Dongyue Temple in Beijing

Here is a slideshow of the Dongyue Temple in Beijing with a recording of the monks singing in the background. So beautiful and relaxing. Perhaps this will have to be one of our stops.... I mean if our little girl has a temple named after her we should visit it right? ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDkpL8W2ET8

"Because we need more cowboys..." sweet video on a common special need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ijggNs2Ask

Dossier To China!!

As of Friday, April 15th our Dossier was sent to China!! Woo Hoo! All of a sudden this is seeming so REAL. It's like feeling the baby kick for the first time and you are like, holy crap, this is really going to happen! No turning back now ;-) Exciting and scary all at the same time.

Aaron hasn't had this moment yet but I'll let you know when he does because it should be interesting. So far he's been a rock and I know roles will have to change at some point, don't they always?

Next step is LID or Logged in Dossier. My target date is May 1st and this is when we will know that China has received it and it is in the pile waiting for review. Their review of the translated documents will ultimately, hopefully, lead to China's approval of us as adoptive parents.

Now for finding a name for this little sweety, which is proving harder than I thought it would be....

In One Hundred Years...

"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, how big my house was, or what kind of car I drove. But the world may be a little better, because I was important in the life of a child."
Forest Witcraft

Potty in the what?!

So I recently read funny china adoption story on a blog that I just have to share. Have you noticed the hole at the bottom of Dongyue's pants? Well all of the little ones wear these pants, not just at the orphanage, in China they are made that way. The reason is because instead of toilets they have a hole in the floor that they "go" in. They train the babies quite early to hold it until they are shaken a bit over the hole and then they go. This is all according to our homestudy provider when I asked about the strange clothing. So although Dongyue is reportedly potty trained, we will no doubt be doing more training starting as soon as we get back to the hotel with her. Yes, thankfully the hotels do have toilets! So the story goes that this couple brought their little one back and thought all was fine and dandy on the potty front... until, yes, they found out she was squatting over their grates and doing her business. Hmm.. We have a lot of grates here, needless to say we will be keeping a very close eye;-)

Update from the Orphanage

We received an update from the orphanage last week! There seems to be no concern regarding Dongyue's physical health. Although she has the cleft palate and the heart defect she is reported as being healthy day to day. They say she is rarely sick and is of average intelligence and when compared to other children her age the only difference is her size. She is really small at only 18 lbs. That's the equivalent of an average one year old here in the States! She is now 2 years 7 months. I can't wait to feed her and take care of her!

And...I-800 A approval came in the mail today! It now needs US and Chinese Consulate certification. Once this is done the Dossier is completed. I'm hoping we are Dossier to China (DTC) by Friday. Keep your fingers crossed!

China is implementing new requirements including 6 new post placement visits with a social worker rather than the 2 required previously. I'm really hoping we have travel approval by August 1st to avoid this because it will mean more $- but I realize that this is being extremely optimistic.

In the meantime here is another picture of her...

We have I-800A Approval! Well, sort of...

So I noticed all of my fellow adoptive parents with application receipt dates of 2/14 were receiving their approvals on Monday (Love Chinaadopttalk btw). So I called USCIS yesterday to get an update on the status of our application and to make sure they received my updated homestudy- which I had been previously assured by someone else there that it had been added to our file. Can you see where this story might be going now? So Officer Banks called me back today to say that yes, we were approved on Friday! 46 days after receipt! But, what did I mean on the message when I asked about a revised homestudy? Hmmm.. Well, long story short, the revised homestudy never made it to the file. So while I was on hold for 10 minutes she was able to locate it. She won't make us file again but I have to disregard the other approval and use the one she'll make effective today. Awesome! I'll take it! So my friends, it is almost DOSSIER TO CHINA!