UPDATES!

Well...we contacted the NVC last week to get our GUZ #.  We attached our medical expedite letters to the email.  We got the GUZ# and the PDF both on Friday, about and hour apart.   Our agency sent it over the weekend to their in-China rep.  He dropped our article 5 off to the US consulate last night while we slept- Tuesday a.m. in China.   He submitted our medical expedite letters.  We will either wait the standard 2 weeks plus an extra day due to Memorial Day closing or we will have it expedited and our agency's in-country rep will be able to pick it up in 24-48 hours.  We will see.  The other issue is that China is closing down their computer system to re-vamp it this Friday through June 1st.  I know this is affecting dossiers being logged in, but I am hearing mixed reviews on if it will affect Travel Approval (TA) waits- that is our last step once the article 5 gets picked up.   Once we get TA, we set a consulate appointment and backwards plan from there.  We can book our tickets at that time.  It is always last minute.  And depending on when we can go will depend on who goes.  It will either be Rick, me, and Evan or just me and Evan.   We have a lot of things going on in late June/early July.  Rick is out of town a lot, we have a 95th birthday and family reunion for Rick's grandma, we celebrate our 7th anniversary and Reid's 6th birthday July 1st (hope to be able to at least have him by then...we could even get him that day), and the twins' birthday is July 15th, along with Lena's 1 year gotcha day.  We were in China for their birthday last year.  I would hate to miss their birthday two years in a row.  We will see what happens- only God knows!

And to make the day even better, we got our first agency update!   Here are the updated pictures and info we got.  He looks SO big- so tall!   I'll have to compare his measurements to my other boys. 

 He loves playing outside and that slide!  He will fit in here well! :)

 This one is my favorite above!

What is his favorite color(s)?  Blue
What does he like to do for fun?  Toy cars, airplane, guns
Who is he closest to?  His teachers and caretakers.
Does he have a best friend?  Bao Fuyu and Bao Xinji.
How does he do in school?  Good.  He likes helping others and is well behaved.  He is obedient and easygoing.  He likes learning Chinese character, math and music.
Does he sleep soundly at night?  Yes
Does he still take a nap during the day? Yes
How would you describe his personality?  He is happy and extrovert.
*FAVORITE ONE:  How did  he react to knowing he has a family?  He is excited and happy about it.  He wants to see parents ASAP.
Has he had any concerns or fears about joining a family that we should know about to help him adjust? No.  He is a social child and gets along well with other children easily.
What are some of his favorite foods?  Sweet food like lollipop, chicken leg as well.
Any foods he really dislikes?  No
What does he like to drink? Drinks.  *This one didn't help us much...lol.

Updated measurements:
Weight: 18.90kf  Height: 109.0 cm  Head 49.0cm
Chest: 59.5 cm   Foot 17.0 cm    Teeth: 20

           

We FINALLY have

I-800 Approval

 

We had receieved our Letter of Approval from China on April 22nd.  It arrived via FedEx on April 23rd and was mailed overnight mail to USCIS- Immigration.   It had to go through the lockbox in Texas- that takes entirely to long and then to Missouri where our officer waits for it to hit her desk to approve it.  I called her at least a times over the past couple of weeks.  Each time she'd give me a new day to check in with her.  I called last Friday thinking it would for sure be approved.  Everyone else whose papers were received on April 24th like ours had received their approval last Tuesday or Wednesday.   She told me it was on her supervisor's desk and to check in the following Tuesday.   I just wanted to hang up.  I didn't expect that at all.  She kept talking to me and then said Happy Mother's Day!  I started crying at that point and barely could get out a 'you too!' before hanging up.   I called on Tuesday only to have to leave a message.  Never got a call back.  I was prepared to call back Wednesday afternoon.  She ended up calling me around noon and told me we were approved, Monday, May 13th and that it was mailed from them (National Benefits Center) to the National Visa Center (NVC) in New Hampshire on Tuesday via 2 day mail.  That  means the NVC should receive it today.  Once it is unloaded and checked in, they will issue us a GUZ #.  Once we have that GUZ # we can request a PDF via email that we send to our agency rather than waiting for the actual document to come in the mail.   We should get our GUZ # tomorrow or Monday and our PDF Monday or Tuesday.  Once our agency has that PDF, they can signal their in-China person to drop off our papers at the US consulate, which has been closed most of this week due to a threat.  That is called the Article 5.  It takes two weeks from drop off to pick-up.  We will see if we have any luck with expediting that step.  Once we have Article 5, we wait for China to issue our Travel Approval (TA).  Once we have TA and are given a consulate appointment, we backwards plan from there and can book our flights.   Most families leave 1-3 weeks from TA.   It is looking like we'll be traveling in early July.  It's hard to say if we will make his 6th birthday or not, July 1st.  

