We leave for China Feb. 6!

We received our U.S. consulate appointment this morning. We leave OKC at 6:39 a.m. next Friday (Feb. 6) and arrive in Guangzhou at 11 p.m. the following night. That gives us a full day in China to rest and get over the jetlag.

We receive Aimee on Feb. 9, which is almost exactly one year to the day from when Gayle put a "hold" on her file. We'll have 10 days together as a family, and then we go to the American consulate on Feb. 18. Her American paperwork is finalized the next day, and we leave Guangzhou on Feb. 20. We arrive in OKC at 8:12 p.m. that night.

Ya-Hoo!

We have 1800 & Happy Chinese New Year!

Today our I800 approval was faxed to our adoption agency! So, the agency is asking for one of these dates for our Consulate appointment -- Feb. 17, 18 or 24. So - if we get Feb. 17 or 18 then we will leave on Feb. 6 or 7. We are so excited to go! I have a big pile of stuff to pack now. I've gotten into that 'we are going' mode and last night I was up late going through Abbey's closet for clothes for Aimee (Abbey is a heavy sleeper:) We won't know our Consulate appointment date until this Thursday or Friday, since the offices are closed in China for a few days for Chinese New Year which is today.

Say a prayer for us as we book our travel this Friday.

Happy New Year!!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!! (in Mandarin)

Gayle

Hurry Up and Wait

We're in a holding pattern for at least the next nine days, thanks to Chinese New Year. However, we're still hopeful of getting a consulate appointment in China on Feb. 17-19, which would mean leaving Oklahoma around Feb. 6.

Our I-800, a new document required by countries that are part of the Hague Convention on Adoptions, is stuck at a federal agency. The U.S. consulate in Guangzhou won't schedule an appointment with an adopting family until that document is approved. We were hoping it would be approved by yesterday (Thursday) so that it could be faxed as verification to the consulate. That didn't happen, and now, because China is 14 hours ahead of us, the consulate has already closed shop until Feb. 2 to celebrate Chinese New Year.

We're told that the I-800 should be approved by early next week. Then it would be faxed to the consulate, so conceivably, the consulate could schedule an appointment on its first day back from hiatus. If our wish comes true, we would have three days to make travel arrangements and pack. We've been through timing snags on both previous adoptions. I don't know why I thought this time would be different.

Meanwhile, we wonder how our daughter is holding up during the wait. Is she excited about getting a family, or is she scared to death of leaving the only home she's ever known? Or both? We also wonder if she will accept our explanation that we came as fast as we could -- that the delay wasn't of our making.

Travel Approval is Here!

We received travel approval this afternoon and could be leaving for China as soon as Jan. 31, a week earlier than we expected!

Our contact in Guangzhou, who also will be our guide/translator for the entire trip, is checking to see whether the U.S. consulate has any openings for Feb. 10-12. If so, and assuming we can get the visa approved in time, we will fly to Chicago and then on to either Shanghai or Beijing before ending up in Guangzhou the night of Feb. 1. After a sleepless night, we would receive Aimee on Feb. 2 under that scenario.

If those dates don't work out, we would leave Oklahoma City around Feb. 7 for a consulate appointment around Feb. 18-19.

This is amazing! Please join us in our joy as the reality of our daughter coming home finally starts to sink in! Thank you for all of your prayers.

Tony

Waiting for Travel Approval

We are still waiting on our TA, but we are hopeful it will arrive in the next week. We are so happy that travel is coming soon - we cannot wait to get Aimee into our arms. We are hoping we can leave around Feb. 7th and receive Aimee on the 9th. We will spend our entire time in Guangzhou since Aimee is in Guangdong province. This makes the trip very easy. Aimee lives in Huizhou City, which is about 30 minutes NE of Hong Kong. We will most likely visit her orphanage with her several days after we get her. Sometimes these visits go smoothly, but you also hear of visits with lots of tears and anxiety. It has to be an extremely emotional time for any child making this huge transition. And at 4 1/2 Aimee is very capable on knowing what is going on. I cannot imagine how scary that would be. There she will be, leaving all that she has ever known, leaving the only family she has ever known, and going with these strange new people. We have sent her a photo book and some small presents, so at least she will know what we look like, and hopefully will be a little accustomed to our faces. But that still can't make up for all the concerns she will likely feel in her heart. Can you imagine trusting a new set of parents to take you away and take care of you at her age? This is when we will surely be relying on God to give her peace.

We are not taking Abbey and Alex with us on this trip. We felt we needed to have some alone time with Aimee -- and we also know we are just not energetic enough to wrestle 3 pre-schoolers in China:) The kids grandparents will be keeping Abbey and Alex and we are very grateful for their help.

