LID

9/13/2016  -- Log In Date!!!

We are officially logged in with the CCCWA ... this means my ringer is turned up and we could receive a referral at anytime. My emotions are all over the chart. I cannot wait to see his face but I keep soaking up every single moment with my little crew especially my  one on one moments with Colbie. I get her all to myself for an hour and a half 3 days a week and we run errands, take walks, or just hang out in our playroom. It's a sweet time that I want to enjoy to the fullest because the two of them will be very close in age and I know my attention will be stretched.

So keep us in your prayers as we prepare our hearts and home for a new little one as well as his little heart as all he has ever known will change so fully and suddenly when we swoop in as complete strangers.
 

I-800 Approval Letter & Authentication

We are so excited that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel that is dossier preparation. It's been 4 months of putting paperwork together and getting it through the right channels (Notarization, Certification and Authentication) We got 12 of the 13 documents back that needed to be Authenticated from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago! We received our I-800 Letter of Approval only 5 days after fingerprints...unheard of. That letter is the last piece of paper we have been waiting on to complete our dossier.

Our timeline at this point to submission to our agency is probably 2 weeks since we are currently waiting for our I-800 to come back to us from Chicago!!

Thank you all for your prayers and support during this time...this pregnancy is going to look and feel a whole lot different then my other 3!

Noonday Collection Launch

I am so excited to announce that this week I launched as a Noonday Collection Ambassador!! Noonday is a socially responsible business that uses fashion to create meaningful opportunities for people around the world!

I have been following Noonday for the last 5 years and cannot wait to finally be a part of this company that I love so much. I have a heart for adoption, I have a heart for keeping families together, and I have a love for great jewelry (what girl doesn't) especially when you can learn the story behind the piece and the hands that made it. 

I am using this opportunity as a chance to raise additional funds for our adoption! I cannot wait to see where this road takes me and how it will impact our adoption. We cannot wait to see our little guys face, to kiss his cheeks and hug him close!! I will do all in my power to get us there...mama bears have that way! 

If you are interested in hosting a trunk show, placing an order or just a general question at all please feel free to ask..I am new at this and learning all the ropes, working out the kinks and hopefully doing my best to represent this beautiful opportunity that has been given to me to help change the world! 

www.AllisonHeinekamp.noondaycollection.com

I-800 Mailed Today!!

Today after yet another hiccup that put this step off a couple more weeks we mailed our I-800A to the USCIS.

This is the last and most important step in the dossier paper chase, basically the US is approving us to bring an orphan back into the country. Once we get our fingerprints and our approval letter we are DONE with the paper chase. While we are waiting for approval we will be putting the finishing touches on all other paperwork (state certified/Chinese Consulate Authenticated) so everything will be ready to go. We already have our paperwork state certified, we just have to prepare it for the consulate.

There has been news of quick turn around lately as in one month from application to approval that would be AWESOME but we are prepared for a 2-2.5 month wait to receive approval. So pray with us for a quick turnaround and smooth process (no request for evidence would be awesome).

A Switcha-Roo <<-- >> Heinekamp Party of 6

Remember this post?? From Feb 2014 - BIG NEWS  Obviously that was a couple years ago and since then some things have changed and it's time to share our next BIG step.

Going into the adoption process through Ethiopia, we knew that, even being open to a child with special needs or a toddler (as opposed to a newborn), the wait could be roughly 2 years.  Well that wait continued to creep into another 2 years, then 2 1/2 years, then 3 years, then beyond... We also received some updates regarding proposed changes to laws and policies in Ethiopia that had us concerned that, even when the time came to be matched with our kiddo, we would no longer even be qualified. Meanwhile update after update regarding a great need for families open to waiting children from the China program ... especially boys... kept finding their way into my inbox. I peered into big beautiful dark eyes of little one after little one in need of a family while our paperwork sat half way across the world, while we were here with arms ready to embrace and love another little one.

Early in March, Colbie was coming up on her 1st bday and Matt was coming up on his 30th (which is a qualification to adopt from China and one of the reasons we didn't pursue the China program earlier). I prayed over all those little photos and update emails, I cried tears of confusion and worry over possibly switching programs...we love Ethiopia without ever setting foot on their soil.  We poured so much of ourselves into that stack of our life that sits in their beautiful country...it's a hard decision to make but in the end I decided it was time to be brave and ask my husband where he stood on this (don't get me wrong: I had been forwarding those emails and hints for a while, it wasn't a total shock).

