Catching up and Gotcha day

I have a lot of catching up to do!!  Things have been so busy since we left Beijing.  We left Beijing for Xining on Sunday June 24th.  Well, we sat on the runway for two hours before taking off so we were 2 hours late arriving in Xining.  Luckily the airport is very small and we spotted our guide while waiting for our luggage.  Our guide's name is Pencil and this is his very first adoption.  He wasn't supposed to be our guide and I have no idea what happened, but we were very concerned.  The driver brought us to the hotel and helped us check in...let me tell you, our room was tiny.  We couldn't even move around each other.  I didn't know how we were going to manage with 4 people and 4 pieces of luggage, a walker and a stroller.  I wanted to cry (and this wouldn't be the first time).  Our guide was supposed to take us for supplies...we were tired, hungry and needed water and food for the room.  Instead he told us where to walk to a store...WHAT?  He expected us to walk where nobody speaks English, down a side street maybe a mile away from the hotel with a child in a walker and then carry the stuff back with us.  I was so frustrated at that point I figured we would just eat in the room and deal with supplies later.  WRONG.  The hotel restaurant was closed.  Haha...the laugh was on us.  They had a little store where we bought some water and coke and some noodle bowls which were too spicy.  Luckily for Wyatt we had some oatmeal packets.  Poor kid has been surviving on oatmeal, poptarts and granola, but I am thankful that I brought them.  If anyone is wondering if they should bring snacks to China, I would say yes.

We were told we would be met at 8:30 the next morning to go get Elise.  Everything was such a mess in the room that I didn't even prepare properly.  We brought cheerios for her, but no drink.  Ooops.  She was carried in and came right to me, calling me Mama and Devin Baba.  She smiled and laughed and played.  I brought out some toys and she was through those fast and looking for more.  I could tell she was going to be active.  Then she spotted a sippy cup from another little girl being adopted.  I felt so small...I should have known better.  They poured water into a cup for her but it was boiling hot...they drink everything hot here.  It hadn't even cooled off by the time we left.  We sat there with her for a while though I don't know how long while the guides worked with the officials on our paperwork.  It was very stressful.  We didn't have enough copies of things.  By this time Elise (Yu Meng) was done with me and started having a fit.  She would not stay with me or go to Baba.  One of the officials took her from me and she calmed down.  It makes you feel bad when that happens, a little rejected, but I have to understand where she is coming from.  Then we had to go have our pictures taken.  She was hitting me and headbutting me the entire time we were in the car and while I carried her to the building.  I have many bruises to prove it.  They told me she had to go potty...and to just do it in the bushes.  Ok, we tried, but she was just having too much of a fit.  The picture was supposed to be of all three of us, but instead they took Devin and I and photoshopped Elise into it like she was sitting on our lap.  They did a good job too.  When we left the guide carried her back to the van.  We sat Elise between us and a little tickling later she moved closer to me and let me pick her up.  She even refused the guide.

So back to the room we go and the guide took Devin to go get some food, water and a stroller.  Elise was very cute in the room.  She played and got into everything.  Now, you have to remember that our room was tiny so she didn't even have room to move.  But boy was she active and wild, still hitting and kicking.  We played with hairbows and stacking cups.  She let me help her and hold her.  She would not take a nap unfortunately.  Devin came back and left us alone so I could try to get her to take a nap.  He took Wyatt down to get some lunch which turned out to be a big mistake.  He ordered Wyatt apple juice and they brought back some awful green apple thing.  Two minutes after getting back to the room Wyatt was throwing up.  He wasn't acting right before, but I am sure the drink didn't help.  Poor kid.  He threw up again and then started to run a fever.  I felt so bad for him.  Elise fell asleep in her crib and Devin slept on the chair in the room.  It was not the best of circumstances and you want to stay positive but it didn't make the day any more pleasant.  But in any case, we have Elise and here are some pictures of our GOTCHA day.

