Today, I made my second, well actually third trip to the Social Security Office and this is what I was told:
We cannot issue you a Social Security Card at this time because:
The Department of Homeland Security is unable to verify the immigrant document you submitted as evidence of your lawful alien status. You should contact that agency to clarify your current immigration status.
Ok, they were called and still nothing. Now a formal "investigation" is going to take place, which could take 6-12 weeks!! Really??????? How can they not be able to verify the document they sent me??? You would think that this would be the easy part. I mean, I spent a lot of money getting FBI fingerprints and waiting on immigration approval, before I even left for China to pick Clara up.
I just don't know what to think about all of this. At the present time, I am unable to even enroll Clara in school, because she doesn't have a USA birth certificate or SS number. I was having trouble deciding if I was going to enroll her in school or not and now the decision has been made for me. I was going to have her get her therapies at the school, but now we are going to go private. I am hoping getting her state issued birth certificate will be easier. Only time will tell.
Suzanne
Our Chinese Butterflies
Fristoe family
Our family waiting on Prudence and ?????!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Cleft Palate Clinic
I woke up bright an early so I could take Clara to her appointment. I have really been looking forward to this appointment. I feel it will be my first really positive one, like we are finally going to make some progress. I get ready and wake Clara up, which is never a smart thing to do. I did it once in Ghonghua and it was not fun. I had just planned on putting her in the car and dressing her in the parking lot, but she was apparently very well hydrated and needed to be cleaned up. So, to start the morning she wasn't very happy. We finally head out the door. Thankful traffic wasn't bad and we made it in the hour I had allotted.
We didn't have to wait long to be called in. Dr. Singhal was the first to come and see us and he was so happy we finally had her home. I had asked him last November if he would care for Clara and he had agreed to and said he would put her tentatively on the schedule for July of 2012, so she wouldn't get here and have to wait a long time for surgery. Dr. Singhal is wonderful and has a long, long waiting list. We only got him after we had a terrible incounter with another one of the plastic surgerons and I refused to go back to him. He talked with Clara and played with her. He said her surgery was scheduled for August 7th and they had already scheduled all of her preop appointments and gave me those dates. He said it is usually an overnight stay, but after the cardiac cath incident, she would spend aleast one night in the picu and 1-2 on the floor. He then said he was happy I had gotten her home and thankful I asked him to do the repair. He is such a wonderful man!!!!!!!
We then went for a hearing test. She did well on the left but lost it when it came to the right. She has very little moment of her eardrum on both sides, but the right is worse. The ENT cleaned her ears with a microscope and they retested her. Still didn't due well on the right, but she has an appointment on July 18th to see the ENT and they will start with the right ear and see what happens. We then saw another nutritionist and she gave us instructions on how to help her gain some weight before all of these surgeries. She said from the other nutritionist's notes she saw where she did not agree with weight gain. The new one said she probably wouldn't agree with it, if she wasn't having two huge surgeries in the next 3 months. So, hopefully Clara will gain a few pounds before her open heart surgery, which should be in October.
We saw a occupational therapist, social worker, and speech therapist. We are now waiting to hear when her therapies will start!!! What a busy, busy little girl. :) We are also scheduled to see a dentist on July 19th to see if she needs any teeth pulled, before open heart, but during the cleft repair. Dr. Singhal plans to do a complete repair in one surgery. He said it has been open too long and she needs to get talking. I agree she needs to talk, but I am not always sure I want to know what she is thinking.
I bought an external hard drive so I could transfer my pictures off of my PC. My memory is almost full and I can't download any of my pictures from China. That is my goal for the day. I have a lot to tell you about my trip to China, some good and some bad.
Here is what the girls were up to yesterday while I was folding clothes.
We didn't have to wait long to be called in. Dr. Singhal was the first to come and see us and he was so happy we finally had her home. I had asked him last November if he would care for Clara and he had agreed to and said he would put her tentatively on the schedule for July of 2012, so she wouldn't get here and have to wait a long time for surgery. Dr. Singhal is wonderful and has a long, long waiting list. We only got him after we had a terrible incounter with another one of the plastic surgerons and I refused to go back to him. He talked with Clara and played with her. He said her surgery was scheduled for August 7th and they had already scheduled all of her preop appointments and gave me those dates. He said it is usually an overnight stay, but after the cardiac cath incident, she would spend aleast one night in the picu and 1-2 on the floor. He then said he was happy I had gotten her home and thankful I asked him to do the repair. He is such a wonderful man!!!!!!!
