We're in China!

Linda and I made it to China, flying in to Beijing International Airport on Saturday at about 3:15 p.m. Beijing time.

Going through health check, baggage claim, customs, etc, weren't too bad. We survived it!

Our guide Rosa met us outside the airport after we got our luggage. It was a fun 45-minute ride to our hotel, which is a Best Western, not like the one that Carlisle had in the past but it is really nice! Now, if we can find some food!

On Sunday, we go to Xi'An City, where An Qing Shu is living. We will meet with her on MOnday for Gotcha Day. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for us.

Happy birthday to Nana! She's 90 on Saturday! Love to everyone.

Mark and Linda

Adoption Column 4

Copyright, Stephens Media

Editor’s note: Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife, Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in September. This is the fourth of several columns about this family’s adoption experiences and the process. His e-mail address is mbuffalo@cabotstarherald.com

By Mark Buffalo

Linda and I attended our one-day Vacation Bible School at Palm Street Church of Christ on Saturday, June 5. While outside shooting pictures of the various activities, my cell phone rang and the caller ID said “American World,” which is our adoption company. We’ve received calls from them on weekends before, but it usually means they have a child’s case to review.

And sure enough, our case worker, Melissa, was on the line, telling us about a little girl who would be 2 years old in a couple of months. She was on the waiting child program, with some special needs, but ones we knew we would be able to handle. So, Melissa sent us an e-mail with the child’s photos and medical records. I told Linda about the phone call and we told our pastor’s wife and we hurried home to check the e-mail.

When we opened the message, we knew that, finally, we had found our Mary Elisabeth. There were a couple of photos and her medical records. We had to talk to a doctor that day and get his opinion on what he thought about her health. We were convinced that we were making the correct decision about our chances of finally being parents.

We called Melissa back at America World and told her that we wanted to go forward with adopting the child. There were some formalities to take care of, such as paying a translation fee, writing a nurturing plan for the child and promising to take care of any medical needs she might have, even if they weren’t covered by our insurance. After that, we knew we were a mommy and daddy. For me, personally, it was the most special feeling I’d had since Mom died on July 28, 2008.

While we knew we finally were going to get our Mary Elisabeth, several stages of approval were left for us to go through with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. We had to stay patient ,but for the first time in this entire process, there was light at the end of the tunnel.

We were told that if everything went according to plan, we would go to China to complete the adoption process before the end of the year. This was such a blessing. God was looking down on us and blessed us by making us parents.

As we continued to wait, we received our preliminary acceptance. At this point, we still couldn’t post the picture on a blog or Internet group. She was still ours but we had to follow all the conditions set forth by the CCAA and our adoption company.

Then, on July 31, exactly one year since Mom’s funeral, I was taking a photo in Carlisle while on my “vacation” when Linda called me crying. She had received a phone call from Melissa at America World. She said we had received our referral approval, which meant Mary Elisabeth was ours! We could finally introduce her to world. I really think Mom was looking down on us, trying to give us something to remember July 31 for other than her funeral. My mom had a silly way of taking care of us, even after she was gone.

At that time, Melissa told us we could possibly travel to China by the middle of September. That meant Linda’s school year and my football. volleyball, golf, tennis and cross country seasons would be interrupted temporarily while we went halfway around the world to bring home our beautiful little girl. We knew that this would be a possibility during the adoption process. So, Linda started getting ready for school. I started covering my three football teams, trying to get our football preview issue completed. Then we got some more great news on Aug. 25.

Next: Making plans for a trip to China.

Adoption Column 3

Copyright, Stephens Media

When timing not as planned, patience pays off

 Editor’s note: Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife, Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in the middle of September. This is the third of several columns about this family’s adoption experiences and the process. His e-mail address is mbuffalo@cabotstarherald.com

 By Mark Buffalo

When Linda and I completed our paperwork, we hoped that we would be parents by the end of the 2007. Experiences of other adopting couples indicated that the process wouldn’t take too long.

It turned out that wasn’t going to be our experience.

We stayed in contact with our case worker at America World and were told that timing of our adoption and a possible trip to China still was a ways off. Although disappointed, we continued to be patient, working in our respective careers.

