The Golden Ticket

We received our TA! [Travel Approval] to Ch!n@ on 4.21.11. We were also able to confirm our CA! [Consulate Appointment] at the US Consulate-Guangzhou, Ch!n@ ... and we purchased our airline tickets as well today. --To say the least we have been happy busy these last 24 hours--My DH will leave for Ch!n@ on May 4th to bring our two new daughters home. :)

Article 5

Today our Article 5 was received by our agencies' In-Ch!n@ representative & it is now on it's way to Beijing. And it just happened to happen on Kira's Birthday. (we love & miss you baby girl)

The breakdown on the timeline is this:

We wait now for the last document called TA, and it only takes 2 to 4 weeks to have the "TA" (travel approval notice) released to us and then we can leave for Ch!n@ for our baby girls!!!

---tick tock ---tick tock ---we are on our way---soon.

To the East!

Another milestone:

Our daughters' paperwork has officially been cabled to Guangzhou, Ch!n@! This is where we will have our exit appointment, the girls will be sworn in as US Citizens, and we will pick up their Visa's to exit Ch!n@ and return home--

With this step, it finalizes bringing all of our paperwork officially to the East, awaiting our arrival.

steps to come:

1 and 3) We will need the US Consulate located in Ch!n@ to issue our Article 5 and a Consulate Appointment date.

2) We need the Ch!n@ center of adoption affairs office in Beijing to grant us TA (Travel Approval) --

~

Then we are off to adopt our two littlest girls!!!

i800 Provisional Approval(S)

Our agency received the scanned copies of our Approvals today for both our daughters-- they will now send our girls DS230's & paperwork package onto GZ, Ch!n@, to be hand-delivered to the U.S. Consulate on our behalf. Then after our 'NVC cable/letter' arrives, the consulate will issue Article 5--the U.S. form of the LOA/LSC letter seeking confirmation, this will go to Beijing, where they will grant us TA; a Travel Approval or invitation if you will, to come to our children's birth country :).-- then our agency sets us a CA; a Consulate Appointment for us overseas and we buy tickets, hop on the first plane out'a here--no matter the gas price (ughh~) and our prayers are simple: "We Thank!, always and foremost" as we are so grateful to GOD for our blessing of a family!

(I know it's a lot of code talk)--

but it equals; One step closer--& only 4 more steps to go! Then we GO!!

~

Foster Update: Deanna

First-- She is sooo beautiful. This is our precious girl-- how can your eyes not well-up from pure joy knowing we will have our daughter in our arms in less than 60 days-- okay, okay-- back to the facts. :)

Her Update reports: Healthy (we already know she has CP), she is potty trained, and she knows her colors. She is more confident. She can lead other children to recite children's songs, and she can lead the morning exercises. :) She is introverted and shy amongst strangers and new environment and gets scared to talk, but when you know her--she is outgoing. She has to be reminded of nap time, otherwise she will continue to play, and play. Adorable.

She loves rice, noodles and dumplings---{hmmm, that sounds totally familiar!} :)

LOA

This is HUGE.

This is the LOA: 'Letter of Acceptance'

One for Bella! And One for Deanna! This means China knows we are coming and they approve of Us to parent these children--

we are blessed. 5 more steps to our two daughters--- almost there.

Log In Date: LID

This is what the mounds of documents, the home study appointments, the fingerprints, the security clearances, the invasions of privacy by two countries--

This is what the "Paper Pregnancy" is all about.

Three Little Letters, that speak volumes: L.I.D. the date Ch!n@ logs us in as adoptive parents.

---along the way, we found out we are "Paper Pregnant" for two!

Biometrics Fingerprint Appointment!

We have a date! We have officially been invited to have our 'prints' taken for Bella's adoption to proceed ...and the appointment is just around the corner. :)

Ladybugs:

Ladybugs are believed to be good luck in the adoption community. Several years ago, while numerous people waited for their referrals, there was a huge infiltration of ladybugs across the nation. Immediately following the ladybug sightings, a flood of referrals came in for many of the waiting parents. Many people now believe that when a ladybug is seen, a referral is not far behind.

~
When you're having a biological child, you KNOW you are expecting all along the way and you get to hear the baby's heartbeat and see him/her on the ultrasound monitor, you can count the weeks of pregnancy, you begin to feel the baby move and of course your body changes daily. With the adoption process, we wait and wait with no confirmation (except a pile of government forms & an email from our agency to download another newsletter), until we get a referral; a referral is only the beginning on the Special Needs Journey. Then, it's faith and hope that get us through, along with lots of prayers, doctors and "thoughts for "WISDOM" to guide us" on the right path to our daughter... and a few days like today when it feels a little more "real"... maybe even a step closer. A cloud is lifted... and we suddenly spot a Lovely Ladybug.

