We got our Pre-Approval from CHINA!!

We received our pre-approval from China today! This means that China has received our petition to adopt You Ai from the Ningxia Children’s Welfare Institute. We will be getting tags and the orphanage address very soon so that we can start to send care packages to our little girl! We are so very excited and can’t wait to see her and bring her home! We are one step closer and I know that this process is going to fly by.

Have a Merry Christmas! We have received the best Christmas present EVER!

>>>From China Center for Adoption Affairs<<<
中国之爱收养组织:
你们递交的Christopher Bonnett 和 Tina Bonnett收养宁夏(省、市、自治区)宁夏儿童福利院儿童尉迟友爱的申请已收到，经过对该家庭的基本情况及其为该儿童制定的医疗康复及抚育计划的审核，中国收养中心同意在该申请文件到达（截止日期2010年03月23日，含当日）后，按照收养特殊需要儿童的程序处理，特此告知。

So much excitement!!

It’s been one week since our referral and we have finished all of the additional paperwork needed to accept the referral of You Ai. We have submitted additional photos, an addendum to the USCIS and other paperwork for the Chinese government. Now we are planning the first care package to be sent to China as soon as we get the tags and orphanage address.

I’m so glad that this is close to Christmas as we will be able to buy her Christmas presents and put them in the care package box! Our parents are having a little too much fun picking out presents for her!

We even got a little overzealous and went wandering through the little girl department at Walmart! They had the CUTEST monkey pajamas. We almost bought them, but we refrained… barely!

This is going to be a LONG 6 months!

What a Wonderful Christmas Present!!!

We received a phone call on Tuesday afternoon asking if we would like to review the file of a little girl who is 3 (going to be 4 on February 28). She had a HEMANGIOMA (strawberry mark) which was treated early last year and is currently resolving. We were a little wary, wondering if reviewing a file meant that we would then be committed to this particular child. Once we cleared it with Meg (of CAWLI) that we could review the file and, in the event that we thought she was not a good match for our family, be placed back into the waiting pool, we went ahead and took the opportunity to review the file.

The file Meg sent me was filled with several pages of medical information, lab tests, and pictures of a little girl named You Ai. I did some (A LOT of) research on hemangiomas and later Tuesday night, Chris and I discussed this little girl.

Neither one of us could come up with a reason not to accept this referral. This child is PERFECT for us in every way! She dresses herself, walks, speaks full sentences, albeit in Chinese, and sleeps soundly. She is a little quiet and shy, but we can handle that, especially with my super-outgoing niece and nephew for her to play with. I’m sure she will come out of her shell quickly.

We had her file reviewed by a physician where I work and Chris’s mother took it to work with her as well. Once we were sure that she was as healthy as can be expected, we went ahead and ACCEPTED THE REFERRAL!!!!

We are still in shock as we thought this process would take a couple more years! We are still waiting on our approval from the USCIS, so we were not expecting a referral until at least next year. All I could think about was that we are SO not ready!! Haha!! But then again, according to most mothers, you never really are!

So right now, we are busy submitting the paperwork to adopt this specific child to our agency and the CCAA, as well as filing addendums for the USCIS (not to mention making final arrangements with the room and checking out child care/VPK programs in our area). We could not have gotten a better Christmas Present!!! Hopefully, if everything goes smoothly, we will be able to travel to bring her home around my birthday in July 2010!!!




As a side note to those expecting pictures of her to be posted: I am VERY wary of posting pictures of children on the internet, therefore you will not find any attached to this blog for now. If you would like a picture of our little girl, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me (tting5@aol.com) and I will e-mail a picture to you. Thank you very much for your understanding.

If you would like to leave a comment with your e-mail address I can make this blog private and once that is completed I can post pictures and invite you as a "reader". This will more than likely happen by January 1, 2010 as I'm sure everyone wants to see pictures! :)

Moving Right Along!

We submitted our application to the USCIS today. My heart was fluttering the whole time I was at the post office! All I kept thinking was that my entire life was there in the envelope in my hands. Everything, from our birth certificates to our marriage certificates and passports. I dropped in into the slot with the money order enclosed and I couldn’t stop smiling!

I am so glad that we are moving right along with the adoption. We are one step closer to bringing our daughter home! And the closer we get, the more excited we are!

Short Update

We have approved a final copy of the Home Study report and sent in the acceptance letter. As soon as we get our original copies we can send in our packet with the I-800A form for the government. We are super excited!!!! I'm glad we are moving forward and that things are actually going pretty smoothly.

Have a Happy Halloween!

We are DONE!

We had our last meeting with the social worker last night. We turned in the last of our paperwork and went over some of the information we learned in the Heart of the Matters DVD program. Overall, it was a very nice meeting. We are very excited to finally be moving on to the next stage of the adoption process! Lori sent me a rough draft of the home study report and I read through it this morning. I didn’t have to make many changes, just a few things here and there. All in all, it looked good, so I made a few comments and sent it back to her for further review. Once it is finalized, we can approve and accept the home study report and send it in to the USCIS. We are at the end of the paperwork stage!!! FINALLY!!

We hope to be approved by the USCIS by the end of the year. What an AWESOME Christmas present that would be!

Almost Done!

Our last meeting with the social worker is this Thursday. We will be turning in the last of the paperwork (Heart of the Matters Certificates and a new Verification of Employment letter) and hopefully be looking at a rough copy of the home study report. Our DCF abuse/neglect research requests came back and all of our reference letters are in! This means by the end of the month, we should be able to apply to the USCIS and get our fingerprinting scheduled. YAY!!

Other than that, things have been pretty normal. The hectic flurry of paper has dissipated finally. We are focusing on the holidays now and trying not to think about all the waiting we have ahead of us.