I-800A Approval, Authentication, and NEW Pictures...

Oh my!

We were able to successfully walk-in early for fingerprints on Tuesday, Feb. 19th.  We walked in around 10 minutes to 1 o'clock and got right in and out.  Best experience with immigration so far!   We called our officer that day to let her know.  That Friday, I called to check in.  She said she had approved them the next day, Wednesday the 20th, but that the office was closed one day due to snow and not many were working the following day either so she wasn't sure what day they did or would be going out in the mail.  We finally got the approval in the mail, Thursday, February 28th. 

This morning, Lena, Jayce, and I drove up to Madison to walk our 3 dossier documents in to the Secretary of State.  They needed to certify the notary signature/stamp.   We had a set amount of time to get there after dropping the other kids off at school.  We had to be there by 10 a.m. for them to do it same day service.  We had no idea how long we'd have to hang out in Madison for until they were done.  We had some trouble finding the building and it was so windy and cold, but we eventually found it....in the nick of time too- 10-15 minutes to spare.  We went up to the 10th floor to an old office that was super quiet with three women working.  A lady came to the counter, we told her what we were there to do, and she said "let me do it right now."   In less than 10 minutes, she had it done and we were off!   A big thank you to my brother, Jeremiah, for picking Landyn up at school so we could do this today!

Tomorrow these same documents will get mailed to a courier out of Illinois.  She will take them into the consulate/China embassy in Chicago and they will get authenticated.  PLEASE PRAY they are ACCEPTED!  Many people have been getting them back rejected.  :(  We don't have time for that.   I am only a little nervous about one of them.  Dates are good.  Just worried about the wording a bit.   Praying it is fine.  Once we get those back- hopefully late next week or early the following week, we can submit everything to our agency and finally be Dossier to China (DTC).....oh how I can't wait for that! 

And on top of I-800A approval, after 4 months of waiting, we finally got updated pictures of our son thanks to a traveling family who adopted a darling little girl from Reid's orphanage.  They went back for an orphanage visit and were allowed to meet a handful of kids whose families were in process. THANK YOU, Tana and Curtis. We are so grateful! 

Pictures are so bittersweet during the wait- so great to have- a blessing.  They keep you going.  But, so hard too because it makes your heart hurt for them so much more.  It makes you see how much they've grown and you think of all the things you've missed out on.  It makes you wish you could just get on a plane and go get them NOW!   Too bad it isn't that easy.   So many things to do, so many hoops to jump through.  But you just do it and then one day, it's your turn and it's time to pack and get on that plane and then the magical day finally arrives....gotcha day.  The day there is one less orphan in the world.  It is not an easy journey, but it is an amazing one and it is ALWAYS worth it.

How I cannot wait to meet this precious boy and be his forever mama!

 

From a distance...

Closer.....this one reminds me of Evan.  A little nervous at first.

 Love this one...

 

 Slide Time!

 With his buddy who happens to be an adoption friend of mine's son to be! :) We hope we might travel at the same time!  How cool would that be!?!

 We heard they are both ALL boy.  He'll fit right in here. :)

 Haha....boys..gotta love them!