December 21st, 2015
We are so excited to announce that we are DTC!! This is dossier to China!! All of the paperwork we have been working on over the past 8 months is finally in China!! We are beyond excited that this happened before Christmas. We could not have asked for a better Christmas present. Now we wait for a LID or a log in date. This means all of our paperwork is logged-in in China!! Our agency told us this is currently taking 2-3 weeks to receive an LID once you are DTC. We are of course praying for 2 weeks. Once this happens we will be officially open for a referral. A referral will be pictures, video and a health history of a precious little one in China!! We are praying that God will send us our daughter on the first referral and that we will just know!! We have been told it can take 2 months to receive a referral, but we are also praying we get a referral in January.
Please be praying for our little one in China, her caregivers, and her birth mom. She will not be celebrating Christmas this year and this breaks my heart. Praising God this is her last holiday season as an orphan. God also reminded me that there are 150 million orphans around the world who do not have mommies and daddies to celebrate Christmas with this year. Please be praying for all of the children in the world who do not have families.
We hope you have a Merry and Blessed Christmas celebrating the amazing gift God gave us in his son!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!
Hope, Love, and Grace! This is our families faith journey to bring home our baby girl from China. For we walk by faith, not by sight! 2 Corinthians 5:7
December 4th, 2015
I have amazing news!! We got our I-800A approval today!! The I-800A is the US government approving us to adopt a baby from China!! I was praying we would get this the week before Christmas and we got it 4 days after our fingerprint appointment. It was actually approved the day after our fingerprint appointment. The quickest I had read from other blogs was 17 days after their appointment. God showed off big on this one!! Praising him for the quick approval. Now we have to get the document authenticated like the rest of the documents that are already authenticated, then all of our paperwork will be off to China! In the adoption world we will be DTC which is dossier to China!! This is a huge step. We should get an LID or a log in date about a week after we go DTC. Once we get an LID we are open for referrals. Praying we have an LID by Christmas. I told John all I want for Christmas is an LID:). We could receive a referral quickly or could have to wait a month or two. Praying we get one soon after we receive our LID. Also praying God gives us our baby on the 1st referral, that we would just know she is our daughter. When we receive a referral we will get pictures, videos, and a health history. We will have 48 hours to accept or decline the referral. We are so excited and ready to see her face!! Please keep praying for us and our sweet baby.
I have amazing news!! We got our I-800A approval today!! The I-800A is the US government approving us to adopt a baby from China!! I was praying we would get this the week before Christmas and we got it 4 days after our fingerprint appointment. It was actually approved the day after our fingerprint appointment. The quickest I had read from other blogs was 17 days after their appointment. God showed off big on this one!! Praising him for the quick approval. Now we have to get the document authenticated like the rest of the documents that are already authenticated, then all of our paperwork will be off to China! In the adoption world we will be DTC which is dossier to China!! This is a huge step. We should get an LID or a log in date about a week after we go DTC. Once we get an LID we are open for referrals. Praying we have an LID by Christmas. I told John all I want for Christmas is an LID:). We could receive a referral quickly or could have to wait a month or two. Praying we get one soon after we receive our LID. Also praying God gives us our baby on the 1st referral, that we would just know she is our daughter. When we receive a referral we will get pictures, videos, and a health history. We will have 48 hours to accept or decline the referral. We are so excited and ready to see her face!! Please keep praying for us and our sweet baby.
November 19th, 2015
Praise God!! We got our fingerprint appointment today. I have never been so happy to see mail from:
Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
in my life. Our appointment is set for November 30th at 8:00 a.m. Thankful we got our appointment before the holidays so we can rest in knowing we will be going the Monday after Thanksgiving. Again please continue praying for our sweet baby and us over the holidays. I am going to be decorating for Christmas this week and I am already dreading hanging the stockings because I know one will be missing. Thankful knowing this will be the last set of holidays before we have our baby with us. We hope you have a Blessed Thanksgiving!!
