We have our I-800 Approval!

After our paperwork was sent off to USCIS (immigration), we found out we had a receipt date of 4-26-12.  I called on Friday, May 11th to check in with our officer assigned to us because families who were a 1-3 days ahead of us had gotten their approvals last week.  She said it was on her desk and that there were 5 or 6 families in front of us, so she'd probably get to it on Monday or Tuesday.   It looks like she approved it that day though based on the approval we got today- it says we had approval on 5-11-12 and we just got it today...seems to take forever for us to get immigration documents in the mail.   What a nice lady to do that for us! :)  

So now, for those of you who haven't adopted from China before- you are problem saying, "What happens next?"   Well because this is a very foreign part to me- I feel clueless really....I will just post what this amazing resource of a website says happens next and follow their directions closely! :)

Once you know that your application has been approved, you are ready to move on to the National Visa Center!

After approving your file, your officer will mail your approval to the National Visa Center by 2nd Day UPS Air. However, the approval isn't always mailed out the same day it's approved, so applications can take up seven days to arrive at NVC. Upon receiving your approval, the National Visa Center (NVC) will enter your information into their computer system.

Within 1-3 business days, the NVC will "cable" (basically emailing/sending electronically) your file to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China. This is approval of your visa petition.

Upon doing this, the NVC will then mail you a letter stating that your petition has been forwarded to the Embassy. Your agency needs this NVC letter in order to proceed with your adoption! Unfortunately, this letter can take up to a few weeks to arrive in the mail. So instead, ask the NVC to email you the letter as a .pdf attachment.

After you have received I-800 Approvaland have been cabled (and gotten the NVC letter),it's time for your Article 5 letter to be issued by the US Embassy. This is a step that you don't have to really DO anything about, but it is helpful to know what is going on.
Once you have emailed your NVC letterto your agency, they will forward it to their in-China representative.

The in-China rep will take the NVC letter to the US Embassy in Guangzhou along with your DS-230 application and Parental LOA. The US Embassy only allows representatives to drop off the paperwork on certain days.
UPDATE: Effective February 28th, 2011, pickup days will changed. Article 5s will now be picked up and dropped off on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!!! This is GREAT news for families!!! Monday will no longer be a pickup/drop off day.
Why is my paperwork going to the consulate?
The consulate needs to review your new child's visa application (the DS-230), make sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed. This is called the Article 5 letter. You cannot obtain custody of your child until the Article 5 letter is issued!
The consulate takes a standard two weeks to complete this process. If your paperwork is dropped off on a Monday, it will be picked up from the consulate by your agency rep two Mondays later.
Once it's picked up from the consulate, it will be delivered directly to the CCAA for Travel Approval!

And once you have Travel Approval (TA) you usually leave 2-3 weeks later, depending on when your consulate appointment is at the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.

There it is in a nutshell -- it is all going to happen quickly and be here before we know it, but it seems complicated having never gone through it before.

Another step down and one big step closer to Lena!  :)

And it's OFF Already!

Well that document wasn't in our hands long!  The signed LOA and I-800 documents, along with a few other things, are off to our agency.  They should receive them on Monday and will likely send them off to immigration first thing Tuesday.  I think it's now time for me to read up on what happens next because this is the part I am not familiar with.  I do know that there are 3-5 more steps and that the wait for each is anywhere from a week to a month and then we are assigned our Travel Approval (TA) and given a Consultant Appointment (CA) in Guangzhou, China.   It's getting really real and exciting now! :)   

And it's HERE!

The infamous LOA (Lettter of Approval ) or LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) arrived today from our agency via Fed Ex.  I had forewarned the Fed Ex driver that it is a bit of a tradition for people to take a picture of their Fed Ex driver delivering this document because it is so important!   I am pretty sure he thought I was crazy.  Well then it comes today and it's a totally different Fed Ex delivery man.   I explained it to him and asked if it would be okay if I took his picture handing off the document and he told me in 18 years of delivering, this is only the 2nd time someone had asked him to do that and he happily complied and then said, "Congratulations!"   :)

The LOA just needs to be signed and dated and sent off with a handful of other documents back to our agency, upon which we will then move into the next phase- back to immigration for the I-800 this time (US Immigration approval of a SPECIFIC child).  :)  A couple little steps after that approval and then you are granted your Travel Approval (TA) and you are off to China usually 2-3 weeks from TA.  

