Almost there!!

Things are moving pretty fast now!  We have applied for our visas and are waiting on our travel approval (TA) from China.  Hopefully we'll have that the week of March 24.  Once we get that, we will book our flights!  My hope is to travel on April 9th, with gotcha day on April 14! 

We got an update on Erik this week!  He is 22 pounds, 29 inches tall, and is in good health.  He has had pneumonia 3 times in his short life, once at one month old, the second at 7 months old, and the last time at 12 months.  We pray that he stays healthy until we are able to bring him home and keep him warm and well nourished!  He can say mama, baba (dad) and jie jie (sister).  He has 6 teeth.  He can crawl and stand.  He is currently living with a foster family!

Here are the pictures they sent!

 

Immigration approval received!!

We received our approved I800 on February 14th!  This means that we are through the immigration approval process!  The next step is to get a GUZ number from the Nathional Visa Center, who will issue Erik's visa approval.  Once we receive this, the next big step is to get a travel approval (TA) from China, which is basically their invitation for us to come get Erik!  Early next week I will send off my visa application (and Linda's, who is my dear friend who is coming to China with me!)  Once we have TA, we can make our airline reservations.  There is a small possibility that I will be getting Erik on my birthday!!!  6-8 weeks from now I will be holding my little boy!!!  I've already started packing!

P.S.  Still haven't received our update from the orphanage.  Hopefully that will come in the next week or two so we know what size clothes to bring! 

Today we received our LOA!!  This is the step of the process where China has approved us to adopt Erik!  This is the start of a flurry of activity, starting with filing our I800 form with USCIS.  Our travel is estimated to be the middle of April!  Looks like I'm going to have a unforgettable birthday!  CCAI has requested an update from the orphanage today, so hopefully we will have new pictures in the next week or two!!

Today is Erik's first birthday (Did I mention that we have officially named him Erik Robert??).  Oh how we wish he was here with us to celebrate!  But he is in our thoughts and prayers and we know that we will never miss another birthday with him! 

We don't have anymore information regarding where we are in the wait.  We are officially on day 30 of our wait for the LOA, which is supposed to take 2-3 months.  I'm really hoping that we are halfway there and we'll get it at the 2 month mark! 

Happy Birthday Erik, we love you and cannot wait to have you in our family!

Introducing our son!  His name is Zheng Yu Chen and is currently residing in the Pingdingshan Orphanage in the Henan province.  We are so excited and can't wait to bring him home.  We sent our letter of intent last week and locked his file on December 2, 2013.  Our agency is estimating that we can travel to get him in April or May 2014.  We have so much to do to get ready for him!  We need to buy a crib, a stroller, car seats, and so much more!  It seems like such a long time from now, but hopefully it'll go by fast!  We already love our son so much!!!

This is an updated picture that we just received.

 

These are the first pictures that we were given with his file to review:

 

 

We received the first report with information from when he was 8 months old.  We received a current update and he had gained 5 pounds!  He's currently 21 pounds and 27.5 inches.  He's a pretty big boy!! 

Wow, a lot has happened in the last week.  On November 15, our dossier was officially logged in with China!  At that point, I figured that we would wait another month or two to be matched.  Well, I was wrong!  On November 20 I received a call from CCAI letting me know that they had a file for us to review.  I got the call while I was at work and was so overwhelmed!  She asked if I wanted to look at it and of course I said yes!  I immediately called Mark and we looked at it together.  This was the first look that we got at our son.  We had a cardiologist and our family doctor review the file and they both said that everything looked good.  He is on target for social and physical development and his ASD is small.  So we have decided to submit a LOI to China letting them know that we would like to adopt this little guy.  As soon as we have his file locked in I'll post more information!!

Our Dossier went to China yesterday!  This is a huge step in the process.  It is the result of the last 11 months of gathering documents, waiting on approvals, taking classes, and just waiting and waiting and waiting on things that were totally out of our control!!  Yay!!!