December 25, 2010

Christmas!




Merry Christmas!




So far we have had a great Christmas. It started last night with Christmas singing at church and then moved to our friends house for cookies and other great foods, there had to be at least 50 people there. We got home about 10 and got the kids in bed before putting out the gifts.




We told the big kids they couldn't get up before the little ones were up. The little ones were up without the big kids hearing them so we had to go wake them up! Fun was had by all and they are now enjoying their gifts and each other.




We are off to my sons in laws house for a PJ Christmas dinner! The best time always! And then home to rest before the week begins again.




I was reading the blog of some new favorite people who are on a plane as we speak to meet their son in China tomorrow. I am so excited for them, I can't help but think of Ty that he is still waiting. Hopefully this next week or two we will hear about PA news so we can move onto Article 5:)


December 20, 2010

LOA made it!

Our LOA made it to the agency and they will be sending our I800 out to immigrations. If I read things correctly it should take them a couple weeks to send us another approval, then Article 5 then TA then travel. This new system is different for us so I am not totally sure. Nontheless the agency said we would travel within 11-15 weeks! That is great news since we want to be home long before May. We also got pictures of our son and his friends received their Christmas tree and gifts from us. Our son wrote us a nice letter saying how much he is looking forward to coming home forever. Its going to be so hard for him to leave his friends. Be ready because I will be advocating for them to be adopted. I wish I could convince hubby to adopt at least on of his friends, but with 6 already at home ranging from 1-13 I don't think he will go for it. One can always pray right?
Anyway its a great present for us to hear about all this!
Tomorrow we take our kids to Great Wolfe Lodge, something we planned a long time ago to surprise them for Christmas. It's a fun indoor water park and hotel. Merry Christmas to you all!

December 18, 2010

Crazy woman!

Yes, that would be me. So my LOA/LOC package did not come this morning as promised so I called FEDEX to find out their Memphis hub had snow and everything was delayed. They told me I probably would not see my package until Monday which meant it wouldn't make it back to CCAI by Tuesday, further meaning it wouldn't make it to China before Christmas...delaying us yet again.
BUT there is hope. I called back an hour later because I didn't like their answer and they said it was now on the truck from Olympia to my house and should be here by 4:30...still not good since I can't send it out before Monday, but better than later. Anyhoo...my hubby saw the truck a half hour ago down a main street by our house so I hopped in my car and began to chase it. Yes, I chased it. I tried to get him to stop at two stop signs and pay attention to me but he just thought I was crazy and kept watching me in his mirror! Can't he see a woman who needs her LOA!!!
So I chase him about 4 miles and decide if I want him to give it to me I better go home and wait. My husband thinks I am crazy too but I think its called be proactive. Lord knows if hubby took care of all this paperwork we wouldn't have even adopted our first child, let alone number two or three...Gotta love him though, he puts up with me. So..am I crazy? Ladies please let me know. Hubby thinks I am too proactive:)
So here I sit on the computer looking out the window for the FEDEX guy who will still take another hour or two to get here, since he went way out in the woods away from our house first. I still plan on driving down the Olympia to try to mail it even though they said it had to be there by 2. It is now 1:30. Ahhhh the plight of an adoptive Mom! Surely some of you can understand it!

December 17, 2010

LOA ARRIVED!!!




I got an amazing phone call today saying that our LOA had arrived at our agency. Neither they or I expected it until after Christmas so this was an unexpected surprise. We have to sign it and have it back to them by TUE so it can get to China before Christmas. Now I need to see what's next so I can watch and wait on that:) Hahaha! Love it!!

Had to share my wonderful kids plus our soon to be wonderful son!

LOA ARRIVED!!!

I got an amazing phone call today saying that our LOA had arrived at our agency. Neither they or I expected it until after Christmas so this was an unexpected surprise. We have to sign it and have it back to them by TUE so it can get to China before Christmas. Now I need to see what's next so I can watch and wait on that:) Hahaha! Love it!!

December 15, 2010

Waiting for LOA

If the timeline works like it seems to be for most people we should be getting our LOA within a week after Christmas. I sure hope so:) We sent gifts to Ty for him and his mates in the orphanage, which I am told they received. We should get pictures back from them sometime in the next couple weeks as well.

I will be sure to post pictures when we get them! Until then here is a photo we got from giftstochionawithlove about a month ago...I can't seem to make the picture bigger but you can see what a nice young man he is!

December 7, 2010

Another day in time

I actually thought that I wouldn't dwell on waiting for LOA since I know its going to take a month -but I find myself doing just that. Not in a way that I did in the other adoptions. I am not stressed over it, just thinking about it and hoping it will move faster. This time I can actually say its not for selfish reasons. In the other adoptions I wanted my babies home so I could cuddle them and love on them, but for this one I feel pain for my son who is old enough to know he has a family waiting but probably doesn't understand the process and how long it takes to get there. He is probably thinking about the fact he will be leaving his friends and the only place he has ever known, yet anxious about a new life. I obviously can't wait to hug and love on him as well! But alas we all wait........

December 4, 2010

What does it all mean? LOI, PA, LID etc

My fellow adoptive mom friend asked me to share what all the steps in the China process means. I forget that not everyone knows the lingo for adoptions, and all country lingo varies.

For China: China now does Hague adoptions which means that a Hague treaty was signed between the US and China making for more steps which are suppose to ultimately protect the child being adopted by adding more screening and immigrations checks.

So far we have gone through the following steps to adopt our son from China (depending on whether you adopt a healthy young child or a special needs or older child the steps may vary:

1. We found our son online and applied to CCAI via application. Once we were approved we submitted an LOI (Letter of Intent) which was sent to China telling them we want to adopt our son.
2. China reviewed our papers to make sure we met all the requirements and sent us back a PA (Pre approval) which allowed us to lock in his file so no one else could adopt him and we began our paperwork process.
3. New steps for the dossier require a background check from every place you lived since you were 18. For us this was a pain because as retired military folks we lived a lot of places. One state - MD - took us two months just to get a response. These documents along with many more (Birth certificates, marriage certificate, financial statements etc) have to go through a three step process. Notary, state certification and Chinese consulate authentication - all which takes some time.
4. Once the dossier is complete and to our agency they send it to China called DTC (Dossier to China)
5. Once the dossier is received in China it gets an LID (Log in Date). Then China reviews it, translates it and then sends you a LOA (Letter of Acceptance) which you signed and return.
6. Then all the immigrations part take place...I800, another PA, Article 5 and TA (travel approval)...these are new steps to me and will take 3-6 months to complete.
So that's it for now...hope that helps:)
4. Once our dossier was complete

December 1, 2010

LID!!!!

I received a great email this morning telling us our LID is November 29th! Great news! On top of that my son that is in the hospital will get discharged this morning and can be on a normal diet! What a good day. Thank you Lord for these blessings!