Praise God!! We got our fingerprint appointment today. I have never been so happy to see mail from:
Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
in my life. Our appointment is set for November 30th at 8:00 a.m. Thankful we got our appointment before the holidays so we can rest in knowing we will be going the Monday after Thanksgiving. Again please continue praying for our sweet baby and us over the holidays. I am going to be decorating for Christmas this week and I am already dreading hanging the stockings because I know one will be missing. Thankful knowing this will be the last set of holidays before we have our baby with us. We hope you have a Blessed Thanksgiving!!
November 18th, 2015
Hello everyone!! I cannot believe it is Thanksgiving next week. Please keep us in your prayers as we will be celebrating missing one of our babies. I know it is going to be a tough one.
I also wanted to let everyone know that I added a link on the blog that you can sign up to follow the blog. It will notify you when I post something new!
We are also excited to announce that we got approved for an Adopt Together profile. This is an organization that helps people fundraise for adoptions. It is also a 501C3 so you can donate and write it off on your taxes:)
Still praying we get our fingerprint appointment this week!!
Hello everyone!! I cannot believe it is Thanksgiving next week. Please keep us in your prayers as we will be celebrating missing one of our babies. I know it is going to be a tough one.
I also wanted to let everyone know that I added a link on the blog that you can sign up to follow the blog. It will notify you when I post something new!
We are also excited to announce that we got approved for an Adopt Together profile. This is an organization that helps people fundraise for adoptions. It is also a 501C3 so you can donate and write it off on your taxes:)
Still praying we get our fingerprint appointment this week!!
November 9th, 2015
Well we got our receipt from immigration today!! We were so excited to get that receipt because we know they received everything and will begin to process it. Our next step is waiting for our fingerprint appointment. Praying we get this next week.
We also wanted to tell everyone that China lifted its one child policy. Chinese families will now be allowed to have 2 children. This is very exciting because hopefully we will see the number of aborted and abandoned children decrease. However, we do not currently see this affecting the number of children with medical special needs who are abandoned. Since we are adopting a child with special needs and we know our precious one has already been born and waiting for us in an orphanage it will not affect our adoption timeline. Praise God for this!!
Well we got our receipt from immigration today!! We were so excited to get that receipt because we know they received everything and will begin to process it. Our next step is waiting for our fingerprint appointment. Praying we get this next week.
We also wanted to tell everyone that China lifted its one child policy. Chinese families will now be allowed to have 2 children. This is very exciting because hopefully we will see the number of aborted and abandoned children decrease. However, we do not currently see this affecting the number of children with medical special needs who are abandoned. Since we are adopting a child with special needs and we know our precious one has already been born and waiting for us in an orphanage it will not affect our adoption timeline. Praise God for this!!
November 1st, 2015
Well we checked the mail today because we forgot to check it yesterday with all of the Halloween parties and excitement and we received a packet back from Immigration. It turns out we accidentally wrote a 12/13 instead of a 10/13 on the check and since they could not cash it they sent the entire packet back with a big piece of paper on top that read Denied. Needless to say it was an emotional day with lots of tears shed.
After this second delay of another 1 1/2 weeks I am leaning more on God and doing my best to trust in his perfect timing. I know he is in control and would not allow our baby to spend 1 more day than she is suppose to in an orphanage away from her mommy, daddy, and 2 big sisters. Please pray we can let go and trust his perfect timing.
We will overnight the paperwork to Homeland Security/Immigration tomorrow so they will receive everything on Tuesday the 3rd.
Well we checked the mail today because we forgot to check it yesterday with all of the Halloween parties and excitement and we received a packet back from Immigration. It turns out we accidentally wrote a 12/13 instead of a 10/13 on the check and since they could not cash it they sent the entire packet back with a big piece of paper on top that read Denied. Needless to say it was an emotional day with lots of tears shed.
After this second delay of another 1 1/2 weeks I am leaning more on God and doing my best to trust in his perfect timing. I know he is in control and would not allow our baby to spend 1 more day than she is suppose to in an orphanage away from her mommy, daddy, and 2 big sisters. Please pray we can let go and trust his perfect timing.
