Thursday, December 20, 2012
BLESSINGS FROM NEW JERSEY -
DAYS 18-24 WITH OUR DAUGHTER

Wow, has it really been almost a week since we posted last! We are now running on Mei-Li time.

We’ve done and been through a lot of things since our last post. As the doctor stated, Mei-Li had the onset of a cold and it began to take its course. Thursday and Friday, I spend making appointments, phone calls and checking the internet. So, the plan was to go to LabCorp on Saturday morning to get blood work done, and then drive to Aunt Cynthia’s house for Arianna’s 4th Birthday party. Monday we planned to go to the Philadelphia Passport Agency to get her US passport. Later the week, we would schedule our first post adoption social worker interview. Sounds good and “not to crazy”….. but that’s not what happened. After talking with the passport office for what seem like hours, it appeared we did not have the right immigration stamp in Mei-Li’s passport nor did we have original copies our marriage license and birth certificates. For the immigration requirement, we had the option of making an immigration appointment at the USCIS office in Newark or wait 45 days to get her Certification of Citizenship in the mail. We opted to make an immigration appointment for Monday afternoon at 1300 in Newark.

We did not have much of an option for our original birth certificates and marriage license. I tried to explain that we did not have these documents, as all our file was in Germany. In addition, these documents were not listed on their website as a requirement. Obviously, the girl that answered the phone could care less about or situation. After praying for wisdom, I got on the phone and started to “trouble shoot” with Fel on how get these documents in time to get her passport done in time to come back to Germany on the 29th December. Ordering them on-line would take too long. We could have them overnighted from Germany, but we could not remember exactly where we put all our important documents. Remember we were trying to move just before leaving Germany. Just as I was about to panic, I remembered Heartsent (our adoption agency) had original copies of these documents in our file. We called Denise and she sent their copies overnight to us in New Jersey. :) Thank God! Now that was all settled, I rescheduled our passport appointment for Wednesday the 19that 1100AM.

Okay, so as of Friday night, our scheduled looked like:

Saturday – LabCorp in the morning then off to Aunt Cynthia/Uncle Daniel’s house for Arianna’s 4th Birthday Party. Spend the night at Aunt Cyn/Uncle Dan’s house – Sunday – go to church together, lunch then head back to Mom’s house.

Monday – Immigration appointment in New Jersey

Tuesday – Off – relax – get paperwork together for passport appointment

Wednesday – Passport appointment at the Philadelphia Passport Agency

Later in the week – schedule our first post adoption interview with social worker

Now to what really happened:

Saturday – Mei-Li woke up after a 14 hour sleep. She was still tried and a little sick but the twitch was gone. She got up just in time to have breakfast and get ready to go to LabCorp before they closed at noon. Shortly after arriving LabCorp, we were told she would have to come back after 48 hours to get more blood drawn and return two stool samples. Since she is a little poop factory, this would not be a problem. The doctor ordered a lot of blood work and they could only take three vials at a time because she was only 22 pounds. Therefore we would have to come back on Monday before our immigration appointment in Newark. Mei-Li looked at the needle going into her arm, cried during the blood draw but immediately stopped crying after they were done. She happily took stickers from them as we left. We headed to the mail to get Arianna’s Birthday gift. We spend a couple of hours at the mall, all the time Mei-Li was wonderful. She loves looking all the people, lights and items in the store. Her favorite thing at the mall is the train that takes children for a little ride. We got Arianna a cute dance outfit from Children’s Place. After the mall, we got mom and headed up to Aunt Cynthia’s house. Arianna’s party was a blast. The cousins all played nice. Mei-Li was exhausted and went to bed about 2300.

Sunday – Can you imagine it? – Six kids and five adults getting up, eating breakfast and getting ready for Church that starts at 1045. We did it with no fighting and the last four that arrived as only 10 minutes late:). This was what family is all about! Love it! This was Mei-Li first church service – she loved the praise and worship time and may it through the sermon. I took her out as the pastor was closing. Mommy and Daddy are proud! Right before the service, Nona told us that she did something to her shoulder and had extreme pain through her right arm, up into head and headache. She could not put up her arm. So, Nona would stay at Aunt Cynthia’s house in order to go to the chiropractic on Monday and Wednesday. We left Aunt Cynthia’s house without Nona and headed south to drop off two of the cousins and spend the night at mom’s house. So, now Monday’ s plans change a little, we would get the blood work done, head to Newark for our immigration appointment, then head back to Aunt Cynthia’s house to check on Nona.