He Knows he has a Family...for REAL!

WOW!  What a day.  I woke up to many new pictures of Reid from a traveling family, who not only got to meet him, but who got to hand deliver our first package to him with a treat, some pictures we made for him, and a photo album with many photos of our family and home.  He officially knows he has a family!!!  Maybe he knew before, maybe he didn't.  But it is official now. :)   Oh to have been a fly on the wall at that moment.  Can you even imagine being a 5, almost 6 year old boy and seeing so many of your friends being chosen and leaving with their families?  Can you imagine what that must feel like? I don't even want to think about it.  But I saw a boy in photos and video in spring of 2011 who was so happy, smiling...simply precious.  About a year ago or so, many of his friends started leaving with their families.  You could see that smile fade and his new face in pictures was heartbreaking.  It looked like his hope had totally been stolen from him. It looked as if he was thinking: Why is no one choosing me?  Will I ever have a family come for me?  How many more kids and friends will I have to watch leave?  Little did he know that we were watching him.  We were watching every agency he was listed with.  It just wasn't the right timing and we could not get approved to adopt two at once.  I think my face looked something like his in those later pictures when we drove by the exit for his orphanage on our way from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to head home with Lena.  Heartbroken....for him.  Fast forward 9 months and here we are!  He now knows he has a family!  Yes, one of his own.  He knows there is a family on the other side of the world who loves him.  He knows he has a lot of brothers and a sister.  He knows someone really does care, someone chose him.  He knows a family will be coming for him soon- soon he will be leaving and it will be his turn!  Yet, inside, I am sure he is scared too.  What will it be like leaving all you have ever known, every care taker who has cared for you since you were about 1 year old, every friend still there waiting for their families or waiting to be chosen?  What will it be like to go with a family to a new place totally different than where you are now- such different scenery, different smells, different food, and a totally different language?  These kids are my heroes.  They are amazing!

But for today, we'll focus on the face that says it all.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did.
And Randi, words cannot express enough gratitude for the feelings I have today thanks to you and your family taking that package to our son!

So happy to see the kids are loved while they wait.

 Group pictures

 HAVING FUN!

                                                    Getting ready to get his package from Randi!

The candy came out first- I heard he shared it with every kid in the room...sweet boy!

 Checking out the photo album and the pictures we made for him!

 Randi said: "He was so, so sweet. He just stared and stared and was all smiles. I could tell he knew that you were his family. The workers read the book to him twice in the little bit of time that we were there, and he just looked so happy about it. He really liked the drawing that the kids did for him too. When he came to the candy he generously opened it and passed them around to his friends that were in the room."


Another friend said that he will know every picture and name because the orphanage will go over the album may times to help prepare him.  :)

 Showing his photo album to Jennifer who is one of Randi's daughters.  It looks like they were friends! :)

That's a lot of people checking us out! ;)

  More photos of the kids together!

LOA!!

We found out in early April that we were out of translation...one step closer to getting our letter of approval (LOA) from China!   I was wondering if we would end up getting it on Evan's birthday, the same day we got Lena's last year.  Nope- not in the plans.   However, we did get the call on yesterday, Monday, April 22nd from our agency that our LOA had arrived!  YAY!  That was 33 days from being logged in, which is very good. However, LOAs have been coming very quickly lately. I saw one at day 10, 14, and 17 and MANY in the 20s and the 30s- all non medical expedites.  There have been some people having to wait 40-60 days and a few more really unlucky ones who had to wait in the 70-90 day range.  All of these are still so much better than last year's waits.  But I am now thinking we may have not been expedited at all.   Hoping we can at least expedite a few things towards the end of the process!  

