Application for Adoption Has Been Approved!

Great news! I just checked our email. Our application for adoption has been approved! Here is a copy of the email we received from Children's Hope International.

July 31, 2007

Dear Alonzo & Lisa,

Congratulations! Your application for adoption has been approved by the Program Director.

We will be mailing out your approval packet today or tomorrow with instructions on how to proceed. Also, Children's Hope has Yahoo! groups available to provide adoption and parenting information and support to our families in all stages of the adoption process. These CHI groups are for the exclusive use of CHI application approved families. You will be receiving instructions in your approval packet on how to join.

We are very excited for you, and wish you well as you begin your adoption journey!


The Intake Department
Children’s Hope International/St. Louis Home Office

Needless to say, we are VERY excited by this news. It is a long road ahead of us still, but this is one of those hurdles that we had to cross. Now...on to the next one! :-)

Received letter from Children's Hope International!

Today, we were thrilled to get a letter from Children's Hope International. It was a welcome letter from Sara DeMerchant, the Vietnam Program Specialist. She stated that they were delighted to work with us and will be calling us upon final approval of our application.

Sara DeMerchant will be working with us and will be our personal assistant through the adoption process. It is great to actually have some names to contact when we have specific questions. I feel like this is really starting to move! Of course, we are in the very beginning stages of the adoption process.

Mrs. DeMerchant sent us an I600A form to fill out and file with Citizen and Immigration Services. It is necessary to apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to bring an adopted child to the U.S.

We will work on filling out this form and filing it this weekend. It is $545 plus $70 per person in the household. It is good for 18 months. Hopefully, our adoption will be completed by that time.

Keep praying for us! It is a long journey, but it will be one that is going to change our lives for the better. We have so much love to give.

Donations for our adoption are starting to come in. Thank you to all those who have found it in their hearts to give the gift of love. If you would like to help support our adoption, please visit http://www.alonzofugate.com/changingalifeforever.htm . God Bless!

Getting Ready for School to Start

Today I spent some time in my classroom. Well....technically it isn't my classroom anymore. I'm moving next door to the new computer lab. I am going to be the school's technology resource teacher this year. I am really excited about the new change.

My mom and dad came around to our house for my birthday the other day. They brought some really great food. We had steaks, baked potatoes, green beans (from their garden), tomatoes (from their garden), and fresh coleslaw….made with cabbage from their garden. They also got me a fantastic chocolate birthday cake with vanilla ice cream. It is a good thing that calories don’t count on your birthday! That is just a little gift from God.

So, we celebrated my birthday. It was a good day. There are so many exciting and thrilling things to do in this world. There are many new and fascinating places to visit. But sometimes, it is the comfort of family and home which reminds us of who we are and keeps us grounded in reality. I love my family and today was just a great day to be alive.

My beagle, Sadie, got bitten by a copperhead the other night. She came running up to Lisa and wanted to come into the house. We noticed right away that she was shaking all over like she was scared to death. I checked her out and called my dad. He came over and looked at her. By that time, her snout had started to swell up. We all knew what that meant. For second, I thought that she was going to pass out…poor little thing.

My mom and I ran down to the garden and pulled some cocklebur leaves. Mom tore up the leaves into bits and put them into a silk cloth that she keeps for times when the dogs get snake bit. After pounding the leaves lightly with a hammer, we poured milk over the cloth and wrung out the juice of the leaves into a pan. This turned the milk green! Sadie didn’t want to have anything to do with it, so we had to force it down her. We sometimes use vinegar and brown paper to draw out the poison, but we didn’t do it this time because it was so close to her eyes.

We have always used this remedy for our dogs when they were bitten by copperheads. It keeps the swelling down. Sadie was feeling better by the next morning and was completely well in two days. She has a little sore place on her snout where the snake bit her, but she is completely fine now. I’m glad that my parents knew which leaves to gather to help her out. This only works with copperhead bites though. Rattlesnakes are another thing entirely!

Lisa and I are just awaiting word from Children's Hope International. At least going back to work will help fill some time so that I'm not just sitting and thinking about the adoption. Keep checking back to this blog. I will keep it updated!

Mailed Out Our Application

Well, we finally got that initial application in the mail. We had to send it in with 2 pictures of us together as a couple, one picture of the outside of our house, and 3 pictures of the inside of our house. We kept the printer busy printing out all of those pictures! I wanted to make sure that we got the best shots that we could!

It was so exciting to put that envelope in the mail. It has officially started now folks! We should get our official forms in about 2 weeks so that we can start completing our dossier. I spoke with a representative from Children's Hope International on the phone. She stated that it takes about 3 or 4 months to complete the dossier. Once everything is logged in, it takes about one and a half years to get a referral for a baby.

Once we get a referral, we will travel to Vietnam to adopt our baby. We will stay about 2 or 3 weeks.

I am so excited. I know that it is a long wait and that there is a LOT of paperwork to do...but it has started now.

We will keep you all updated on our progress. Keep checking back to this blog!

Filling Out the Forms

Today, we worked on completing our initial application with Children's Hope International. The form was very extensive. It covered everything from medical background to financial stability. It this is the just the initial application, I wonder what the other paperwork will look like! Everyone says that the paperwork for an application is how adoptive parents feel "labor" pains. LOL!

In addition to the application, we had to take two seperate photos of ourselves (as a couple), one of our house (outside), and three of different rooms in our house (inside). I guess that they want to see that we are not living in squalor! Our house is a log house in the country. There is lots of land all around...a great place for kids.

I am anxious to get this initial paperwork sent in so that we can get started on the real stuff. I'll keep you all posted!



Remember, you can help out with our adoption by visiting http://www.alonzofugate.com/changingalifeforever.htm . Thanks for your continued support of our adoption. Share our experience with us through this blog!

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the first entry of our adoption blog. If you got here from our donation website, then thank you for your support while we work to complete our family. If you haven't had a chance to donate to our adoption fund and would like to do so, please visit http://www.alonzofugate.com/changingalifeforever.htm .

We will be posting as much as we can on this blog. We hope to take you on our journey of love with us...from beginning to final adoption. We will post often and hope that you can share in our joy. Come with us as we complete our family.