Speculation

It is very natural, and common to try and predict when you will finally hold your new child in your arms. Initially I didn't give it too much thought since I was busy enough with two little girls and knew that the USCIS process was unpredictable for the most part therefore no guarantee that we could have those final three documents off to China at any certain time. The very vague guess I initially had was the end of April which did come true. Now that my friend reusing her dossier with our agency received her Letter of Acceptance yesterday I feel a little more comfortable predicting. Funny thing is, our agency sent their monthly newsletter yesterday and mentioned a 6 to 8 month timeframe from LOI / DTC to travel. My friend who is a mere two months ahead of us expects to travel in 2 to 3 months after waiting 57 days for her LOA. That puts us at travel around 4 to 5 months from now barring any delay in receiving LOA. I'm not saying that won't happen, but I don't see a delay of more than a month or so and with the CCCWA getting more used to this new process I actually expect LOAs to speed up, not slow down. So my prediction is that we will travel either in September or October with a possibility of having to wait until after the October trade fair. The good thing about starting out in Shanghai is that we can avoid the trade fair initially by going to Shanghai during the final week of the trade fair which takes place in Guangzhou and then finishing up after the trade fair ends. My money is on September, though! Having her before her birthday on the 22nd would be ideal!

Today!

DTC Confirmed!

Holt International has our final three documents and they are being sent to Beijing on Friday the 29th! Next step LID. Our agency predicts that will be the second week of May but we probably won't know for three to four weeks for sure.

The Slow Line?

There is another family with our agency who are reusing their dossier. Unfortunately for reasons partially unknown their LOA seems to be taking longer than those not reusing their dossier. Of course one of the "selling" points of the new process was not only would it be quicker for the waiting families, but the children would be home with their families sooner. The only children you are allowed to reuse a dossier for are the harder to place children which includes for the most part those who have waited a while for a family and the children with more serious health conditions who would definitely benefit from coming home sooner. I am very frustrated for this family and hope that things improve very quickly!

One thing that will be interesting regardless of whether or not we travel in September or October or November is that The White Swan is actually closing for a year starting in August for major renovations. This has been rumored many times over the years but is now to be believed since our very conservative agency has reported it as fact. We are really looking forward to finding out what hotel our agency will choose as their temporary Guangzhou headquarters. We have really enjoyed staying at The White Swan on our other two trips, but were planning on staying elsewhere this time. Now we won't have any hassle about it!

Quilt Progress

Yay! I actually managed to finish the quilt top today. It actually looks pretty good!

The 29th!

Yes, I am a bit disappointed, but at least now I know that we will have the rest of our dossier sent to China on April 29th. Of course it is the beginning of a holiday so our LID will be a bit delayed, but our agency doesn't expect it to be by much.

Small Update

My mommy intuition strikes again! This afternoon I got on the computer and logged into my e-mail account and noticed there was one new message. I knew it was our update even though it has been less than a week since I requested it. There are these three photos and two of our five questions were answered. We expect the answers to the other ones soon. Don't you just love that smile! I can tell she is a little stinker and we are going to have our hands full for sure. The update mentioned that she fell from a chair and now has that lovely bruise on her forehead. It is so hard to know that I wasn't there to comfort her. We are coming as soon as we can!!

Monday Fun!

Our day started out at the state capital getting our three documents state certified. It was really a simple process and only took a few minutes once we found the correct room.

Here I am outside with two of my girls! It was a beautiful spring day!

We enjoyed lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Final stop was Fed Ex to make copies and send the documents to our courier for authentication at The Chinese Consulate in Chicago. If she can talk them into same day service we should be DTC this Friday otherwise it will be no later than April 29th!

Abbie's Room!

Elizabeth has the top bunk, Abigail gets the bottom.

Lots of drawers!

Isabella's toddler bed.

In the Mail

Our approval arrived in our mailbox today. We may still attempt to be DTC next Friday. Wish us luck!

Update Requested

Unlike the last two adoptions when I just assumed you could only ask once for one update I actually inquired about the policy. Our agency told me that you can actually request updates every 2 - 3 months. Who knew? Needless to say our update was 2 months ago today so we requested another one and are expected to receive it in 2 - 4 weeks. Can't wait! We were so focused on a couple of health concerns the last time that we didn't get to ask some of the more basic questions so we are making up for it. Abigail had surgery when she was a few days old so we also asked who funded it in case it was one of the organizations that keep records that you can request after bringing your child home. I've also been following two blogs of families in Shanghai right now and they have recently been to the orphanage to visit and I know at least one family took a lot of pictures. Praying we'll see our girl in one or more of them!

800A Approval!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After eight long days we finally have been approved. Now if only it comes in the mail no later than Thursday we have a chance of being DTC the 22nd - most likely though we're looking at the 29th.

Ugh!

How did I know that yet again the USCIS process would not go smoothly for us. With Isabella we had an RFE (request for evidence) that slowed us down almost 2 weeks, this time our officer gets the application on his desk and then is out of the office for the next day. Yesterday he was back and said he'd get through his pile of applications in the next couple of days and then today he's out of the office until Monday. Just peachy! I guess an RFE will probably be in the future this time too - if our application is ever looked at!

USCIS Update

We finally have an officer! Hopefully in the next couple of days we will be approved and receive the form in the mail and then we are off to the SOS in Indy!