SQUARE #14

Dragonflies represent new light and joy.

Just as you will bring new light

and joy into your parents lives.

Always remember... Life is never quite the way it appears,

but is always filled with light and joy.

We hope you always see the light and joy of life.

Love always,

Laurie, Eddie, Britney, Aubrey, Caleb, and Cameron

This wish card and square came from my cousin Laurie, her husband Eddie and their children. It is so beautiful! Both Laurie's and her mom's (Jocey's) wishes bring tears to my eyes. We want to thank you so much!

SQUARE #13

Your Parents prayed each night and day,

For a light of love to come their way.

Here you are a shining star,

Whose light will never fade away.

Welcome to the family

Hugs and Kisses

Jocey Ray & Family

My Aunt Jocey, Uncle Ray, and Family gave us this great square when we were home visiting for Thanksgiving. The square is beautiful as are the sentiments that are on the card. And they are ABSOLUTELY TRUE! Thank you all so much!

FEEDJIT

I found the two cool little widgets to add to my blog. I think it's interesting to see where people are coming from that are reading the blog. This morning I didn't have the map on there yet and I had someone from Hong Kong on the blog- so that motivated me to add the map as well!

Check them out- they are along the side!

You can actually click on the map to have it shown bigger and see more detail of where people have come from. And, once in the map portion, can drag it left-right or up-down to see different areas of the map.

IT'S IN CCAA'S HANDS NOW!

This great email came from CCAI yesterday!

From: Gwen _____
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Your dossier has been delivered into the CCAA!

To: Scott & Jennifer Cloutier
From: CCAI Dossier & China Departments


Congratulations! Your dossier has been delivered to the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

We will notify by email as soon as we receive your official log-in date (LID) from CCAA, and then you can go to the CCAI website to download Dossier Log-In Date Packet. This can take approximately up to 2 weeks from now. Please notice that this wait time can vary due to CCAA’s LID processing speed.

PS. IF YOU JUST WANT TO SEE SQUARES CHECK OUT OUR QUILT SQUARE BLOG!

In case you hadn't noticed, we have a seperate blog just for the wishes quilt.

I like it because you can find all the squares easily.

this is the link:
http://cloutierswishesquilt.blogspot.com/



time to go get ready for work!!!!

SQUARE #12

Great Grammy is wishing you

a happy time with your doggy

I know you'll love him too

because Mummy and Daddy do.

This square is another from my Grammy Brodie. It is so sweet that she thought to send one about our dog! Thank you Grammy!

I'll be honest my doggies have been my babies up to now- they are what has kept me sane over the years. And Scott and I have babied them like crazy. Our current doggy is a big sweet goofie mutt named Chloe. We adopted her from a rescue league in September. She is two and is just super sweet. We keep waiting for her to show us what crazy thing she might have done to have someone give her up. But NOTHING! She hardly ever barks, she is housetrained, she is awesome with kids (we have a three year old neighbor who likes to pet her), she doesn't chew on anything except her toys, she walks great on her leash. The only thing strange is that she doesn't really like to go out if she has to get her feet wet or cold. She runs down the stairs and "puts on the breaks" right before she hits the yard. She'll turn around and run right back up the stairs. It's so funny! But she is really good- we'll tell her "no- you have to go out" and then she'll turn around again and go out and do her business- but super quick- no hanging out getting her feet too cold!

SQUARE #11

Great Grammy wishes
you will love all kinds of outdoor fun
playing games with Dad
and gardening with Mum.

This is another super adorable square that was sent from my Grammy Brodie. Aren't the old-fashioned kids sweet!
She sent enough material just in case we needed two squares, and after we cut the material I'll add a piece to the card so our little one will be able to look at the quilt and then look at the "wish book" and figure out who sent this piece.
Thank you so much Grammy!

FINALLY TRYING TO GET CAUGHT UP!

Yes I am FINALLLY getting to add some of the squares we have received! I actually should be getting ready for work right now, but I figured I could spend a couple minutes and add one or two things!

