We're Going to China!

Its been a little while since the last post but man has a lot happened!  Its now February 3rd and on February 12th (Bobby's birthday) we will be traveling to China!  Its hard to believe that we actually know the date now and are so close to going.  Ok, so how did we get here.  Well, after we got our Article 5, things started happening quickly.  First, we got our Travel Approval on January 13th.  This is the piece of paper we needed from the Chinese government saying that we are approved to enter the country to adopt.  As soon as we got that, Holt started working on our travel dates.  They were estimating that we could go either Feb 7th or Feb 14th.  We decided that Feb 14th was better so on Jan 16th we got our Consulate Appointment.  This is the date that we will take Mila to the US Consulate in Guangzhou so that she can get her visa to come to the US.  Our consulate appointment date is Feb 26th.  So then we contacted Lotus Travel to have them build our itinerary and to start getting the trip booked.  Here is a picture of the Travel Approval.

We Received Our Article 5!!!

The most common question we are asked about our adoption is, "When will you be traveling to China?"  Unfortunately, we have been unable to answer that question specifically but have only been able to say, "We hope sometime in February."  Well today we passed one of the last 2 major hurdles in finding out that answer.  And that is, the Article 5 document from the US Consulate got issued!!!  Here's an explanation of what an Article 5 is:

If the Consular Officer determines that the child appears eligible to immigrate to the United States and that the information provided indicates that the adoption process thus far has complied with the Convention and IAA, he or she will notify the Convention country's central authority by issuing an Article 5/17 letter. The Article 5/17 letter will inform the foreign central authority that U.S. competent authorities have determined the prospective adoptive parents are eligible and suited to adopt, that the child may enter and reside permanently in the United States, and that the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed.

So the US has reviewed all of our paperwork and are now certifying to the Chinese government that we are good to go. 

Here is the email we received:

Dear Adoptive Parent,

The Adopted Children's Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU) at U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou has finished processing your child's Article 5, and your file is ready to be returned to your adoption agency's facilitator today. 

Next, your agency will deliver the Article 5 and Letter of Seeking Confirmation to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), which will issue the Travel Approval (TA).  The TA allows you to come to China to finalize the adoption, so once the CCCWA issues the TA, your agency can email us to request an immigrant visa appointment at the Consulate.  When your agency requests an appointment, they are required to submit your five choices in rank order.  The ACIVU strives to schedule every family for their top appointment choice on which we still have available visa appointments.  We do not reserve certain days for children of certain ages.  All appointments are open to adopted children of any age and medical condition, and they are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.  We then notify your agency of the scheduled date and time.  

The last and final step will be getting our Travel Approval (TA) from China which means that we can book our trip and we will finally know our date!

Readying Your Room

Dear Mila,

  We have been busy getting your room ready for when you get home. We hope you love it! We want it to be your pink Princess room. We hope that it will be a place where many happy memories are made. We hope you feel safe and happy here and it will be your safe haven from the outside world. 

Love, 

Ma Ma and Ba Ba

Travel While in China

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is "Do you know when you will travel over to get Mila?" Unfortunately, the answer to that is "no we don't." Right now the best that we can give is an estimate. We've been told that from the time we got our letter of confirmation from the national Visa Center, that the time to travel is approximately 10 weeks. That puts us mid February which stinks because we really wanted to go in January but at least it is getting closer. Right now the US Consulate in Guangzhou is reviewing our paperwork for being able to bring Mila home and make her a citizen. This takes about 4 weeks. Once they approve the paperwork, they will issue an Article 5 to the CCCWA stating that we have met the Hague Convention requirements. We will get a copy of the Article 5 when it is issued. Then the CCCWA reviews the paperwork on their end. Another 3-4 weeks. Once they approve it, they will issue our travel approval (TA). This is the document from china that says we are cleared to enter the country for the purposes of adoption. Once that is issued, we will contact our travel agency (Lotus Travel) and they will start putting our trip together including all the places we will stay, setting up our appointments and helping us book our plane tickets. That is suppose to take 2-3 weeks and then we travel!  So that is where the 10 weeks comes from. And with the holidays we are wondering how much that will slow the process down. We hope not by much!  For now, all we know is that we will fly into Beijing, be there for 2 days, then we will travel to Wuhan City to where Mila lives! We'll be there for 5-6 days and then we will travel to Guangzhou which is where the US Consulate is. There we will complete Milas immigration paperwork and she will officially become a US citizen!  For now, here is a picture showing the drive times between where we will go. 

