"...We don't know when we will be going..."

I've had to answer that question about one time too many! I know people are just curious but it seems as though the same people keep asking the same question!! ~sigh~ It's like being asked "When are you due?" or "Haven't you had that baby yet?" No, we haven't had the baby yet. She's still in China oblivious to what is about to happen. I've been praying for a smooth transition and for the foster family. I know they have cared for Julia since she came to the orphanage. I put a picture that Michelle took into a frame for the foster mom. We also just bought a ton of chocolate to take over for the officials. I know it's going to be hard on everyone.

Here's the timeline so far that I wanted to post awhile back and never did:

Late March...saw AAI website
April 4th...called AAI to request file for a little girl with no ear
April 5th...GOT THE FILE, She's even more adorable than we first thought! Her name is Lu Yin Gui and her birthday is October 14, 2003.
April 19th...attended International info meeting in G.R., Mary tells us that she is putting Lu Yin Gui on hold for us, we're doing it! Met Michelle for the first time.
May5th...send out prelim application
May 9th...had passport pictures taken
May 15th...Filled out full app
May 26th...sent our Letter of Intent to China to adopt Lu Yin Gui
May 26th...first home study visit with Mary Beth
May 26th...got fingerprint appointments from USCIS
June 2nd...2nd visit with Mary Beth for home study
June 10th...Mary sent new pictures of Julia! OH MY GOODNESS!
June 11th...Watched the video of Julia that Michelle took while in China
June 11th...Went to Kentwood for fingerprints
June 16th...Pre-approval! China says we are approved to adopt a little girl who is now know to us as Julia Renee YinGui
June 27th...last home study visit!!
June 30th...Got Julia's Finding Ad from Brian Stuy at Research-China.com
July 25th...sent home study to Officer Teske at USCIS
July 30th...got I-171H!
August 17th...Dossier sent to China!!
August 31st...Dossier logged into CCAA
October 11th...Brown Envelope arrived!
October 17th...Sent passports out to get the visa stamp
October 25th...Passports came back from Chinese consulate in Chicago!

So...that brings us to today. We are hoping that we hear from Mary at AAI tomorrow. I don't care if we don't get to China until December, I just want that stinkin' TA! :-) Enough for tonight. Please pray for a safe trip tomorrow for Randy and Michelle. They leave for China to bring home their daughter Avery. Avery is the same age as Julia. We can't wait to get the girls together to play. Of course we will invite Isaac to play too. He's only one day younger than Julia. :-)

G'Night!

Who is waiting for Julia?

Here are some of the folks and furry friends that are waiting for Julia! We are hoping that tomorrow is the day that we find out what is happening!! Keep us in your prayers!!

Here is a map that you can add yourself to! It's a pretty cool thing!

http://www.frappr.com/bringinghomejulia

Momma, are you coming to get me?? I can't wait to see you!! 

Riley says, "Come play in the snow with me!" 

Sherman says, "Can't wait to give you a slurpy kiss, Julia!" 

Dad and Anna would climb the tallest lighthouse to bring Julia home! 

This adoptin' momma is tired of waiting, I want to go to China now!! 

We're the proud new GREAT-grandparents!!  

Hi, I'm Anna and I can't wait to have my sister here! Hurry up Julia! 

Is she here yet? I want my baby sister! 

Still waiting...

As you can tell by the title, we are still waiting to hear about our TA (travel approval). Michelle and Randy got their last Thursday. I was bummed. More like down right depressed. I cried and yelled. After the small tantrum I realized there is no rhyme or reason for why people get their travel approvals. It's just we had planned on all going together. Ah well. Melissa and Larry B. haven't got their TA either and we really hope we get to the White Swan together. I will post links of 2 of the hotels that we are thinking we will be at. I'm not sure of the one in Beijing yet. I do know that I want to stay at the Wuhan Mayflower Hotel. Michelle stayed here and loved it. It seems nice. I can't get a link to work, so I will wait to post pictures later. :-)

As for being in Guangzhou (gwan-joe), we will be at the White Swan. It's where most adoptive families stay on their way out of China after the Embassy appointments. Here's the link for the White Swan: http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp

So....we sit and wait to hear from Ming on Monday. Let's hope and pray that we get the word this week! :-)

Let the PACKING begin...