However, as many people know, my mother, Rose Mary Buffalo, was diagnosed with cancer on Aug. 1, 2007. Mom and our entire family were so supportive of our desire to adopt. Mom tried her best to fight the cancer, going through chemotherapy and radiation. It appeared around Christmas 2007 that Mom had beaten the cancer. It was a glorious holiday.

The next couple of months were good for our family, but Linda and I were hoping to hear something about our adoption process. In some respects, time was ticking slowly, but in other ways it was flying by.

In May 2008, we found that Mom’s cancer had spread, but she continued to fight. She wanted more than anything to have her third grandchild. She told me once that “I wish you could hurry up and get your baby.” This broke my heart because we wanted her to be able meet her second namesake. My brother, Jonathan, and his wife have a daughter named Heather Rose, who was named after Mom.

Mom died July 28, 2008, just a few days short of a year after being diagnosed with cancer. She fought a good fight and her legacy will live on with everyone who knew her. And Linda and I will make sure that our daughter will know as much about Mom as humanly possible.

After Mom’s funeral, I went back to work at the paper following a two-week hiatus and Linda had to get ready for the school year. They weren’t easy tasks for either of us. We contacted our case worker at America World to see what we needed to do about renewing paperwork.

We had to reapply for our I-171h before the first one expired. We had to return to Fort Smith to Immigration Services and get fingerprinted again. We also needed our home study updated and Ed Appler took care of that for us. During this time, Linda and I considered the option of adopting a special needs child.

We applied on America World’s Web site to join the special needs program. There was a list of special needs that we would consider or not consider for a child and we filled out the checklist. We prayed about our decision and felt good about it.

Later in 2008 we received a call from America World about a shared referral for a young girl, who was in the special needs program. Linda and I were interested, but since it was a shared referral, the child was available to any family with any adoption company in the world. So, before we could review her paperwork with our physician, we got a call from our case worker saying that the child had been locked in by another family.

We were disappointed but knew that it wasn’t meant to be. Our faith was tested but it was one thing that helped us realize that the child wasn’t the one who was going to be Mary Elisabeth.

Over the next couple of months, we received a few more calls about possible shared referrals, but we didn’t feel like those children would be the ones for us. We felt in our hearts that those children would find a home with someone who could love them as much as we will our own daughter. That is the faith we have.

We continued to wait. We made it through the end of the school year, which signals Linda’s summer vacation and a slowdown in sports coverage for me. We bought a new car because we knew that we both needed reliable transportation for our child, whenever we got her.

Our church, Palm Street Church of Christ, was holding a one-day Vacation Bible School on June 5. And since I’m the “official event photographer” for my pastor’s wife, we attended the VBS. And on that day, our lives would change forever.

Up next: The news we had been awaiting for years.

Adoption Column 2

Copyright, Stephens Media

Editor’s note: Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife, Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in the middle of September. This is the second of several columns about this family’s adoption experiences and the process. His e-mail address is mbuffalo@cabotstarherald.com

 By Mark Buffalo

 In early 2007, I got a call from America World Adoption, telling us that China’s new adoption regulations were going into effect in May of that year and that we would be affected if we didn’t get our paperwork completed by the middle of April.

Basically, we had to complete the “paper pregnancy” in about 3 months. Normally, it took families from five to seven months to complete.

So, the first thing Linda and I did was to look at our information we received from America World at the seminar in Arkadelphia and the information we received after our initial registration with the company.

The biggest thing we had to do was to get our home study completed in a short amount of time. We contacted Ed Appler, a social worker in Conway who we met in Arkadelphia. We called him and he set up our home studies, which consisted of one in-home visit and three visits in his office in Conway.

He and his wife, Sharon, were great to work with and put us at ease about the visit. Linda and I were worried, mainly because we didn’t know what to expect. We cleaned, and cleaned some more. And we were ready for that day in late January.

While we did our home study, we had to obtain a number of other documents, including original copies of our birth certificates, medical examinations, financial statements, employment verification, criminal background checks with the Arkansas State Police, a copy of our marriage license and personal reference letters, all of which had to be notarized by a notary public and certified by the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office. Luckily, I work with a wonderful lady who is also a notary public. Jamie Mahoney was lifesaver for so much of our paperwork. She drove from Cabot to Lonoke to notarize quite a few things for us. We can never repay her for that kindness.