We actually received these squares from my Grammy Brodie back in October. Then my batteries died on my camera, and then I spent my spare time running around getting our paperwork wrapped up. Since that is done I can now work on getting caught up. We have actually received squares from my Grammy Brodie; my Aunt Jocey, Uncle Ray and Family; my cousin Laurie, Eddie and Family; my Aunt Pat and Family; and my Sister Christina, Chris and Dillon! So I should get them all posted soon (really!)

WE ARE DTC!!!

We have received the official word. We are "DTC", otherwise known as Dossier-to-China.

from our agency (CCAI):

CONGRATULATIONS, Scott & Jennifer,

Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for—your dossier was sent to China yesterday 12/17/07!
The CCAA (the China Center of Adoption Affairs) will receive your dossier in approximately 3-5 days. Our China Department will contact you by email once your dossier has been received by our representatives in China and hand-delivered to the CCAA.

The CCAA usually logs in dossiers within 4 weeks of their receipt. This Log-In Date is called your LID, the date that you may “count down” to your referral. As the CCAA is the ultimate authority in logging in your dossier, we are unable to estimate your LID. The CCAA should notify us of your LID within the next 8 weeks. We will e-mail you as soon as we have confirmation of your LID...

Congrats on hitting this milestone,
Your CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International)Dossier Team

Yeah! I called Scott as soon as I saw this email!

FEDEX TRACKING CONFIRMS PACKAGE IS IN COLORADO!

Tracking number
799236291148
Signed for by
T.KRIER
Ship date
Dec 10, 2007
Delivery date
Dec 11, 2007 10:28 AM
Destination
Centennial, CO
Delivered to
Receptionist/Front Desk
Service type
Standard Pak
Weight
2.0 lbs.
Status
Delivered
Signature imageavailable
Yes
Date/Time
Activity
Location
Details
Dec 11, 2007
10:28 AM
Delivered
Centennial, CO


8:15 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
ENGLEWOOD, CO


7:44 AM
At local FedEx facility
ENGLEWOOD, CO


5:48 AM
At dest sort facility
DENVER, CO


5:02 AM
Departed FedEx location
FORT WORTH, TX


4:06 AM
In transit
FORT WORTH, TX

Dec 10, 2007
9:38 PM
Left origin
ATLANTA, GA


6:58 PM
Picked up
ATLANTA, GA


4:27 PM
Package data transmitted to FedEx

EMAIL FROM JAIME

Congrats Scott & Jennifer!

I left a message for you both at your home, but I wanted to follow up with this email and let you know that I finished the critical review of your dossier and it was perfect! Great work!

I am sending your beautiful dossier to Colorado today for translation. The FedEx tracking number is: 799236291148

The next email you will receive is notification that your dossier has been sent to China!

Let me know if you need anything else!

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

Jaime

We received this great email from Jaime in the dossier department- Yeah!!! I am glad to be able to keep track of it (unlike the paperwork from the USCIS which we still wonder where the first two copies supposedly sent to us went!)

WE HAVE BEEN CRITICALLY REVIEWED!

It's official our paperwork is done!

We got the call today that our critical review has been completed! They said everything looked great.

Now our entire packet is being shipped off to Colorado for translation into Chinese and to be bound into a book. This book will include all the paperwork that we worked so hard to get compiled and lots of pictures as well. We had to include 3 pictures of us as a couple and 8 pictures of us in "family life" with our friends and family. Thanks to all of you who put up with us while we made you hold still for more and more pictures!

NEED ONE MORE THING!

It turns out the CCAI didn't still have our original doctor's clearance letter so we would need to get a new one from the doctor.

Until we get that turned in our 9-11 day count will not officially be started.

So I immediately made a call to the Dr.'s office. (Wed.)

I didn't hear back, so I called again (Thursday) and explained how we hated to pressure them into getting this done but could we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GET THIS DONE ASAP!