Today our LOA came via Fed Ex, along with some other documents we need to file our I-800 with immigration here in the US.   We will send it out over night mail today so that they get it tomorrow.  That process will likely take 2-3 weeks and then our agency can submit our article 5 at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China.  Dropping off the article 5 to pick-up is 10 business days or 2 weeks.  This is a step we are hoping to expedite.   Once you have that, you wait for China to issue your Travel Approval (TA) and you can leave 1-3 weeks later, depending on the date of your Consulate Appointment (CA).  So I think we are looking at 6 weeks at the shortest-10 or 11 weeks at most until we are on a plane to China to go get our son!  WOW!   So much to do yet too...a couple more grants to apply for, a few books to read and write reports on for our agency, and of course just the every day stuff that consumes our time.  

There is a wonderful family in China now who met their two daughters yesterday, both from Reid's orphanage.  They took a photo album with pictures of our family and home (captioned in English and Chinese) to give to him.  He will get that on April 29th.  We are not sure if he already knows he has a family based on the people always wanting to get a picture or video of him, but he will for sure know soon if he doesn't already!   We are hoping the photo album helps him get to know our faces and the things we like to do to help prepare him even a little bit.  We are coming soon sweet boy!  We know so many of your friends have gone and that you have waited so long.  It will be your turn very soon little cutie!

Lastly, we got a nice surprise picture of Reid from October of 2011, about five months after I first saw his precious face and fell in love.  It is definitely one of my favorites! 

LID

Oftentimes, families end up logged in and don't even know it until after the fact.  Agencies don't find out their families have their paperwork logged in unless they ask.   Today we found out that our paperwork was logged in on March 20th...our official log-in date (LID).   The day you have your LID is the day you start counting for your letter of approval (LOA).   So that means we have 8 days of the LOA wait behind us.   YAY!   The LOA wait is the reason why we can't tell our family and friends when we'll be traveling.  It usually ranges from about 30 days to 150 days.  50s and 60s have been average this year, but a few weeks ago there were a ton that came back in the 20s and 30s.  That is unheard of, especially considering those were not for medical expedites.  I even had a friend who is adopting a child with the same special need as our son get hers in 9 days..yes NINE!   Amazing!   But, I am going to try not to get my hopes up because there are people waiting in the 70s, 80s, and more.  We are hoping for a medical expedite, but we will see.    Travel is usually 2-3 months from LOA, 2.5 months being average.   We're hoping to make it quicker than that with a bit of expediting.  We have 3 months and 3 days until little man's 6th birthday our goal has always been to get to him before his next birthday.  June is CRAZY for Rick.  God has a plan though and it will work out however it works out. 

More Pictures while we Wait

My friend Beth met her son recently, who happens to be from the same orphanage as our son.   She went to the orphanage visit and was able to meet our son, as well as three boys still waiting for a family to choose them.   She said: "It was very hectic there that day.  He smiled, but not for the camera. When he tipped the pig over, he laughed! The staff were all talking at once to him, so I think his look is more of confusion and being a bit overwhelmed. He liked the bracelet Bobby gave him. I noticed the buzz cut, but it looked like a lot of the boys had fresh haircuts." 

It is so nice to get little glimpses of his personality and his sweet face while waiting to go get him.  Pictures are definitely bittersweet.

Here are the pictures she got of him:

Bowling to Bring Home Reid Update

A huge thank you to all our family and friends who came out today to bowl to help us with our Brittany's Hope matching grant goal!   Thank you to those of you who supported our raffle as well and congratulations to those of you who won.  You all are a blessing to us.

Our kids took turns pulling out names, except for a friend who pulled out the name for the Easter basket that every kid in the place wanted and for Rick's brother Ron who pulled out the name for the cheese, since he made it. :)

Here is the list of winners!  Some of you lucky people won multiple items. :)

Admirals Hockey tickets: Justin Smith

Beloit Snappers Tickets- LaVonne

Butterfly framed art- Nelson family

Autographed Green Bay Packer football- Linse/Potter family

Roses framed art- Lambert Family

Usborne book and picture frame- Lambert Family

Photo bag- Nelson Family

Usborne book set- Lambert Family

Set of 6 glasses- Mabry Family

Dragonfly Hanging Art- Jonas Haywood

Avon set- LaVonne

Tupperware Lunchbox set- Ungaro family

Easter Basket- Landyn

Tupperware set of bowls- Justin Smith

Set of wine glasses- Mabry family

Zainey and Zoe collection- Mabry family

Cheese and home made cutting board- Lambert family