We then went for a hearing test. She did well on the left but lost it when it came to the right. She has very little moment of her eardrum on both sides, but the right is worse. The ENT cleaned her ears with a microscope and they retested her. Still didn't due well on the right, but she has an appointment on July 18th to see the ENT and they will start with the right ear and see what happens. We then saw another nutritionist and she gave us instructions on how to help her gain some weight before all of these surgeries. She said from the other nutritionist's notes she saw where she did not agree with weight gain. The new one said she probably wouldn't agree with it, if she wasn't having two huge surgeries in the next 3 months. So, hopefully Clara will gain a few pounds before her open heart surgery, which should be in October.
We saw a occupational therapist, social worker, and speech therapist. We are now waiting to hear when her therapies will start!!! What a busy, busy little girl. :) We are also scheduled to see a dentist on July 19th to see if she needs any teeth pulled, before open heart, but during the cleft repair. Dr. Singhal plans to do a complete repair in one surgery. He said it has been open too long and she needs to get talking. I agree she needs to talk, but I am not always sure I want to know what she is thinking.
I bought an external hard drive so I could transfer my pictures off of my PC. My memory is almost full and I can't download any of my pictures from China. That is my goal for the day. I have a lot to tell you about my trip to China, some good and some bad.
Here is what the girls were up to yesterday while I was folding clothes.
God is good!!!!
Suzanne
Thursday, May 24, 2012
We are heading to the USA
Just wanted to drop a quick post about the fact that we will be heading back to the USA on Friday, May 25th!!!! We will be leaving Guangzhou at 7 am and heading to Shanghai, where we will sit until our flight to Chicago which leaves Shanghai at 4:10 pm, on the 25th and lands in Chicago at 4:50 pm on the 25th. Boy do I wish it only took 40 minutes to get home, but we will get to live part of the 25th twice. So, around 5 pm, on May 25th, Clara Mei will become a United States Citizen!!! After hanging out in Chicago for 5 hours or so we will board our final flight to KANSAS CITY!!!! I can't wait to be home with my oldest daughter and new daughter. I miss all my kiddos at home, hubby and even the dogs.
For those interested: Our flight is suppose to land at KCI, terminal C, American Airlines, 11:35 pm, on Friday, May 25th, 2012.
Sorry about the late arrival, but by taking it and suffering through a 4 1/2 hour layover in Shanghai and a 5 hour layover in Chicago, we saved $2300.00.
I promise when we get home and rested I will blog about our entire trip. Once we got Clara we were just so busy, I didn't have time to blog. It has been an amazing trip and I thank everyone who helped us get to this point!!! Thank you and God Bless each and everyone of you!!!
Suzanne
For those interested: Our flight is suppose to land at KCI, terminal C, American Airlines, 11:35 pm, on Friday, May 25th, 2012.
Sorry about the late arrival, but by taking it and suffering through a 4 1/2 hour layover in Shanghai and a 5 hour layover in Chicago, we saved $2300.00.
I promise when we get home and rested I will blog about our entire trip. Once we got Clara we were just so busy, I didn't have time to blog. It has been an amazing trip and I thank everyone who helped us get to this point!!! Thank you and God Bless each and everyone of you!!!
Suzanne
Monday, May 14, 2012
We are in China
I have been wanting to post, but we didn't have internet in Beijing, except when we were visiting Mei Mei. I wanted to spend my time getting to know her and not blogging, sorry.
We had 3 very interesting days. May 8th- May 9th Our flights were uneventful, which is fine with me. We had a 4 hour layover in Chicago so we decided to have dinner. I had been pre warned that airport food was high, but I was still in shock when our big mac and quarter pounder meals was $14.55. We lucked out and got bulk seating on our flight to Beijing. I had forgotten how noisy planes were. For some reason I was expecting it to be peaceful, but no, it was loud and gave me a headache. Luckily for me the flight from KCI to Chicago was worse and I had already taken some Advil. We landed in Beijing at 11:35 pm. This is a huge airport that was basically empty, except for our plane full of people. We made it to our luggage and everything was there, so we went to find the hotel shuttle. The shuttle was already gone, because they forgot us, so we ended up taking a cab. This was interesting, we finally found someone that spoke a little English and loaded up our stuff. We headed to the hotel and it seemed like it was taking forever to get there. The driver stopped in the middle of the road and started to turn around. Abby and I got scared, because it was dark, we had no idea where we were or how to get where we wanted to go. The driver called someone and they started talking and finally he started driving again and got us to our hotel.
