Almost there...C'mon LOA

Still no news, but our case manager from our adoption agency emailed yesterday to say that she thought our LOA (Letter of Acceptance, aka LSC or Letter Seeking Confirmation) was right around the corner!  Yay!  Today I spent about two hours today doing more paperwork for round two of immigration for our kiddos.  There were five forms for each child, plus other paperwork that just required signatures.  There were some funny things about the paperwork...like the part at the top of the visa registration form that says: "estimated burden: one hour".  I kid you not.  Hopefully you can see it in the top right hand corner?  

Also yesterday, two families we know visited the foster care facility where our son lives and got a lot of pictures.  Yay again!  Apparently the internet connection hasn't been that great...so not much has come through but we did hear that he is happy and doing well.  Phew.  These are the things a mama worries about, even (especially!) when her kids are on the other side of the globe and she can't be with them to keep them safe.  There have been a lot of reports in the news lately about air quality and general environmental pollution in China.  This is so worrisome, especially as we are stuck in the process and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it!  Very frustrating.  We are so, so close to LOA and we hold on to the hope that it will come through any day!  

As pregnant as a giraffe

We are on day 73 of waiting for LOA.  Average time is 30-90 days, so we are well within that timeframe, but we are so, so antsy!  We've been waiting for our son since September 2012 and our daughter since March 2013!  It feels like forever.  Apparently I have the gestational length of a camel or giraffe (13-16months)...let's hope we don't stray into dolphin territory (17-19 months)! 

It's been a long time since I've posted anything because, well, there hasn't been any news to report on the adoption front.  But, life goes on while we wait for the new additions and we've been busy!  

Mr. Incredible has been home with the boys as he is most summers and they've been having a great time together.   Fishing, kayaking, bowling, movies, shark tooth hunting and going to the pool to beat the heat have been the most popular activities.  The boys have been in swimming lessons most weekday mornings this summer and in the in-between times, we've managed to get away for a few short vacations. We spent a few lovely days on a large local river canoeing and camping with friends and also a few very hot days at the beach.  We were there over the Fourth of July and the kids got to hang out with their cousins, play in the waves, enjoy very noisy, bright, front row seats to some great fireworks and pig out at our annual visit to Five Guys.  We've made this a Fourth of July tradition because honestly, the burgers are so delicious that they're dangerous!  It would be easy to make a habit of it, so it's become one of our Fourth of July traditions and we look forward to it every year.   It's almost always followed by a trip to a local ice cream place...It's truly a day of gluttony!  This past week, the boys both are in camp while Mr. Incredible had meetings for work.

Based on conversations I've had with other moms in real life, by email and by some adoption forums I visit, it seems that things have really slowed down this summer for China waiting families.  The LOAs are the last part of things to be getting back on track apparently.  The US Consulate in China where our kid's visas are processed is closed for a week in July while they move, so they will have at least a week's worth of visa appointments to catch up on plus all the other work they usually have.  

This past week as we had to put a new transmission in the minivan and replace our washer, we felt sure that our LOA (and final fee along with it) would come any day!  In fact, as soon as I heard that the washer bit it, I called our agency, convinced that our LOA was "the third big thing".  But, there was no news and we continue to wait.   Everyday, we are hopeful that we'll get the call that our LOA has arrived and we can move on to the next step.  

In better news, some families we know are traveling soon, so that means that China's new computer system is working because their paperwork was processed and they will probably pick up their children in August.  These families also have kids who live in the same place as our son and we are hopeful that they will meet him and be able to tell us how he's doing.  

Hopefully next time I will have more (better) news to report!

Good news on the way? Ladybug sighting

I was picking strawberries the other day and came across this cute little ladybug in the middle of the berry patch.  (This was a cell phone pic so not the best quality.  Looks great on the phone, though!) Ladybugs have been considered good luck in the world of China adoption.  I'm hoping that this means good news is coming our way soon!  Come on LOA!  

Our son apparently has his summer haircut (NO hair!).  He is still very handsome and even in this still photo below (also fuzzy, sorry.  I can't seem to win) looks to me like he is plotting some mischief!   In the pic, he's at a going away party for his friend who is with her forever family now.  I'm so very happy for her, but a little sad for my son.  It has to be hard to see your friends leaving and wonder when *your* family will come for you.  I can't imagine.   Our son and this little girl have a special relationship; she is the little girl who he drags the nanny upstairs to greet every morning.  Or did before she met her family.  She's coming home to the US, so our kids will hopefully see each other again in the not too distant future!  They are both sharing the lap of a nanny in the pic below.

It's about time

This is long overdue but since the last update, things have been going fairly smoothly.  Last time I went to the State Department and Chinese Embassy, I managed to beg an appointment at the State Department. (Most appointments at the State Department these days are walk-in service only which means that your documents are ready two days later.  If you manage to get an appointment, you walk in and out in ten minutes with your authenticated document(s) in hand!)  Thank goodness the man who answered the phone was sympathetic!  

While I was there waiting for my documents, I met a really nice older Chinese man who was in line after me.  It was just the two of us waiting and we had a nice chat.  He wondered what I was authenticating because he saw some Chinese characters on one of my documents so I told him about our adoptions...He so politely told me that our son's surname was "not very common."  "Not a name I've heard before" is what he said.  Our son's surname clearly identifies him as an orphan- it is literally translated as "Party", as in political party.  The man said it was probably because "the party gave him life."  

