My Kid Circus

Yesterday we got new pictures of our dear Hannah Min.  This time I saw the e-mail appear in my inbox, and I braced myself.  I knew that, like our last update, she would have grown, and I was hoping to handle it better than last time.  Unfortunately, I don’t think that I have.  She has changed so much in the past two months.  Just the night before I got this update, I had a dream about holding her hand while she took her first step.  Obviously by looking at this picture, that has already happened, and we weren’t there.  It hurts me deeply to think about all the months that we have missed when we are just sitting here wanting her home.  The red tape required in adoption , while I understand it in so many ways, is beyond frustrating in another.

My main consolation is that we should be there in person before it would be time for us to get another update.  I just hope and pray that when I have her in my arms all these months of waiting will fade away, and I can focus on enjoying all of the wonderful firsts that she will be able to experience with us.  We have missed many of the regular “firsts” that people look forward to witnessing in their babies, but there is so much more life for her to live. We’re coming, baby girl!!!!

Today, I found out that we were “cabled”.   This is sort of a small step in the grand scheme of things, but I’m excited to cross every step off the list!  Basically, last week we got our second immigration approval.  This one approved us to adopt Pu Min Han specifically.  This approval was then sent to the National Visa Center.  I’m not entirely sure what the National Visa Center does with it, but today I got an e-mail saying that our approval has been forwarded (cabeled) to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China!

Once all of our paperwork is received with this “cable” at the US Consulate, we will be notified that we have received another document, known as an Article 5.  This takes a standard 2 weeks.  The Article 5 is then delivered from the Consulate in Guangzhou to Beijing, where it will be hand delivered by my agency to the CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption).  The CCCWA is the governing body that controls every step of the adoption process. The CCCWA will then take about 2-4 weeks to review all the paperwork at this point and issue our TRAVEL APPROVAL!  The travel approval will be the last step in the process before we can go get our girl!  Once we receive the Travel Approval, it is possible that we could be on our way in only one to two weeks.

So, we have been cabled.  We should receive our Article 5 in a little over 2 weeks.  Travel approval in another 2 to 4 weeks.  China within a couple of weeks later.  It is really starting to feel real.  The end is in sight! (Or should I say the beginning… )

Yesterday, my husband, Z, and I went to a local travel clinic and got our shots for China!!  It was really fun to be doing something to actually prepare for our trip, besides just sitting here and thinking about it. 🙂 (Well, you know, as fun as shots can be 🙂 ).

Z was beyond scared about the one shot that he had to have (Typhoid).  He spent the morning crying on and off, and even told me at one point that he would just let D go to China instead, and he would stay home.  This guy really wants to go with us, so I knew he was serious!

My husband and I got our shots first (2 for me, and 3 for him), so that Z could watch.  Then he sat in my lap for his.  At the last minute, he had a complete panic breakdown.  He was grabbing his arm, crying, and yelling, “no no no!”.  It was heartbreaking.  The nurse gave him a little pinwheel to blow as hard as he could.  He took that seriously, and through his tears he blew and blew.  When the nurse stood up, he said, “What?  You didn’t even touch me!”.  He was shocked, and truly never knew that she gave him the shot. 🙂

On the way home, Z said, “Now I’m not afraid of ANYTHING!”.  I said, “That is so great!!”.  He said, “Yep.  I conquered my fear of coyotes, and now this!”.  It was a great day to be 6! 🙂

The other night D turned to me and said, “Are you on Facebook?”.  This guy is 4!! I had to answer with, “Why yes I am.  Are YOU?!”

The next day I open my facebook and see this:

Now, I have nothing against the “Fresh Beat Band”, but I don’t really want to claim to be a fan to all of my family and friends.  I started to wonder if I had been hacked by some 9 year old when I remembered that D was recently playing some games on NickJr.com. I guess that he somehow found a way to like this on my facebook.

He is apparently taking an early interest in social media.  Those of you who know my husband understand why this is making him so proud. 🙂

Today in the car Z says to D, “If you grow up and marry Lindsey (D’s special girl :)), you can live with me.”  I was thinking about what a sweet big brother he is to be thinking that he would want his little brother to live with him forever.  I say, “Z, it is so nice that you want D to live with you when you grow up.”  After a pause he said, “Yes.  That way when I’m an entrepreneur, they can take care of my kids.”

HA!  I had to burst out laughing.  His dad definitely has him making his plans early.  Maybe he has been reading Z his blog at bedtime?

He is getting some things from me too though.  The kids that he is talking about are the 6 kids that he wants to adopt from China. 🙂

Woo hoo!  Lucky day 50 brought our Letter of Approval.  Hooray!  I honestly believed that we would receive this letter by day 35 at the LATEST, so this has been a tough couple of weeks.  To say that I have been obsessively checking my e-mail and phone would be an understatement.  Come to think of it, I wonder what I am going to do with all my free time now that I don’t have to do that… 🙂

There are so many stages in this process, and we will now be moving on to our next stage of waiting.  This was a big one though.  Really, it was the longest and only truly unpredictable stage of the wait, and I am so excited to move on.

Now we will officially sign this letter, and overnight it to our agency (CCAI).  They will then send in our next stack of paperwork to U.S. Immigration.  We already went through stage one with immigration, but this is stage 2. After we get our official approval to adopt Hannah from the U.S., they will “cable” that approval to China.  Several other small things happen, and then we will be on the exciting wait for our Travel Approval (TA)!

At this point it looks like traveling in September is most likely.  I know I have said before that that is much later than we originally anticipated going, but we know that God’s timing is perfect; and we are just so happy to be moving closer to having our girl in our arms!