The Doctor's called first thing Friday morning and it was done and I could pick it up! Yeah!
I was just leaving for work so I stopped by the doctor's, grabbed the letter, called my boss and asked if it would be ok if I was a little late so I could deliver the letter to the agency. Yeah! I was good to go! I'm so thankful they are so understanding at work! And I only ended up being a 1/2 hour late for work!

BACK FROM THE CONSULATE !

Our "authenticated" paperwork actually came back right before we left for our trip home for Thanksgiving. So we made plans to turn it all in to CCAI as soon as we got back. (We wanted to change our pictures that were to go to China to be more recent anyway and since we were going home we knew we would be able to get lots with our Family at Thanksgiving!) We landed 11/27 at night.

So on 11/28 we turned our paperwork in to CCAI for CRITICAL REVIEW!

They look the entire packet over 3 seperate times to make sure everything is done correctly. They commit to having it completed in 9-11 days.

HOME FOR THANKSGIVING

I still have lots more catching up to do on this blog. We went home for Thanksgiving and got to see lots of family members and do alot of catching up.

We were surprised with gifts of quilt squares (which I need to photo and add to the blog) and some great advice about how to proceed with the quilt.

NOVEMBER 1ST RUN AROUND

Luckily my boss and co-workers are very understanding. As we had to get this sent off ASAP as soon as my meeting was over I took off on my trek. My work understood that I might be a little bit late due to the distances I had to drive and the waiting I might run into at each of the locations I had to go to. Here is a list of my trek that I did all in one day!

1st: to a copy store
2nd: to a notary to notarize it as a copy
3rd: to the county clerk to verify the notary was actually a notary of that county and put their mark on it.
4th: to the secretary of state to verify the county clerk's mark was actually that of the county clerk
5th: to the copy store again to make copies of all the documents going out to the consulate (60+ pages in our case!)
6th: to the post office to send it all off to the consulate!

And then we just got to sit back and cross our fingers! We discovered that due to the lateness of our I-797 getting back to us there was a little bit of a worry about a couple of our documents. We had been told the consulate would only authenticate (or put their seal on) documents that were within a 6 month period. Our Doctors letters and our police clearance letters had both been done in May! It was now November! We were holding our breath to find out if we were going to have to redo these! November 1st was the day our documents were shipped overnight to the consulate and the first 2 documents to pass their six month mark were our police clearance letters: their six months would be up on November 3rd!

GREAT BIRTHDAY PRESENT

So it was a great birthday present to receive our golden ticket! I was off this weekend, but unfortunately the running around that I had to do would have to wait until Tuesday. The offices I needed to visit would not be open on the weekend and I had to work on Monday. I planned on getting a very early start on Tuesday since I was to work a closing shift and didn't need to be in until the afternoon Tuesday. My boss then called an "emergency" staff meeting Tuesday morning (uugghh- there goes my early start!)

GOLDEN TICKET FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

It is finally here!
YEAH!!!!!!!


We have been kind of busy running around, so I am updating this after the fact...


After the USCIS supposedly mailing it to us 3 times we finally received it. Who knows what happened to the previous two copies that were mailed. At this point all I cared about is that we could now move forward!

So then it was time to run around to get a copy of this (the I797) and everything else that was waiting to go along with it to the chinese consulate through the whole authentication process.

STILL WAITING FOR THE GOLDEN TICKET

So, we are still waiting.....

I finally gave in and called CCAI to see if they knew approximately how long it has been taking lately for people to recieve their "golden ticket" after being fingerprinted. I kind of freaked out a little bit the other day when I met someone who adopted a couple of years ago and they told me it only took 1-2 weeks then. But things change. Chaunda at CCAI told me the norm right now is 5-6 weeks. But she would follow up for me and get back to me as soon as she knows something. So for now we wait some more (which we need to get used to as we will be doing a lot of it!)

SQUARE #10

Great Grammy wishes you will love to learn

and Mummy and Daddy will spend precious time

teaching you your nursery rhymes

This square is from my Grammy Brodie. It is so precious with the cute little Bo-Peeps! Thank you Grammy!
My camera's batteries died right after I took this one, so I have to recharge before I post the other adorable squares my Grammy sent. Coming soon....