In case you've never seen a seal from the US State Department, here you go:

Very official looking, wouldn't you agree?  

Because I got my documents back that day, I was able to go right over to the Chinese Embassy.  I got an awesome parking spot which can be a major challenge.  So far things were going great!  

As soon as I got into the Embassy, I realized that it was the day after the May Day holiday (Embassy closed) and the Embassy was absolutely crazy due to the backlog.  There must have been close to two hundred people crammed into the room.  It's just a big room with several glass windows at the front of the room, sort of like a bank.  The Embassy is in a mid-rise building and very unassuming.  The visa/Authentication office is not at all what I had imagined when I thought "Embassy".  When you go in, you go down a long hallway then through the metal detectors and take a number.  From a deli ticket counter!   Most people who are adopting use a courier because they live too far away to go to the Embassy in person, so this might be interesting to some folks reading this who imagine that the Embassy is a grand, beautiful and intimidating place, like I thought at first.  See what I mean?

I got number 422 and they were only serving number 353.  I thought my luck was running out.  As soon as I sat down and asked the guy next to me how long the wait was, he told me he'd already been there 2 1/2 hours.  Ugh!  Then he gave me an extra number ticket he had so I was 397.  Due to a series of unexpected events, the kindness of strangers and the continued passing of number tickets, I got an even lower number which I gave to the original guy I sat next to.  He had been waiting three hours by that point and I was able to pass on my other ticket to the older Chinese gentleman I met at the State Department.  He was so thankful!  He told me if my son ever became famous he would remember his name and think of me.  It was a funny scene there- a really great place for people watching.  I ended up waiting only about an hour, thanks to the kindness of many people and a lot of luck!  Mission accomplished.  I-800A sealed!  Totally official looking, right?!

The last piece of the Dossier was done!  Once the labels were translated by our agency the Dossier was on its way!  

The Little Couple Adopts A Little Boy from China

If you have a TV, tune in to TLC tonight at 10 (9 central) to see Bill and Jen, aka the Little Couple, become parents!  I don't follow the show but I've seen a few episodes which I really enjoyed.  I do know that they've waited a long time to be parents, so I imagine it's going to be fun to watch!  

Another Bump In the Road

Just when we thought we were about to be back on track, we hit another bump. If you are an adoptive parent, or even if you're not but have ever trusted FedEx with important documents, make sure you are sitting down before you continue reading. This is like a bad dream and you hope it never happens to you.

FedEx has lost the envelope with our immigration approval. They say that it was delivered to our house last week but it never showed up. After many phone calls back and forth with FedEx and even talking to the regional and national offices, the best they could do is offer an apology and tell us to contact the person who sent the package so that we can get a replacement. UGH!

Our immigration officer was nice enough to send us a new one but "warned" us that if this one gets lost we will have to file more paperwork and pay $360. for another replacement! Seriously?! Does she not understand that *we* didn't lose it?! It never got to us!

I spoke with a courier (who has some of our other documents) and he said that he's heard of FedEx messing up like this only three times before in twenty years of being in the courier business. One time he said the documents were found two weeks after FedEx delivered an empty box to a very irate adoptive family. Their documents were floating around the FedEx sorting facility for two weeks before they were returned to the family. So, on the bright side, I guess they still might find the envelope with our approval inside.

We are feeling frustrated. We hope that there is still time to get our dossier to China before the end of May, when the Chinese agency that processes adoptions takes a two week break in receiving dossiers to do a software update on their computer system. We've been trying to avoid getting stuck in the backlog of work that will be piling up while they update their systems.

Please send us prayer, good energy or whatever you believe in! We could use a little bit right about now.

He knows we're coming!

We recently got an update on our little guy!  He knows we're coming for him and he likes to look at our family picture (the one we had to send when requesting pre-approval), point to each of us and call us by name, mother, father and brothers! How sweet.  Knowing that he knows we are his family makes it that much harder to wait! 

We hope to have some more information and maybe a few pictures of our daughter in the next week or so.  

In other news, our home study addendum, which approved us to bring home our daughter in addition to our son, was sent to USCIS last week.  (Just getting the addendum was like pulling teeth...and probably not a story I can tell here.)  I called USCIS to speak with our immigration officer to let him know the addendum was on the way.  Remember the kind and helpful man who was ready to approve us and then was going to move our file to the top after he got the revisions?  Well, he's not our officer anymore.  It turns out that we were assigned another officer while waiting for our home study agency to wrap up the revisions.  I've corresponded a few times with the new officer and she is not nearly as efficient or kind as the last one, and definitely not helpful.  She seems not to care that the bulk of our paperwork has been waiting since the beginning of February!  Seriously, how long does it take to read an additional two pages and issue the approval?!  

According to the most recent email from our immigration officer, our paperwork is "in line to be reviewed".  Not, "let's get this going", "I know your kids have been waiting two extra months already" or even a hint of kindness.  I am trying to breathe deeply and be as zen as possible.  Obviously there is nothing we can do but wait.  And wait some more...and try not to have a pity party for myself.  Haha.  We just want to go get our kids!  

I'm pretty sure that any parent going through this process is going to be impatient, but this woman is just really unsympathetic about the sense of urgency.  Yes, I realize that she deals with other impatient parents every day and maybe she's jaded but these are kids and they are waiting to come home!  I wanted so badly to tell her how to do her job and hurry up while she's at it, but I was on my best behavior!  Nothing but a grateful heart and gentle words, I promise.