We will overnight the paperwork to Homeland Security/Immigration tomorrow so they will receive everything on Tuesday the 3rd.
October 23rd, 2015
It has been a really rough week with lots of tears shed over our little one being so far away. We have been working hard on letting go of the control and trusting God's plan. This is so hard to do. Please be praying for us over the next few months as I expect it to be a really tough holiday season without our baby here to celebrate with us.
With that being said we also have some really exciting news. Lifeline our placing agency finally received our certified copies of our home study today and they are going to overnight them to immigration. We can officially start the 45 day countdown (praying it does not take longer than this). This is a BIG step forward in the adoption process and bringing our little one home. Praising God for a happy end to a very tough week.
I wanted to thank everyone who has bought a puzzle piece so far!! We have sold 82 pieces!! We have 418 more to go! This is a huge blessing for us since our house has not sold. We have several payments coming up and everything helps!! Thank you again for all of your prayers, love, and support.
It has been a really rough week with lots of tears shed over our little one being so far away. We have been working hard on letting go of the control and trusting God's plan. This is so hard to do. Please be praying for us over the next few months as I expect it to be a really tough holiday season without our baby here to celebrate with us.
With that being said we also have some really exciting news. Lifeline our placing agency finally received our certified copies of our home study today and they are going to overnight them to immigration. We can officially start the 45 day countdown (praying it does not take longer than this). This is a BIG step forward in the adoption process and bringing our little one home. Praising God for a happy end to a very tough week.
I wanted to thank everyone who has bought a puzzle piece so far!! We have sold 82 pieces!! We have 418 more to go! This is a huge blessing for us since our house has not sold. We have several payments coming up and everything helps!! Thank you again for all of your prayers, love, and support.
October 7th, 2015
Today is a very exciting day!! We are celebrating our sweet Claire turning 7!! I cannot believe that this time next year she will be celebrating her birthday as a big sister and not the baby of the family. We also got an exciting email today. We got the application for our I-800A. This is a huge step forward. We will hopefully submit this application in the next week. This is our application to US immigration to adopt a baby from China. Once this is approved we can submit paperwork to China. This is currently taking around 45 days for approval. Praying ours only takes 45 days. This is one HUGE step forward in seeing our baby's face. Please continue to pray for our sweet baby in China!! Praising God for this wonderful day!!
Today is a very exciting day!! We are celebrating our sweet Claire turning 7!! I cannot believe that this time next year she will be celebrating her birthday as a big sister and not the baby of the family. We also got an exciting email today. We got the application for our I-800A. This is a huge step forward. We will hopefully submit this application in the next week. This is our application to US immigration to adopt a baby from China. Once this is approved we can submit paperwork to China. This is currently taking around 45 days for approval. Praying ours only takes 45 days. This is one HUGE step forward in seeing our baby's face. Please continue to pray for our sweet baby in China!! Praising God for this wonderful day!!
October 2nd, 2015
We got our Home Study today!! Exactly 1 month from our last visit. We have been doing a lot of praying the past few weeks that we would receive it by the first of October and we did!! Now Lifeline our placing agency has to approve it and then we will be off to immigration for our 800A. The 800A is US immigration approving us to adopt a baby from China. Usually this takes a few months, but currently it is taking around 45 days. Please pray it only takes us 45 days!! I have been reading a ton on a website called China Adopt Talk. It is questions and answers form people adopting from China right now!! It is great to read about how long everything is currently taking from people going through the process. Please keep praying for our baby in China!! We know she is there waiting on us to get through all of the paperwork so she can come home!!
Also several people have been asking how to buy puzzle pieces. If you have an iPhone you have to scroll to the bottom of the blog and click the view web version and the button will pop up at the top of your screen. You can also view the blog on a computer and it will pop up.
Thank you for all of the sweet emails and prayers. They are lifting us up through this emotional journey!