We went out to eat and to a concert together for a date night, just me and my man and finally I said, " What about China??" He wasn't exactly on board at first.  We were Ethiopia ready.  We had our reasons for going that direction and this was a big change. I mentioned that they really need families for boys...another son...a brother for Garrett...2 boys 2 girls. I said think about it. By the end of our date his heart was already changing...I texted my mission trip leader and personal prayer warrior Becki (who has a daughter adopted from China) and asked for her prayers I knew we were close to this big leap.

On March 10th 2016 we emailed our family coordinator and asked to transfer programs, we filled out our pre-application for the China program. we waited.

We were accepted and we officially transferred that next week.

With China being it's own, separate program with it's own rules and requirements, we had to start the paper chase ALL OVER AGAIN. Luckily, having already done this once, we moved through those steps pretty quickly. We met with our new social worker and had our home study meetings done by Lydia's birthday party on April 30th. Of course, we dealt with some hiccups with Indiana clearances and it took us a bit to get to this point but our Home Study is approved as of this Monday and we will be applying for our 1800 within the week (this is clearance through US immigration to bring an orphan back to the US.  Kinda a huge deal.)

So, that is where we are. We anticipate being LID to China by end of August (LID - Log in Date of our dossier to China) which means we would be able to receive a referral and move towards bringing a SON home. The Heinekamp family will officially grow within the year from 5 to 6. A son between the ages of Newborn to 3, we are adopting from the waiting child program which means our son will come to us with some type of special need, we don't know what this will be yet but we've poured over the list of needs we would be open to and some on our "maybe" list, it was one of the hardest parts of this process so far but we are at peace that we will know our son when we see him that those needs will be a bump in the road compared the entirety of this boys life as our son.

China....who knew?!?!

Lets Do This...AGAIN

When I say Lets Do This I mean the whole blogging thing. I miss it I really do. A place to document the big moments the small moments the moments I don't want to forget. It's been a year since I posted, my last post was announcing Colbie's birth...well that Colbie girl she is a spunky sassy 1 year old who is the ultimate clown, love bug, silly, sister this family adores. Instagram is really my lifesaver these days and I'm so thankful to document the moments there but we have some exciting things coming up so back to blogging it is. It's good for my soul :)

Kindergarten is drawing to a close this week and our girl has grown and thrived in school this year. She loves every minute and is a little teary and sad that it's coming to a close for the summer. I am excited to have her home, for zoo trips, pool trips, and days of making 3 lunches for 3 kiddos all under my roof. 

Garrett has his first taste of school by going 1 day a week and he really came out of his shell even if it took until after Christmas to stop the tears getting out the door. He now talks my ear off all day long about dinosaurs, super heros and power rangers! 

We fostered a mangey puppy who needed a lot of help to get better, we did 12 days of shots, a month of antibiotics twice a day and baths once a week. He was with us for 2 months and the transformation was so fun to witness, what a spunky soul that we know is making his new family so happy!! We named him Pigpen and loved on him the best we could while he was with us and this mommy cried and cried when I dropped him off to be adopted. He was a special little booger. 

That doesn't even begin to go into detail of the whole last year but it's a glimpse and I hope to come back to share what God is doing and how he is moving in our lives. How our family is growing and stretching, loving and giving in these days to come. 

She's Here

Well it's been a slow and full spring, one where our family went from 4 to 5.

  Colbie born 4/16/15 8lbs. 10oz. 21 inches 

We've spent a lot of time at home, a lot of time soaking up our new bundle. At least I have. We have had such great help from family and friends. We didn't have to make a meal for weeks and family made sure our big kiddos were having fun out of the house since I was healing from my csection and bonding with our new girl. The kids have been so great with her and really Lydia has been such a big help. This is a totally different feeling then when we brought our son home, I was in tears multiple times a day so overcome with how difficult it was adding to our family. From 2 to 3 has been such a fun blessing (most of the time, lets not totally sugar coat it, we have our moments) Colbie is a doll baby, she's so snuggly and good. I love having a baby in the house :) I've braved outings with the 3 of them and if things are going south we abort quickly and what a freedom in knowing I can do that. I'm not a failure if that happens, it's the season we are in and my kiddos need a mom who isn't a crazed lunatic so if our time out is cut short and we head home to start over, IT IS OK!!