I800 Approval here!

Our written copy of the I800 Provisional Approval is here!  Best guess is for our travel approval to be issued in five to six weeks!

Moving forward!

At last we heard from our USCIS agent that our I800 was approved!   Our fingerprints were due to expire in February, and the way our renewal was approached cost us time. But it is what it is, and we are happy to be moving forward again now.

This picture shows how I have spent the last few days.  These six stacks are the applications for our Visas to get in to China.  I've done these forms before, and yes the forms themselves seemed easier this time.  But getting Chinese Visas for FORMER citizens of China involves a LOT of paper work!  It weighed in at just over two pounds when I dropped it all off at Fed Ex today.

While the Chinese embassy works on our Visa paperwork, our adoption paperwork is moving on to the National Visa Center where the papers for Pat's citizenship are entering their final phase on this side of the world.  Travel approval should come in a matter of weeks now.

I don't work well under pressure, so I've begun to sort out what we have and making a list of what we still need for our trip.  This is all starting to feel a lot more REAL now!

It isn't 100%, but we are proceeding as if the kids will be able to go.  There are still many details that need to fall into place in order for this to happen.  We'd appreciate your prayers as we plan for this huge trip with our little crowd! 

Thank you, Jake!

This guy... he has worked cheerfully and tirelessly to get the Cincinnati Dragon team going and we will always be grateful for it. But.... even more. Ethan and Isaac were the first to arrive at practice this week. When Jake drove up Isaac's eyes got really BIG and he asked, "He can DRIVE?" Yes, my dear boy. The chair does not limit you as much as you've been led to believe. Thanks for being an inspiration on the court and off, Jake!

We have another grant!  I was really excited today to receive a letter from Show Hope saying that they have awarded us an adoption assistance grant.  It is so exciting to see these pieces of the financial puzzle come into place as we near the final steps.  We are very thankful!

Happy News!

The first step in making it even a possibility for our kids to go with us to bring Pat home, happened today.  We have a full set!

Grant Opportunity!

We got this news a couple of days ago:

 " Congratulations on being chosen as a 5/5/5 family for the month of January!  We are excited to be working with you and for you!!!  Donations will be collected from January 6th through February 5th.  All the money will be collected by Reece's Rainbow, and will be tax-deductible.  On February 5th, the money will be divided equally and distributed into the 5 FSP's. This grant opportunity is a little different than a typical grant, in that we won't know the total each family is going to get until the end of the month. "

This is something fairly new that Reece's Rainbow is doing - featuring five families each month who are close to travel.  Even more exciting for me is that one of the boys (Lance) that I advocated for on my blog HERE  and  HERE has a family and they are also one one of the five families who will receive a portion of this grant!

You may meet this month's five families on the RR 5/5/5 blog HERE  or read more about the grant  HERE   Just a little from many goes a long way!  If you'd like to contribute to the grant that will be divided between the the five families you may do so on the links above or in the 5/5/5 box in the right hand border of this page.  Thank you for your care for the orphans and for helping their families to get them home.

Meatballs and Confusion

I've been holed up in my room for a few days due to a knee injury. Ethan has been keeping the house running (sort of.) I have been able to help with overseeing baths and bedtime since that happens upstairs where I am. Ethan is a wonderful guy with many great qualities, but being a housewife isn't his strength.

Yesterday I advised him to put a bag of frozen meatballs in the crockpot and dump in a couple of jars of spaghetti sauce. Add in some buns and that would give him an easy supper of meatball subs. Well at bedtime Abigial (who doesn't have a lot of verbal skills) was going on and on in sign language "telling" on Baba for something. I finally figured out the fingers looping through the air was the sign for spaghetti, and she was tattling that he gave them meatballs and NO spaghetti! ROFL!

Apparently we've never given her a meatball sub, like ever, and she thought he messed it up pretty big time. I fessed up that *I* was the one responsible for the "odd" dinner. Kids.