Here is a picture of her province. It is one of the poorer provinces in China.  Unfortunately we really didn't go out much, though Devin did and I will post those on another day.

These gasmasks were in the closet of our hotel room...thought that was interesting.

 Speaking of hotel room, here is our first room.  What you see is all of it.  Where I was standing was basically at the door.  It was impossible to move.

Here is the first time I help Elise.  She called me Mama and smiled and laughed.

Here is the picture taken with the orphanage director.  She was holding Elise because by this point Elise wanted nothing to do with me. 



 Back at the hotel, Elise was all giggles.  She is very active and was into everything.  She is also a little daredevil...not sure how much my heart can take.

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

Saturday we went to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.  There was a lot of smog in the air so it was hard to get some good shots.  And it was crazy busy.  This is a holiday weekend...Dragon Boat Festival...so even though the pictures don't show the crowds, it was worse than a busy day at Disney.  We stuck to the middle of the squares because the walkways were smoothest there and our guide was wonderful with the guards in allowing us to enter where it was blocked off because there were fewer stairs or easier access for Wyatt.  It is a little scary moving along while everyone has to wait in the security lines.

After, the guide showed us the Olympic Stadium.  It was pretty awesome, but a shame in what it has become.  For such a beautiful place it is just a tourist attraction.  Again, the pictures aren't very good because of the smog, but it was really neat being able to see it in person.

Our guide says there are 19 million people living in Beijing.  You wonder where everyone lives, but when you see the place you understand.  The roads and sidewalks are packed with people walking, on bikes, driving.  I wonder what they do each day?  I saw my first pair of split pants (pants open at the crotch for kids) and observed a young child relieving himself in the middle of the sidewalk.  It is very different.  As we drove out of Beijing the skyline is full of huge buildings in various stages of construction.  It is hard to really grasp how many buildings I mean, but I saw at least 25 in a very short span of highway and they were all residential buildings.  Then you have those that are living in the middle of the city, crammed into nooks and crannies along the streets.  I guess you have no choice with so many people living here.  Here is a picture ouside our hotel window...people are living in these little buildings, lots of people.  It is like this everywhere here.  Incredible.

We are here!!

I realize that I have not been the best at keeping this blog current, but we have been very busy planning a 16 day trip to China!!

We left on Wednesday morning, June 20th.  We flew Korean Air for the longest legs of the trip from Dallas to Korea and then from Korea to Beijing.  I heard many good things online about Korean Air and I will just say that it doesn't matter how good the service is, any economy seat is going to be uncomfortable sitting in it for more than 14 hours.  The service was excellent, the food was pretty good, and each seat had its own tv with onboard movies and games.  Wyatt was kept occupied pretty much the entire time, sleeping for only 7 hours.  I watched 4 movies because I just could not sleep no matter how hard I tried.  I knew it was going to be a miserable few days catching up.  On top of all that I woke up with a killer sore throat that was on fire by the time we arrived in Beijing.

It was night when we finally arrived, but you could see how bad the smog was.  Our guide later told us that it usually is pretty sunny but the winds were bad the past couple of days and blew the smog in.  It is disappointing because it makes everything look so depressing here.

I have been running on very little sleep and when we arrived I slept a blissful 6 hours.  Even the very hard bed felt heavenly.  I woke up ready to go on Thursday (little did I know that I was going to peter out in the early afternoon).  We had breakfast in the hotel which had everything we could want...a nice mix of Chinese and Western foods.  Though the western foods weren't exactly like we eat at home, they were close enough.

We left at 8:30 to go to the Great Wall about an hour and a half away.  I was expecting it, but was still surprised, when our guide took us to a Jade factory.  And of course, like the impulsive, rich, overspending American's that we are, we bought stuff.  Not cheap stuff either.  Oh well, not exactly how I had hoped to start our trip.  I did buy the younger kids, Elise and Wyatt, jade necklaces with pendants representing the animal of their birth years...Ox for Elise and Dog for Wyatt.  Yeah, they will not be allowed to wear them...ever.  If anyone who reads this ends up there, they were really nice, not pushy at all, and they do have cheaper items in the very front...wish I had started out there :)

So after spending our life savings on jade (just kidding...we have no life savings) we were off to the Great Wall.  Before I go any further I just wanted to comment on the traffic in Beijing.  It is crazy!!  And the bicycle riders are everwhere.  Nobody stops for anyone and I am just so glad I didn't have to drive.

