Moving on to the Next Step

Well, it has been awhile! Our home study was approved and that and our I800A paperwork was sent on to USCIS. We got the I-797C document stating that they had received our documents and then last weekend, we got our fingerprint appointment date. It is for December 5th at the Milwaukee office. I wish it would have been sooner so we would have had a better chance of getting the approval before Christmas, when things are likely to slow down again. It is what it is though! We can try to walk-in early, but that most likely will not speed the approval up, so I have been told and read. After we get our I-800A approval, as long as we have every last bit of paperwork in to our agency and it is authenticated, we can then send our dossier (includes our home study, I-800A approval, and some other things) to China and finally be DTC (Dossier To China) which we cannot wait to be! That is a huge step!

In other news, little Miss Lena's birthday is coming up- Dec. 12th. We will likely send another package in time for that. You can even order a cake! For those of you not familiar with Chinese adoptions, cake is a big deal there! Wait until you see what the cake looks like...pretty fancy and they wipe frosting on the kids' faces. I cannot wait to see those photos! Though I wish she could be here with us celebrating birthday #2, I am thankful this will be her last birthday in an orphanage and without a family!

On the Sign Language front...we are still watching our Signing Time dvds and have #3 pretty well mastered! We have started watching one to learn some songs...that has been fun, but much more challenging! I think we will move on to #4. We also bought a dvd for potty training since it was on special. Not sure if she will be potty trained by then or not and she may regress if she is so I figured we may need it. We can also use it in hopes it will help her two younger brothers! :)

That's the latest news here! Bring on the busy holiday season and don't forget to go through our Amazon link on the right when you are ordering online for Christmas! :) Thanks!