Update: As I trekked on a 4.3 mile walk to my son's football camp today, at my destination I saw a sweet little flying ladybug. :o)

...the beginning of our adoption for... Bella

Yes, It's true! We have started the process... one more "final" time, to adopt. We are so excited to be able to be blessed to have yet one more precious gift from God, our child another daughter. This is our milestone and journal page of our families journey to adopt; our youngest daughter. She is somewhere waiting for us in China.

We submitted our Application on 04/19/2010, and Our MCC {medical conditions checklist} on 4/22/2010; and we were approved on 05/06/2010.
We have decided on a name for our littlest one; Bella ^(Insert Chinese Name) Mystique.
We downloaded the Dossier Guide tonight, 5/23/2010, it was the last day of School for your siblings, "Bella". It is now Summer time, ~ mommy homework time ~ time for your mommy to do the Dossier {loads of Paperwork & Documents} to get all of them to China, so we can meet and bring you home, ...forever our daughter.

Guess what??... We know who Bella is. We are

over the moon with joy. Today is 6/10/2010 and we have seen Bella's Face. Our Hearts have grown 10 sizes bigger and our eyes full of tears of joy. We have been Humbled and Blessed to be the parents and family of this child. She is a beautiful little girl, age four from AnYang, Henan, P.R. China. She is an orphan in foster care and she is most desperately loved by us, her new forever family. Our prayers have been answered yet once again for a gift from GOD, a child to call our daughter, forever.

We Sent our LOI (letter of Intent to adopt) today 6/14/2010 to Ch!n@.
We recieved PA (PreApproval) to adopt our youngest daughter 6/21/2010.
Welcome our newest baby girl; her name means "Beautiful Aura of the Sky or Firmament"; aka Beautiful Heavenly Aura ~ Bella XiaoHan Mystique.
We started our Homestudy by attending our Orientation at our agency on 6/25/2010.
Today is 08/12/10 and the dossier paperchase for you, "Our Bella" is coming right along. We mailed our last documents that we have control over (timeline control) to the S.O.S. for certification, and Jan M. our family Social Worker, emailed and said the Homestudy has just been reviewed (read 3+ times or more) by Judy at our agency :o)... so we are underway my girl. We have to sit back and let the governments now weigh in with their approval notices, and fingerprint invitations and a whole bunch of acronyms for your adoption... but we are well underway. Hang tight our littlest lotus blossom, we are coming in 2011.

Today is 08/24/10 Our Homestudy is at our State-AA (Adoption Alliance) for approval... which should take one to two weeks, then on to USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Service), where they will invite us to be fingerprinted and then approve us (mommy & daddy) as fit parents to adopt an orphan (our beloved Bella) from an International Hague Country.
This last step is very lengthy, waiting possibly up to 90 days for this last document (I-797C) for the Dossier, but it is in place to protect the children and families... Pray for us and Bella that everything will move smoothly so she can have us and us have her and she will no longer be an Orphan, but the child born of Our Hearts.

I last wrote on this page we were expecting our fingerprint appointment-- well that came, and we stopped by our agency to deliver our Dossier-- and then when we got home--- WELL we found Deanna staring back at us on the Waiting Child Website!! A complete and perfect circle to our children-- Welcome and follow along I can't keep up with this page any longer! LOL!!!

Colorado Birth Certificate

Today Scott and Athena did a swear-in to get their Colorado Birth Certificate.
Yes! I want to be in this crazy family.

Athena's Day Off

First stop on her "Day Off", a trip to the Immigration office. Even though Athena was a U.S. Citizen when she stepped off the plane in San Fransisco, she had to retake the Oath, and resign her affirmation, to have them "hand over" her US Citizenship Document.

The next stop was a visit to CCAI, the starting place for her paperwork;

(in someways her birthplace) to come to her family.
Thanks to a letter from Lily, we made it to China in time to adopt Athena.
The waiting child department was happy to see Athena, a lot of hard work came from these people, in just a short period of time.

Athena had a "Great Day Off"!