Here are some pictures from our day:
Wyatt in the Novotel Peace Hotel lobby.

Entrance to the Great Wall:

This is the sign when you leave...funny the way things translate:

The cable car....Wyatt favorite part:

Wyatt on the wall...lots of steps so he is little uncomfortable, but he did great:

Ok, so maybe he wasn't very happy here:

Went to lunch...nobody spoke English.  Asked for coke refills and she said $5, so we gave her 10 dollars of Chinese money for two cokes.  Turns out it was only like $1.58.

Yes, this is the fish they serve in the restaurant.  Wyatt was fishing for his lunch:

On the streets, the people lay the wheat out to dry.  Literally in the street where the cars drive.  Crazy.

First time seeing a squattly potty.  And no I didn't use it.

TA, CA and Travel Confirmed!!!

I have been a little behind in updating my blog.  Things have been happening fast, finally, and we are in the home stretch.  Our TA (travel approval) came on June 5^th, only 13 days after our Article 5 pickup.  I am thankful that it came so quickly considering some of our more recent slowdowns.  I thought after receiving TA I would be relieved and finally be able to relax, but I was wrong because getting TA just meant another painful wait though thankfully not as long.  And it meant a whole new kind of stress.  As soon as our agency had our TA in their hands they called us and asked us when do we want to go.  Some people choose to go the following week and some wait because they have other commitments.  In a way, things worked out perfectly for us because now we could go right after Devin finishes his class without having to be the ones to delay our travel.  We had to give our agency 5 consulate appointment (CA) dates and they would try to get us scheduled for one of those.  So began a grueling, stressful, agonizing, nail biting 30 hours.  The agency finally called me at 11:40 p.m. on June 6^th, right after I started to drift off to sleep (I haven’t been sleeping well) and informed me that we were given our second choice of July 5^th for our CA.  Good and Bad.  Good because we don’t have to wait another week, but bad because it means we have to stay in China for an extra 2 days.  I don’t care, I just want to go get our daughter and come home. 

 

After confirming our CA we were allowed to book our travel, both our international flights as well as our hotels and in country flights.  Did I mention this was stressful?  I used Todd who is well known in the adoption circles to get good rates and the best flight plans…BUT we only were given two choices…and they were both OUTRAGIOUS.  Now this is not Todd’s fault, not at all.  This is because summer is a very busy time to fly to China and the rates are doubled.  Seats were nearly impossible to find, but we did finally get flights out on Korean Air for June 20^th.  I have heard great things about the airline and if it is half as good as I have heard then we should be golden.  Our agency partners with a travel agent in China and she worked her magic and got us our flights in China and our hotels for 16 nights.  We will be traveling to Beijing, Xining and Guangzhou.  Of course, as is typical with our luck, the weekend we are arriving is a public holiday, Dragon Boat Festival, so hotels are nearly booked and more expensive than other dates.  It just doesn’t matter anymore…I just want to go.

 

But now, well now I am panicking.  I don’t have enough time.  How can I possibly get everything done that I want and need to get done?  I have work to tie up, clean my house, pack, pack, pack.  And along the way, I keep realizing I am missing things and having to buy them…cell phone rental, VPN, swim caps, converter, medicines, suitcases, car seat.  I have only a few more things to get, which is a good thing because we only have 9 more days before we leave.  NINE.  Here comes the panic again. 

 

I would like to say thank you to the Facebook group I belong to, DTC Winter, because without them I probably would not be as ready and organized as I am right now.   But then again, without them, I would probably spend less time reading all the great posts and might actually clean my house.  I am not overly active on the group, but they are a great group of people and I am really looking forward to traveling with some of them.

