Back in January, I wrote out a list of approvals we needed before we could travel to meet our new little sweetie. I also wrote down some estimated time frames each approval generally takes. Our Letter of Intent was sent 1/31/2013. I estimated our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) to be about the middle of April and travel sometime between July and September. After LOA, there is I800, Article 5, and travel approval
When I saw I missed a call from Holt this afternoon I thought perhaps they were looking for all of the paperwork that I was planning on going throught this past weekend. Turns out Holt was calling to tell me that they received our LOA! I could not believe how fast that arrived! Holt commented on how quick it arrived too.
Tonight I finished most of that paperwork that I was supposed to work on over the weekend. We will have a couple of papers notarized tomorrow, then we can send to Holt. Our LOA arrives tomorrow and I will work on the next step regarding I800.
The surprisingly fast turnaround means that travel may be sooner than I expected. We may actually travel as early as 3 months from now!! I can not believe it!! We may be in China in the middle of summer! Yay!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
We received the call!!!
We still can not believe it! On January 24th, the call came! Our beautiful little girl is waiting for us in Wuhan City, China. She is 23 months old, walking and talking and totally adorable.
We have been told by Holt to plan to wait 6-9 months before this family of 3 can travel to China to become our family of 4.
Here is our sweet little girl-
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We have been told by Holt to plan to wait 6-9 months before this family of 3 can travel to China to become our family of 4.
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Sunday, October 21, 2012
The Next Journey
It has been a long time since I posted - life has been so amazing and busy with Linh. I finally decided to revisit the blog so that I can record this new chapter in our lives. I just checked Holt's website, and its official. Our dossier was officially logged into China on 10/11/2012. Yes, that's right, we are adopting a child from China. We are very excited. Linh is looking forward to being a big sister. We applied a year ago to the China Child of Promise program with Holt. It took a while to compile our paperwork for homestudy. Mostly because the holidays were right after we applied. Then the dossier was a bit more involved. We had one document rejected by the Chinese consulate, which meant that we had to go back to my doctor for a new notarized letter, have it state certified and then sent again to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. And we had to hire a courier to bring two documents to the Chinese Embassy in New York. Those were John's birth certificate and my employment letter. My employment letter also needed county certification after the notarization and before state certification. I am so relieved to have the dossier completed.
I do know that every step was so worth it. A year from now, I will probably have forgotten how frustrated I was when I received the call that our document was rejected. Maybe. Maybe not. But a year from now, maybe we will be preparing to travel to bring Linh's little sister home. Or maybe Linh's little sister will already be home.
I do know that every step was so worth it. A year from now, I will probably have forgotten how frustrated I was when I received the call that our document was rejected. Maybe. Maybe not. But a year from now, maybe we will be preparing to travel to bring Linh's little sister home. Or maybe Linh's little sister will already be home.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
It was March 9, 2009
Six months ago today we met this tiny little angel for the first time.
She has brought us so much joy- more than John and I ever even imagined. Linh is such a sweet and happy girl. She is the best gift in the world.
Look at her today. Our sweet little baby is now an adorable toddler.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
So soon?
I know its amazing. A second post in 2 days. I was looking through some more pictures of Linh to bring to work and found some more cute ones to share. Ok, who am I kidding? They are all cute. However, it would take a lot of computer time to upload all 663 pics to the blog, so since I'm filtering through, I picked some particularly adorable pics. I'm also working on uploading a cute video, but so far I'm having technical difficulties. Be warned, I may have ANOTHER post later in the week if we are able to work through the technical problems.
Isn't she the cutest duck you've ever seen?
Until then, enjoy-
Isn't she the cutest duck you've ever seen?
The best sound - her laughing
Sweet Linh
Linh and Rudi
Good friends - Linh kissing Rudi
Monday, July 27, 2009
End of July already
Wow! Time flies. Linh is doing wonderful. I feel like I say it all the time- but she really is so much fun!
Here are some pics from the 4th of July weekend.