Visa's Are Here!

Big deal today! We got our visas to enter China for the purpose of adoption. It's one of the last big things we had to do on our end to prep for travel. We have been told that from now until we are in China will be about 10 weeks. 

Update on DiDi

We got an update on Didi last week!  Since we now have our LOA, that opens it up for us to find out more info about her and also to be able to send items like pictures albums, cds, and small items that they can use to explain to her what is getting ready to happen.  First we got some extra info on her...

2. Can we please have her current measurements including weight, height, and foot size?

Weight: 15kg, Height: 89cm, Head circum: 48cm, Chest circum: 54cm, Foot length: 14cm

3. Please explain her current developmental progress?

She could make conversation with others by language. She is able to walk, run and jump alone. She goes up and down stairs with holding onto the railings. She feeds herself with a spoon. She drinks with a cup or a bottle by herself. She dresses herself. She knows her neighbors and often greets them when they meet each other. All the neighbors love her and they often give her snacks and play with her.

4. What is her daily schedule? What is her daily diet? Does she have a favorite food?

7:00am She gets up.

7:30am She eats breakfast including congee, noodles, steamed stuffed buns and dumping etc.

12:00noon she has lunch including rice with dishes and soup.

1:30pm-3:30pm she takes a nap.

6:00pm She has diner including rice with vegetable, meat, fish and egg etc.

9:00pm she goes to bed.

5. Is she attached to a particular caregiver/foster parent? If so, who?

She is attached to her foster parents.

6. What is the makeup of her foster family? Does she have foster siblings? Does she get a long well with them? What her relationship is like with her foster parents as well as other children in the home.

There are her foster parents and their two daughters and her foster brother in her foster family. She gets along well with them. Her foster parents love her as their biological daughter. They often play with her and go out with her.

7. What are her sleeping arrangements? Does she sleep in a crib or with her foster parents?

She sleeps with her foster mother.

8. Does she have a favorite toy and activity?

Doll is her favorite toy.

She likes to go to children’s playground or the park.

9. Does she have a nickname?

She is called by Di Di.

10. Is she potty trained? Or does she wear diapers at night or during the day?

She is potty trained during the day but she wears diapers when she goes out.

Her foster mother reminds her for toilet at midnight in summer and because nights are long in winter she wears diapers for getting all night sleep.

After a long week of waiting, we also got some new pictures!

We Received Our LOA!

The last major hurdle of the process was getting our approval from China.  We have been on pins and needles since we got matched to Mila and informed China that we were interested in adopting her.  It was then all up to them to review our paperwork and make a decision on whether we were a good match for her.  We were expecting this part to take 3-4 months and since we uploaded our paperwork on Aug 28th, we were thinking we would hear something around Christmas time.  So, when Bobby got a call on his phone from Holt during the day on Halloween, he thought for sure they were calling with a problem or bad news.  But with a miracle of miracles, Kristen Henry, our case worker in charge of this portion of the adoption was calling to say that she had good news and that we got our approval from China!!! Needless to say, Bobby was beyond excited and could not wait to find out what steps were next and to get off the phone with Kristen so he could call Larkin and share the news.  Larkin was at work too and Bobby was nervous that he wouldn't be able to get a hold of her.  Luckily, she hadn't left work yet and he caught her at the returns desk.  After some shared tears of joy, and Larkin admitting that it was really hitting her that we are finally going to have a kid, we found out that the next steps involve signing and returning the Letter of Acceptance from China and finishing our I-800 immigration paperwork.  Here is the LOA.