Chinese Visas

 

We were thrilled to receive our Visas today.

Another step closer.........

Here she is...

It is time for us to share her cuteness, so here are some pictures of our newest addition! 

(10 months old)

 

The picture that captured our hearts and we instantly knew she was our daughter!

(14 months old)

 

A friend I have met in a FB group went to China in January to pick up her daughter.  She said that Mei Tong's eyes captivated her.  She was able to hold her and said she was the sweetest thing.  She took the above picture of her and shared it with us....what a blessing!

(20 months old)

In July we received an update on her along with this picture.  We can't wait to get to China and get her in our arms!  I have some more friends in China now meeting their new daughters.  They will be visiting Emme's orphanage on Thursday and we will be getting some new pictures of her!

DTC

We are at DTC status!!!  *for those of you not sure what that is it stands for "Dossier to China".

We were starting to get a little frustrated by how long it was taking for our dossier to be approved and translated. I was under the impression that we would hear when it was approved and moved to translation.  So the fact that we still hadn't heard anything led us to believe it was still in the approval process.  We spent this afternoon swimming and when we got home I checked my email (for about the 10th time that day).  We had an email from our agency.  The email said Congratulations, your dossier was shipped to China today!!!  Tears flooded my eyes as I read this. God has been teaching us so much along the way but in that moment He showed me not to worry, he has it all under control!  This is such a huge step and we will keep you posted................we are coming little Emme!!

Dossier is ready!!

 

We didn't think this day would ever come.  Our dossier paperwork is all completed, notorized, certified and authenticated.  Today we mailed it to CCAI (our adoption agency)  Our dossier will be critically reviewed 3 times in hopes to find any little imperfection that can cause problems in China.  Once it is approved at CCAI, it is translated and then shipped to China.

Here are our kids with our dossier, right before it was put in the envelope.

 

We are so excited to be at this phase in the process. Please pray with us that everything will run smoothly as we approach the "waiting period"!

Chicago trip #2

We had to leave our paperwork at the Consulate in Chicago.  Then we also had to make another trip to pick it up in person.  The kids and I headed up after gymnastics (10:30) and drove straight there with no problems.

 

Here are the kids with our authenticated paperwork! 

We picked up the papers, had ice cream at McDonalds and got right back on the road home. 

 

 

We are now ready to send our dossier to our agency in CO for critical review and translation.  We are thrilled to have another step done!!

It was like we were in the movies!

One of the last steps of preparing our dossier is to get all of the paperwork certified and authenticated.  We could get both done by roadtripping to Chicago to the Secretary of State's office and then the Chinese Consulate.  We left early this morning (5:10)!!  Whaat we thought would be a fun day in Chicago turned out to be a bit crazy! To save a lot of time and typing I will do the rest of this post in a timeline of events....

4:21 Max up
5:10 Leave Morton
8:45 parked and walked to Sec of State office.
9:47 we find out 1 paper had an error - It was Adam's job verification that his boss had to sign and notorize.  Adam calls his boss, asks him to get another one made and notorized.
10:45 - new paper is ready at CAT
Adam's dad was in Morton while his car was in the shop.  Adam called his dad, who borrowed my grandmas car, picked up the paper from CAT and headed to meet Adam half way to Chicago. The kids and I stay in downtown Chicago for lunch and some shopping.
12:20 - Adam meets his dad at exit 217. His dad hands the paper to Adam and Adam gets right back on the interstate.
1:35 - Adam hands me the paper out of the window, our 2 youngest hop in the van and Mitchell & I run the paper back up to Sec of State office.
2:07 - We have the paper certified from Sec of State. Adam takes paper and takes off running to the Chinese Consulate. (Leaving me to drive the van, with the kids, in downtown Chicago :)
2:16 - Adam gets a ticket in line at Embassy....they close at 2:30!!!!
2:30 - Consulate closes
3:05 - All paperwork is successfully turned into Consulate for authorization
3:06 - we are ready to enjoy Chicago!!

Having lunch at Subway, overlooking the river!



Max & I on the bridge.



The kids at Buckingham fountain.

 

 

Elsa & I at Lake Michigan.

Home Study Approvals

Our homestudy was completed back in March (March 8th to be exact)  On that day it was sent to our agency in CO to be approved.  Our social worker thought it would take about a week.  Fast forward 4 weeks to April 8th and we received notice that our homestudy was approved.  On that same day it was sent to DCFS for approval as well.  This process was to take 2 to 3 weeks and "yay for us" it was approved in 1 week!!  Adam and I completed all the paperwork involved to file our I800A with Immigration and overnighted it today.  This next step could take 6 to 10 weeks.  During this time we will be given an appointment to get our fingerprints taken.  Once we receive approval from them we get to take ALL the paperwork to get notorized, certified and authenticated and then our dossier will be ready to send to our agency and then to CHINA!!!   We are coming sweet Emme, a step closer each day!!