Our Article 5 Has Been Completed!!!

We received an email overnight that said our Article 5 has been completed and now our agency representative can deliver it to the CCCWA who will then issue our TA (Travel Approval) to come get our son!

My favorite part of the email is where it states:
"We look forward to meeting you and your new family member when you come to the Consulate for your visa appointment!"

With any luck our TA will arrive mid January and we can make our travel plans!

Once again a huge "THANK YOU!" to all who have contributed to help us bring our son home and for the prayers for our family!

The money will be used toward our trip to China. Currently we have sold 202 pieces of the puzzle and every little bit helps out! I have extended our ChipIn on the side to go till the end of January so there is still time if you so desire to contribute. We really appreciate it all!

New Photo's

New Photo's of our Son!

NVC Letter

I received the email yesterday with a copy of our NVC Letter that was Cabled to China the same day!

This letter, along with all our other paperwork, gets taken to the US Embassy in Guangzhou. This will happen early next week and then it takes a standard 2 weeks for them to review everything and issue our Article 5 letter stating everything is in order for the adoption. Once this is complete it is taken to the CCCWA and they will then issue a Travel Approval (TA) for us to come and get our son!!! TA is the last step, we are getting so close!!

What an exciting time for our family!!!

Update....

We were happy to receive and update on our little boy!!

Since all the height and weight measurements we had were from when he was 4 months old we asked Holt to get an update for us.

We were told that he now weights 24 pounds and is 27" long. There goes my theory to take 12 month sized clothes...guess we will pack 18 month size! It is nice to see that he is a healthy little boy. He can climb, sit and stand up by something. He is starting to use a cup to drink and gets excited when he see's his favorite things. They told us he is lively and likes to smile!

All Good News!!!

There were no updated photo's attached but they said they are working to hopefully get some for us!!

Still waiting for NVC to tell us they have cabled our approval to China...that should come any day now!

The countdown is on!

I-800 Approval!!!

Yesterday I placed a call to the USCIS and was told that our I-800 had been approved just that day! We have a YES on both the China and USA side of the paperwork. Robbie's application for US citizenship has been approved!

The FedEx man also arrived and delivered our Passports back with our Visa stickers in them so we are able to enter China.

For these things we are VERY Thankful!!

That was our last "unknown step" things are now in order and we are waiting to finish the final steps so we can travel in February to bring Robbie home. Next our I-800 Approval gets sent to the NVC (National Visa Center) and we wait for our USA file to be cabled to the U.S. Consulate in China so they will be ready for when we arrive there. This should happen next week.



PUZZLE UPDATE:

So far 157 pieces have been purchased (including cash donations not shown on the chip in) which is AMAZING!

A huge thank you to those who have bought their pieces so far! We only have 393 left to go!

Yesterday as I took the puzzle out of the box to assemble the pieces that have been purchased so far, I realized how much it is like this adoption and for that matter sometimes how much it is like God's plan for our lives. There are all these pieces. The instructions (Bible) say it is this beautiful piece of art, but just look at this jumbled mess. It looks as if there is no way there could ever be a beautiful picture in there. Some of the pieces are weird looking, it's a complex mess, at 1st glance nothing looks like it fits, and at one point I didn't think it had enough pieces. But God called us to this and if we just stay focused on HIS plan, HIS will for our lives... piece by piece it will come together. And before we know it, we can see HIS masterpiece! HIS plan is perfect!

Each piece is just $10.

Your name will go on it so Robbie will know who helped bring him home.

Progress...

Were making progress...Slowly but Shirley...

We got notification today that USCIS has received our I-800 (on Nov. 14th) and are working on our approval. We are told this process will take about 3 weeks for them to send our PA to us. Not sure if that will take a bit longer due to the Thanksgiving holiday this week.

Our Visa applications were taken to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago today and they can be picked up by our courier next week Tuesday and we then sent back to us!

We also found out that due to the Chinese New Year in January that Holt will not be sending families to China after January 6th. Since that pushes travel back for many families that could travel in January it could possibly delay our travel a bit. Keep praying that we can at least spend Robbie's first birthday with him on Feb. 27th!! I have to keep reminding myself that it's GOD'S plan for when we will travel not MINE. And it will all work out!

We were also able to ask our agency for an update on Robbie as our last update was in Sept. So we should see an update on him in a couple weeks!

We continue to ask for your prayers that the end of the paper chase goes smoothly and quickly for us so we can hold our son in our arms soon!

Our LOA has arrived!!!

We have great news to report...After 71 long days of waiting...I got the call on Wednesday evening from Holt that they received our LOA and that she was sending it FedEx overnight to our home!!!
Last Wednesday brought our first snowfall of the season and did we get pounded! We got around 6 inches of really heavy wet snow. And we lost power. Since it was my cousin Katy's Birthday on Thursday my Mom, Makenna and I drove down to Appleton...in the snow, to take her out to Red Lobster and stay in a hotel so we could relax in the pool and hot tub. So I got the call from Holt as I was standing in Toys R Us!!!! I did a happy dance right then and there! So we had 2 things to celebrate that evening at Red Lobster!
Thursday after some morning shopping we headed back home and returned home to no power once again. Makenna had dance and swim lessons and then we spent the night at my parents home. Power was once again restored to our home late on Thursday night. After taking Makenna to preschool on Friday morning I returned home and Derek and I got our LOA signed and our I-800 paperwork ready to go and all was sent out Friday afternoon via Fed Ex!
So the countdown is on!!! We should be on schedule to go to China in February! Now we have to apply for our visa's while we wait for our I-800 Provisional Approval to come from USCIS.
It's so nice to have more of a timeline of when we will be going to China! Let the packing begin!

