Stick People Book in Progress

Okay so I got this fabulous idea from another adoptive mom that I met at a McDonald’s randomly recently. She made a book for her adopted son when she went to go get him that detailed their entire trip to go get him and bring him home. It was stick people with the actual pictures of family members for the heads. She had shots of the interior of planes, airports, their home, the medical centers, hotels etc. And I loved this idea. She said she thought it really helped her son to know what was coming next and made him feel more at ease and comfortable in their travels. Granted her son was 4 and Hope is only less than 2…so I don’t know how much she will get out of it, but Eden LOVES it thus far. She loves pointing out all the family members and calling them by name. If nothing else, it has been very therapeutic for me to make, bwaha ha ha ha ha. No seriously I’m having a ball and my sweet friend Julie has been such a huge help feeding me pictures from her recent trip to China to help me out! So here are the current pages I have. I am in the process of making several “at home” pages ie. inside of the van in car seats, inside of her and Eden’s bedroom, inside of living room, kitchen, and playroom! If she likes it then it will help her to familiarize herself with our home long before she gets there. I will make an 8X8 copy to have around the hotel and a 2x2 copy to bring out and about with us. Enjoy!

 

Received .pdf and it has been sent to Lily!

Okay so really…I don’t need to say anymore than the title, but of course I will… So the NVC emailed me the .pdf at 6:05 a.m. I opened my email at 6:28 a.m. and forwarded it to Karla so she would have it when she arrived at work later this morning. Well at 6:31 a.m. I got an email from Karla that said it was already forwarded to China!!! So the hope is that Lily will be able to go to the Consulate tomorrow (Thursday) and thus tomorrow will begin our 2 week A5 wait!!!! Yay!! It’s getting real now people!!!

Cabled on 23 Mar 2012

Okay so I broke down and called the NVC to make sure our information was indeed cabled…it was. They told me I should receive my approval letter in .pdf format via email sometime tomorrow…here’s to hoping!!

P.S. Today is our 13 year wedding anniversary. Woot! Woot!

Paperwork Update

Okay this is not going to be gripping information, but I bears documenting so tune out if you need to. We got our I-800 “Provisional Acceptance”, to make an orphan a member of our family, letter from Homeland Security sometime during spring break…March 21 or something. Here it is below…hold on to your socks…

Try to restrain yourself people I know it’s thrilling paperwork. But it only gets better if you can handle it. We also got our Visa’s back on the same day…

 

Could you just scream, this is so cool….

Alright, enough lameness, it actually is pretty cool. But the best part is where our paperwork actually is in the process now. What the I-800 signifies is that Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration, has turned over our information to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will “cable” all our information to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, where it will sit. The NVC will mail me a letter saying they have done this. However, I emailed them to see if they will email me a .pdf of the letter (makes the wait time a couple days shorter). When I receive the .pdf via email I forward it to my agency, Lifeline, immediately. They then forward it to their liaison (Lily or Rebecca) in China. The liaison will hand carry a copy of this .pdf, an application for Hope’s Visa, and our LOA to the U.S. Consulate in GZ, China. They are submitting for us what is called an Article 5. The cool phrases we now will use are Art 5 drop and Art 5 picked up. It takes exactly 2 weeks for the consulate to process our A5. Two weeks to the day our liaison will go back to pick up our A5 from the consulate. They then immediately hand deliver it to the CCCA. These are the people who will issue our travel approval (TA) and let us know when we get to come to China! When our A5 is dropped off a the CCCA then it is 2-3 weeks (roughly) for us to get TA. This TA will have our consulate date in it which determines when we travel. Normally from the receipt of your TA you travel within two weeks time. So we could be leaving in 7 weeks…sooner or later.

So things are now starting to move rapidly. Here is the prayer request. We are praying that we get TA well before May 16th and can book our travel. May 16th is the current date that China will almost double airline ticket prices because it will begin their high season for tourists. And let’s not forget what gas prices are doing to airline tickets shall we? So, we are getting down to crunch time now. Keep praying that God continues to prepare Hope for our arrival and that he is getting her heart ready to embrace ours. Keep praying that God is doing the same in all of our hearts here in the U.S. Williamson household as well, especially little Eden. More musings to follow.

Just Some Reasons Why Lifeline Rocks…

Back to the travel meeting…so they mentioned that a good plane ride activity would be to come up with questions you want to ask the nannies on Gotcha day about your child. When I heard this my ears perked up and I raised  my hand to mention that I wasn’t aware this would be possible at my child’s specific orphanage. I have had two friends recently that never got that opportunity on Gotcha Day. The nannies bolted as soon as possible. The teacher of the class says… “If your guide lets the nannies get away before you can ask them questions they will have us to answer to! That is a huge part of their job on Gotcha Day.” It was a,  ‘they will either get the information or die trying,’ kind of response. I was so shocked at that response. Then they went on to talk about how they have trained guides in each province of China and they know the drill. So I am excited to be able to have this opportunity, well I hope I will at least. I had already had it in my mind that I would tackle a nanny down if I had to in order to get just 3 important questions answered, it is nice to know my guide will be actively working towards the same goal. Now having said that, I know better than to have any real expectations. So it will just be a bonus and a huge blessing if the questions dealio comes to pass!

The next reason I love this agency is that they have an incredible liaison, Lily, in China, who is very well respected and known. Because of this we believe she is the reason people from Lifeline are being able to visit the new Children’s Love Garden…Hope’s orphanage. It has been said around the boards that you can’t visit this orphanage, but apparently a couple from Lifeline is or has just visited this week I think. So it is planned in the schedule for the Gotcha week…we are supposed to get Hope on a Monday and then visit the orphanage on Thursday. I sure do hope this comes to fruition. It will cost us more money but I know it would be well worth it. They were talking about how it is a cementing moment to visit the orphanage and then walk out with Hope. For her, although it is painful, it is supposed to be very helpful and therapeutic for both the grieving and attachment process. Lifeline very much suggests that you visit the orphanage, they stop just short of making it mandatory.  I really hope we get to do this because by the time we get her she will have spent almost half her life in this second orphanage. I pray we get to meet nannies and take pictures and videos for Hope. But again…low expectations….smile.

Third reason, they rock… have to tell you the fact that our agency supports the preservation of our child’s history is so wonderful. They will even try to arrange visiting your child’s “finding spot”, if possible. Since I believe Hope was found in a city 7 hours away by car, I don’t’ see that happening for us. However, if somehow she was freakishly left in a suburb of Chongqing City also named Qianjiang (the city 7 hours away by car) then bonus! It would be like her being left in Hoover of Birmingham…but I don’t think that is her situation. At any rate, it is just cool that they go to such lengths for our children benefit. It gives me some confidence that we will be able to do well by Hope with regards to collecting as much information as we can about her past. But if all these wonderful intentions of our agency blow up in our face and nothing is gleaned or learned…all will still be well. I will be glad just to have my baby girl in my arms.