Updated Pictures!!!

We've been watching our e-mail accounts now... day and night... for weeks... waiting for any new pictures of our daughter. 
 
Yesterday, our wait came to an end with an e-mail from Red Thread (the company that put together our care package) that included pictures from the camera we had included for the orphanage workers to use when Mia (Jin Guo) had her little party with her cake. Oh my gosh!! We've been waiting for this!!

AND!!! And... the best part of all this... was seeing more detailed photos of her arm and seeing that her amputation occured BELOW the elbow!! Praise God!! That opens up so many more options with regards to prosthetics in the future.

Anyways, here's our daughter's party photos. We wish there were a thousand photos, but we'll settle for 4 of our little one.
 

 

 

 

Approvals and such...

I guess this blog entry is not as dramatic as others, but I should get used to writing more updates even if we don't have completely earth-shattering news to share.

Now, with that said... we have been seeing steady progress in our quest for approvals and such. We have received our first US approval (I-800a) back earlier this week, which triggers more paperwork. We were able to get the official RA signed this week and mailed back to the offices at AWAA. Our family coordinator has informed us that the document was mailed off to China on Friday (Aug. 17). Also this week, we were able to get our next US form filed (the I-800), which essentially requests the US to grant us approval to bring Jin Guo (Mia) home and to make her a US citizen. From what we've read and heard from others, getting the I-800 filed is the primary event that determines when to expect to travel over to China... which is approx. 10-14 weeks from now. We're hopeful to travel over to China by October or November this year... which seems far off, but in reality, is literally around the corner with school officially starting on Monday for the kiddos.

Anyways, here's a couple of photos from the last week or so:

Adam signing "YES" on the RA stating that we want to adopt Jin Guo as our daughter

 Ginny signing the RA - she wanted in on some of the action :)

This is a photo of the photo album we had put together for Jin Guo

Here is another photo of part of the care package we had sent to her.

  Ryan and Ashlyn can't wait to get their Chinese sister over here.

Boy, things are moving fast!!

August 3, 2012

You know that point in your dreams where you know you're going to wake up? I have to admit... I kinda feel like that is going to happen with us and we'll be right back to where we've been for so long... waiting. But, we have a name and pictures now to put with our waiting, and it has suddenly made it so much harder. I've heard so many adoptive parents say that this phase of the adoption is the hardest since we now know who our little girl is. This week has been phenomenal in that we've not only received updated pictures of Mia Jin Guo (see above), but we've also received the official Chinese approval letter for her adoption!!!!!!! So within the span of 24 days, we've gone from seeing our little girl for the first time in photos, to submitting our official acceptance (EA), to China sending us our pre-approval (PA) and also issuing their official approval (RA). Like I said... it's been almost like a dream. 

Since we are now official in the eyes of the Chinese officials, we are now permitted to send Jin Guo a care package - so if you know my wife Ginny - is JUST up her alley. :) We are sending her a bunch of new clothes, a birthday cake with her birthday coming up this weekend, a red China doll, an Ultraman action figure, a translated letter from us as well as a photo album of all of us and our home. The package should also include a disposable camera for the orphanage workers to take pictures when she receives the package and the cake.

At this point, we are now waiting on the US government to issue the 1st of their approvals (I-800a) - which our family coordinator at America World is hopeful will be within the next week since we've already had an approved I-800a prior to now - coupled with now having received our China approval. Once we get that back, we will then file an I-800 form. Apparently, the little "a" after the form ID makes all the difference. The I-800a is a blanket approval for us to adopt someone from China - the I-800 is the US approval for us to specifically adopt Jin Guo.  

In the meantime, we will do what we can (apply for a passport for Ashlyn, sign and return the RA, and shell out a few $$'s) and continue to wait. We are being told to expect to travel sometime hopefully in October or November - which now seems to be an eternity away.