Approval!!!

Finally, it's here! We received our I-800A approval from USCIS on Friday.

I called my husband immediately who had the good sense to leave work was very thoughtful and came home so that we could get it notarized right away. After an entire afternoon of driving to the county and then to the state capital, it is now in the hands of our adoption agency! Hooray!!

For those who are curious about the process, the next steps look like this:

• Currently, we are waiting to hear about our DTC date. (DTC = dossier to China)
• From there, we've heard the LID comes quickly. (LID = log in date, a receipt of when China logs the dossier in)
• There are countless blogs telling family stories of waits to adopt from China. The current timeline seems to be 30-50 days from LID to LOA. (LOA = letter of approval; We received pre-approval from China, however, this would be official approval after reviewing all of our documents.)
• After LOA, we wait for TA. (TA = travel approval; I've heard there are a few, minor things that happen in between here and there...this part of the wait can take anywhere from a short time to a few months, it seems)
• From TA, it is usually 1-3 weeks to travel.

All of this puts our best guess at getting Eli in January. Well, January-ish. We'd love for it to happen more quickly, but trying our best to realize that it will happen on God's time, and not ours. In the meantime, there's plenty to do here!

waiting....waiting....waiting

We were fingerprinted for USCIS on Monday. This was a blessing as my appointment was actually on Monday, but Jim's was not scheduled until next week! The people at our USCIS office are really kind and helpful....the same folks were there for Norah's adoption. They allowed Jim to get his fingerprints done anyway, and we are now waiting on our approval (I-797 for those in adoption land) so that we can send our dossier to China.

Now that we are close to sending things, the timeline is out of our hands and into the hands of Eli's birth country, and I have been looking at the average wait times lately. It looks like most are cases are taking about 4-6 months from LID (log in date) to traveling. The LID will come when we send our dossier to China and they send us a date saying that they've accepted it. We're hoping this will come this month, but could possibly come next month.

At this point, we're praying boldly and asking anyone who is willing to do the same along with us. We're praying that our approval comes very soon, as some have, and that our dossier gets logged in very quickly once it is in China. Above all else, we're praying that somehow, we fall on the short end of the estimated time frame so that Eli can be home for his fourth birthday on January 8th, or, at the very least, we will be with him on his birthday.

Thank you for praying with us!!

In Defense of Hope

I wanted to share this post at Hopeful Parents from over a month ago. The writer puts it so much more eloquently than I can, but I found myself nodding my head in agreement the entire time I read it.

Having a child with autism as well as a child who is from a different cultural background sometimes draws curious questions and looks. I know this. I'm aware of it.

The bottom line is that my response is what really matters here. I can choose to teach my girls kindness and grace, or I can retort with a not-so-nice look or comment. Our family chooses to hope for the best in others' intentions. That is not to say that my feelings don't get hurt at times by comments or that I can always let the stares roll off of my back so easily. (I am human, after all!) Nor do I think less of anyone who chooses to show the hurt feelings differently.

However, I am reminded that my girls are watching my every move and are learning from me. Therefore, I choose HOPE. Sometimes, I pray. For me, it is better than the alternative.

Birthday Party: Vietnam style

Norah turned two recently. We decided to have a relaxed party at our house with close friends and family and cook some yummy Vietnamese food. I may never eat another spring roll again, however. Frying food is not my favorite hobby.

Here's the birthday girl and her sister, dressed in outfits from VN.

Blowing out the candle. Grandma and she practiced this for months! :)

Pho, the main dish and a Vietnamese staple. My favorite. Here's the recipe.