We received our much awaited approval letter from the National Visa Center on February 24. It was pretty anti-climatic, a plain piece of paper, no letterhead or anything saying our approval had been cabled to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou on February 20. Exactly why they can't just email that to us and save us a week of waiting I may never know. The Consulate in Guangzhou won't start processing our approval from them until they have that particular paper even though something similar has been cabled to them already. It's a little frustrating can you tell?! Anyway, we are glad to be done with that part. Now we know that sometime the week of March 15th we will get an Article 5 approval and ABOUT 2 weeks after that we should receive our Travel Approval. Then it's time to pack!!! So, we are thinking the beginning to middle of April should be a reality.
Grace and Faith are getting their last shot on Wednesday. They had two Hep A shots and now they'll get a typhoid shot. They'll be relieved when that is done. Isaac says he's glad to stay with Nana and Papa so he doesn't have to get shots. The boys seem to be excited for now that they get to stay with grandparents. Let's hope it stays that way although I know they are in good hands and will have a fun time. Clayton is working some extra carpentry jobs to try to pull in some extra funds for the trip. We thought we had our deductible for Joy Menqian saved so that at least we'd have something to pay for her immediate medical bills without being behind her first visit to the cardiologist but God knew we'd need that to pay for an ER visit for Faith. We thought she had an appendicitis but they ruled that out and for now she is doing great. We are praying that if something is going on with her stomach it will show up again and we'll go see a gastrointestinal doctor. She seems to be doing well after an x-ray, blood work, and good ole enema. The high fever seems to have been a virus that her body must have been fighting off and seperate from the stomach pain. Regardless, we are grateful!
We also finished redoing our camper to include 5 bunk beds instead of 4. We were both a little hesitant but it looks great and worked out very well. We are going to go camping toward the end of March. It's funny that when we adopted Joshua we received our Travel Approval and dates when we were camping and it is likely it'll be the same. We also left for China on April 9, 2008 and we could very well be on a plane that day in 2010. Who would have thought? You just never know what excitement lies around the corner. We are also going to celebrate Joshie's birthday at the end of March since his birthday is April 20. He is so excited and doesn't mind at all celebrating early!
That is our update... maybe the next post will include some travel plans! Thanks for praying with us and for Joy Menqian. For God's perfect timing and for Him to prepare our hearts for her and hers for ours!
2 comments:
Hello, Angie, your story is so amazing and inspiring.
Hi Angie, thanks for your comment on my blog. I'm so excited for you that you're getting closer to traveling. Where in GA are you? There's another family in GA (Elijay) adopting from Guilin. They're expecting travel in June and they're daughter is 9 or 10, I think? Ava was just standing over my shoulder looking at the pictures of your daughter and asking me what was happening. We'll have to make a trip south to reunite the girls!
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