Playing at the park with Daddy-
Hanging out at the CityFest -
So this is a Slip N Slide-
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Has it really been 3 months?
It seems like yesterday that we stepped thru the doors at Metro airport carrying our very exhausted little girl. Yet Thursday marked 3 months home. During this time Linh has become very comfortable in her home and even more comfortable with us. It seems as though she has always been here. She is such a happy and fun little girl.
In the past 3 months- she has become much steadier on her feet. She has settled into a good sleep routine. She is comfortable with Rudi and Chico- she even gives them kisses and helps to put the food in their bowls. She has grown taller and at 20 months old, her size 12 month pants are finally starting to look a bit short. Sometimes she will let us know if she doesn't want to wear a particular shirt. Who knew it would start so young? She also likes to try on my shoes and walk around the house. Her bangs are growing and she is finally willing to allow me to put her hair back in tiny pony tails. She is comfortable taking
baths, however washing her hair is still not a favorite of hers. She went swimming for the first time on Father's Day in her kiddie pool and really seemed to enjoy it. She likes to brush her teeth. Whenever she sees us brush- she wants to brush too. She is now going to school 3 days a week and brings home art projects everyday. Painting is a favorite. She is "talking" all the time. She understands a good amount of what we say and she says many words that are understandable- mama, dada, ball, cup, cat, car, bowl, bubbles, go, gogurt, cookie, cheers, hi, bye bye, Emma, and no. Some of the words are pronounced clearer than others but we can recognize them all. A couple of weeks ago "no" was her favorite word all weekend. Thankfully, I think Emma is her favorite word now. Emma is her cousin that she saw the last two weekends. She generally drinks out of a sippy cup now except for her bedtime bottles. She uses spoons and forks- sometimes it means putting the food on her spoon/fork with her fingers and then putting in her mouth. That is amusing to watch. She made it through her first long car ride- a 3 hour (each way)trip to see my sister. Hopefully next time there will be less construction. Thank goodness Grammie was with us to help Linh get through the last 2 hours home. She hugs with and without us asking. She gives John and I kisses with or without us asking. She laughs a lot and it is the sweetest sound! Six teeth have popped through since we have been home and she got through it like a champ.
In the past 3 months- she has become much steadier on her feet. She has settled into a good sleep routine. She is comfortable with Rudi and Chico- she even gives them kisses and helps to put the food in their bowls. She has grown taller and at 20 months old, her size 12 month pants are finally starting to look a bit short. Sometimes she will let us know if she doesn't want to wear a particular shirt. Who knew it would start so young? She also likes to try on my shoes and walk around the house. Her bangs are growing and she is finally willing to allow me to put her hair back in tiny pony tails. She is comfortable taking
baths, however washing her hair is still not a favorite of hers. She went swimming for the first time on Father's Day in her kiddie pool and really seemed to enjoy it. She likes to brush her teeth. Whenever she sees us brush- she wants to brush too. She is now going to school 3 days a week and brings home art projects everyday. Painting is a favorite. She is "talking" all the time. She understands a good amount of what we say and she says many words that are understandable- mama, dada, ball, cup, cat, car, bowl, bubbles, go, gogurt, cookie, cheers, hi, bye bye, Emma, and no. Some of the words are pronounced clearer than others but we can recognize them all. A couple of weeks ago "no" was her favorite word all weekend. Thankfully, I think Emma is her favorite word now. Emma is her cousin that she saw the last two weekends. She generally drinks out of a sippy cup now except for her bedtime bottles. She uses spoons and forks- sometimes it means putting the food on her spoon/fork with her fingers and then putting in her mouth. That is amusing to watch. She made it through her first long car ride- a 3 hour (each way)trip to see my sister. Hopefully next time there will be less construction. Thank goodness Grammie was with us to help Linh get through the last 2 hours home. She hugs with and without us asking. She gives John and I kisses with or without us asking. She laughs a lot and it is the sweetest sound! Six teeth have popped through since we have been home and she got through it like a champ.
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