Since we have now begun our approach to the final leg of this journey, I have started to pack. Yes, pack. Why you ask? Because I had no idea how much stuff that I would want to take!! All the gifts for guides, foster parents, for Director Lu. Julia's things...clothes, snacks, toys, the ladybug backpack for Gotcha Day. I have my LL Bean bathroom bag STUFFED full of all kinds of medicines, potions, lotions and pills that we may need for the trip. I need to recheck what the dimentions are for luggage and for weight limits. Ugh, this could be the typical Melissa pack job, OVERWEIGHT. (No pun intended!) Right now I have an entire suitcase full of stuff to take. Wayne is going to have to pack super light! Hahaha! I also have packed a collapsable duffle/suitcase for all the souvenirs that I want to bring back. I just know that everyone is gonna love their Christmas presents from China. :-) So as for the waiting...we are now day 51. I am so hoping for a less than 70 day wait. I sure would like to be in China for Thanksgiving. Peking Duck and tea for my holiday dinner, please. I am sad when I think of leaving the kids for 2 weeks. yikes. What is Anna going to do? Well, she will have her Grammy Darlene and Poppa Bill. Speaking of Poppa Bill, he had surgery today to fix his foot. I sure hope all is well. I haven't heard anything yet. Cam I don't think is too worried about us going. I need to find out when elementary basketball starts. He wants to play again. I'm researching phone cards and cell phone rentals for the trip. Wayne will need a cell for work and I think it's just a good idea to have one incase something happens to the kids.

So...let's summerize where we are at. Still no idea of when we will travel. Travel approvals have been coming any time after about the 60 day mark. Let's hope and pray that is the case for us as well. Our visas should be back next week, around Wednesday. YAY! Yet another step closer. I will keep everyone updated on the progress and once we pick a website to host our travel journal I will send that along as well. Take care!!

Visas

I got an email yesterday from Denise Hope saying that she dropped off our visa applications and that they would be ready on the 25th. YAY! I'm still thinking that our TA will come on or around the 3rd of Novemeber. No idea why, but it works with the 17th date that I feel is the day we will leave.

We are now waiting to hear from Wayne's boss to see how much he is going to help us out. He previously had told Wayne that he could possibly cover the orphanage donation ($3000) and maybe more. Oh, if it only happens that way. I can hardly believe we are getting this close to the end. Could it be that in one short month from now that we will be in China??

~Snoppy Dance, Day#2~ (10/14/05)

Just when we conceded that we were not getting the "Brown Envelope" it came. Yes, it fricken A came!!! :-) I walked out to get the mail like any other Friday. Nothing special. I started going though everything we got, Christmas catalogs, bills, postcards to a few parties. Then, there it was...I could hardly believe my eyes. OOOHHH!! Ok, so what's so special about this brown envelope? Not a damn thing to be honest. It's just paperwork that we will need for our consulate appointment. Yep, just paperwork. No more info on Julia, no more info about when we will travel. Just something to help with the waiting process.

The second part of the Snoopy Dance Day was that we sent our applications in for our visas. We are using a courier to go to the Chinese consulate in Chicago and apply for us. http://www.theres-always-hope.com YAY! I'm so hoping that we can get the 6 month visas like Denise mentioned that we could.

Finally, the third part of this 2 day late post...the 14th was Julia's birthday. I'm bummed that we missed it, but all the women on the late august DTC group wished us many happy more birthdays once Julia is home. :-) Happy Belated Birthday babygirl!! Momma and Daddy can't wait to see you! Big sister Anna is so excited and so is Big brother Cameron. :-)

We got the WHITE envelope! Happy early Birthday, Julia Renee!

Adoption update! Michelle and I finally conceded that we both are not getting the "brown envelope". Bummer to say the least, but AAI has the documents that we will need while in China. So...We got the packet of those papers today! Nothing that spectacular. Just another step in the long road to Julia.