 

I will be back before we leave….

 

Update

This will probably be the last update we receive on Elise before we actually meet her.  I used a service in China called China Adoption Help and they contact the orphanage for a fee and hopefully obtain answers to questions and recent pictures.  The last pictures I received were from almost two months ago and I was going crazy not seeing her face and making sure she was doing alright.  Last night I received the following information and pictures:

What is her personality like?  Happy?
She is very out-going,enjoys making new friends,she will try to please you if you are upset. Although she is quite determined for what she thinks is right.

What are her favorite foods?
Fruit especially mango is her favorite,she likes sweet foods. She is not choosy.

Who is she most attached to?
The foster parents and 2 big sisters.

Is she in a foster home?  Any foster brothers/sisters?
Yes,there is another boy from the same orphanage.

Is she healthy?
Yes.

How is she comforted?
Try to hold her or let her sit alone for a while.

How is she doing developmentally? 
She could go up and down stairs by herself, and she is able to hop for one step as well as stand on one foot with support.
She likes reading and sometimes to scrabble on paper.

She understands the adult's instructions and will follow them.
She will hold your hands to ask you sit down and hold her.
She says sentences of five to six words, and is able to imitate most of adults' pronunciation.

Does her eye need any special care until we can get her to a specialist?
No.

And they sent three pictures.  Many people get more, but I am just happy to get something.  She is growing up so fast and looks like such a big girl.  I hope that I bring the right size clothes.  And her poor little lips look swollen and painful...the next few weeks can't go fast enough.

And the TA wait begins

After our debacle with our Article 5 paperwork we appear to be back on track.  The agency emailed me last night to assure me that our Article 5 paperwork was being picked up and sent overnight to the CCCWA.  It should be received by them on Friday and we will officially be waiting for Travel Approval.  Current averages for TA are 14 days, but I have seen some received in as little as 8 days.  If we get it in 14 days, that will be June 8^th.  Either way, we should be able to make our target travel date of June 20^th.  That is assuming we can get the Consulate Appointment we need.  It is getting so close.  We had new luggage delivered yesterday so I am ready to get started packing.  As soon as we get a few days into our TA wait I will be finalizing our travel plans as far as tours and hotels, just without the dates.  Elise’s room is all ready to go – it just needs a beautiful little girl to fill it with laughter!

 

I wish I had some new pictures to share, but unfortunately since Elise has been moved back to her province I have no more contact with her caregivers.  I don’t even know if she is with a foster family or in the orphanage.  I just hope she is healthy and happy.  And if things work out as I hope we will have her in our arms in 32 days.

Back on track

Our Article 5 package has been located, returned to our in China rep and was delivered to the Consulate on Thursday (they are 12 hours ahead of us).  We lost 12 days in the process, but if the TA comes quick we will be right on our target dates of June 21-July 5.  Oh happy day.  For those reading this who do not understand the process, our Article 5 process takes 14 days for processing.  As soon as that is done it gets picked up and sent overnight to Beijing where we wait for our TA (travel approval).  TA’s are taking 2-3 weeks currently and as soon as we have TA we request a Consulate Appointment and make our travel arrangements.  We are nearly in the final stretch.

More delays...

