Waiting waiting waiting... on the US Government

We received a note last week that China has come back and said that they are not required to collect finding/background information for the children that end up in the orphanages.  According to China, they are only required to collect information about the child AFTER they come to be in the care of the state.  They sent a letter to our agency who in turn, forwarded it to the USCIS.  The USCIS was not happy about China's response, but they are looking into whether or not that will be acceptable.

So right now, we are in a holding pattern waiting on the US government to let us know whether or not we will be able to adopt You Ai.  I am hoping that they come through and let us proceed with the paperwork that we have, which illustrates her social history from the time she arrived at the orphanage, but nothing prior to that.  And I hope that we get our approval soon!  It is almost the end of the month, which leaves us very little time afterwards to plan travel and book plane tickets.

I still dream about going to China every night.  Chris mentioned to me, that maybe, just maybe, You Ai dreams about us too!  I hope so...

Update on the USCIS…

So I hadn’t heard back from the USCIS regarding the email that I sent concerning their Request for Evidence, so I got together the packet of paperwork and got it ready to send overnight to the USCIS office.  I e-mailed Meg at CAWLI and she said I should wait to hear back from the USCIS before I send anything additional or they may get confused.  So, I waited about an hour and then decided I should call them.  I asked Meg what she thought and she said go ahead.  So I called the USCIS Hague Adoption Department expecting to be on hold for hours before actually talking to a real person or to have to navigate through those stupid automated menus for days.  Once the machine picked up, I selected “1” for the Hague Unit and someone picked up immediately!  She transferred me to our case worker and I spoke with her at length about our child’s name translation issue and she made a note in our paperwork for the American Consulate in China.  She told me that were missing the social history/finding information for our daughter and that was the real reason the application got hung up.  I called CAWLI and Meg stated that the NingXia orphanages don’t really have that kind of information (probably because they are relatively new to the international adoption process and don’t really have very good records of those things), and what we had in the referral paperwork should be more than sufficient.  I called the USCIS office back, and again, I was impressed with the speed at which I got to talk to someone.  I repeated what Meg told me and the USCIS officer said that she would contact my agency to figure out what we can do to get that paperwork.  After all of this, I sent another e-mail to Meg asking her to keep us in the loop.  She said that CAWLI has to send a petition to the CCAA in China for the additional information or clarification for the USCIS, which will go out today.  So right now, it is out of our hands, but at least we know it is being taken care of.  Now that the panic has worn off, I’m exhausted!

A big thank you to Meg and everyone at CAWLI who is helping us through this confusion.

Problems with the Language Barrier

Yesterday CAWLI sent me an e-mail telling me that the USCIS had an issue with some of our paperwork.  This came as quite a shock as I was hoping to have the I-800 Pre-Approval by the end of this week.  Anyhow, the root of the problem is that our daughter’s name is spelled two different ways in the paperwork sent over from china.  On the referral documents, her name is spelled Yuchi You Ai (with the exception of one page on which it is spelled Weichi You Ai).  I asked about this when we first received our referral and the agency assured me that it was the same child, but the Chinese characters for Yu and Wei are the same.  Often, it depends on the translator whether it translates to Yu or Wei.  Well, the Letter of Acceptance from China has Yuchi You Ai and the paperwork that we submitted has Weichi You Ai.  Now the USCIS is confused as to which child we are attempting to adopt.  They are requesting additional paperwork.  So I have printed out ALL of the original paperwork we submitted with the I-800 application as well as another copy of the application with her name spelled Yuchi You Ai so that it matches the Letter of Acceptance.  I can only hope that this will solve the problem.  I don’t know what else we can do to show that both translations are acceptable in China.  And unfortunately, with us so close to our travel dates, panic ensues…

Off to the post office I go.

Why is everything sold in the USA “made in China”?

So, we are supposed to be purchasing small gifts for the nannies, guides, and other people we meet in China who will help us along with our adoption.  These gifts are supposed to cost very little, but one of the constituents is that it should be “Made in the USA”.  It is so HARD to find items that don’t cost too much that are not “Made in China” here in the USA.  So, amid my wandering around on my lunch break, I was browsing through the dollar store, just killing time.  And just because I have been hunting for some suitable gifts for some time now, I was picking up things like candle holders, cute note pads, and a few other items.  I picked it up, turned it over, and BAH!  “Made in China”!!  I must have looked at everything in the store.  “Made In China”, “Made in China”, “Made in China”!  It’s frustrating.  My father keeps making fun that we are going to get over there, hand them a gift along with our gratitude and they look at it and say “Huh… I made that yesterday!”  Not very funny dad!  I was even getting desperate and figured anything NOT “Made in China” would work (for example, something made in India).