May 10th: We started the morning trying to get internet and never was able too. I finally had to text my sister and have her email Serena and let her know we were there. Later we decided to go to the Lobby and try and get internet, while sitting there, Serena walked into the hotel. She had been trying to call us but the hotel personnel spoke very poor English and kept hanging up on her. She took us to Little Flower. Mei Mei was easy going and allowed me to pick her up and love on her. The nannies kept telling her I was her momma. She likes to hit people and the they kept telling her not to hit her momma, they may have been telling her more, but I have no clue what else they were saying. At lunch I was going to try and feed her and she got really mad. She was screaming and waving her arms and thrashing her head about. So, I let her nanny feed her and I just watched. She would smile and wave at me. After lunch she was happy to play with me and then there was a birthday party for one of her sweet playmates. Rose was turning 4. Mei Mei loved playing with the sunglasses Roses family sent her. It is a good thing my secret sister set her her very own pair, which I will give her on Gotcha Day. When it was cake time I sat by Mei Mei and this time she let me help feed her some. After that I cleaned her up and I went and had my first "real" Chinese lunch. When it was time to leave Mei Mei gave me a hug and blew me a kiss. We then we to visit the Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall called Yellow Flower. It is not a real tourist area, but it was beautiful and in it natural setting. (Pictures to come.)
May 11th: We got up and headed to Little Flower. When I got there Mei Mei put her arms up for me to pick her up as soon as I got there. We played with toys, sang, she let me feed her and later we went for a walk outside. I have pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them off my phone. We visited the Summer Palace during the afternoon. Very peacefully and beautiful.
May 12th: We started the day by going to the Forbidden City. There were so many people there. We also went to the silk market. We bought some shoes, dresses, jewelery and a silk bag. We also went to this wonderful noodle restaurant. I was unsure I would like it, but it was delicious!!! I would go back there in a heart beat. Plus they served their drinks cold!!!!! We then headed to Little Flower to visit Mei Mei one last time before we headed to Taiyuan. She met us at the door and immediately ask to be picked up. We enjoyed the evening. When it was time to leave, our plans were a little messed up and I had to try and communicate with the nannies we needed a taxi to the airport. They understood enough to get us in touch with Jimmy and he was able to get us a taxi. The plane ride was good and we were met at the gate by Anna. Anna took us to the hotel, checked us in and got us to our room.
May 13th: Our first trip to a Chinese Walmart. It is quite different from ours. The carts can move in just about any direction, even sideways. This comes in handy because they drive their carts just like they drive their cars. I will post on that later, it is a wild experience. We then went back to the hotel and rested for about 4 hours. Before we went to dinner, I decided to make sure I had all the paperwork I needed, so we could pick up Mei Mei. This is when I discovered our Power of Attorney was missing. I texted our social worker in a panic, asking where it was and how I was suppose to get it. I also emailed her and then realized it was like 4 in the morning in the US. I also called our guide Anna and asked what I was suppose to do. Since there wasn't anything we could do, Abby and I decided to go out and try to find dinner. Anna gave us a map and we headed out. We walked around town for about 1 1/2 hours and never found the McDonalds or Pizza Hut we were told was there. We ended up coming home and skipping dinner.
May 14th: Skyped with Dewey, Daniel, Aaron and Hannah, this really made me homesick!! Aaron told me to go to the airport and get on a plane and to bring Clara with me. I told him I couldn't do that yet but would soon. We finally got our Panda Phone, so we now have another way to contact people. We are now waiting for 3:30 to come so we can finally pick our sweet Clara Mei up. I recently got an email that she is running a very high temperature and they started her on antibiotics. Please pray this keeps her from getting any sicker. I noticed while I was visiting her that her gtube was oozing some nasty fluid and she was retracting while breathing. Please, Please pray for her.
Good Bye for now and I will post pictures ASAP. Gotcha Day is upon us and the time is near.
When I return, we will be Mei Mei's new family!