SQUARE #9

Twinkle-twinkle little star
what a lucky child you are
My Prayer for You:
May you be surrounded by love all the days of your life!!!
Your Great-Great Aunt Charlotte

This fabulous bright fabric was sent by my Aunt Charlotte - my Grammy Brodie's sister hence all the "greats!" I love all the shooting stars! It is so appropriate for a wish quilt as it makes me think of wishing on all those stars. Thank you so much Aunt Charlotte! Most families aren't as lucky as ours is to have such an extended family, it means alot to have received a square from you!

SQUARE #8

In memory of Great Grammy & Papa Cloutier and Great Aunt Dot

"Forget them not!"

This a beautiful memorial square sent from Jean and Ernie. Thanks again- Lot's of Love!

some goodies!

Above are some of the neat goodies sent to us from Jean and Ernie in a "goody box!"

Lot's of fun stuff. How cute are those frog plates? Which conveniently came in a set of two! The comb they found at a gift shop when they went to a museum that was a house from ancient china moved over here. Lots of cool stickers and stamps to use when working on memory albums! I actually found a couple stamps I couldn't resist too!

SQUARE #7

You "Leaped" into my heart.

--Ribbit...Ribbit--

Love and Kisses

Grammy & Grampy C.

-XOX-

I love this fabric! Of course I have been known to have a bit of a frog fetish! But how can I resist when they are so cute? Jean and Ernie are well aware of my frog infatuation and found this super cute fabric with that in mind! Just look at the smiles on the frogs faces! I love the little logos you have been putting on all your wish cards- the cards are so beautiful! Thanks Mom and Dad C.!

Couldn't resist!

Ok, I finally bought something for our future child! I have been saying:

"I don't know how big, I don't know how old, I don't know how many!"

Well I found something that won't matter! I couldn't resist... A cute little ladybug pop-up book! And it's all about the ladybug trying to find a home that's a good fit! (And it was on sale!- if you know me you know I love a good sale!)

where'd they find them?

I have no idea where they found these, but check them out! Red Thread rubber bracelets in his and her sizes! Jean and Ernie sent these to us in a goody box! Thanks Mom and Dad C.!

SQUARE #6

I Wished for You...

Wishes do come true!

--I Love You--

Grammy &Grampy C.

-XOX-

These sweet little ballerina fairies are from Mom and Dad C. Thanks again for the duplicate "just in case" squares and cards!

FINGERPRINTED!

Scott and I have officially been fingerprinted! Or, if I use the correct terminology, we have had our BIOMETRICS CAPTURED! Our appointment was Thursday morning at 10am in downtown Atlanta. 30 miles away according to mapquest. Mapquest's estimated time for that trip is 38 minutes. But, knowing this is Atlanta and the traffic is heavier now that school is back in session, we figured we better play it safe so we left a lot earlier. (Oh yeah, for any of you "up North" we start school a lot earlier- some areas started back 2 weeks ago, and all areas were back as of this past Monday.) We decided to allow for 1hr and 15 minutes even though our appt time didn't need to have us driving during the morning rush hour. As we were driving we had a panic moment or two when we heard traffic reports of a major accident on 400. Scott figured out another way to go and it only ended up taking us 50 minutes! Once we were there it was relatively quick. We were most likely the only Americans in the place. One of the workers looked at Scott, and without looking at any of his paperwork asked him, "So where are you adopting from?" The process is pretty simple. It's all done on computers now. No more ink stained fingers! Yeah! Scott has been fingerprinted many times before for his work, but this was a first for me.