HELLO!!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention....BOTH I-800 Provisionals (classifying orphans as adoptable orphans & verifying our Home study specifically mentioning them by name and by special need and by age...(no more original or notarized copy of a home study addendum will be allowed to be carried by adoptive parents to China: not allowed per USA) were both granted today for our family, from the Hague NBC~National Benefits Center. They (NBC) are actually sending them overnight to the Hague NVC~National Visa Center. (this is rare to overnight, usually they use snail mail) The NVC will look over the two new kids visa applications, or DS-230's and the I-797C (old I-171H) and these 2 new I800 provisional approvals ..aka "The Paperwork" that they will receive TOMORROW. ;o) They then scan it and then cable/wire the scans to GZ (Guangzhou, China), along with snail mailing the hard copies to Guangzhou, China to the office of the US Consulate (this takes 7-10 days)... ughhh ~ Then the US CONSULATE SIGNS (taking up to 3 weeks,...That we don't have) IT ALL ("the paperwork") INTO EFFECT,... after verifying everyone else's ~ verification that we are fit parents and qualify to adopt and these two kids are qualified as orphans. This is officially called Article #5 (or LOA/LSC #2) this Article #5 is sent to the CCAA China Center of Adoption Affairs) in Beijing, and then China gives us TA (Travel Approval)! Then of course, our adoption agency waits for the US Consulate to grant/confirm our family an exiting CA (Consulate Appointment), this taking 1-6 days. Then we can go get our children waiting for us!!!!!
~
P.S.
I had you at HELLO, right??..:o).... and then it was a downhill snowball effect of being UGHHH!!!! and HUHHH???, or just down right dull!!! :o)
UPDATE: 8/7/9 THE NVC HAS BOTH PROVISIONALS; PRAY THEY MOVE THEM TO GZ(Guangzhou, China) QUICKLY.
UPDATE:8/11/9 They moved them to Guangzhou (GZ, China). Now we wait for the signing of the Article 5.
UPDATE: Article 5 signed on 8/13/9
...Next stop Beijing for TA (Travel Approval)

LOA

LOA is the LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE; This is it! China has officially requested we decide.
We have officially accepted our two children today.
Here is a little boy, wanting his BROTHER!

but.....wait..... not so fast.....

We are a Hague Family, this in adoption terms means; painful waiting, long decision processes, and tons more paperwork, a few more fees, but mostly TIME. and we don't have time... we have to make it to China in Early Sept. to receive Athena Niuniu before she ages out and is no longer eligible for adoption.

Our agency wants to believe we can do it, & so do I. James, 'bout had a heart attack after hearing the doom & gloom of what lies ahead from Lily in our meeting at her office yesterday. The control of the situation now, is of no ones avail. It's Government, Political and a Hurdle, all to protect families and children from being victims in adoption processes, and it takes massive time to honor and protect those laws... TIME, which we don't have... oh, I mentioned that already. :o(

but.....wait.....not so fast.....

Our timeline requests that 9 weeks of US Government work be done in 3 weeks. We may have to call a Senator, a House District Member... a Politician... which I know of none... I don't even know where to begin to do this... I guess I will learn!!!, and rather quickly.

I will keep you posted, if we make progress. It looks like we have 5 more steps of the US Government paperwork that needs to be granted, before China can invite us to come adopt our children and bring them home.

Our new son, Scott Yu which we are blessed by God's gift, will be able to come home;~our daughter will have to beat the clock. This is a sad and harsh reality to us and her, but we are doing everything we can to accomplish our dream of having Niuniu as our daughter, God's gift... Forever.
~
(please do not cross post our news, I would love to just keep it here: amongst us in the "family".)

PA{PreApproval} and ... PA today!

Hi all,

This has been an incredible journey thus far to our two newest children. We are blessed to announce we received PA {Pre-Approval from China} for our son and PA for our daughter. Both are older child adoptions and are from HENAN, China. We want to take a moment and make sure our recognition of this amazing miracle is to CCAI~The HENAN Project, and the "Dedicated Staff" in the Waiting Child Dept.!

~

Oh My Gosh, we were blessed to find our son, Guo Yu (referred to us as a healthy 10.5 year old boy, in October 2008, through a camp for older children. (this camp happens at a few different agencies & provinces around China.) The video we received, was icing on the cake for our family...after reviewing a file,... but wait; Guo Yu's file was incomplete for an older child adoption. It was not completely ready for IA (International Adoption), it had not made it fully to Beijing yet... so we waited, as we prepared our Dossier {A large pile of official legal documents about us.} to adopt again from The China Special Needs Program.
~

One month, Two month...EIGHT months. Our Dossier finally left for China in June 2009. (the USCIS/United States Customs and Immigration Service, was really lagging {using kind words ;o\} for us; and we are a Hague Family {A Treaty in place to fight child trafficking, FYI: China has been a Hague Country for at least a decade or maybe two, now our US government conformed and sign the Treaty as well, in April 2008.), but we made it. ~ We were LID {LOG IN DATE} 07/08/09 after nearly 9 months. ;o)
~