Attached is a picture of Aimee that we received awhile back. She is so adorable. We hope to see smiles on that cute face not long after we get her.

Take care and thanks for your love!

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.

Home at Last!

We arrived at Will Rogers World Airport (minus one piece of luggage) about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday. As good as it felt to be home upon returning with Abbey, it feels even better this time because of all the, uh, obstacles we faced this go-round. And it was wonderful to see our family and friends waiting for us at the airport. That has become an amazing part of the adoptive family network.

The kids finally fell asleep sometime after 1 a.m. As of 11:15 a.m. Thursday, they and their mom are still catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Thanks again to everyone whose posts and prayers bouyed our spirits during our two-week roller-coaster ride, first trying to get our of the States, then trying to get out of China.

-- Tony

Better today

Tony and I are both feeling better today thankfully. And thankfully the kids haven't gotten sick. They are both rather ornery today though, so we are just trying to keep them occupied for our last 24 hours here. Our consulate oath appointment is this afternoon, our last step before we come home.

While I'm typing this Alex just bit Tony. He has bitten Tony several times in the last few days. He bit Abbey the other day too. This is a bad habit we hope to break him of soon. It will take some time to communitcate that this isn't acceptable behavior. Tony put him in his crib for a time out.

We can't thank you all enough for your posts and emails. They mean so much to us.

We should arrive home at around 10:20 pm on Wednesday night. We just can't wait to be home.

Talk to you all soon!

Food poisoning, etc.

Well, the Murphy's Law trip continues.

Gayle and both other mothers in our traveling group got food poisoning Sunday night, although one is experiencing just nausea. All ate hamburgers or sandwiches from, get this, a place called Lucy's, which is the only "American" restaurant on Shamian Island. We've determined that either the meat was bad, or else they got bacteria from lettuce and tomatoes that had been washed in Chinese tap water. I won't go into details; let's just say that the prescription meds Gayle brought for nausea and diarhea aren't doing their job. Fortunately, all three moms have husbands or a friend here to take care of the kids untl they feel better. However, please consider this an APB (All Prayer Bulletin). I'm not usually one to ask God for specific things, but we could sure use your prayers in a speedy recovery for Gayle and the other two moms.

Speaking of which, both of us are feeling like absolutely incompetent parents right now, and we could use your prayers in that area, too. Two kids require double the time and double the work, and we are struggling to get used to our new life. So are the kids. Alex has quite the temper when you lay him down to sleep or when you don't feed him fast enough or decide his meal is over. He throws tantrums. This afternoon he wouldn't take a nap and just kept screaming. A few minutes later, Gayle said, "You know, he's probably grieving." Ouch. I feel like a horrible parent right now, especially when I think of the American couple who are here adopting their eighth Chinese child (in addition to four biological children). Again, we seek your prayers.

Our first trip to China left us with such fond memories, which is largely why we returned. This one has tested our spiritual, emotional and physical limits.

We leave Wednesday morning and fly to Beijing for a three-hour layover before catching another flight to Chicago and another to OKC. We are scheduled to arrive at Will Rogers World Airport at 10:20 p.m. Wednesday. It's going to be a brutal day. We're thinking this time we'll break out the Benadryl so the kids can sleep. We can't wait to be home. We'll post more photos later.

-- Tony

Around Guangzhou

Today was our free day. We ate a big breakfast at the wonderful White Swan buffet. Alex likes so many things - he likes the Asian fruit called "Dragon Fruit", congee, watermelon, hard boiled eggs etc.. He ate for nearly an hour. We have almost the exact opposite problem with Abbey. She barely eats anything. Then we did a little shopping then back to the hotel for a nap. It is actually very cool here in Guangzhou today - maybe only about 60 degrees. After the naps we went for a walk with a nice Asian couple we met on the plane to Beijing. They are US citizens and are adopting here in China. Their baby girl is from Chongqing, which is where Abbey is from. We all went to Blenz a cool coffee shop nearby, then we took Abbey to the local playground. All of that went well until it was time to go. Abbey had a screaming meltdown when we tried to put her into the stroller. I'm just not comfortable yet with dozens of local Chinese people staring at us because our daughter is having a fit. It is so embarrassing. We took her back to the hotel and her punishment was not allowing her to go to the playroom in the White Swan this evening. (Mattel sponsors a playroom in the hotel with lots of toys ). We know she is stressed by all the changes, but we also are trying our best to set her limits. Alex is doing great. I'm trying to start teaching him some language sounds - he doesn't make many sounds yet, but we can tell he is trying now. His 'babbles' sound better and better each day. We are shopping again tomorrow. Our guide is taking us to a museum and the Pearl Market.

Pictures

Well, our babies are asleep, so I wanted to post a few pictures from the last couple days.