INS. They will look at the homestudy and our application to bring an orphan into the country (as they put it). Then they will set a date for us to be fingerprinted by the FBI and send us a form back that we are approved by the Department of Homeland Security to bring an orphan into the country. It should take a few weeks. Above is a picture of Sam holding the envelope before we sent it in to the Milwaukee Sub Office.

Easy way to help our adoption...Donate your old cell phones and print cartridges.

In an effort to find more ways to fund our adoption we have decided to collect used cell phones and printer cartridges to redeem for recycling. Look around your house, there is a good chance you have an old cell phone or 2 sitting around, and you probably go through a print cartridge every month or two. These items can help our adoption: every print cartridge is worth $1.00, and cell phones can be redeemed for a few dollars all the way up to a couple hundred dollars each. If you are looking for a way to help, this is easy, just ask some people at work if they will donate their old phones and cartridges. Let them know it will go to a good cause. Then send us your old cell phones.

Thanks for your efforts and Support

Where are we in the process

Just an update of where we are in our adoption process.
As of now we have completed the home study. The social worker raved at our well written autobiographys and loved our family. Sam was very charming and quickly befriended her. We have most of our paperwork to Brightside (our international agency) for review, we are just waiting for the go ahead from their social worker. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can finalize our paperwork, finish the online classes, get our passports, raise some more money and get the dossier finished. Just a few tasks, nothing much. Once the dossier is finished it can go to China, with a large check. Then we wait for about 10 months for our referal. Yes, I said 10 months. Once we get the referal, you will all hear a lot of shouting and celebrating coming from Milwaukee, then we travel right away. The 10 months is ok, we will need the time to raise the money for the INS and for travel. We will keep posting updates on this page of where we are in the process.

The Red Thread

A red thread to China was cast today
From us to a child so far away.
This thread symbolizes an attachment of hearts
That distance alone can’t keep us apart.

Her mother and I are caught in a chase
That time alone will bring us to face This loving young child we want so much to greet
With love in our hearts before we did meet.

This tiny, thin thread may stretch, tangle or fray
But our love for her grows stronger each day.
Through the test of time it won’t break or sever
She’ll be part of us forever and ever.

With oceans between us, the distance is spanned
By a love that is greater than man could have planned.
For God in His mercy loved her and us
And decided our family would be a great plus.

So for now we’ll just love her and pray every day
That God keeps her and loves her for us till we may
Travel to China, that land of great past,
To the side of our daughter, to hold her at last.
March 18, 2002
© T.A.F.