Anyhow, so here I am, about ready to give up, because hey, it’s the dollar store, what did I expect?  I wander into the glassware aisle and come across some really cute Coca Cola glasses.  I pick it up, turn it over, and huh… “MADE IN USA”!!!  Wow!  I was shocked.  I bought 8 of them and I figured we can put things like lifesavers and other American-made candy in them for the people over in china.  I am so happy that I finally found a gift that is truly “American” and actually “Made in USA”.  One less thing to worry about!

Weekend in Tampa!

We were in Tampa over the weekend for my sister-in-law’s wedding.  It was a nice break away from the stress of the adoption and the “hurry-up and wait” process that the last few weeks have been.  The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and they make such a wonderful couple.  Congratulations to them both.  While we were there, we stopped by the Museum of Science and Industry (where Chris spent a lot of time growing up).  We had a wonderful time.

Now that we are back, the time is passing so quickly.  We have a little over 6 weeks before we take off for China!  There is still so much to do and things to get ready, I’m not sure we are going to have everything done by the time we leave.  Right now we are still waiting on our I-800 pre-approval and travel approval from China.  So we are still up in the air with plane tickets and any solid travel plans.

Joys of the Internet

I was distracted at work today. I got an e-mail from FedEx stating that we received our Travel Visas in the mail today!! I can’t wait to get home and open the FedEx package. Anyhow, I was browsing online and decided to see if I could get an up-to-date forecast for NingXia Province where our daughter is.

It seems like the temperature is a little more mellow than I thought. Definitely more so than here in Florida where we have been having high 80’s and dry for the last two weeks. I’m hoping that the trip to China will not be too hot and miserable weather-wise. But either way, we are very excited!!

Tentative Travel Dates!!!!

Not to get your hopes up or anything but today CAWLI e-mailed me and told me that they have tentative travel dates for the group of families traveling in July (Yup! That’s us!). Those dates are July 8- July 24. I’m so excited! We will be in China over my BIRTHDAY! How awesome is that!? So now we are anxiously waiting for our Visas, Travel Approval, and I-800 Approval. We were told NOT to book our travel tickets until we have those three things otherwise our dates could change and we would have to change the tickets (which would cost us extra money). It’s so hard not to call Delta now and book our tickets!

We have at least another two weeks before we will hear anything about our I-800 approval (our travel approval should follow shortly afterwards). I can only hope that we have enough time to book our skymiles tickets before there are none left and we end up paying for our international travel.

YAY!! I can’t wait to go to China to meet our little girl!

Roaming Through the Airport

This weekend I went to New Orleans with my dad on a commissioning job. The whole time I was traveling I kept thinking about our trip to China. I can’t help but be super excited about it. I was waiting in line to go through security and my mind kept wandering to how it will be when we have our daughter: bringing her home, all the places we want to take her, the trips we will take together as a family. In line in front of me was a lovely Asian family with a cute little girl about 6 years old. My heart melted at the sight of her with her little rolling suitcase and teddy bear tucked under her arm.

I want to go to CHINA!!

Last Care Package

I sent out our third and final care package this morning.  We sent a couple of blankets i made, some stuffed animals, and a ton of clothing for the children at the orphanage.  The orphanage should receive it in about 10 days.  With any luck, they will send us pictures of Saiya when they receive the package like they did last time.  :)

Also, we received the receipt for our I-800 application today in the mail.  At least we know that our application was received and they are processing it.  I hope it doesnt take too long for our approval to come in the mail.

We hope to have final travel dates by the end of this month!

Thats about it for now!

Visiting Family for the Summer

My brother drove down from Oklahoma with his kids to stay for a few days. My mom is going to watch his kids while he converts his garage back home. He has a two year old and a nine month old. We had them all over for dinner the other night. My house was alive with four children (my sister’s two and my brother’s two). It was a little preview of what Christmas is going to be like this year with five children! We are so happy that we are going to be able to share our little girl with such wonderful children! My sister’s two didn’t quite know what to make of their cousins (whom they have never met before now). It was cute how they were so unsure of themselves and very jealous of the attention their mommy was giving to the baby. Briefly, we had concerns about how they will react with Saiya coming into our lives, but my sister has assured us that because we have involved them in this adoption every step of the way that they will be fine. They have drawn pictures for her (which we sent in the care packages) and helped decorate her room and pick out clothes. I think sometimes, they are just as excited as we are to have her coming home.

A little less than two months to go!!!!