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....