First we waited in line outside while everyone was looked over and told to put purses and bags back in their vehicles. We had our hands and ID's looked at and we were allowed in, and then we waited in line. When we got to the head of the line our hands and ID's were looked at again along with our appointment letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then we were handed a clipboard and some paperwork and pointed to a seating area to go fill out the forms. When we were done filling them out we waited in line. Then our hands and ID's were looked at again and we were given a "deli " number and pointed to another seating area where we waited (in line) for our number to show up on the deli counter. We were lucky that there weren't too many people there at that time of day. Otherwise it could have taken a long, long time (like when you go to the SS office or the DMV!)

We had our hands and ID's looked at again by the final person before they took the prints. They wipe down your hands then squish them onto glass- it made it look like I had really fat fingers! Then they did each individual finger, rolling them from one side to the other. It actually went very smoothly! Scott was talking to his fingerprinter and found out that they do approx 300 fingerprints a day. And almost all of those are people trying to become citizens! Now multiply that by 50 states!!!!!

So that's the fingerprinting process! Now all we have to do is wait for our "Golden Ticket!"

SQUARE #5

You are my "Perfect" Little Lady Bug.

You crawled right into my heart.

--I love You--

This square is another from the GIT's (Grandparents-in-training). Thanks Mom and Dad C.! Aren't the ladybugs adorable! Ladybugs are a goodluck symbol in China and are supposed to be especially lucky for adoptions!

Ding Dong the Deck is Done!

Please feel free to sing that to the tune from the Wizard of Oz! (Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!)

Our deck took a little longer to be completed than we originally thought. It is finally done and we are glad it's over! We had to have them redo the staircase because the spacing wasn't child safe and to code, along with some other changes to make it safer. But it is done and it's beautiful! We'll be getting a lot more use out of our deck now than before. We've already spent quite a few nights sitting out enjoying it!

here's pictures:

Before and After

SQUARE #4

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break.
-Ancient Chinese Belief"

You Complete Our Family
I Love You
Grammy and Grampy C
XOX

This square was sent from the GIT Cloutiers. Thanks Mom and Dad C! I wish I knew what the symbols on the square mean- I'm going to have to look them up! ( I hope I didn't photo it upside down!) The card is beautiful. I love those precious little footprint cutouts! Thanks again for the 2 matching pieces of material (just in case.)

SQUARE #3

"You are always in my heart and I love you very much. You'll make wonderful parents."

Love,
Gram S.
XOXOX

This beautiful square in my two favorite colors- bright green and bright red- was sent from Gram Stecchi. Gram, thank you so much for the heartfelt sentiment, we love you too! And again thanks for the 2 matching squares - just in case!

SQUARE #2

"You are my Forever Princess And I Love You Like Crazy Cakes!"
Grammy & Grampy C
-XOX-

This is their favorite of the fabrics they picked out so I am glad that I was able to get a picture of it before my batteries died as it should be the first one I list for them. Jean said they were inspired by us becoming a "forever family!" And thank you for sending the 2 sets of each material. I think you're more convinced that we will actually get twins than we are. We are hoping, but the chances are slight. Maybe with all your thoughts and prayers it might actually happen!

Package from the GIT's!

We received a box full of goody's from the GIT"s- that would be grandparents-in-training!
Thanks Mom and Dad C!
Jean and Ernie went out fabric shopping for a quilt square and couldn't resist getting more than one!
Unfortunately as I was trying to take pictures of our new squares my camera's batteries died. My back-ups, which had been sitting around a while, had lost their charge as well. So I can only post a few pictures today. Guess you'll have to check back in to see the rest of the squares!
I also started a seperate blog just for the quilt squares- I'll still list them here when they come in, but if anyone just wants to see the squares they won 't have to go digging through all the blog entries to find them. I saw that this is what a lot of the bloggers did, so I figured I'd follow their lead. It's at the top of my favorite links list!

After my camera is up and running again I'll take some pictures of the "goodies" we have been sent as well. You know what they say, "One picture is worth a thousand words!"

Mail Call

Good news!

We received mail today from the USCIS! Yeah! Our fingerprint appointment notice is here. Now we can go get fingerprinted for the first time- we have been told this will have to happen again due to how long it takes for the whole process. To me this is the most important time as we can't send our information that we have already collected on until this is taken care of. So now our appointment date is here: August 16th!

