We're going to China!

We received our Travel Approval on Wednesday and today received our confirmed Consulate appointment, so all that is left is to get on a plane!  We have a week to finish up the packing.  We are off next Friday and will be meeting He Fu Di on 12/12.  So excited!  We are flying to Hong Kong by way of Vancouver.  Then will take the train to Guangzhou, where we'll spend two weeks doing the finalization paperwork, medical exams, and consulate appointment.  We'll be home the day before Christmas.  Please pray with us for smooth traveling and that we do everything right to help Fu Di through this big transition in her life.  We are so excited!!

Halloween 2011 and an adoption update

Mr Conductor and Ms Knight trolled the neighborhood briefly on Monday.  There were just a couple of other families out and we didn't go far before we were ready to go home, but great fun was had by all while it lasted.

Our adoption paperwork has been winding its way through the US immigration approval process.  Our Article 5 will be picked up at the US Consulate in Guangzhou on November 15th, then everything goes back to CCWAA, where they will issue our approval to travel.  We are hoping to receive travel approval by the first week in December and plan to travel immediately after receiving approval.   So ready to be done waiting.

One step closer

We are one step closer to traveling to China and bringing Faith FuDi home.  We have finally received the next piece of paperwork in this long adoption journey, our Letter of Acceptance from China, which is the official approval of our application to adopt FuDi.  Next we file more paperwork with USCIS to assure legal immigration status, then another approval from China and then we finally travel to bring her home.  It's usually no more than 3 months for these last steps of the paperwork process, but  I think about the only thing we can say with assurance she'll be home with us before the end of January.  So much longer than we anticipated....last January I thought we'd be traveling in August.  Ha!  I am just thrilled that we are finally at the end of the grueling LOA wait.  We were so sure we'd be on the shorter than average and ended up way beyond an average wait. But now we're onto the next step - more paperwork.  At least from here it's much more predictable.  Or so they say. 

What a flower girl

Melinda was a flower girl for a dear friend last weekend.  She was a little nervous about her responsibilities, having never been a flower girl before (or even attended a wedding ceremony for that matter).  But she didn't let that get in her way.  She did great!  She walked exactly where she was supposed to, at exactly the right pace, and stood up with the other attendants throughout the ceremony.  Makes a momma proud.

Happy 9th Birthday

Half a world away Faith FuDi is now 9 years old.  On our side of the world we are thinking of her and celebrating for her. 

Happy Birthday big girl!

Care package

We're making slow progress on our adoption.  Our move slowed us down a bit, as we had to have a home study update done for our new residence.  We managed to get that done in just two weeks - which allowed us to receive our USCIS approval at our new address, saving us the hassle of filing an address change.  It worked out wonderfully, but meant we're a few weeks behind where I'd hoped we'd be.  That delay, and the extra five weeks the homestudy took with our California social worker have us very nearly using the entire six months we were given to get the dossier to China after our pre-approval.  But despite the various delays, our dossier (all the paperwork we've been gathering since early January) should finally be ready to go to China this week.  Praise the Lord!  So the rest of the process is a wait for approvals.  We'll wait for China to review the dossier and issue an LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which we sign and return.  Then we wait for China to issue a TA (Travel Approval), at which time we make airline reservations to travel to China for Gotcha Day.  Both of these steps can take up to 90 days...so we could be looking at yet another six months before we can go to China.  Sigh.  We've got lots going on as we settle in to our new community, so we are staying focused on that and trying not to get too anxious about the 'when'.

In the meantime, we've received permission to write a letter and send a little something for her birthday.  I am so excited!!

Faith turns 9 on July 2nd.  I saw this shirt and just had to buy it for her.  The little lamb is wearing a shirt that says 'You are loved' with a small embroidered cross beside that.  We'll add some candy for the other children at the orphanage before we seal up the box.  I am so excited to be sending this to her!

This week we also sent her a letter of introduction.  If she didn't yet know a family was working to adopt her, she will soon. Our agency's facilitator in China will translate it and deliver it to Faith, who might, we are told, write back to us!  We can only hope.  I am so excited to be able to send her the letter and gifts, to know that she finally will know that she has a family working to bring her home.  I wonder if she is excited or simply scared.  I am praying for her well-being during this transition - such a humungous change for her.

Leaving California

After 12 and half wonderful years in California, we are headed to Oregon to start a new chapter in our life together.  As we have prepared to depart, we find ourselves trying to cram in just one more California adventure, week after week. First it was a Friday afternoon spent riding the cable car, eating chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, and buying souvenirs along the waterfront.

Then it was off to Muir Woods for a Saturday morning walk among the redwoods.

And then some after supper bike riding in the warm California sun. (Hard to believe our boy has graduated to a two-wheeler.  Didn't he just learn to pedal his trike?)

California has been good to us.  But we are excited to find out what awaits us next.

Time for an update

It was time for a new look on the blog.  A big thank you to Blogs with Purpose for the help in redesigning the header and giving us a fresh new look, complete with pictures of each one of my blessings (and their significant others).   Our latest blessing, who waits for us in China, is over in the sidebar.  Just as soon as we travel we will move her on up into the header.  Still hoping that happens in August!

And just in case you are wondering what's up with the process.  Our homestudy should be on its way to our placement agency and then the USCIS next week.  Fingerprints, here we come!

Our family is growing again!

Yup, it's time to do something about the blog name, 'cause we are becoming a family of 9. We have embarked on a new adoption journey, to a waiting child in China.  She is 8 years old and waiting for us in Guangdong Province.  We have been paperchasing since early January and hope to have our dossier to China soon soon soon.  Then we wait.  For approvals (both USCIS and China) and then finally we travel to bring her home.  Most likely that will happen in late summer or early Fall.

We feel blessed to have been chosen again to be the family for another precious child of God.  We can't wait to introduce her to you, our family and friends! 

Adoption

Adoption has been on our hearts a lot lately.   ALL of our six children mean the world to us.  It is the joy that we find in 'being family' that calls us to open our hearts and lives to children through adoption.  Amy Eldridge, Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries, has written a particularly moving article about older child adoption here  http://www.lwbcommunity.org/on-my-own.

 I hope you'll take the time to hop on over the the Love Without Boundaries blog and read about it.  (And then watch for some exciting news here in the next few days.... you'll see a hint over there on the sidebar...)