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The Best Christmas Gift

On Christmas morning we were opening presents and having a sweet time when my phone started to beep with texts from friends and family. So I also looked at my email and saw the following subject line “MuRong Wang Lei Update” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I quickly opened my laptop and we all crowded around to see new photos and the answers to our update questions. YIPPIE!!

Mike cropped this one – isn’t she adorable? We can’t wait to meet her!!!

Amelie 12.24.2010

Amelie Update

We found out that she likes apples, milk and yogurt. She sleeps on her side and listening to music makes her happy. They said she is seldom sad and when asked to describer her personality they said “lively.”

What a wonderful blessing! We are grateful for the services of Angela with LadyBugs N Love in Beijing.

We used her to send the care package to the orphanage in November and then she sent off the update request for us this month.

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A new photo of Amelie

Haydens friends 001

Hello all! A mother from Canada adopted her little boy at the end of September from Ningxia and she was going through the packet they gave her. They said this was her son and his “friends”.I know it’s a little photo, but Amelie is being held by the woman on the right.

It’s like getting a 6 month sonogram or something! HA HA!!!

Our article 5 was dropped off at the US consulate in China this morning and will be ready in exactly 2 weeks. Then we can FINALLY apply to travel.

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It’s not a foreign language

But it sure sounds like Greek when I talk about these steps to the adoption, right? If you aren’t involved in the adoption community it must seem like paperwork nightmare.

I have been asked to update exactly where we are. So here goes and I hope it all makes sense.

We were waiting for our LOA – letter of acceptance. This was China telling us that we passed review and that Wang Lei was matched to us and we could proceed with telling America we wanted to bring her into the country. That arrived on 11/15/2010.

We immediately applied for our I 800 approval. We found out that we were approved on 11/29/2010 via email and then received our letter last Thursday. This happened really fast and that was exciting.

Now we are waiting for the State Department to “cable” our approval to the US embassy in China. This can take up to 10 days.

Once we get that notification we forward it on to our agency and they drop off our Article 5 application at the US Consulate in China. Then exactly 2 weeks later they pick that up and forward it to Beijing.

THEN we are technically in the final line – the wait for Travel Approval (TA). That can take 2-3 weeks and then we can buy plane tickets and head off to China.

Why are we so concerned about this right now? Well, for one we don’t want Wang Lei to wait for us any longer than she has too! But Chinese New Year is 2/3 and if we don’t start our trip by around 1/16 and finish our trip by 2/1 we can’t leave for China until 2/11. So our trip would be delayed by a full month!!

For those who asked, did that help at all? I hope so. For those who have asked what to pray for – you can pray that our paperwork would continue to move smoothly. Thanks!