I received some news last night from our agency that has really defeated me.  I thought we were more than a week into our Article 5 wait with a possible pickup as early as this Friday.  However, our agency rep told me that he sent our paperwork to the Chinese government in error instead of to our in china rep for drop off to the US Embassy in China.  So, our paperwork has been missing for nearly two weeks.  They have been trying to locate it since last Wednesday, but I just heard about it yesterday (Monday) and I am not very happy about that.  I was advised that as of yesterday our paperwork has been located and will be sent to our in China rep.  When?  Who knows.  They feel that it will be received Friday and that drop off will happen the following Tuesday as they are closed on Mondays.  Ugh.  That puts us more than two weeks behind.  The frustrating part is that I have busted by arse getting through this paperwork quickly and timely.  We finished our homestudy quickly.  We had our dossier completed, notarized and authenticated quickly.  The only real wait we had to endure was an extra long wait for our immigration approval, which is with the US government, not us and not China.  That process probably added at least 30 days to our wait.  But we moved on.  Our LOA was received after 70 days, not too bad considering we had a long holiday mixed in and that others were waiting longer.  This part of the process is supposed to move like clockwork…drop off Article 5 and pick it up exactly 14 days later, then we would be in line for travel approval.  We were getting so close I could taste it.  We had dates picked out when we wanted to leave.  And now we don’t even know when our Article 5 will be dropped off.  We don’t even know where it is at this point.  There really isn’t much more to say.  I will update when our paperwork has been delivered to the correct place.

Article 5 and beyond

We are getting closer.  As of today our final paperwork called the Article 5 is heading to China.  Two weeks after they receive it we will officially be waiting for our travel approval.  In just two short (long?) months we will be meeting our little girl, the little girl we fell in love with nearly a year ago, whose face I have stared at daily and the little girl who is never far from my thoughts.  As we are heading into the homestretch there are still so many things left to do and I feel so unprepared.  Oh, Elise will have everything she needs and probably much much more, but there are so many other things to think about and so many questions to ask ourselves.  But even if I were to make list after list I don’t think I will be fully prepared for the adventure ahead of us.  And I am not just referring to the physical aspect of traveling…there is also the emotional side of it all.  How will Elise react?  Will she like us?  Will she bond with us or will her attachment be difficult?  Will she eat and drink?  Will she be healthy?  Then there are other things that I don’t know for sure, like is she potty trained, what size clothes and shoes do I bring.  The more you think about it the crazier it makes you.  I know this, though, that we are ready to get Elise, ready to begin our family with a new beautiful little girl.  I would go tomorrow if I could.

 

Last time I updated the blog, which has been a while, we weren’t sure where Elise was.  I sent a care package in hopes to get some pictures and confirmation that she is doing ok.  I received some pictures back and she looks very happy and appears to be in a foster home.  She also looks she is going to be a handful.

 

This really sucks....

My heart is hurting this morning.  Our little girl has been living in a loving foster home and school where she has been well taken care of, cherished and loved. ...until last week.  I just found out that she has been moved back to her orphanage in her province.  The only information I was given was that there is some unrest in her province and that the government will typically have all the children who are in foster homes returned to the orphanage.  I don't know why she was moved for real.  For all we know it could have been because we received our LOA and that is how her province does things.  I don't think we will ever really truly know.  I have been able to find some news articles about the unrest, but I don't expect that they tell the entire story and that only certain approved things are published.  We were spoiled because we were able to just shoot an email to her school and we would get an update, a new picture, a story about her personality.  Now, I don't have any way of getting in touch with her.  I hurt so much to think about what she must be thinking.  She was moved to the school a year ago and didn't speak Mandarin, now she is moved back to her province and she no longer speaks that dialect.  She didn't even know she was being adopted yet.  She has no idea what is happening to her.  Is she crying herself to sleep, is she getting enough to eat, is she getting to play, is she getting any love.  Thinking about it could make me crazy.   The only thing holding me together is that we are moving along in our process.  The remainder of what we have to do is fairly predictable and we would be traveling anywhere around mid June.  I hope it is sooner, that we are blessed with the shorter waits at each step, but hopes get crushed all too often.  I just want her home, where she is safe and loved and cherished once more.

WE GOT IT!!!

I am so thrilled to announce that we received our Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) or LOA as it is also called on 3/29/12 on day 70.  Wait times have increased tremendously because the CC**A did a reorganization of the offices and workers were without phones, desks and computers.  They were back to work a couple of weeks ago, but things have been painfully slow.  I never expected to receive it at day 70…I honestly thought we were in for the long haul.  I want to send good thoughts to those who are still waiting to hear something.  Any wait is too long, but then when the wait is extended for unknown or even known reasons it is unbearable.  There will be more closures of the offices this week due to a holiday so who knows when things will move again.