Speaking of Julia...her 2nd birthday is tomorrow. I didn't think that I would be that down about it, but I am. If only we had moved a bit quicker to get our paperwork going, she might be home already. The what if's kill me. I do have to remember that we are working on God's time, not Melissa and Wayne time. :-) I guess Michelle, Liz, and I were meant to go through this process together. My hope is that not only have I gained a daughter, I will have gained two life-long friends. We bought Julia a few birthday presents. Aunt Samantha, Aunt Theresa, Anna and I picked out an Eeyore pull toy, stacking barrels, and a little bug phone. I will post pictures of the presents once we get back from camping.

Ok...I've got to email Michelle about the raisins. I will post that story too, later. :-)

YEEHAWW...we got a "case" number and the OK to get our visas!

I got an email from Michelle at AAI today. Mary got word that we have a case number. Which means that they have processed (at least at the Embassy) our paperwork for immigration. Woohooo! So we are now hoping that will bring on the delivery of our brown envelope with all the paperwork we will need for Guangzhou. ~Snoopy Dance Time~ This is our number: GUZ 2005238027.

Also, Ming gave Michelle the go-ahead to get our travel visas! Another small snoopy dance. I'm excited. I get the feeling things are going to happen sooner than later. Liz and I are hoping to travel over Thanksgiving.

Ok..enough for tonight. Later! :-)

From itchy mom to itchy dogs/Letter translation

Well, the run on poison ivy is over, but now...the dogs have FLEAS. Oh lord, will it ever end?? So far Riley seems to be the bad one. Her longer hair gives them a better place to live; where as with Sherman, his short hair isn't a flea's cup of tea. :-)

No real news on the adoption front. I bid on some really cool stickers for the scrapbook we are working on for Director Lu. I've been talking to a nice woman whose son is from Xianning. She has nothing but really great things to say about Lu. YAY! I feel better about Julia being in his care as each day goes. I wrote a letter to the foster parents and had it translated into Chinese for them. It cost $50.00 but well worth the money. I wanted them to know how much we appreciate the job they have done and what they will continue to mean in Julia's life.

Ok..time to read some more Mercer Mayer books to Anna. She loves Little Critter books. Later!

AAI called...

No, still no TA, but they did ask about using video of Julia in a DVD that they are putting together with CCAA. They also called Liz and asked about using Isaac in the DVD too. How exciting! It apparently has something to do with a program called tomorrow's Child. I could be wrong, but I thought that's what Liz called it. I have a call into Michelle to ask about it.

We are also headed to Kent City today to get Cam's new bed. YAY! Then we are going to celebrate my birthday (#32) at either Olive Garden or Red Lobster. Whatever the kids pick. Hard to believe that I'm 32 already...man I feel old!!

Map of China

I'm posting a map of China, actually, I'm posting a map of Hubei. That's the province that Julia lives in. She is currently in the city of Xianning. She will be brought to us when we are in Wuhan. It's about 1.5 hour drive to get to there. Here's a little bit on Xianning.

Xianning, with an area of 9.853 square kilometers and a population of 2,696,100 is located at Central China. It neighbors Northern Jiangxi province on the east, adjoins Dongting Lake of Hunan province on the south, gaze at Jianghan Plain on the west and closes to Wuhan on the north. There are 2 cities, 4 counties and one tourist economic development zone under its jurisdiction. They are Chibi city, Xianan division, Tongcheng county, Jiayu county, Tongshan county, Chongyang county and Wenquan Tourist Economic Development Zone. There major traffic lines run through our city from north to south. They are Beijing-to-Guangzhou Railway line, No. 106 and No. 107 national highways, and the Yangtse River connects the east and west. So specially endowed with favourable conditions, Xianning is known as the southern Gate of Hubei Province.There are rich resources both above the earth and unearth in the region. Xianning is always famous for the beautiful names of the Hometown of Bamboo, the Hometown of Tea. Here, fine natural landscape and historical landscape are gathered. It is a green gem of Hubei province, with 41 percent of forest covering rate. Moreover, we have the Tomb of King Li, Chibi-the ancient battlefield of the Tree Kingdoms, Taiyi Cave, Chengshui Underground Defence Works, Jiugong Mountain Nature Preserve Area, Lushui Lake Tourist Vacationing Spot and Bamboo Sea.

This is the map of Hubei.