Merry Christmas

Here are some new pics of Abbey and Alex. We are getting ready for a very fun and blessed Christmas. Abbey is in pre-school and she is learning to write her letters and numbers and is now doing a little bit of reading. She is also practicing for her Christmas concert with her pre-school. She is quite the singer! Alex is growing bigger and more handsome each day. His language skills are moving along wonderfully as he is talking more clearly each day. He is also in pre-school and is a great little helper for his teachers.

While we are very grateful for our abundant blessings, we are also very sad that Aimee is not here with us yet for Christmas. I had dreamed she would be with us by now and she would be experiencing her first Christmas this year. We are working on the new 1 800 immigration document that we need before we travel. It is a new set of paper work that is needed and it is a little complex, but our agency is helping us out with all the terminology. Our LOA acceptance document is on it's way back to China and we are praying for a quick TA. It is so different preparing for our third adoption trip to China. We are much more laid back about the details. We know now pretty much what to expect. It is also easier since we will spend all of our time in Guangzhou this time - where you can purchase anything you could possibly need. Also, since Aimee is 4 and not a baby, the travel gear for her is much simpler. On the other hand, we know that she could possibly face severe culture shock and grief as she leaves her home and nannies at the orphanage and becomes our daughter. Thankfully, several of our friends have adopted older children and they are guiding us with their experience and advice.

Thank you to all of our wonderful family and friends for the many blessings you bring to our lives.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

LOA!!

We finally got the call today! We are so happy we are finally approved to go get Aimee! We are on day 106. Our agency says we will receive TA in about a month, but since Chinese New Year is at the end of January, we will most likely travel around the second week of February (about the same exact time as we travelled for Abbey just 4 years ago.)

A few days ago we had a small update on Aimee. The orphanage says she is happy and that she knows her family is coming to get her. She misses her friend who was adopted several months ago. Also, she wants to bring candy to all of her friends in the orphanage.

Thank you for all of your love and prayers.

Gayle

Some cute pics of Abbey and Alex

Here are some cute pics of the kids from the last several months.

44 days and counting

We found out our LID (log in date) was on September 3rd - so we are at day 44 of waiting for our (LOA) Letter of Acceptance from China - which will hopefully be quickly followed by travel approval. We have heard of a range of LOA's coming from 70 days to 100 days. We are praying for travel before the end of the year. We are also waiting for updated information from China about how she is doing. I'll post some additional photos of her and everyone later today.

DTC finally!!

All of our documents were sent to China (DTC - Documents To China) on Thursday last week. We are so happy. Some of our documents were ready early and were sent to China two weeks ago to our agency translator. We are hopeful they will all be finished next week and we will get a quick Log in Date (LID) then we will get a Letter of Approval (LOA) than finally a Travel Approval (TA).

We have also received some more sad photos of Aimee, which makes our wait even more difficult. We can't wait to get her and hold her and start the process of loving her into our family. Has any one heard if anything is moving any faster?

Take care!! -Gayle

1800a Approved!!

So much news today! I got a call late this afternoon that we had our 1800a application approved!! Whoo Hoo!! This is such a big hurdle for us. So now we get a document called a 797 (which I believe is the 'new' 171h). (I know all of these words are another language for all of our friends and family who haven't personally been through an international adoption -- but it is a big deal!) It took us over 3 months to get through this step, but hopefully now it won't be too much longer for our papers to go to China. Then the prayers begin for fast travel....

New pic of Aimee

Late last night we received a new (and sad)picture of our daughter Aimee (on the right in the white and green). She is shown with a mom who is in China right now adopting Aimee's best friend Maggie. This picture was taken after the two girls had just cried and cried about their separation. This sweet family lives in Idaho and they received their daughter last week. Sunday, they visited the girls orphanage in order to say final goodbyes. The wonderful news is that this family reports that the orphanage nannies are very loving and the girls were both fond of them. They also said orphanage was new and very clean. Those are always good things to hear as waiting parents! The family has taken many more pictures of Aimee and also some video which they will send after they return to the states. Early this morning we were sending emails back and forth discussing future plans for our girls to stay in touch. We are going to try to send a letter this week to Aimee to let her know she will see her friend again.

We will post again soon as we have more information..

More waiting

We are still waiting on our paperwork to be approved to adopt Aimee. We first mailed in our forms and documents to the Dept. of Homeland Security 91 days ago. Since April 1st this year, all international adoptive parents have to go through a more detailed process to gain approval to bring a child into the US. Specifically, these new rules are for all Hague Convention countries around the world. While we can see the need to make sure adoptive parents are safe and worthy, sometimes you start to believe it is a little over done. The new 1800a process nearly needs an attorney to translate and navigate the wording is so complicated and specific. So, we wait... This morning we were reading some adoption training material and came across a paragraph that describes adoption waiting as almost a 'grief' process. You know your child is waiting on you and someone else is raising her/him at this very moment. You don't know when you will travel since most of the process is out of your control. So we sit and wait, and check on the process, and we pray. Hopefully this coming week we will be able to report on some new progress.

Fingerprinted and waiting...

Here is a picture of Abbey and Alex at the zoo recently with their sweet friend Sarah. They are all growing up so fast!

We are still working our way through paperwork. We had hoped to already have our paperwork in China by now, but little details here and there have slowed us down. We had our fingerprints done yesterday for our 171h approval to adopt. Additionally, we are still waiting on one letter to come for our final homestudy update before we can receive our 171h. After that, our papers finally go to China. We had heard varying reports of time to travel after our paperwork is logged in. Some have received travel approval as fast as 72 days, while others have waited over 100 days.

We received an update about Aimee's size a couple of weeks ago. She is the same height as Abbey, and weighs 27 lbs, so she is a little smaller than Abbey (31 lbs). So far, Abbey is very excited to be getting a sister. Alex doesn't seem to care either way right now -- but we know he will love her (another sister to tease and adore). Abbey asks nearly every day if it is Fall yet - as we have said we will go bring sister home in the Fall. It is very sweet.

More posts to come soon....

And.....Baby number 3.

In a blink of an eye - and in a blink of an email, the Thornton Family will grow by one more family member this year.

We are blessed beyond measure to have the opportunity to adopt our new daughter Aimee. She will be 4 in June and we hope to travel to receive her by September.