Along this journey, we had been approved by our Social Worker and USCIS to adopt two older children... (first USCIS lost our Original HS {Home Study} and then the second time around they forgot to word our I-797 C {the last document needed for our Dossier} for two older children, so we needed an addendum to our Home Study to fix this (at a fee of course) LOL!! The third time was a charm :o). Then as we are sending our Dossier to China, a wonderful older girl, took our breathe away. She was from the CCAI web-site of waiting children. She was ageing out of the China Adoption Program and her bio listed Post Surgery for major congenital heart disease {TOF/Tetralogy of Fallot}. We so wanted to bring her home as our daughter, But her bio said LID ONLY NEED APPLY... that Monday we were disappointed. We knew though, that we were blessed to be with CCAI~Henan Project to bring us a son. So we sat on the sideline waiting each day for Beijing to receive Guo Yu's file :o), all the while gazing at Liu NiuNiu, a child we would be forever blessed, if we could call her daughter...
Later, that same week, "Pat" posted a message on our yahoo group, it said CCAI WC Dept. wanted her to advocate for this wonderful girl, and stated if you were DTC {Dossier To China} you could apply not just LID only... I would tell you what else the email said... but I did not get that far... I clicked on my email,... and emailed Deniece at her desk, and said this is our daughter!! I told her we were DTC, could it be possible? It took a few days of CCAI internal workings, or so I imagine, but we got a call a week later and said they would do everything that was with in their capabilities & possible. But, this was not concrete, nor was it easy, nor it be even totally possibly. The CCAA is the ultimate authority.

~

We still wanted to proceed, no matter the outcome. How could we not try, our diligent best to bring our son and our daughter home.
BUT...... Guo Yu's file still had not come to IA.... it was now 8.5 months since we saw his video. Deniece proceeded to tell us how we should proceed, and it was not going to be easy, nor very possible. Plausible,...well YES; but not very likely, a long shot, it is rare, she "insisted" that we know this. But this was it, we just had to proceed; broken hearted or not, we had to. We just had to ask for NiuNiu too.
Well, it took a few more weeks for the CCAA to release our son's file from Henan to CCAI. That happened this Monday, & well... we already had our LOI prepared & translated for him and our LOI prepared & translated for her (located at CCAI), just waiting for this day, to proceed. We held our breathe, cried, & Prayed and CCAI sent our LOI's on Monday 07/13/09 for both children.
AND...

~
Today 07/16/09 we received news from the WC Dept. that China has granted us a PA for a boy and a PA for a girl!
We are Humbled to announce we have a son... and a daughter!
~
Please welcome Scott Yu and Athena NiuNiu.
Love, ash and family ;o)
wife to Jim
mom to Jacob 9,
our "Angel" Kira 1,
Hannah (A. 7/1/08 Guangdong)
Scott and Athena... waiting in Henan.
~
(please do not cross post our news, I would love to just keep it here: amongst us in the "family".)

Scott Yu

and

Athena NiuNiu

The Golden Ticket

Originally Posted 5/28/09" We got it"!

or should I say, "had it"!

The last document we needed made all of it's rounds this month; It was officially Notarized, Certified, & Authenticated. Our I-797C is on it's way to our Adoption Agency as of today... and from there... to China baby, for LID! (= Log In Date: The official date that China recognizes a family, as a family wanting to adopt.) That would be little ol' us, again! :o)

Update: 6/26/09

We found out today, that our agency has mailed our Dossier To China. {DTC)

Limbo

Waiting... and for what? You ask...