We got our Home Study today!! Exactly 1 month from our last visit. We have been doing a lot of praying the past few weeks that we would receive it by the first of October and we did!! Now Lifeline our placing agency has to approve it and then we will be off to immigration for our 800A. The 800A is US immigration approving us to adopt a baby from China. Usually this takes a few months, but currently it is taking around 45 days. Please pray it only takes us 45 days!! I have been reading a ton on a website called China Adopt Talk. It is questions and answers form people adopting from China right now!! It is great to read about how long everything is currently taking from people going through the process. Please keep praying for our baby in China!! We know she is there waiting on us to get through all of the paperwork so she can come home!!
Also several people have been asking how to buy puzzle pieces. If you have an iPhone you have to scroll to the bottom of the blog and click the view web version and the button will pop up at the top of your screen. You can also view the blog on a computer and it will pop up.
Thank you for all of the sweet emails and prayers. They are lifting us up through this emotional journey!
September 29th, 2015
Puzzle Fundraiser
THE PUZZLE FUNDRAISER
Every person that purchases a puzzle piece will become a part of our adoption story!! Here is how it works:
* We have made a customized 500 piece puzzle
* Every piece will symbolize someone who is helping us bring our baby home from China.
* Each piece is $20.
* You may choose to be one piece of the puzzle or several pieces of the puzzle.
* Your name will be written on the back of each piece you represent.
After the puzzle is complete we will frame the puzzle with glass on both sides and hang it in our child's room. She will be able to see how many people helped bring her home from China!!!!
Here is our puzzle:
Some day we will be able to sit down with our child and read all of the names of the people who loved her and prayed for her while she was still in China.
To purchase a puzzle piece just click on the Donate button at the top of the blog. You can specify your donation amount. I will then get an email about your purchase and write your name on the back of the puzzle pieces!!
Thank you all in advance for your love and support throughout this process. We would not make it without each of you.
The Barnett Family
John, Sterling, Sydney, and Claire
Puzzle Fundraiser
THE PUZZLE FUNDRAISER
Every person that purchases a puzzle piece will become a part of our adoption story!! Here is how it works:
* We have made a customized 500 piece puzzle
* Every piece will symbolize someone who is helping us bring our baby home from China.
* Each piece is $20.
* You may choose to be one piece of the puzzle or several pieces of the puzzle.
* Your name will be written on the back of each piece you represent.
After the puzzle is complete we will frame the puzzle with glass on both sides and hang it in our child's room. She will be able to see how many people helped bring her home from China!!!!
Here is our puzzle:
Some day we will be able to sit down with our child and read all of the names of the people who loved her and prayed for her while she was still in China.
To purchase a puzzle piece just click on the Donate button at the top of the blog. You can specify your donation amount. I will then get an email about your purchase and write your name on the back of the puzzle pieces!!
Thank you all in advance for your love and support throughout this process. We would not make it without each of you.
The Barnett Family
John, Sterling, Sydney, and Claire
September 4th, 2015
We are so excited to have our final home study visit today. We met with our social worker through Dillon and finished visiting with her about all of the information that will make up our home study portion of our Dossier (official application to adopt a baby from China). We now have to wait for several weeks for her to write everything up!! Praying we have it soon.
We are so excited to have our final home study visit today. We met with our social worker through Dillon and finished visiting with her about all of the information that will make up our home study portion of our Dossier (official application to adopt a baby from China). We now have to wait for several weeks for her to write everything up!! Praying we have it soon.
August 11th 2015
We had our second home study visit today. We continue to work with our social worker and complete all of the necessary paperwork to complete our home study. We are also completing a lot of education learning about the adoption process and what to expect when we get home with out little one! Each document we collect and item we check off our list is 1 small step closer to our baby girl!!
We had our second home study visit today. We continue to work with our social worker and complete all of the necessary paperwork to complete our home study. We are also completing a lot of education learning about the adoption process and what to expect when we get home with out little one! Each document we collect and item we check off our list is 1 small step closer to our baby girl!!
July 13th-July 21st 2015
We received our login information to start our home study!! We are so excited to begin this process. We immediately started on our home study application through Dillon. This again is mountains of paperwork and getting documents from lots of different places. On the 15th we submitted our application for our Home Study. On the 20th we got contacted that references were in and we were ready to begin our Home Study. On the 21st we received a phone call from our social worker through Dillon and will have our first home visit on Monday the 27th!! Each step forward is 1 step closer to our precious little one!! We continue to pray and trust in God's perfect plan and perfect timing.