Suzanne
We had 3 very interesting days. May 8th- May 9th Our flights were uneventful, which is fine with me. We had a 4 hour layover in Chicago so we decided to have dinner. I had been pre warned that airport food was high, but I was still in shock when our big mac and quarter pounder meals was $14.55. We lucked out and got bulk seating on our flight to Beijing. I had forgotten how noisy planes were. For some reason I was expecting it to be peaceful, but no, it was loud and gave me a headache. Luckily for me the flight from KCI to Chicago was worse and I had already taken some Advil. We landed in Beijing at 11:35 pm. This is a huge airport that was basically empty, except for our plane full of people. We made it to our luggage and everything was there, so we went to find the hotel shuttle. The shuttle was already gone, because they forgot us, so we ended up taking a cab. This was interesting, we finally found someone that spoke a little English and loaded up our stuff. We headed to the hotel and it seemed like it was taking forever to get there. The driver stopped in the middle of the road and started to turn around. Abby and I got scared, because it was dark, we had no idea where we were or how to get where we wanted to go. The driver called someone and they started talking and finally he started driving again and got us to our hotel.
May 10th: We started the morning trying to get internet and never was able too. I finally had to text my sister and have her email Serena and let her know we were there. Later we decided to go to the Lobby and try and get internet, while sitting there, Serena walked into the hotel. She had been trying to call us but the hotel personnel spoke very poor English and kept hanging up on her. She took us to Little Flower. Mei Mei was easy going and allowed me to pick her up and love on her. The nannies kept telling her I was her momma. She likes to hit people and the they kept telling her not to hit her momma, they may have been telling her more, but I have no clue what else they were saying. At lunch I was going to try and feed her and she got really mad. She was screaming and waving her arms and thrashing her head about. So, I let her nanny feed her and I just watched. She would smile and wave at me. After lunch she was happy to play with me and then there was a birthday party for one of her sweet playmates. Rose was turning 4. Mei Mei loved playing with the sunglasses Roses family sent her. It is a good thing my secret sister set her her very own pair, which I will give her on Gotcha Day. When it was cake time I sat by Mei Mei and this time she let me help feed her some. After that I cleaned her up and I went and had my first "real" Chinese lunch. When it was time to leave Mei Mei gave me a hug and blew me a kiss. We then we to visit the Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall called Yellow Flower. It is not a real tourist area, but it was beautiful and in it natural setting. (Pictures to come.)
May 11th: We got up and headed to Little Flower. When I got there Mei Mei put her arms up for me to pick her up as soon as I got there. We played with toys, sang, she let me feed her and later we went for a walk outside. I have pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them off my phone. We visited the Summer Palace during the afternoon. Very peacefully and beautiful.
May 12th: We started the day by going to the Forbidden City. There were so many people there. We also went to the silk market. We bought some shoes, dresses, jewelery and a silk bag. We also went to this wonderful noodle restaurant. I was unsure I would like it, but it was delicious!!! I would go back there in a heart beat. Plus they served their drinks cold!!!!! We then headed to Little Flower to visit Mei Mei one last time before we headed to Taiyuan. She met us at the door and immediately ask to be picked up. We enjoyed the evening. When it was time to leave, our plans were a little messed up and I had to try and communicate with the nannies we needed a taxi to the airport. They understood enough to get us in touch with Jimmy and he was able to get us a taxi. The plane ride was good and we were met at the gate by Anna. Anna took us to the hotel, checked us in and got us to our room.
May 13th: Our first trip to a Chinese Walmart. It is quite different from ours. The carts can move in just about any direction, even sideways. This comes in handy because they drive their carts just like they drive their cars. I will post on that later, it is a wild experience. We then went back to the hotel and rested for about 4 hours. Before we went to dinner, I decided to make sure I had all the paperwork I needed, so we could pick up Mei Mei. This is when I discovered our Power of Attorney was missing. I texted our social worker in a panic, asking where it was and how I was suppose to get it. I also emailed her and then realized it was like 4 in the morning in the US. I also called our guide Anna and asked what I was suppose to do. Since there wasn't anything we could do, Abby and I decided to go out and try to find dinner. Anna gave us a map and we headed out. We walked around town for about 1 1/2 hours and never found the McDonalds or Pizza Hut we were told was there. We ended up coming home and skipping dinner.
