Fingerprints update and a VERY Happy Birthday to our little girl!

A quick update on the fingerprint appointment. Our appointment date was for Dec. 5th but we decided to try and walk in a few days early (this does not speed up the process) so that our boys would not have to miss a morning of school. We went on Wed. Nov. 31st and were successful! :)
Now to wait for the actual approval....USCIS (immigration) has up to 90 days from our receipt date (Oct. 26th) to approve them. We are on day 46 today, I believe. Current statistics are showing 65-75 days which puts us right around the week between Christmas and New Years, so I am going to take a stab in the dark and guess we will be on the longer end- I think 75 days would be Jan. 9th so I am thinking it will be that week. 90 days would be Jan.. 24th and that is getting too close for comfort since our 6 month deadline China gives us from our pre-approval to get our dossier to China (DTC) is Feb. 1st!! I would rather have a little extra time than be pushing it, if you know what I mean! So we continue to wait!

On a totally different note....December 12th is our little Lena's 2nd birthday! You might be thinking...Brooke, it is Dec. 11th....you are right- it is the 11th here, but it is already the morning of the 12th in China! HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY, LENA GRACE YUJIE! It is bittersweet to be celebrating a birthday of one of your precious children, but to not be able to celebrate together as a family. So we will do the best we can- we will celebrate her birthday tonight as a family- we have a cake with her name on it. We also ordered another care package 2 weeks ago. We sent her a cake, a doll, a few books, another camera for her nannies to get more pictures of her for us, and some candy/nuts for the nannies and possibly for the other children in care there. Here are pictures of that. We cannot wait for the day we get some pictures of our sweetheart with her cake....how exciting it will be to get those! Praying our little love has a wonderful day and rejoicing that it will be her last birthday without her family!

Our family celebrating Lena's 2nd Birthday- her last one without her family!

Nana and Grandpa JP too!

Our boys celebrating their sister's 2nd Birthday!

The cake we got to celebrate, along with Lena's picture and a doll my
mom and step-dad bought for her.

Care package we sent Lena minus the cake!