Blessings Shower

Last night we headed over to a friend's house to talk over possible computer glitches, etc. we might encounter in China as well as any other information they could 'download' into our brains before our trip :) When we arrived we were very surprised to find a group that had gathered to 'shower' us with blessings and to celebrate with us. We munched on creative and adorable treats, then shared a bit of our adoption journey up to this point. Many of our friends have also adopted previously and it was a blessing to have their combined wisdom; and then to pray together for Kaleb, and our upcoming trip. My dear hubby was blowing his nose after the prayers - 'allergies' :)

Consulate Appointment Approved - Airline Tickets Bought!

Today we received the glorious news that not only did the Consulate 'approve' our appointment date, but that we also don't need to jump through the extra paperwork hoops that we had been told to expect! We have some pretty big smiles on our faces around here! Yay God!!

In looking through the itinerary I saw that our 'Gotcha Day' (First day that we see/keep Kaleb) is March 5th. This is 6 years to the day since our Adoption Bible Study ended, and we made the decision to go forward with adoption. Pretty amazing.

We also received our Travel Itinerary and have booked our International Flights through Delight Travel, which is who works with our adoption agency in China. Pretty exciting stuff for 2 kids from Nebraska ;)

Bump in the Road

Yesterday a good friend came over bearing guide books, other helpful trip related items and advice (she's adopting for the 4th time - all from China/Taiwan). After she left, we received an email from our adoption agency informing us of a possible problem with our travel dates. We are approved for 2 children, aged 0-3 years old. Apparently OUR government, The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), reads '3' as 36 months. Kaleb is 3 1/2. So this will entail more paperwork, and possibly delay our travel.

Needless to say, I was a bit in shock. My oldest daughter, reminded me that she has good hearing. Evidently my voice gets louder when I'm upset :/ After remembering to pray, God calmed me down. Our Travel Adviser was sweet and worked after hours answering my concerned emails with different possible scenarios. It appears that  the US Consulate in Guangzhou may deny our requested consulate appointment, or grant it, but either way we will need to have USCIS amend some of our paperwork. I think Travel Advisers probably deserve some kind of 'battle pay' in breaking news to distraught parents :) Our Social Worker is also very helpful and she thinks that USCIS will be able to quickly resolve the issue, but we have to keep on the situation and related offices.

In the words of Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'til it's over". I know that this is small in the big scheme of things. We have a big God. I need to remember to trust Him through the ups AND downs.

Travel Approval!

We just received our Travel Approval today!

I had visited our 'Waiting Child' Yahoo Group today and a person was asking how long the average wait was from Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) to Travel Approval (TA). She had been waiting 92 days. The person who 'answered' her question directed her to the file for average wait times. In the I-600 file they were in the 24-96 day range - one was 10 days, but they had waited 47 days from Pre-Approval to LSC. This is HUGE!! Praise God!!

We haven't talked about which dates we'll choose for the consulate appointment; but they are all BEFORE our fingerprints expire! Major praise!! Can't wait to have Kaleb home with us!

Official Referral!

We began our 'adoption journey' in January 2006 with an Adoption Bible Study at our church. The class ended on March 5th, and the next morning my husband said that we should start looking into agencies. To make a long story shorter, we received our LID (logged in date) from China on November 13, 2006 and began the 'official wait' on our referral from China.

In November of 2011, I found a picture of a 3 year old boy with corrected PDA on our agency's Waiting Child List. We requested his file, and through a series of delays, holidays, medical inquiries, etc. ended up having his file for almost 2 months, instead of the usual 2 weeks. Our family was unanimous in going forward with submitting our letter of intent to adopt him. But it was a difficult decision, since it meant 'letting go' of our 'other referral' that we had been waiting on for over 5 years.

We have been blessed to babysit a little 4 year old boy since he was about 2 months old during our long adoption process. I'm sure this has made us more prepared and excited about having a little boy join our family. Our two daughters - age 21 & 17 are very excited for Kaleb to join our family too.

Since submitting our Letter of Intent, things have seemed to go much more quickly than we had expected. Our Preapproval came after a week, and our Official Referral (LSC) came a week and a half later. Last week was a shutdown in China due to Chinese New Year, so we are currently awaiting our Travel Approval and hope to travel in March!