Tickets Are Booked!

We got final confirmation that our Gotcha Day (meeting Lucille) will be May 30 and our final US Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou will be June 7.  So, last night we were able to book all of our flights!  As a bonus we were able to cash in a bunch of frequent flier miles to help offset the cost a little bit.

We're still waiting for a detailed update on Lucille from China but we did get a couple of new pictures from another family that's in country this week.  This family brought along a little care package for Lucille, including the doll you see in the pictures below.

Lucille, we're coming to get you in just four short weeks!!

 

Things Keep A-Movin' On!

Three of the six steps we mentioned in our last blog post have been completed!  Our "Article 5" paperwork is complete and will be dropped off with the US Consulate in China any day now. About two weeks later, the Consulate will issue a letter that states that we are "approved as a suitable adoptive parent and that the child will be able to enter and reside permanently in the United States."

This letter will be couriered to the CCCWA.  It's typically 2-3 weeks later that Travel Approval is issued.  Then we book our flights and go!  We're still very hopeful that we'll depart in late May.

We really don't have much more news, but we wanted to blog as an excuse to share new pictures of our baby girl.  A friend that Heather made through an online group adopted from Lucille's (and Helen's) SWI in 2011 and is in China right now for a return visit.  She was kind enough to snap a few pictures for us!  She also brought along a recent picture of Helen to share with the staff there.  They were very happy to see the picture and to hear that we are getting another girl from the same SWI!

LOA is Here!

We've officially received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China!  Our Dossier, after being translated, was reviewed and accepted by the CCCWA.  We received a preliminary notification of this on March 7, but just got the official email with the document this afternoon.  This means that China has approved us to adopt our little girl!!!

Oh, on that note, now that the process has progressed this far we can officially share her name.  Let us introduce you to our newest family member:  Lucille Marie Songrui Adolphs!  We've received a few new photos several weeks ago and were saving them for this update.

 

The remaining steps are the same as when we went through the process with Helen:

• Our I-800 is being sent overnight to the USCIS (the LOA was the final document our agency was waiting for)
• USCIS will forward this approval to the National Visa Center to apply for Lucille's visa
• The NVC will send the approved visa petition to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China
• The Consulate will review the visa application, ensure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then sign off that everything is in order to complete the adoption
• That approval is forwarded to the CCCWA, which issues our Travel Approval (TA)
• We book our flights & hotel and go get Lucille!

Thanks for continuing to pray for our family.  We're hoping to meet our little girl face-to-face before the end of May 2016!

Dossier to China, and a Happy Birthday!

After many months of interviews, appointments, paperwork, notarizing, certification, and authentication, we're happy to report that our Dossier is complete and was shipped to China!  Now we wait to get "logged in" with the CCCWA and then the translation of our documents will begin.

In other news, little sister celebrated her 3rd birthday on December 9.  While we were sad we couldn't be there in person, we were able to throw a birthday party for her and the other children in her facility!  A birthday cake and treats were brought in for all the kiddos by our agency's China contact.  By the pictures you can see it looks like they had a great time.

Within the next few months we'll be bringing this peanut home!

Love this one of her with some friends (she's the cutie in the middle)!!

Wrapping Up the US Paperwork

Our US paperwork is nearing completion!  We took a day trip to Des Moines on December 8 for our fingerprinting at the US Customs & Immigration Services (USCIS) office.  We hit a minor roadblock there, but two hours later the fingerprinting was complete and we were on our way.  Surprisingly, the approval came through only three days later!  It is definitely not typical to go through so quickly.

Once we get this final piece of paper in the mail -- our I-800A -- it will be authenticated, certified, and combined with all of the other documents we completed over the past few months (physical exam reports, homestudy, employment verification, background checks, etc).  This stack of papers makes up our Dossier. 

People keep asking when we're going to go get her.  The short answer: We expect to travel to China sometime between April-June 2016.  The longer answer of what's left:

• I-800A approval is authenticated at the state level
• I-800A gets certified by the Chinese Consulate in Houston
• Dossier shipped to China
• Dossier translated in China
• Dossier moves from translation to "in review"
• Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China
• We go back to USCIS for a final I-800 paperwork step
• Travel Approval (TA) received from China
• We coordinate our travel and fly out!

Another adopting couple is in China getting their son from little sister's orphanage this week.  They took the time to send some pictures of her yesterday!  This is the first time we've seen her without her trademark hairclip.  Isn't she great?

Checking More and More Boxes...

There has been a lot of progress over the past two months.  We completed all interviews with our social worker, which in turn allowed her to complete our homestudy.  The approved homestudy was submitted to our adoption agency on November 19 and our application to the USCIS was submitted that same day.  Next up is waiting for USCIS to schedule a fingerprinting appointment in Des Moines. 

We also collected and submitted all but one document for our dossier (the package of authenticated/certified documents for China).  The final dossier document will be our USCIS approval, and after this comes in the mail our dossier will be finalized and sent to China for translation.  We're still several months away from travel but we are trusting in God's timing!

A big surprise today was receiving an update from China!  Little sister seems to be doing great.  She's 35 inches tall and around 26 pounds.  She is in great health, has not been ill, and her physical/mental development is reportedly above average.  She can run, jump, and go up stairs.  She started talking about eight months ago.  We were told, "Now she can speak local dialogue pretty well and she can sing and dance with TV."  Time for us to start learning some Cantonese!

We asked about her personality and received this reply:  "She is timid and shy. She is also active with someone she knows well. She can play very well when she likes you." 

Oh, and we also have some new pictures to share!  We can't wait to hold this little one in our arms.

Five Thumbs Up! (or, "Here We Go Again!")

The Adolphs family is dusting off this ol' blog to share some exciting news.  We will be adding another member to our family!  We submitted our application and Letter of Intent (LOI) over the past few weeks, and just today we received our Pre-Approval (PA) from China!  This means we can make this information public, and we have a green light to continue with our homestudy and paperwork trail.

The five thumbs up picture represents our completion of the first document in the whole process on August 22, 2015.  Our stack of papers has already become quite big and there's a long ways to go.

We appreciate your prayers not only for quick completion of the homestudy and dossier prep, but also that God will be preparing each our hearts for this change (especially little sister's).  Our hope is that we'll be traveling early summer 2016 to bring this beautiful little one home!  Oh, and we suppose you'd all like to see some pictures...  :-)

God is good!