I hesitated about posting this, but some of you, have been asking and wondering... what have I (we) been doing lately? Where are we in the adoption process for Scott, (fingers crossed)? What is going on that keeps us so busy? That we hardly have time to talk, email or contact our friends and distant (IE:driving miles, that is) family online or by phone?
Whelp, NOTHING.
~
We are in a state of "Limbo" and it doesn't feel real good. We are trying hard to keep our spirits up and our minds and time occupied with happiness. I (we) have just been occupying our time with the kids and each other. We have been flying kites, playing cards and board games, building snowmen (not good ones either) :o) playing badminton, swimming lessons, Chinese Language Classes, wandering the mall, dieting, watching RedBox movies and going to the movie theaters, doing lots of end of school year events... doing everything we can, to not talk or think about the "Limbo".
~
...Limbo... Whelp, we can not seem to get our last document from the USA for our approval to adopt from a foreign country. So at this point China has no idea we want to adopt, nor can they allow it. Yes, of course they (USA) have all our paperwork at the USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Service). Well at least now they do... again. They notified us on day 60 that they lost our Original Home study from our Social Worker. Our adoption agency Fed EX'ed them another one immediately. In the mean time we finally got a fingerprint appointment right before that awful "We lost your file/home study" notice. We were able to attend the fingerprint appointment a day late { go figure :o( } due to the BLIZZARD in late March. It has since been another 30 days of no contact...
Our adoption agency as well as us, have emailed the government to plead with them to tell us our status of our approval and please send the last document we need to adopt. And at the very least to find out if the correct field officer has all our paperwork in hand, but no response... a state of Limbo... as we wait for "The Golden Ticket".
~
...Limbo...We hope we will be matched with our son in May... but we have been hoping for the match for, ...Oh let's just say since 10.14.08. Yes, that is right for close to 7 months. I can not go into a lot of detail on this part, as you know referrals are sacred and a very secret anomaly until the time comes to be matched. I will just say send prayers for May. I will say, I have seen many children I would bring home as my son/daughter in the past few months that I yearned to adopt... but my (our) :o) heart belongs to another.
~
Pray for May... Limbo is hard. Even though we try not mention it aloud & never to our beloved children. This is a parental enduring, we hope for closure to be just around the corner {ANY DAY, NOW} and to be able to move forward soon in this process.
Sorry, you don't know anymore than you knew before this post and us either. :o\
Take care and we will be back soon.
ash and family

**UPDATE** 5/8/09 I-797C

How long did it take the USCIS~Government to approve us for foreign adoption after receiving our file in Feb.? Just shy of 3 months!! {2 months, 1 week & 6 days waiting...whewwh. And another week waiting to receive the approval by snail mail.}

It is now off to the SOS (secretary of state) for authentication.

Happy New {Dossier} Year!

It is official we are adopting again!!!

We have just completed our 2nd Dossier for another Chinese adoption. We are awaiting a referral from our Agency for a son, a daughter or both!
What is this?

This is our Dossier (french word, pronounced Doss-ee-ay).
This is the beginning to adoption. It is affectionately called the "Paper Pregnancy" in the adoption community.
Dossier {definition}: When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to a set of appropriately translated legal documents, County notarized, State certified and Chinese Consulate authenticated that tells a story about your life...who, where, what and when you were and are today. These documents are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in his/her own country by the adoptive parents. This happens during the parents travel & stay in a foreign country. The minimum in~country stay to finalize an adoption in China is currently {approximately} two weeks. After that,...then the family may return with their adopted child to the United States, for Happily Ever After. :o)

~

It was a year ago today that we completed Hannah's Dossier for her adoption... and wow, time sure flies... she has been home with us for six months. We have had a very Blessed 2008 as a family and we can only Pray our family will be so Blessed in 2009 and beyond.

Happy New Year's to everyone & best wishes for a bountiful of Blessings from our family to yours.

DTC {Dossier to China}

Today we just returned from our CCAI {agency} required adoption classes. As we took roll call and introduced ourselves and our place on the adoption journey...we said "We are Ashley and James and We are dossier in translation". The newest member of the dossier dept. happen to be attending the class today {training purposes} and she said, "Ooh, actually you are DTC... I mailed it on Friday and you should get an email early next week!" That was so great to hear. I immediately thanked her. The funny part is... during the break, I went over and chatted with her for a moment,... she said, "I actually recognized you {Ashley} from the dossier photos"... because I was wearing the same "super girl" shirt as in one or two of the photos that we submitted! We laughed, and I admitted, I needed a bigger wardrobe. The class was awesome & educational and the news incredible. Next stop LID {Log In Date} China.

We got it!! I171-H

12/16 We received our I 171-H. This is great news! We are one step closer to our daughter. As soon as the document comes back from Brenda our notary (Mon), Sec. of State certification (Wed), and the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication (sent overnight Wed), our paperwork will be hand delivered to the translation dept. at our agency and the next stop... CHINA. That day will be called our "LID" (log in date). Our family from that point on will be referred to by our LID for travel. Most families travel with other parents with the same LID. Almost like an extended family on the same adoption journey to their daughters and sons.

UPDATE:
12/28 Our I171-H document is back from the Consulate... it has been authenticated! We will travel to CCAI (our adoption agency in Denver), to hand in our Dossier (Our compilation of completed documents about us, our lives and our family home life). This documentation process can take some families over 5 months to complete... We are very blessed to be ahead of that schedule! Next, DTC (Dossier to China).