Getting Closer!!

One more step down, one to go!!  The US Consulate finished processing our daughter's visa and has signed off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed.  Our agency's in-China representative picked up this approval from the Consulate yesterday and will deliver it to the CCCWA.  This means our wait for Travel Approval (TA) has begun!!  Let's check this off our list:

• Receive LOA (CHECK!)
• Send I-800 application to USCIS (CHECK!)
• USCIS forwards our approval to the National Visa Center to petition for baby girl's visa (CHECK!)
• The NVC forwards the approved visa petition to the US Consulate in Guangzhou China (CHECK!)
• The Consulate reviews the visa application (the DS-230), makes sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed (CHECK!)
• The approval is forwarded to the CCCWA, which issues our Travel Approval!

Travel Approvals are currently taking about 2 weeks to receive.  Our agency's next two travel dates are June 29 and July 13.  WE WILL BE LEAVING ONE OF THOSE DATES!!!  Unfortunately, we won't know which date until at least the second week in June when our TA comes.  This brings us to prayer requests, if anyone feels led to pray for us:

• Please pray that the dates we need for our Consulate appointment will be available when we get our TA.  This is what decides whether we get to go in June or July, and also determines the length of our trip (please pray for SHORT AS POSSIBLE since we're leaving Ella & Myles here).
• Please pray for a miracle when it comes time to book our plane tickets. June/July is the most expensive and busy time to fly to China. We've been watching the ticket prices climb over the past several weeks.  Or maybe I should pray for someone with an extra 75,000 Delta airline miles that they weren't planning on using!  :)
• Please pray for our hearts to be calm and simply rest in the knowledge that God is in control. The next month is bound to be crazy (our to-do list has no less than 60 items on it) but we'd like to have quality family time and to continue to glorify God in all that we do no matter how crazy it gets.

We don't have any pictures related to this, but we'll leave you with another one of our favorites from our last update:

Just What We Needed Today!

This is JUST what I (Heather) needed today!  I was feeling pretty down this morning. This wait is starting to take its toll on me and I haven't been getting as much sleep lately so I am feeling pretty run-down. Then, THIS shows up in our email inboxes:

Be still my heart!  Isn't she just beautiful!!  This picture came with an update from our agency.  She is healthy, growing, and now has 12 teeth!!  Her hair is growing in nicely too :)  It's kind of bittersweet to see the new pictures, as she is getting so big and growing up without us.  We shipped a picture book to China a few months ago with photos of us and the kids, and they confirmed that she received it.  How great to think that she's been able to look at photos of her family!  We're so glad her caretakers are so responsive to requests for updates.  That has really been a blessing to us.  We know of others waiting to get their little ones who are having a much harder time getting updates. 

In other exciting news, the National Visa Center has forwarded our visa petition to the US Consulate in China!  One more step down, and only two more to go until Travel Approval!  Given the current typical wait times, we should be in China by July at the latest.  Recap of the remaining steps:

Receive LOA (CHECK!)

Send I-800 application to USCIS (asking US immigration for permission to adopt the child we were specifically matched with)  (CHECK!)

USCIS forwards our approval to the National Visa Center to petition for baby girl's visa  (CHECK!)

The NVC forwards the approved visa petition to the US Consulate in Guangzhou China  (CHECK!)

The Consulate reviews the visa application (the DS-230), makes sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed.

The approval is forwarded to the CCCWA, which issues our Travel Approval!

It's a Good Day!

Lots of good stuff happened today.  The biggest news, we received our I-800 approval from USCIS!  This means US Customs has officially approved us to bring this precious little one into our family.  If things continue to go this smoothly, there's a chance we could be hopping on a plane before the end of June!  If not June, we'll be heading to get her in July.




Also, our Passports arrived back via UPS today, with our China travel visas neatly inserted (see picture).  We're approved to travel to China until April 2013, but thankfully we'll be heading there MUCH sooner than that!


Recap of what's left (starting from our April 11 blog post):

• Receive LOA (CHECK!)
• Send I-800 application to USCIS (CHECK!)
• USCIS forwards our approval to the National Visa Center to petition for baby girl's visa (CHECK!)
• The NVC forwards the approved visa petition to the US Consulate in Guangzhou China
• The Consulate reviews the visa application (the DS-230), makes sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed.
• The approval is forwarded to the CCCWA, which issues our Travel Approval!

We're coming, baby girl!!!  

LOA... Y-E-S!!!

