Early May, we receive the monthly update email from Holt stating how many families have been matched and other info along those lines. At the bottom of this email was a beautiful little boy, whom they referred to as “Bo”. The email went on to state that he had just turned 4 years old and that he had about 1 month left of exclusive rights within Holt. If you’re interested in hearing more about little “Bo”, send and email to, blah blah blah…
Lesley had me read it, I was interested in more info, as was she, so Les composed an email requesting more info on the little Mr. Beautiful.
We received a large email back with his medical papers, additional photos and a short video of him bouncing on a ball and working on some words with a teacher/foster parent(?). It contained close-up photos of his repaired lip and the palette that will eventually need surgery once he arrives in the U.S. of A. It also had his official name which was Chang RongBo. Chang, being his last name.
He truly is a beautiful little boy! Oddly enough, his little grin in one of the photos and the shape of his head remind me of my dad as well as some other little traits that are sort of Schmitz-like too. One cannot help but wonder how such a beautiful little boy got to be over four years old with nobody selecting him?
May 16th, 2011 – Our 19th anniversary! We sent our LOI (Letter of intent to adopt little RongBo). We heard back from Holt within an hour and they said that they received our log in date about 15 minutes prior to our email with the LOI. Strange stuff, but really cool!
June 4th, 2011 – final adoption class (Parents In Progress, Part 5) held at the Pleasant Hill Public Library. Our social worker, Angela, was instrumental in getting us in this class when she realized that we weren’t on this list to attend (there were only two couples on the list) and she knew that we had been matched. Much thanks to Angela!! For lunch this day, we had Chinese food from Hy Vee in honor of Bo… okay, not really. It’s because their egg rolls are FANTASTIC and it’s cheap and close to the PHPL.
July 5th 2011 – receive a phone call from Angela, our social worker, that she is resigning and it’s effective immediately. This shouldn’t affect us as far as the process goes but it will personally because she was awesome and very approachable with questions/concerns. We’re not really sure, but it almost seems as if she knew it was coming and got us into the class before she left.
July 27th 2011 – second physical for Lesley and I. Thankfully, the good doctor kept his hands mostly to himself this time and it wasn’t too bad, well... it’s never good when you have to drop trou in front of dude, but relatively speaking, that is.
More agonizing waiting… This period of waiting was the worst one because it truly seemed as if NOTHING was happening. If I would allow myself to start thinking down the wrong path, depression would be right there to jump on my back. This period of inactiveness got me to the point of really trying to put the whole thing out of my mind, which was tough seeings how everybody still asks you how things are going and the fact that I have a picture of him hanging at my desk alongside of Robby’s picture.
End of August, 2011 – I made a decision to switch jobs prior to the adoption so that our insurance would be active by the time we traveled to China. All of that happened in a pleasing manner and so I left Farm Bureau at the end of September and started back at Nationwide on Oct. 3rd. I was previously under the impression that if I switched jobs or there were any major changes of any kind, we had to redo some amount of paperwork and there was also a fee involved. As it turns out, you can switch jobs and not have to do much of anything, paperwork wise, unless there is a substantial difference in pay either up or down.
Oct 12th 2011 – Visa photos for all three of us.
October 24th 2011 – Sent off our email to Holt Kristen asking 5 questions (it’s all we’re allowed…).
October 28th 2011 – Received an email from Holt Amy stating that our Article 5 has been issued by the U.S. Consulate and is being forwarded to the CCCWA in Beijing, this week. Big news here!
October 31st 2011 – Received an email from Holt Kristen with Calebs sponsorship reports.
November 3rd 2011 – received the most recent medical records of Mr. Fantastic, Caleb Rongbo Schmitz in email attachments from Holt Kristen. Oddly enough, there was some new information in here that surprised us a little. Nothing serious but weird that we’re in the final stretch of it all and have an, “oh yeah, he had this problem and the surgery to correct it” moment. And no, you don’t get to know what the problem was. 8-)
November 4th 2011 – Received an email from Holt Steve stating that while Holt has still not received travel approvals, they are optimistic that they will receive them within a week!
November 7th 2011 – Received an email from Holt Kristen with 5 new photos of Mr. Caleb Rongbo Schmitz that were taken in October! He is gorgeous! He’s grown so much since the previous pictures that were taken in December of 2010.
November 9th 2011 – Received travel approval email from Holt Steve. No dates yet, but still incredibly exciting!
November 10th 2011 – Received the actual travel dates email from Holt Steve. We need to be in Beijing on December 2nd!!! Woooooo-hoooooooo!
On top of that news, we had our final home study, pre-adoption, that is, visit tonight. Jennifer stopped by and we updated the home study document with Daddy’s new employment information
November 11th 2011–28th – slight panic and planning!!! Oh, and some serious excitement!!!
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