Linda and I also had to get valid passports and had to pay to expedite them from the federal government. We did that and had them in plenty of time.

Also, we had to be fingerprinted by appointment at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Fort Smith. Since we live with Linda’s mother, Leara Deanne Lilly, she had to go with us as we applied for our I-171h document, which would grant us permission to adopt. All three of us were fingerprinted after we made the three-hour trip to Fort Smith.

We were feeling pretty good about all we had done, but as April approached, we still didn’t have our I-171h form, which we needed to get our documents certified by the Chinese Consulate.

Linda and I decided to drive to Houston, Texas, to get our documents authenticated at the Chinese Consulate. I made hotel reservations in Houston and we were heading there as soon as we got our I-171h. But we kept waiting and waiting.

We finally received the document we needed and after having the documents certified by the Secretary of State’s Office, I shipped everything, along with some payments, overnight to America World, hoping to make our April 18 deadline.

When we received confirmation that America World had received our documents and would be able to get them authenticated and that they would be on the way to China via personal courier from America World, Linda and I were relieved. Then the waiting — and the uncertainty associated with it — began.

Adoption Column 1

Copyright, Stephens Media

Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in the middle of September.

 By Mark Buffalo

About four years ago, my wife Linda and I knew we wanted a family. We had been married more than five years and we wanted a child to call our own. We decided to go the adoption route and did a lot of research on different avenues of adoption.

We thought about domestic adoption first since we are both American and possibly would want a child who “looked like us.” But with horror stories about those types of adoptions falling through, we looked at international adoption. We didn’t know at the time that China would be where we would eventually end up adopting from.

One night while eating dinner at Chili’s in North Little Rock, we saw a little Asian girl, who appeared to be Chinese, running up and down the aisle. She was corraled by what looked to be her American parents. At that moment, Linda and I looked at each other and we knew how we where going to get our family...from China!

We did some research on international adoption and came across a company called America World Adoption, which is based in Virgina. In January 2006, America World was having a seminar at a church in Arkadelphia. So, we woke up early and drove there from our home in Lonoke. When we got there, we heard from a family who had used America World for their adoption and we spoke with several people, including a social worker from Conway (more about him in a later column).

While driving home we decided to go with America World even though there are several good companies out there that are closer to Arkansas. We felt like America World was the one we wanted. It is a faith-based company, which felt good to both of us.

Once Linda got through with school that year, we found ourselves a church, one that fit what we wanted to be and how we wanted to raise our child. We joined Palm Street Church of Christ in Lonoke and we were both baptized. That was an awesome day for both me and Linda as well as our families. Not long after our baptisms, we filled out an on-line application for America World, submitted a family portrait and paid our $250 application fee.

Linda got ready for the start of school and I got ready for the start of football season. Later in 2006, the Chinese government passed new regulations on international adoptions which went into effect in May 2007. Those regulations would have essentually knocked us out of consideration for adoption but at the time, I thought since we were in the program with America World that those would not apply to us. Boy was I wrong.

Visa?

We found out last Friday that we were scheduled to leave on Sept. 10 for China!!! But around lunch time, we got an email from our travel director and there was a problem getting my visa b/c of my profession of working for the media.

She sent our passports and Linda's visa back to us and we got them on Saturday afternoon...the dang FedEx guy couldn't find our house...but Linda's brother tracked him down and brought him back to us. Then, we had to take my passport, visa application, a money order, and a letter saying I wasn't going over to China to report on stuff and send it to a courier in Houston to take to the Chinese Consulate in Houston to get my visa in one day and send it back to me ASAP.

So, the travel director moved our plane reservations back to Friday, Sept. 11 (yes 9-11) so we are scheduled to leave then. Please say a prayer for us that we get my visa back in time...Kristen, the travel person, reassured me with an email about 11 p.m. on Friday night so I'm trying my best not to worry too much.

Mark and Linda

Still waiting

We got an email from the travel director for America World and as of Wednesday afternoon, we still haven't gotten our travel plans, itinerary for the trip or plane tickets. We were told that we should still be ready to go on Sept. 10

So, please say a little prayer for us that we still get to go next week and be home on Sept. 23 to show off our little girl, Mary Elisabeth.