After 81 days (but who's counting) of waiting since our Provisional Approval, we got the phone call at 5:05pm today with news of our Letter of Acceptance (LOA)!!!  In simple terms, this means that our translated Dossier was reviewed and accepted by the CCCWA, and China has officially approved our adoption.  The best part about this is that the unpredictable/unknown waiting time of this step is over.  We've seen some families having to wait as long as 130 days, so we're very thankful we didn't have to wait any longer.

This LOA was the last document required so that we could overnight our I-800 form to the USCIS (which we hurried up and did before UPS closed at 7:00pm tonight).  Another large stack of paperwork has left the Adolphs' home!  With today's wonderful news, it now looks very likely that we'll travel to China in July to get our little girl!

For those of you wondering "what now?", see the end of our prior blog post for a list of our next steps. :-)

One Year Later

It was one year ago today that we pulled the trigger and applied to our adoption agency. It has been fast and painfully slow all at the same time!  It's like we've been "expecting" for a year, with several months to go.  Multiple times a day we look at baby girl's pictures placed all over our house and there is just this pain in our hearts that we're stuck here waiting instead of jumping on a plane and going to get her!  But we pray, and pray, and pray for her and for our patience and God is getting us through it one...day...at...a...time.

Several times a day Ella mentions her baby sister, usually in the context of something she thinks she'll like or something she wants to do with her.  "Sister will really like to celebrate Easter with us next year!"  "I can't wait for sister to come home so I can teach her to play piano!"  And every mealtime and bedtime, Ella prays something like, "Dear God, thank you for our sister and please keep her safe and healthy and please bring her home soon."  I have been brought to tears several times simply by hearing her say something about her sister.

A recent small milestone we hit was that our dossier changed to "in process" at the CCCWA.  This happened on March 30, and it means that after 60 days of being translated, our dossier is now being reviewed by an officer to make sure we meet all of their criteria.  But, it does not mean that we are done with this step.  We still have weeks until we will get this coveted LOA (Letter of Acceptance) that says China officially approves us to adopt our baby girl.  And after that, it will be 3 months until we travel.  So, all that to say we are now looking at July/August for travel.  So here is a summary of the remaining steps of the process:

• Receive LOA
• Send I-800 application to USCIS (asking US immigration for permission to adopt the child we were specifically matched with)
• USCIS forwards our approval to the National Visa Center to petition for baby girl's visa
• The NVC forwards the approved visa petition to the US Consulate in Guangzhou China
• The Consulate reviews the visa application (the DS-230), makes sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed.
• The approval is forwarded to the CCCWA, which issues our Travel Approval!

Those are the steps that take 3 months, and none of them can be done simultaneously.  If any of you feel led, please pray that these steps go smoothly and quickly.  Also, pray that we would be using this waiting time the way God wants us to instead of just wishing it away.  It is a difficult struggle, but we will continue to trust in Him.


"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

Unexpected Kindness from Complete Strangers

We (well, mostly Heather) have been actively following adoption blogs and online forums.   Connections have been made with others that have recently completed or are in the process of an adoption from China.  We received an unexpected surprise over the past couple of days from not one, but two families that travelled to China last month.  They picked up their children from our same orphanage and got to check on baby sister!

These families were kind enough to take the time to take pictures of our baby!  We're so very thankful for this.  Baby girl had these visitors within a day of each other, just before her first birthday.  We were told that the nannies seemed very attentive to the children and seemed to care for all of them very much.  It sounds like the conditions of the facility are sparse, but clean.  We learned that baby's crib is located near the play area and the main entrance, so we can only imagine our little girl welcoming every person that walks through that door.  :-)

Enough talk, on to the new pics!

Feb 15, 2012 (is that a semi-smile in the 2nd picture??):

 Feb 16, 2012:

Happy Birthday, Little One

Tomorrow is February 23.  It's killing us inside because it will be our little girl's very first birthday and she's not here with us to celebrate.  One thing that's making it somewhat bearable is that we received a huge surprise from our agency today:  new pictures and an update from China!

We were informed that baby girl now weighs about 20 pounds, has seven teeth, and is walking.  They say she likes to play with toys and with the other children, but that she isn't much of a talker yet (we're sure that will change after living in this household for about 10 minutes).  The report says that "everyone there thinks she's a smart little baby."

Our other kiddos obviously enjoyed looking at baby's new pictures earlier today, as evidenced by their slobber, handprints, & sticky globs all over this laptop screen.  We're proud to share these new pictures with all of you.

God, please let our paperwork make it through the system faster than we could ever imagine.  We want to bring this little one home!  Happy Birthday to our wonderful little daughter!

Oh, and since we've already been asked:  No, we don't know what's up with the vest. :-)