We received our login information to start our home study!! We are so excited to begin this process. We immediately started on our home study application through Dillon. This again is mountains of paperwork and getting documents from lots of different places. On the 15th we submitted our application for our Home Study. On the 20th we got contacted that references were in and we were ready to begin our Home Study. On the 21st we received a phone call from our social worker through Dillon and will have our first home visit on Monday the 27th!! Each step forward is 1 step closer to our precious little one!! We continue to pray and trust in God's perfect plan and perfect timing.
June 2015
We continue to work on paperwork and visit with both agencies about the next steps for the adoption. We speak with Lifeline and Dillon multiple times and continue to move forward. We sent of 2 big packets of paperwork: 1 to Lifeline and 1 to Dillon. We are using 2 agencies because we chose Lifeline as our adoption agency and they do not have offices in Oklahoma. We have Dillon as our home study agency because they have offices and social workers in Oklahoma.
We continue to work on paperwork and visit with both agencies about the next steps for the adoption. We speak with Lifeline and Dillon multiple times and continue to move forward. We sent of 2 big packets of paperwork: 1 to Lifeline and 1 to Dillon. We are using 2 agencies because we chose Lifeline as our adoption agency and they do not have offices in Oklahoma. We have Dillon as our home study agency because they have offices and social workers in Oklahoma.
We continued to do research and work on our application. The application involved lots and lots of paperwork! Through visiting with our agency we were given the process of adopting a baby from China. We are adopting a little girl with special needs from China. This means that our baby will have some sort of special need and will probably require medical attention when we get home. A lot of the special needs in China are correctable here in the US. The process takes about 18 months total and our daughter will probably be around 2 when we get to bring her home. We are praying for her, her caregivers, and her birth mom. We are praying that the process goes smoothly and that we can get her here as quickly as possible. We are praying that we are home with her in the Fall of 2016.
May 13th, 2015
I spoke to Ashley for 1/1/2 today. I got a lot of information and reassured all of the emotions I was feeling were normal and OK. I had been an emotional mess the past few weeks and could not stop crying. I cried lots of tears of JOY knowing I was going to have another baby girl to love. Also emotions of fear and anxiety of how long the process is and knowing our baby girl has already been born and is in China at this very moment. Through all of the tears God kept telling me "I answered your prayer" and "My timing is perfect". Thank goodness he was so clear because this journey is harder than I ever imagined it would be.
I spoke to Ashley for 1/1/2 today. I got a lot of information and reassured all of the emotions I was feeling were normal and OK. I had been an emotional mess the past few weeks and could not stop crying. I cried lots of tears of JOY knowing I was going to have another baby girl to love. Also emotions of fear and anxiety of how long the process is and knowing our baby girl has already been born and is in China at this very moment. Through all of the tears God kept telling me "I answered your prayer" and "My timing is perfect". Thank goodness he was so clear because this journey is harder than I ever imagined it would be.
May 6th, 2015
Since the day John came home and told me that God spoke to him I felt God urging me to email Ashley a friend who had adopted a little girl from China about 2 years prior. I had not talked to or seen Ashley in 2 years because they moved back to Kentucky in June of 2013. I had been ignoring God's nudging until this day. I decided to listen and sent a long email to Ashley explaining everything going on and asking her for guidance and the name of the agencies she used so I could do some research. She emailed me back within minutes and said you are never going to believe this, but God spoke to me about 2 weeks ago and told me to contact you and talk to you about adopting a baby from China. For 2 weeks her and her husband had been talking about a way to contact me and bring this up. She thought I would think she was crazy for calling me after 2 years and saying Hey you want to adopt a baby from China. That morning her husband said you just have to email her even if she thinks you are crazy. She was sitting at her computer with a blank email pulled up with my name in the to portion staring at the white screen trying to figure out what to write when my email came through. WOW God is so good. This was the day after John said that he thought God would give us more guidance. After this we knew God was telling us to adopt a baby from China. He could not have been any more clear. I immediately started to research the next steps. We also decided to use the same agencies that she had used since God guided us to her. We decided to use Lifeline Children Services for our agency and Dillon International for our home study agency. We started on the application process immediately.