Makenna Enjoying our First Snowfall



An update on our fundraiser....
We have really been blessed! We have sold 119 pieces of the puzzle!!!
THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to help us bring Robbie home!!!

The Things People Say...

Miss Makenna had a dentist apt. last week and of course she proceeded to tell her hygienist that she is getting a brother from China. This is her favorite thing to share with EVERYONE! It's so cute! Anyway as we were scheduling her next apt. the hygienist was telling me about her visit and that she had no cavities and such and then said "she told me she is getting a baby brother from China" I told the woman that yes indeed she was getting a brother from China. There were 3 ladies behind the desk and all of them, at the same time, said "Your getting a boy from China? How do you get a boy from China?"
I just had to chuckle a bit and once again explain that yes there are boys in China who need homes and how international adoption has changed over the years especially the China program. I am sure we will get a lot of this over the years to come. November is national adoption month so I am happy to help spread the word that there are many kids in this world who need a forever family!
As for our fundraiser I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has generously donated to help us bring our son home. We have sold 93 puzzle pieces and that makes for a total of $930.00!!!! We really appreciate every penny of it as I have started to price airfare! We welcome any and all donations as we work toward our goal of completing the puzzle.
God Bless You All!!!

Thankful

Just wanted to give you an update on our fundraiser.
Thus far we have raised $280.00 to help bring Robbie home. THANK YOU so much to our wonderful family and friends, we are truely blessed! I know we have a long way to go but we are so thankful for each piece sold as it brings us one step closer. This total does not correspond to our ChipIn link at the right as we have received money directly from supporters.

We also got a bit of an update from Holt yesterday that our PA date was 9/5/11 and our dossier is still in translation. Based on this time frame we could expect to see our LOA around the end of November. We can always pray it will come sooner, as we are in a bit of a holding pattern until we get the LOA.

Again Thank You to everyone who has helped us in any way on this journey to our son.

Updated Photo's

I was so excited to see an email from Ann at Red Thread China with updated photo's of our son!!!




He is so hansom in his new PJ's !!!
I just love those chubby cheeks and can't wait to squeeze them!

We still need to raise some more money to help bring him home! There are a few more donations that we have received from family and friends that were not done via the ChipIn link so our total collected is a bit more. A huge THANK YOU! to everyone for there generous donations to be part of Robbie's adoption puzzle!!!
God Bless You All!

Care Package

A few weeks ago I contacted Ann at Red Thread China about sending Robbie a care package from us. Ann did an awesome job shopping and found the cutest sleeper, blanket and Snuffleupagus toy for Robbie. She also included candies for his caregivers and a camera to ask for updated photo's. Ann would also translate a 400 word letter for us however, what do you say to a 7 month old baby so the letter was short and sweet. It can be hard to send things over to China for our children but Ann lives in Guangzhou and buys the things there to send out. She has worked with many families and orphanages over the years and does a great job.
Ann updated us on the status of the care package and told us it was delivered to him on Tuesday.

Be a piece of the puzzle that helps bring Robbie Home!

While I don't think it takes a village to raise a child it DOES take a village to adopt one. Anyone who was involved in our paperwork journey can attest to that! The journey for our family has been a long one for Derek and I. We have been at the process of creating a family for 9 years and we are so close to having it all come together.

Some of you have asked how you can help us our with Robbie's Adoption.

Here is a great way you can help.

We are taking a "Flying Leap of Faith" and we invite you to join us!
We still need to raise over $10,000 to bring Robbie Home!!! We know that it is God's plan for this child to no longer be an orphan and to be our son and that HE will provide the funds to make it happen, PIECE BY PIECE!!! We are selling pieces to a puzzle (picture shown above), and to the vision God gave us, that will be sealed and framed when completed as a reminder of how faithful our Father is and of those who have supported us on this journey. Each piece is just $10! For each piece you purchase your name will go on the back so some day Robbie can look at it and see the names of the people who love him! You may purchase your pieces by check, cash, or securely via the ChipIn on the right side of the page.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers!!!

Each piece is just $10.

Your name will go on it so Robbie will know who helped bring him home.

Update!!!

I was happily surprised to open my email this afternoon and see and email from Holt with an update on our little guy! He is 6 1/2 months old now.
We did get an updated photo and I just love those chubby cheeks! They tell us that he has his own caregiver and he can crawl, roll over and sit up. He is at the same level as his peers in development so that is exactly what we wanted to hear! They tell us he is able to recognize his Chinese given name and has not had any health problems or illnesses in the past six months.
We are so thankful for this information. We continue to pray for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) to come from China soon so we can get the ball rolling on the paperwork we need to complete to get our travel dates and get our baby home!
We ask for continued prayers for Robbie and that our LOA comes soon! I would love to have him home around his Birthday which is the end of February.

Our Baby Boy!

4 Months Old