Hi friends, I hope I can explain this well but we are in the middle of a bureaucratic standoff between the US State Dept and US Consulate in China. The above scripture is getting me through and I am so thankful for that.
In a nutshell, we are approved by both the US governments and China of course to adopt our daughter. However, they are not able to legally finalize the adoptions until further guidance is given to the US Consulate from the US State Dept. on how to handle our paperwork. We are under the new Hague Convention protocol which was ratified by the US in April 2008 and are approved on counts. Our case is becoming quite urgent as our travel authorization from China (our permission to adopt Kristi Zi Han and travel to China to get her) expires on August 20. The US Consulate contacted us personally and has urged us to contact the US State Dept as well as our senators to urge them to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. I have contacted both Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar today. Please pray with us that this will be resolved quickly. I know God has it all under control and I am asking for his guidance daily on what part I need to play. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Communicating with Kristi
Today I went to Jazzercise class and was so excited when I had the opportunity to try out the little bit of Mandarin I have learned with one of the students. I was thrilled that she could actually understand my pronunciation and after a brief one sided conversation of "Hello, my name is..., take my hand, come with me, I love you" - I was inspired to resume studying with the Mandarin for Adopting from China CD. Kristi may speak a dialect of Nanjing but just in case.
On Tuesday night I took a baby sign language class that was wonderful and will hopefully also be very helpful. We learned 60 signs in one night! I've been practicing with Keira and she is already picking up so many. It's really fun! Not to worry, we'll start out with one or two signs besides the minimal very broken Mandarin. Poor Kristi! It helps the time go by as we wait though:)
Another exciting thing-Hilary from Cooking Group's brother is going to China at the end of this month with his wife who is Chinese. The wife's brother lives in Nanjing and they are going there to visit and have agreed to bring a little photo album and tag blanket to the orphanage to give to Kristi. Isn't that incredible? God keeps encouraging us that we will see her soon and in the meantime to get ready for Kristi's arrival. It appears that travel during the Olympics (which runs August 8-24) will be possible. We will stay clear of Beijing just traveling to Guangzhou (in the south) and Nanjing. The travel authorization from China for Kristi expires August 20 but we are told that due to the Olympics they are extending them an additional 2 months (we have requested that in writing, English and Chinese of course) just in case.
It's a very exciting time and we doing lots of special family outings, Mommy-Keira days (we did yoga class on Wed. and went to our first play on Friday) and especially - Keira's favorite thing to do - "STAY HOME!" She is, however, very excited to go get her little sister. Today she must have overheard Roger and I talking about China and she ran upstairs and we heard all this commotion (chair moving, all kinds of rustling, chair moving back) and she came back down with her little China Fund jar and said she's "got her money and she's ready to go!" She is just so sweet and full of surprises. She will be a wonderful, wonderful big sister.
On Tuesday night I took a baby sign language class that was wonderful and will hopefully also be very helpful. We learned 60 signs in one night! I've been practicing with Keira and she is already picking up so many. It's really fun! Not to worry, we'll start out with one or two signs besides the minimal very broken Mandarin. Poor Kristi! It helps the time go by as we wait though:)
Another exciting thing-Hilary from Cooking Group's brother is going to China at the end of this month with his wife who is Chinese. The wife's brother lives in Nanjing and they are going there to visit and have agreed to bring a little photo album and tag blanket to the orphanage to give to Kristi. Isn't that incredible? God keeps encouraging us that we will see her soon and in the meantime to get ready for Kristi's arrival. It appears that travel during the Olympics (which runs August 8-24) will be possible. We will stay clear of Beijing just traveling to Guangzhou (in the south) and Nanjing. The travel authorization from China for Kristi expires August 20 but we are told that due to the Olympics they are extending them an additional 2 months (we have requested that in writing, English and Chinese of course) just in case.
It's a very exciting time and we doing lots of special family outings, Mommy-Keira days (we did yoga class on Wed. and went to our first play on Friday) and especially - Keira's favorite thing to do - "STAY HOME!" She is, however, very excited to go get her little sister. Today she must have overheard Roger and I talking about China and she ran upstairs and we heard all this commotion (chair moving, all kinds of rustling, chair moving back) and she came back down with her little China Fund jar and said she's "got her money and she's ready to go!" She is just so sweet and full of surprises. She will be a wonderful, wonderful big sister.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Getting Closer!
On Wednesday, July 2, we found out that we received the approval of our I800-A. Big Hurray! However, we then learned that now we needed to do the I800 (no A) before we can request our consulate appointment (CA). It's a whole you international adoption processing system for the US Customs and Immigration so we're all learning as we go. Fortunately, the turnaround time looks pretty good for the I800 which we hope to send off on Monday. We've requested an extension for Kristi's travel authorization which expires August 20 just in case. We are getting so close and we just can't wait to go to China and bring our beautiful girl home! P.S. It looks like they are allowing travel during the Olympics. We won't be in Beijing just Nanjing and Guangzhou.
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