Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Adoption Travel Conference Call Tomorrow

Our final travel packet arrived in my e-mail in box last night, and we have a conference call scheduled for our travel group with our agency tomorrow to go over final details. It's all coming together. I am feeling pretty calm about packing (despite my dream last week that I had forgotten to pack anything for Jared to wear!), although I"m sure that by next Monday or Tuesday I'll be a little more frantic! Somehow, despite my best preparations, packing always comes down to the wire for me.

We got our travel innoculations yesterday, so we all have sore arms now. Typhoid in each of our left arms (the most sore!), flu in my right arm, and flu and chicken pox booster in the kids' right arms.

I am excitedly following blogs for families from our agency who are travelling this week, and am praying for one of the families whose paperwork hit some glitches last minute and their travel has been held up as a result. Hoping they get it worked out and can quickly be on their way to their waiting baby.

I have been trying to squeeze in all of those appointments that are so much harder with a toddler in tow: haircut/highlights, eye exam (3 years since my last one!), and hopefully sometime this week a pedicure/manicure! I have also been doing a lot of cooking and baking and putting things in the freezer in preparation for our return.

TOday I am excited to take Tad for a run with my friends Jane and Rachel, then have breakfast with them. But after the fun, I need to crack down and get to work here at home!
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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