May 14th: Skyped with Dewey, Daniel, Aaron and Hannah, this really made me homesick!! Aaron told me to go to the airport and get on a plane and to bring Clara with me. I told him I couldn't do that yet but would soon. We finally got our Panda Phone, so we now have another way to contact people. We are now waiting for 3:30 to come so we can finally pick our sweet Clara Mei up. I recently got an email that she is running a very high temperature and they started her on antibiotics. Please pray this keeps her from getting any sicker. I noticed while I was visiting her that her gtube was oozing some nasty fluid and she was retracting while breathing. Please, Please pray for her.
Good Bye for now and I will post pictures ASAP. Gotcha Day is upon us and the time is near.
When I return, we will be Mei Mei's new family!
Suzanne
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Here we go!!!!
We are going to CHINA!!!!!!!!!!
We are headed to meet our sweet baby girl!! We are leaving on May 8th. Let the planning begin!!
There is so much to do, but she is so worth it.
I want to Thank every person who helped us get to this point. Everyone of you is responsible for getting us to this point. We are not allowed the contact information of anyone whom has donated to our fund, so I just have to pray you all understand how thankful I am. Every pray was heard! Our sweet girl is going to meet her mommy and big sister very soon. Thank You for every blog post, facebook post, and twitter post that was made in our favor. I don't know what else to do, I wish I could send everyone a thank you note personally. Please believe me, I am so humbled by everything big or small done by every person, that has helped us on this journey. I know it has only begun and I hope you will continue to follow along as we go and get our butterfly and watch her spread her wings!
Praying thanks for all,
Suzanne
We are headed to meet our sweet baby girl!! We are leaving on May 8th. Let the planning begin!!
There is so much to do, but she is so worth it.
I want to Thank every person who helped us get to this point. Everyone of you is responsible for getting us to this point. We are not allowed the contact information of anyone whom has donated to our fund, so I just have to pray you all understand how thankful I am. Every pray was heard! Our sweet girl is going to meet her mommy and big sister very soon. Thank You for every blog post, facebook post, and twitter post that was made in our favor. I don't know what else to do, I wish I could send everyone a thank you note personally. Please believe me, I am so humbled by everything big or small done by every person, that has helped us on this journey. I know it has only begun and I hope you will continue to follow along as we go and get our butterfly and watch her spread her wings!
Praying thanks for all,
Suzanne
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Winners are?????
I want to apologize I did't get this information up yesterday, but life took over and has been in control. I will tell you more about that when we finally get home today. So on to the important stuff.
The WINNERS:
iPad---Jackson R. Hays
$50 ITunes card--Heather McFarland
AMC Movie tickets---Theresa Wood
Stationary Set---Autumn Winkles
Picnic blanket---Pamela Rist
picture frame---Chad Whitehead
Cd---Sarah Brumfield
Please contact me @ fristoefamily@yahoo.com and I will get your prizes to you. We are not given any contact information on donors, so please contact me. I want you to get your prizes!!!!
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED. We just found out all of our paper work is complete and we are waiting on our official invitation to come and adopt CLARA MEI FRISTOE!!!! We should get to go sometime in May!!! I am so excited!!
Suzanne
The WINNERS:
iPad---Jackson R. Hays
$50 ITunes card--Heather McFarland
AMC Movie tickets---Theresa Wood
Stationary Set---Autumn Winkles
Picnic blanket---Pamela Rist
picture frame---Chad Whitehead
Cd---Sarah Brumfield
Please contact me @ fristoefamily@yahoo.com and I will get your prizes to you. We are not given any contact information on donors, so please contact me. I want you to get your prizes!!!!
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED. We just found out all of our paper work is complete and we are waiting on our official invitation to come and adopt CLARA MEI FRISTOE!!!! We should get to go sometime in May!!! I am so excited!!
Suzanne
Monday, April 2, 2012
$1500.00 Challenge
Good morning. I am going to make this brief, because this is a very busy time of morning. Over the weekend we were offered a matching grant from a friend. Very simple: We have until April 10th to raise $1500.00. If we raise $1500.00 they will bless us with the remaining $1500.00 we need to make our $3500.00 goal.
Our current fundraiser runs until April 6th. You can see all the great stuff here http://bringinghomeourchinesebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/fundraiser-extended-new-prizes-added.html.
Please help us by: Praying, Sharing or donating.
Thank you,
Suzanne
Our current fundraiser runs until April 6th. You can see all the great stuff here http://bringinghomeourchinesebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/fundraiser-extended-new-prizes-added.html.
Please help us by: Praying, Sharing or donating.
Thank you,
Suzanne
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