Without further ado, I give you the Henningfeld family LOA!

LOA!!!

Today is our son Evan's 5th birthday and he wanted to tell everyone that he got the best birthday present today- our Letter Of Approval (LOA), which means he will finally have a sister!   If you don't know any sign language- my boys are trying to sign L O A!!! :)   We are thrilled!  This was also my grandma's birthday!  What a special day!  Looks like July travel is realistic. We waited 71 days for our LOA- the longest waits are over and now we have a few more smaller waits to go until we get our Travel Approval or TA. 

More Blessings While we Wait

More time has gone by- we continue to wait for our Letter of Approval (LOA). This is the big step- after this there are 4 or 5 more small steps, but they are more predictable. Once you have LOA you usually travel 2.5-3 months later. The thing about the LOA wait is that families wait anywhere between 30 and 140 days. There is no rhyme or reason that anyone can tell on why some wait 30 days and some wait 140 days. Even people with the same agency have different lengths in waits. Lately the average seems to be 50-70 days. I was hoping we'd fall in the fast to average range, but would have been just fine with average. Well- tomorrow we hit day 70 so I guess we're looking at the longer waiter range. :( Though I can't complain because there are a few people with our agency who have had to wait 90-140 days. I pray the couple families who are still waiting and in that range get their LOA's this week. There are two other families who are with our agency and on the same day as us. Maybe all 5 of us will get it the same day and end up traveling together. That would be neat! Praying my next post will be my LOA announcement and that it will be SOON! I am not going to lie- it is wonderful to celebrate with everyone getting their LOA, but you wish you could be celebrating for your own LOA too. This wait is painfully hard!

I also wanted to thank everyone who has supported us by praying, using our Amazon link (it is working), ordering through our affiliate account with Ordinary Hero, purchasing '31' products through our 31 fundraisers, or who have donated items for our rummage sale we hope to have in May. We are blessed and so thankful!

Today was a special day though because we were blessed with some more photos of Lena, this time from a family from the Netherlands who returned to the orphanage for a visit the beginning of April. Here is what she shared with me from that day:

"Just to say that we have been visiting Nanping SWI and seen your daughter. She was asleep, but the staff woke her up, so we could take pictures. My travel companion took some photos of her - unfortunately our respective cameras and computers don't communicate with each other, so she can only transfer the pictures after we get back home on the 14th of April. I hope you can wait that long:)The guide said that she was a bright girl who already knew how to read lips.The orphanage is beautifully situated, and the director and vice director are very kind and nice people."

And today I got the pictures they were able to take of Lena. Though she was woken up and not happy about it, it made this mama's heart happy to see her! :) I would have even settled for pictures of her sleeping. Below are the 5 pictures I received. But first is a picture of Lena with the family from Canada who went back for a visit in March. They got us a cute little video clip and the picture of them with Lena even made the orphanage website: http://yanping-fuli.org/news/News_View.asp?NewsID=151

Shared Blessings

These photos were taken around June 2011.

Lena is the one about to enter the hula hoop on the left.

Lena is towards the back right side with the nanny, who we believe is the deaf nanny.Lena is the one in the far back corner.

Lena is in yellow being held by the boy in the front in a white t-shirt.

These ladies were visiting the orphanage last spring.

Lena is being held by the woman standing in purple.

While we are waiting for LOA (and I believe today is day 33....not that I am counting), I figured I would share some neat stories of things that have happened the last couple of months.