Since the day John came home and told me that God spoke to him I felt God urging me to email Ashley a friend who had adopted a little girl from China about 2 years prior. I had not talked to or seen Ashley in 2 years because they moved back to Kentucky in June of 2013. I had been ignoring God's nudging until this day. I decided to listen and sent a long email to Ashley explaining everything going on and asking her for guidance and the name of the agencies she used so I could do some research. She emailed me back within minutes and said you are never going to believe this, but God spoke to me about 2 weeks ago and told me to contact you and talk to you about adopting a baby from China. For 2 weeks her and her husband had been talking about a way to contact me and bring this up. She thought I would think she was crazy for calling me after 2 years and saying Hey you want to adopt a baby from China. That morning her husband said you just have to email her even if she thinks you are crazy. She was sitting at her computer with a blank email pulled up with my name in the to portion staring at the white screen trying to figure out what to write when my email came through. WOW God is so good. This was the day after John said that he thought God would give us more guidance. After this we knew God was telling us to adopt a baby from China. He could not have been any more clear. I immediately started to research the next steps. We also decided to use the same agencies that she had used since God guided us to her. We decided to use Lifeline Children Services for our agency and Dillon International for our home study agency. We started on the application process immediately.
May 5th, 2015
After 2 weeks of praying and asking God for guidance I felt like we had not made any progress on where to adopt from. I was still in China and John was still in OKC. It was a Tuesday night and I asked John why he was not more stressed out about this situation. I had been very anxious about everything happening and stressed that neither one of us was moving towards the others place of adoption. John said, "I do not think God would tell us to do something and not give us further guidance". I said that was fair and agreed to continue to pray and wait for God to give us the next steps.
After 2 weeks of praying and asking God for guidance I felt like we had not made any progress on where to adopt from. I was still in China and John was still in OKC. It was a Tuesday night and I asked John why he was not more stressed out about this situation. I had been very anxious about everything happening and stressed that neither one of us was moving towards the others place of adoption. John said, "I do not think God would tell us to do something and not give us further guidance". I said that was fair and agreed to continue to pray and wait for God to give us the next steps.
April 20th, 2015
John came home from work and told me that he heard God's audible voice today on his way home from work. It was so profound that he had to pull his car over because he was so shaken. I asked him what God said and he said 1 word and that was to adopt. I said What?? I had always said that I was going to have 2 boys and adopt a baby girl from China. Then God blessed us with 2 girls. After Claire was born I decided I still wanted to do international adoption and started researching everything about it. John was not on board and so I prayed that if we were suppose to adopt that God would change John's heart about adoption. That was 6 years ago. When he told me what God had told him my mind immediately went to China, but his mind was set on adopting a baby through DHS here in OKC. We agreed to keep this between the two of us so we could pray and let God guide us through this and not other people. We started praying a lot asking God to give us guidance on where we were suppose to adopt from. We knew we would adopt because God had spoke, but did not know where from just yet.
John came home from work and told me that he heard God's audible voice today on his way home from work. It was so profound that he had to pull his car over because he was so shaken. I asked him what God said and he said 1 word and that was to adopt. I said What?? I had always said that I was going to have 2 boys and adopt a baby girl from China. Then God blessed us with 2 girls. After Claire was born I decided I still wanted to do international adoption and started researching everything about it. John was not on board and so I prayed that if we were suppose to adopt that God would change John's heart about adoption. That was 6 years ago. When he told me what God had told him my mind immediately went to China, but his mind was set on adopting a baby through DHS here in OKC. We agreed to keep this between the two of us so we could pray and let God guide us through this and not other people. We started praying a lot asking God to give us guidance on where we were suppose to adopt from. We knew we would adopt because God had spoke, but did not know where from just yet.
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