Our Packing List

We're still waiting for our LOA.  Don't worry ... you'll know when we get it because you'll hear us all screaming and jumping for joy!!!!

Jacinda has been very sad lately because she says, "I miss my sister."  Breaks my heart every time.  I forget sometimes that this process is hard on the kids, too.

A friend who is also adopting from China asked for my packing list, so I thought I'd post it here.  Even though it will be a while before we go, I'm starting to buy things here and there so that we don't have to buy tons of stuff right at the end.  It looks like a lot, but it all works out somehow.

Here you go:

Luggage

Checked luggage: 2 large suitcases (1 for each of us)

Carry-Ons: Backpacks

Personal Items: Laptop Bag and Purse

Luggage must be under 44lbs/20 kg for in-China flights and 100ml liquids were allowed.

Toiletries

Q-tips

Individual Wet Ones/Wipes

Disposable Razor

Shaving cream

Travel shampoo

Travel conditioner

Face wash

Travel size dove soap

Baby shampoo/body wash

Oatmeal bath

Travel size tissue packs

Floss

Lotion

Hair ties

Hand sanitizer

Toothpaste

Hairbrush

Hairspray

Hairdryer

Flatiron

Contacts and solution

Extra Contacts

Glasses and case

Medical

(medicines were in plastic baggies with dosing instructions cut from box and in the bag)

Immodium

Cipro

Tums/Liquid Maalox

Ibuprofen

Afrin Nasal Spray

Benadryl

Tylenol

Infant tylenol (include dosing chart)

Infant Ibuprofen (include dosing chart)

Childrenʼs benadryl (1/2 tsp dose)

Sunscreen SPF50

Thermometer

Pedialyte powder - individual

Bandaids and Polysporin

Nail clippers

Safety Pins

Tweezers

Bug spray

Scissors

Office

Post-its

Pen

Paperclips

Power strip – not sure yet about this

Plug adaptors

Household supplies

Small dish soap

Laundry detergent

Extra plastic bags, sandwich size

Extra plastic bags, quart size

Extra plastic bags, gallon size

Small diaper trash bags

Reusable shopping bags for carrying stuff

Baby (18 months old, unrepaired CL/CP)

Diapers (30), purchase more in China

Swim diapers

Wipes (1 refill pack)

Travel changing pads

Sling – not sure which one yet

Take & toss bowls

Spoons

Bottle brush

Toothbrush

Bottles/sippy cups (2 plus cleft nipples) – not sure what we’re doing about bottles/sippy cups yet

Burp cloths

Bibs

Soft, comfy blanket

Toys

Small inflatable beach ball

Books – only 1 or 2

Socks

Sweaters

Light summer coat

Swimsuit

Long pants warmer outfits

PJʼs

Short-sleeve onsies

Long-sleeve onsies

Several headbands

Sherry

Swimsuit

Swim cap

Socks

Underwear

Lightweight pants (2) (wear one during travel)

Lightweight capris (2)

T-shirts (7) (wear one during travel)

Flip flops

Tennis shoes (wore them)

Aaron

Swimsuit

Swim cap

Socks

Underwear

Flip flops

Tennis shoes (wore them)

Jeans (1 pair) (wear during travel)

T-shirts (7) (wear one during travel)

Undershirts

Shorts

Snacks

Plastic bin for snacks (doubles as a place to wash bottles, cups, etc in hotel rooms)

Individual serving peanut butter (14)

Granola bars

Pop-tarts

Individual Coffee

Individual powdered creamers (took too many of these last time – coffee and cream are readily available at meals)

Individual sugar packets

Tea bags

Goldfish

Carry-Ons

Adoption Paperwork – Holt will tell us what we need

Translucent folder for paperwork – I think Holt gave us one last time

Thumb drive with scanned documents – also, upload documents somewhere online

PASSPORTS

Passport organizer

Extra passport photos (6 each total) – Holt will tell us how many we need

Extra copies of ALL documents (passports, visa page, driverʼs license, credit cards) - I

also left extra copies of ALL paperwork at home where our parents could easily access

if needed - I was convinced that if I had copies everywhere, nothing would go wrong!

Small notebook for taking notes

Printed travel itinerary

Travel insurance info

Information sheet of all hotels

Information sheet of Western doctors/insurance info AND consulate contacts

Contact sheet for US doctors and important ppl, including adoption agency

Sunglasses

Playing cards/card games

Cash

Credit cards/debit cards – let Discover and Chartway know we are traveling

Converter (no adapter needed for us - check the voltage on your electronics)

Travel tissue packs (2)

Toothbrush (2)

Travel toothpaste (2)

Individual wet naps (6)

Deodorant

Ibuprofen

Tylenol

Benadryl

Hand Sanitizer

Gum/Mints

Snacks

Laptop/charger

Ipods/charger

Contact case/lenses/solution

Glasses

Travel face wash

Travel moisturizer

Clothes & diapers to last baby a few days

Reading material for plane ride

Makeup

Iphone/charger

Camera/charger

Gifts

Holt will tell us what we need to bring

We're Buried Under a Mound of Paperwork!!!!

We are currently in the process of completing 2 important parts of the adoption process.

1. Dossier - This is a collection of documents that China requires in order to place us with a child. The documents include things like our birth certificates, marriage certificate, physicals, financial statements, employment verifications, background checks, passports, etc. Sounds easy, right? Ha!!! Each document has to be notarized. Then, each document gets sent to the state it was notarized in to be Certified. Then, each document gets sent to one of the US Embassy/Consulate locations to be Authenticated. So completing our Dossier is a lot of filling out forms, waiting on letters, and writing checks for each document to be certified and authenticated!