 

We have already mailed off our I800 to the USCIS and now we wait approximately 2 weeks for approval.  With luck on our side, we will have our TA or Travel Approval around early June.  Seems so far away, but I can tell you that these next two months are going to fly by.  I have so much to do, so many things to plan for, need to send out for our Visa’s, make list upon list of things to bring with us to China, lots more shopping to do, and on and on.  But I will do it all with a huge smile on my face.

 

Elise, we are coming….

Middle Name

As we continue to wait and wait and wait some more I felt it was time to finally tie down our daughter’s full name.  I love the name Elise and I have not changed my mind about it at all.  It is probably better sounding as a middle name, but I love it as a first name.  Our daughter is definitely Elise.  I think it is feminine and cute for a little girl, and is big enough for her to grow into without it being too cutesie when she is a grown woman.  The middle name was a little tougher.  Many people keep the name given to them by the orphanage as their middle name.  I just felt that naming our daughter is a privilege for us as her parents.  She will always know her given Chinese name, without a doubt, but she will also know that she was given a name by her parents that we lovingly chose.  Anyway, we have decided on a combination of names for her middle name…Annalyn…a combination of my mom’s middle name Ann and Devin’s mom’s first name Janalynn.  I am proud to introduce our daughter’s name:

Elise Annalyn Brink

 

It is really a lonely wait

Most people who check out my blog are probably bored.  I pretty much just post pictures and give some stats as to where we are in the process.  I don't feel like I can really express everything I am feeling at any point in time because maybe I would sound petty or expect pity, but mainly because I believe that peope would realize how crazy I have become by this process.  When we started this process I never thought I would be that person who refreshed her email hundreds of times each day, who jumped every time a phone rang...especially on a Monday.  See it is on Monday when the largest amount of news comes from China.  Oh it trickles in the other days, but am I now living for each Monday.  Ugh, I used to hate Monday as it meant the start of a new work week, but now it means the possibility of the word that we are getting closer to getting our little girl.  So when Monday comes and goes and I haven't gotten an email for phone call it ruins the rest of my week. 

I get asked daily by someone when we get our little girl.  It is hard to say to them that it looks like it is going to be later, and then later again.  It is a very lonely feeling.  I really thought that we would fly through the steps, that we would the one family who caught the short end of every step and beat all the averages.  I was wrong.  At least so far.  We are on day 57 of our LOA wait and if Monday brings us news then we have finally beaten an average.  But I am almost afraid for Monday to come because that means if I don't hear anything that I have to begin the wait for the next Monday and I have to endure the pain and loneliness that the quiet brings.

It is this kind of day.  Lonely.  I know that one day...soon...the days will be filled with two little ones laughing and playing together.  We will be together and while my family is perfect right now it will be even more so.  In the meantime, we are spending the time planning for our future trip, making lists, figuring out what is best for our 6 year old son when we do travel.  It can be very overwhelming.  And lonely.

I would like to close with a picture of Elise's wall.  I painted a mural and it turned out pretty good.  I really hope she likes it.

And here is Wyatt, my hero, who has the best smile out there.  I hope he remembers he can do whatever he puts his mind to.  Man I love this little guy.

I read a quote online and it is very fitting (from Winnie the Pooh):
“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
― A.A. Milne

New pictures

I received some new pictures yesterday of Elise. We were informed that she is very healthy and happy, though she has just recovered from a cold. They say she is a moody girl which is good since we are all so moody right now too. We also got some new measurements and Elise is definitely growing like a weed.

Looking at these pictures make me so sad. Elise is in a wonderful place but she looks so sad. Maybe she was still feeling a bit under the weather. But she is gorgeous and I can't stop looking at her beautiful face.

We are on day 50 waiting for our LOA. Hopefully we will get it next week.