SQUARE #1!!!!

"May you always be surrounded by a circle of love."


We are so excited!

We just received our very first square for our 100 wishes quilt! Actually I should say "squares" as they sent us two identical ones in case we do get twins! We want to send out a great big thanks to Donna and Jim Aho. The fabric is so bright and cheerful and we love how you tied your wish in to the fabric pattern. Thank you sooooooo much!!!!!

Thanks!

We want to thank all of you who have been checking out our blog and leaving posts!

It has been great hearing from you all and knowing you support us on our journey!

-lot's of love, Jenni and Scott

USCIS

Saturday in the mail we received our receipt from the USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services). We were told the first letter we would get from them would contain our receipt and the next would be our invitation to go get fingerprinted.

For those not in the know this is a crucial part of the whole process. The USCIS has to review our home study, application to adopt a foreign child, and basically give us permission to move forward with the adoption. We filed an "application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition (I-600A)" So now we have the receipt proving they have received our application and are reviewing it. According to the letter we received approx 2-4 weeks after receiving our application we are supposed to be scheduled for fingerprinting. On the front of the letter it said to contact them if it passes 90 days and we haven't been notified. UUUGGGHHHH! I hope we don't have to wait that long!!!

100 WISHES QUILT

There is a tradition in China to make a "Bai Jia Bei" or "100 Good Wishes Quilt."

This may sound crazy as I have never made a quilt in my life, but I would love to work on this project while we are waiting for our baby/babies.

The tradition is that 100 people contribute a square patch of cloth. The patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. A good luck wish is also included which will be put into a scrapbook. We would love to have our friends and family help create such a special quilt for our new baby.

To sum it up here's what we would need from you:

1 8x8 piece of cotton fabric
1 additional matching piece of material any size to go in a "wish scrapbook" along with a "wish note" - basically whatever wish or prayer you have for our child to have in their lifetime.

*** any advice on how to make a quilt!!!!
I'm just learning how to sew, so advice is definitely needed!!!


ps. I listed a link in my favorite links area of a 100 wishes site so you can see the idea.

Just Beginning

Scott and I are still in "the early stages", but are hoping to complete our dossier soon .

We have had our home studies, have tracked down all our marriage and birth certificate information, and our right now waiting for our invitation to go get fingerprinted. Every step brings us just a little bit closer! We know the wait will be long even after we get our dossier completed and get officially "logged in", but each little thing we get completed makes it more real. We are currently having our deck enlarged and it was a great thing when doing the planning to talk about making sure we had a secure gate for the dog and THE BABY!!!!

OR MAYBE BABIES!!!!

Yes, that's right! I did just say babies. Scott and I have put in a request for twins. That is not a guarantee that we'll get them however. What we have been told is that when it is our time to be matched if there are twins available then we can be matched to them. If there are not any twins at that point the CCAA (the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) will not delay the match to try to set us up with twins. In order to increase our chances we have asked them to expand the age range that we are eligible for. Because of our ages we are officially only eligible to adopt 0-12 months. They do take special requests sometimes if the social worker also agrees. Our social worker did put our request in our home study asking to expand the age range to 18 months. Our thought is what if there is a set of twins that are 14mths old or 16 mnths that have been overlooked? Why not match them to us!

So that is where we are in the process. We are working through the last steps of completing our dossier. All the people with CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International) the agency we are going with have been a great help. One of the best things was how they introduced us to the "First Friday's." For those of you who haven't yet heard us talk about them the First Friday's are when families who have been through the process and families who are mid-process get together for support and sharing of information. We haven't been able to attend every month due to my (Jennifer's) work schedule, but it's great when we get to go. Thanks to all of you who have been there! It's meant alot to us that you allowed us to come when we were still making up our minds about doing it!

That's enough rambling for one day. I just wanted to get our blog started- like I've said, it makes me feel like we are a little bit closer with every small thing we do in our journey to China!