2. Homestudy - This is an investigation into our family to make sure we are able to appropriately care for a child. There is a lot of document gathering here as well, but none of the notarizing, etc. Our social worker will meet with us in our home at some point to make sure we have enough room and that our home is safe.

Working on all of this is taking up a lot of our time. We're hoping to have all of this completed in the next 2 months or so and then the real waiting begins.

To help pass the time, we thought we'd share with you some of the reasons we're adopting and how we got to this point. So be on the lookout very soon for that!

Also, we'd like a new name for our blog. We are NOT creative in this respect, so if you have any ideas, we'd love to hear them! We'd like the name to reflect China somehow. Thanks in advance!

As always, if you ever have questions about any of this stuff, please feel free to ask! We're very open and would love to answer questions as best we can.

Aaron, Sherry, and Luke

And We Have a Decision!!!

Well, we finally made a decision on the country we will be adopting from ..... drum roll please ...... We are planning to adopt a little girl from China!!! Since this might be our last child, I (Sherry) really want a girl. So China is our best bet.

We have sent in our application, and we'll be starting the homestudy process very soon. That should be completed in approximately 4-5 months. Then we're probably looking at a wait of at least 2 1/2 years once our homestudy is complete. It's a long wait, but we're looking at the positive side of things. Luke will be old enough to understand the process more and will be able to really be a part of it. We're even planning on him traveling with us to China to bring home his little sister. He'll probably be 4 or 5 by then, so he'll be able to understand a lot and hopefully remember most of it.

Also, the wait is a good thing for us because of the money. We'll have plenty of time to save up the money we need. I (Sherry) am planning to go back to work full-time this summer or fall. I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing. I'm interviewing next week with the school district here. My teaching license is still good for a while, so going back to teaching high school is an option. I'm also looking into some corporate jobs as well. Each has pros and cons, so we'll see how all that plays out. I'm so glad we have such a great home daycare that Luke goes to part-time right now. They are willing to take him full-time whenever we need them to. They really love him and they take such great care of him. He loves going there and playing with his friends. They do all kinds of fun activities and he learns a lot there.

One more thing about the wait and money issue ...... we are also looking into the possibility of a special needs child. We are willing to accept special needs that are correctable and that would be covered under our health insurance. We don't know a lot about this yet, but a pretty common special need that falls into this category is cleft lip/palate. Typically, the wait is much shorter. But of course it depends on if we are able to save up the money by then.

We are so excited about all of this and we're happy to answer any questions, so please feel free to ask! Adoption is not an easy road, and we'll need everyone's support and prayers! Thank you in advance!!!!!

Sherry, Aaron, and Luke

Decisions, Decisions .......

So we've completed all the Information Sessions we signed up for.  Now we need to choose an agency and a country.  We didn't anticipate this part being so difficult.  Choosing an agency is not too hard.  We've compared the pros and cons and we're pretty close to making that decision.

Choosing a country on the other hand, is a completely different story.  There are so many factors to consider ..... how long it takes, how much it costs, age of the available children, gender of the available children, predictability/stability of the country's adoption program, how the children are cared for, special needs .... just to name a few.  So we are praying, thinking, and talking about all our options.  I think we're getting close to making a decision, it's just harder than we thought it would be!

We're still very excited about the process and I think we'd both like for it to move quicker than it does!  The entire process will take a couple of years.  We can see 2 major benefits to this. 

1.  Luke will be older and he'll be able to participate in the process more and understand it more.  He is definitely our first priority and we think it would be great if he was able to understand what was happening.

2.  Money.  I've mentioned this before, but it's a big deal to us.  Mainly because we don't have much!  I (Sherry) will be looking for a full time job soon.  The longer the process takes, the more likely it is that we'll have no problem raising however much we need to raise.  This is actually a relief.  It's stressful to wonder how you're going to come up with $20,000 (or more, depending on the country) when you have nowhere near that in savings.  But knowing that I could work for a year or two and then we could pay for the adoption and replenish our savings account is a good thing.  We can probably also start college savings accounts for both kids with that money.  Then, when we bring our next little one home, I could go back to working part time so I could be home with both kids part time!

So anyway, that's our update for now!  Hopefully we'll be posting soon that we've chosen a country!!!!

Sherry, Aaron, & Luke

Our First Adoption Agency Meeting

We met with a social worker from a local agency last week.  She was great and she answered all of our questions.

 This agency deals with China, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.  They also deal with India, but we'd have to have some Indian heritage, so that one is out for us.  We have to choose a country before we send in our initial application.

 We really feel that international adoption is the right thing for us to do.  Our plan now is to go to a couple of other information meetings before the end of the year.  We also have to work out a plan to save up some money.  Thankfully, the money is due in increments throughout the process  But we still have a lot of money to save.  We're trying to think of some creative ways we can add to our adoption account. 

I (Sherry) will probably end up going back to work full time at some point.  I've already committed to teaching at the community college part time for the Spring semester.  So I'm thinking I would hopefully start something full time in the summer or fall.

The Journey Begins ......

We are in the information gathering stage of adoption.  We're thinking we'll go with an international adoption.  We are researching a couple of different agencies and getting all of their information.   There's so much to learn!

The biggest obstacle will be money.  Adoption is really expensive.  But so are infertility treatments.  At least with adoption, you are guaranteed to be parents at some point.  With infertility treatments, there is no guarantee.  We are so fortunate to have Luke as a result of infertility treatments.  We feel that adoption is a great choice for us and we're really excited about it.

I may have to go to work full time to save up the money we need.  Currently, I'm working part time teaching at a community college.  I've already committed to teaching in the Spring, so if I need to find something full time, it will probably be next summer or fall.

 So we'll see where this takes us.  It's going to be a long journey, but we're excited about it!  We can't wait for Luke to have a little brother or sister!