LID!!!

We have finally been notified of our log in date (LID).  Our dossier was sent to China January 4^th, was signed for on January 9^th and officially logged in on January 19^th but we just found out.  Phew.  So we are now 33 days into our next wait.  Oh and did I say Phew yet?

Where is my LID already???

Today is a very sad day for me.  No, nothing in particular happened, but that is the point.  Nothing is happening.  My husband and I were so occupied with our son who turned 6 yesterday that I didn’t have too much time to think.  But now I am just sad.  If I were to guess we should be about 36 days into our wait for our LOA, about half way given the averages.  But the part that really bothers me is that I don’t know this for sure since we still do not have a log in date.  Our agency has assured me that our dossier was received by China, but that it just hasn’t been input into the system yet.  But who really knows.  Maybe it is sitting there on someone’s desk covered by everyone else’s dossier or maybe it is being used to level the leg of a lopsided table.  Who knows?  The agency gave me a 4-6 week timeframe until we receive our date and we are now officially at the 6 week mark since our dossier was sent.  Why is nothing easy in this process?  We waited a long time for our immigration approval (77 days) which is about 30 days more than the current approval times.  Now it looks like we are in for a long wait again.  I love our agency and I love the support we have received, but I am not happy with the wait and see approach this long in the wait.  I was advised to stay off the internet because there will always be someone else who gets something quicker and that will lead to disappointment.  Maybe, but without the internet I would have had no idea what I was doing.  Yes, our agency is good, but they aren’t perfect and by reading the forums I found out how I was supposed to send things in, what is the best way to complete various forms, which couriers to use,  etc.  The internet has kept me one step ahead and because of the experiences of all the other adoptive parents I felt prepared at each step of our paperchase.  Truthfully, without the internet I would be more worried because I wouldn’t know what to expect.  Even now, I can find someone out there who has waited as long or longer that we have and will give me assurances that it will happen.  But I am still sad.  I have a little girl who I long to bring home and make a part of our family. 

 

Still waiting to hear about LID

I believe that we were DTC (dossier to China) on or about 1/4/12.  As of today we still do no have our LID (log in date).  We are most likely already logged in, unless something has happened, but just don't have the date yet.  Our agency said finding out the date will take 4-6 weeks.  What I can't understand is how other people have sent their dossier's in after we did and received a LID the next week.  I don't know.  Nothing is very straightforward in this process and there is truly no rhyme or reason to why some people go through the process faster and other's wait much too long.  Anyway, we are waiting to hear our LID, but the three letters we really want are LOA (letter of acceptance) or LSC (letter seeking confirmation).  This comes from China after they have translated and reviewed our dossier and then given us final approval to be Elise's parents.  This step can take 2 months or longer...we are somewhere at around day 22 in our wait.  It is going to be a long 2-3 months.

I have been starting to prepare Elise's room during the wait.  I painted the room two shades of purple and am working on doing a mural.    I found a hunter fan with pink flowers and hearts which looks so cute.  Rather than buy new furniture she is taking Wyatt's old dressers which are still in great shape and then she is going to use the bottom twin bed from his new bunk bed which matches the dressers perfectly.  Everytime I go to the store I buy her something because we have had to start basically from scratch here.  After Christmas I found a power wheels Barbie VW on clearance for half price...so I had to get it.  And clothes...lots of clothes coming in.  Love the girly clothes.  After three boys it is so strange to see all the pinks and purples and little skirls with leggings. 

So last week I went on the Bethel site and found they had uploaded more pictures of our beautiful daughter Elise.  Some are older pictures, but one is more recent because she is wearing the hair bows we sent for Christmas.  The school is wonderful and Elise is so loved there...we are definitely blessed.  All of the children look so happy.  Anyway here are the pictures...enjoy.

 This next one is sooo cute.  She looks like a tough little cookie here.

And this is my favorite.  She is so precious.  Awww, I just can't wait to give her a hug and some smooches.