Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Travel Conference Call Yesterday

CCAI held a conference call for all the families who are now awaiting our Travel Approval (TA) for our adoption trip. The Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) issues these, typically between 2-4 weeks following receipt of our signed LOA, which they received on Monday the 2nd. SO we could be getting TA sometime in the next few weeks. Then typically travel takes place 2-4 weeks later, so we are starting to zero in on possibly traveling sometime in the first few weeks of March. It's coming, it's coming! I am excited to possibly travel with some of the moms I have met on our yahoo adoption groups!

Our visa applications are in, our travel paperwork is in, we have several travel agencies poised and ready to give us quotes on our international itinerary once we have firm dates.

LIlly's room is painted, TOm has nearly completed the repair to the hole in her closet from water damage last summer, and this weekend we will finish the job, get the crib set up, get her window shade and valence hung, and finally take (and post) some photos of her lovely new room!

As we eagerly anticipate our "gotcha' day" with Lilly, my level of anxiety over many things does begin to rise. I am trusting God to work in our hearts, minds, and bodies to welcome Lilly into our family, to make the many changes and adjustments to our daily lives (especially mine), to stay healthy as we travel, to manage to help the kids stay on top of their school work as we travel, to be the loving attentive parents EACH of our children need, even as we will likely need to focus much attention on LIlly.

We have dear friends wanting to plan showers and that touches my heart.

We have dear family awaiting word on our travel dates as eagerly as we are.

We are truly blessed.
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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007