I connected with a wonderful family who is adopting a little girl from the same orphanage as Lena. They were waiting on some of their last steps in the process and recently got their TA (travel approval). They will be leaving this Friday for China and have so generously offered to take a care package to Lena for us. We sent them some fun things for her. They are hoping to get to visit the orphanage and meet her as well, but that will depend on if they are allowed to and how well their daughter is adjusting. The package will get to Lena via the orphanage official no matter what! :) I am so excited for them and for their daughter Hannah to be coming home though I am sad that one of Lena's friends will be leaving her.

And speaking of that, a month ago maybe we were given some videos of Lena from our agency...videos sure are a wonderful gift! In one of them she is running around and smiling and though it is just a few seconds long, it melts my heart. In a couple others she is at the top of a slide and we noticed she has a little bossy side...lol. I think because she is unable to communicate with anyone like the other kids there can, she uses her facial expressions, clicking noises, her pointer finger, and other body parts to get the message across. I shared the first video we got with our friends because their daughter Hannah was in it. They were so happy to have that video, even if it was just a few second glimpse of her. :) I also shared Lena's birthday pictures and a few other pictures I have found in an online Chinese search engine that have both girls in them with this family...what a great find! Those photos are posted above. But back to the videos- so in the one video where Lena is showing her personality/bossy side, Hannah comes up the slide and Lena kind pushes her off with her knees. She tries again and Lena takes a balloon ball toy and hits her on the head a couple of times, as well as pointing where she should go with the click click sound she makes. Oh my! I am going to share that video with Hannah's family as well because it will show them how precious she is and give them a feel for her sweet, easy-going personality- she never once got upset, yelled or pushed back, etc. She just happily went somewhere else. I told Hannah's family that it looks like I need to give them a disclaimer before sending the video- our daughter is the orphanage bully!

Lena sure reminds me of Landyn. Those two will give each other a run for their money- could be interesting around here. Lena also looks bigger than she is too. Her and Hannah are only 2 weeks apart in age. Hannah's DOB is her true birthdate because her parents left her with a birthnote. Lena's birthdate is estimated so they could be off a bit, but I wouldn't think they'd be off by more than 2-3 months since she was found as an infant. She just looks big, but maybe it is all of that winter gear they keep them in.

Here is another neat story that I had to share: A woman from Canada on the orphanage yahoo group posted about going back to visit the orphanage with her daughter so that she could show her daughter

where she is from. I asked her if she would try and get pictures and/or video of Lena and give her a hug from us. I also asked her if she would be willing to ask the orphanage if she could get photos and/or video of three boys that I have found on the shared list who are still waiting for a family. I gave her their information and the photos from their files. She visited there today (last night probably while we were sleeping) and she got some photos of Lena that she shared with us and here is what she said about her: "I was able to obtain a video of your little Yujie.....very cute little girl. They say despite her hearing disability, she knows a lot of things. It seems the nannies in her part of the orphanage are quite fond of her." She said she would share the video when she got home. She got photos and video on two of the boys as well and told me a bit about them. The third was living in a foster home and couldn't get there. She said: "I explained you were on your way very soon to adopt Yujie. They were pleased, but when I explained why I wanted updates on the boys, they were ecstatic. I said you were trying to locate families for them, and they thought that was wonderful. Keep up the good work." This all just made my day! :) I am now praying that I will be able to find a family for at least one of those boys- a family for all three of them would be wonderful!

Here are the pictures of Lena from March 12th in China...last night for us!

And now we have...

We got the call today that we officially have a log-in date- February 8th, 2012. That means our paperwork is now logged into the system in China and are officially waiting for our Letter of Approval (LOA) which can take anywhere from 30 to 150+ days,though average is around 50-75 days. We are seven days down and praying we are on the quicker end of the timeline. This will be what our travel is really dependent on. My best guess is still travel between June and August, but we shall see what the LOA fairy has in store for us!

I have a few other exciting things I need to share here...just working on figuring out how to do that...lol.

Super excited to be logged in and a week down for the LOA wait!