Article 5!

We received word from our agency that our Article 5 will be delivered to Beijing on Monday.  Then we wait for our Travel Approval.  We are anxious and excited. We are getting close.  We're praying that things will go fast so we can be in China in 4 weeks.  God's plan is perfect. We're ready to see what His plan is.  Not much longer.  We're getting so close.

I also woke up to a sweet photo of Hope. This was taken in April 2006.  Just a few weeks before her 7th birthday.  I can not wait to love on this little girl.  I had a dream last night that she was brought to All Children's Hospital in St. Pete for her palate surgery. We found out and I said "we are going". So we went and did not let anyone know that we were her future family. We did not want them to tell us we could not see her.  In my dream we met Hope there and she was perfect.  Then I woke up.  I can not wait to meet her & Maggie.  I hope our meeting is great and that they are happy when they meet us.

TWO WEEKS!!!

In Two Weeks, we will officially be waiting for China to issue our Travel Approval (TA).  We are SO excited.  This wait can take 1-3 weeks (on average).  So 3-5 weeks from now we should know when our travel dates will be.  We are praying that we receive our first choice of Consulate Appointments (which would be ASAP).  So, if we get early CA, we could be leaving in 5-7 weeks from now.

We are now talking with our travel coordinator with our adoption agency.  She emailed us the hotels we will be staying at.  I'm so excited and looking up the one in Beijing and in Hefei. Because we've never stayed in these hotels before.  We are staying at the China Hotel Marriott in Guangzhou. We stayed there the last time and it's wonderful!

We are staying in the Poly Plaza Hotel in Beijing

We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown Hefei

We will be staying at the China Hotel Marriott in Guangzhou

We've Been CABLED!

I'm so happy. I screamed with delight (and freaked my family out).  We received an email this afternoon from the National Visa Center stating that our applications have been forwarded to China.  This is GREAT news. And it happened fast.  We were put in their system Wed night.  And cabled Friday afternoon.

So we immediately called our agency and emailed the PDF's to them.  We just received an email from our agency saying the girls visa applications are now on their way to China. They should arrive on Monday and we're praying they are dropped off at the consulate on Tuesday.  If they are, then on Tuesday June 26th they should be ready to be picked up and then forwarded to Beijing where we will then wait for our TA.  We could receive our TA hopefully the first 2 weeks of July.  And then we get our CA (consulate appointment) fast so we could leave a week after TA (that is our hope).

So if everything goes how we want it, we could leave by July 26th.  The latest we think we could leave is August 9th.  If we leave August 9th, I will miss the kids first day of school.  :-(  So we're praying we can leave the end of July.

Thanks for praying with us.  We're getting close.

Happy Day!-UPDATED!

Updated below original post

"Hello,

Congratulations! Your I-800 provisional approval notice was approved on 6/1/2012. You will receive a hard copy in the mail within a few days.

I hope this information helps."




I am beyond excited!  FINALLY!!!!  Our I800's have been APPROVED!  It took 18 days from when it was received in TX.  But it's done!  YAHOOOOOO!!!!  And it was done on Maggie's 12th birthday.  What a GREAT birthday gift.  :-)


Next step, politely emailing the NVC starting in a week requesting our PDF to send to our adoption agency.  Receiving the PDF via email will save us about a week waiting for the hard copy to come in the mail.  Our agency needs this (it's the info saying our approval has been cabled to Guangzhou, China) so they can send the girls Visa Applications to China.


Once that is sent, we wait 2 weeks for our Article 5 to be picked up.  


Once the Article 5 is picked up, it goes to the CCCWA where they will then issue our Travel Approval (TA).  This can take 1-3 weeks. 


Once we receive our TA, then our agency requests our Consulate Appointment (CA).  We usually find this date out within a day.  


As soon as that is made, we plan our travel.  We leave 2 weeks before the CA date.  So we could leave 1-4 weeks after we receive our TA.  


Right now, we think it's highly likely we could be leaving around August 2nd or August 9th. Looks like we might be spending our 21st wedding anniversary in China.  :-)  


We are ready!  And so happy to be on to the next phase of this journey.  


UPDATE:
Our I800 approvals came in the mail TODAY.  And it has an approval date of 5/31 (Thursday).  NOT 6/1.  So we are ONE day closer to the girls than we thought.  PRAISE GOD!  

Happy Birthday Maggie

Today is Maggie's 12th birthday.  We wish we could be there with her.  But unfortunately we are still waiting on more approvals.  So we sent her a birthday party.  She received a letter from us, a Panda Bear stuffed animal, some candy, fruit to share with her friends and a cake.  They celebrated early since today is International Children's Day.  It's a big deal in China.  So I'm sure they are busy with those celebrations.

We received photos the other day.  I love seeing the smiles. I love how they are trying to get Hope & Maggie to act like sisters.  I hope that they have started to bond in that way.

Here are a few photos from the party.  As far as the approvals go...We have an officer who does not think that every day matters. She is slow and will continue to be slow. She will get to it when she gets to it.  We did not have a good phone conversation with her the other day so we are very upset.  She is rude & ugly. We are praying that she did approve us and that we are already on to the next phase of approvals.  3 more approvals before we can book travel. We hope that we will get them all by this time next month.

Happy Birthday Maggie. We're trying to get there as fast as we can!  We love you.

The fruit

The Cake

Ready for the party

Sisters!

Look at Hope Laughing!  I love it

My favorite photo.