Our Care Package to Lily Claire

Finally I am posting the photos that Ann of The Red Thread sent me. This is the care package we sent to Lily Claire about a month ago that came with the updated photos. Pretty, huh? I would love to see our little lamb in that dress :-).




Sigh - still not much to report. Waiting. . . waiting. . .
I trust that our Article 5 was picked up last Friday (8/5/11) and now the wait for TA!
Xiaoqing will pick up our visas on Friday from the consulate in San Fransisco.

Closer. . .

We are getting so close to our TA (travel approval)!

Our Article 5 was dropped off two days ago. It takes two weeks for that to be approved before it can be picked up again. After that we wait for TA.

I sent off our visa applications and our passports to Xiaoqing via FedEx on Friday.

We have appointments at the travel clinic next week for vaccinations (Nathan and Aaron got their Hep A shots last week already, but we will check to see if there is anything else advisable for a trip to Asia).

New photos and I-800 Approval! Yippee!

Couple of big adoption related things. . .

First off, I found out that our I-800 and our Supplement 3 were approved last Friday! We got the hard copies today in the mail, which I immediately scanned and forwarded to Xiaoqing as we were instructed. Now we have to wait for a letter from the National Visa Center.

And. . . I sent another care package to Lily :-). This time, it was a silk baby Chinese baby outfit, some hair clips, and some cookies for her foster family. I also wrote a letter which Ann from the Red Thread translated for me. Here's my letter:


Dear Orphanage Director or Foster Family,

Thank you again for caring for our daughter, Jiang Manling. Please tell Manling that her Mama, Baba, and three older brothers cannot wait to meet and hold her! We are hurrying just as fast as we can to complete the last part of the adoption process. Manling is always in our thoughts and prayers. All of us love her already. We cannot wait to play with her, read to her, take care of her, and give her lots and lots of hugs and kisses.
We are already looking ahead to making medical appointments to repair her cleft palate and hernia. Her Baba is a physician and has been asking around for recommendations for excellent craniofacial doctors and surgeons.
Can we trouble you with a few more questions about our baby girl? Is she staying with a foster family, or is she living at the SWI? Who is she closest to? What is her favorite food? How many naps is she taking during the day? If you have any any other information that you feel would help us as we prepare for her to join our family, we would appreciate that. And lastly, may we please trouble you for another photo of Manling? We all loved the photos that you sent us with our last care package. It is wonderful to see that Manling is growing up, but also a bit sad for us because we wish that we could be with her even now. We miss her so much.
Please tell Manling that Mama and Baba love her! We eagerly look forward to bringing her home. She is our precious treasure.

Sincerely,
David Peng (Baba)
Chenning Peng (Mama)

Anyway, yesterday we got an answer to our letter and updated pictures!
Here is the reply to our letter:

Jiang Man Ling has been living with her foster family all the time ,she has her own child bed .
Her favorite people are her foster mom and foster mom`s grandson .
She likes to eat soft food such as bread and cake .
she takes nap one/day,12-14:00,sleeps at 20:00 gets up at 7:00
Her personality is very gentle ,loving ,she is not scared of strangers ,she is very happy to live with her foster family .

And updated photos!!!




Oh, sweet baby girl - we love to see your smile! And you are wearing shoes! I wonder if that means you are walking. Also, so nice to know that she has been living with her foster family this whole time. And she has kind of a foster "brother" which is her foster mom's grandson. Hope this means she is used to playing with boys :-).
I am hoping that we will have travel approval within the next month.

Alphabet Soup and When Indeed?

People keep asking us when we expect to travel to China. The short answer is I am not sure. Here is an estimate, though, using data gathered on an adoption website (all of the adoptions from China). Of course, we hope that things will go faster - but the truth is they could go slower than the average. Below is also an explanation of all of the steps (well, most of them anyway) we are still awaiting including a few that we more recently have completed.

DTC = Dossier To China. This is the date that we sent our huge packet of documents to China. Done on 12/10/10
LID = Log In Date. This is the date that the CCCWA (China Centre for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) officially logs our dossier into the China side of the process. Until a dossier is logged in, it will not proceed in the process. Done on 12/21/10
LOI = Letter of Intent. This is a letter we write to China asking their permission to adopt Lily. Done on 03/29/11
PA = Preliminary Approval. This is a letter from China to our Agency giving their preliminary approval for the adoption. At this point we consider Lily OURS! Done on 03/30/11
LOA = Letter Of Acceptance. This is a document that China sends for us to sign stating we still want to adopt Lily. We received this on 05/23/11. We wanted to send it write back in, but had to wait for our homestudy amendment which was 06/15/11. Then I returned it on 06/17/11.
I800= This is the process that approves Lily to enter the USA. There is more paperwork that we need to do and send to the USCIS (United States Citizen and Immigration Services). Sent off on 06/17/11. Waiting for approval. Our ETA for this is 07/05/11.
The NVC (National Visa Center) sends a cable to China to let them know the I800 is approved. ETA 07/15/11
Article 5 is part of the Visa Process for adoption under Hague. It tells China that the US is processing the Visa application. The applications for Article 5 are only received on Mon or Thurs and the Article 5 can only be picked up on Monday or Thursday. Once this is picked up the CCCWA can issue our Travel Approval. ETA 08/04/11
TA = Travel Approval – The official notification from China inviting us to travel and complete our adoption of Lily. ETA 08/29/11
FFD= Forever Family Day. The day we finally received Lily. ETB sometime in late September, right before our Consulate Appointment.
CA = Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou, China at the US Consulate. Here the paperwork is filed for Lily to become a US citizen. Once this is finished we can bring Lily home! ETB 09/28/11

Sigh. So sometimes maybe it isn't so good to estimate. I cannot believe that it will be the end of September before I get to hold her in my arms!!! The bright side of this is that I can read more about adoption in the meantime and save some for travel and our orphanage fees. We have been paying little (and not so little) chunks all along the way, and at the end they are large sums that are paid at once. More time also to prepare for travel for our family of 5. It will be the mother of all trips thus far in our family! Pray for us?

Cool Stuff

The boys' piano teacher has this on the table next to her piano where she teaches. I really like it, and really want to say this every day ~ and trust that the Lord will change my heart little by little so that I can put down my preoccupation with approval from others.


And this next photo we took at Oakbridge when we were down in the San Diego area for the Memorial Day retreat. If you look closely, you hopefully can tell that it is a hummingbird sitting in her nest. Where did she build her nest? On a hook hanging from the porch. I love it. Even though it is a hummingbird and not a sparrow, seeing that little mama bird made me think of this verse:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father." Matthew 10:29

It was just a sweet reminder of how the Lord provides and cares for us.

Around here. . .

Ever since we moved, I have been having trouble downloading/uploading photos, so sadly this will have to be a text only post.

So. . . around here -

~Dr. Phil had to go in today for eye surgery. We found out last week that he has glaucoma. Poor puppy. He is having his right eye removed in a process called enucleation. They will remove the entire globe and conjunctiva, and then put in a prosthetic space holder, and then sew the eye lid shut. When his fur grows back, he will look like he is permanently winking at us. Or as Matthew says, "He will look like a pirate." The kids want to get him an eye patch, but I doubt he will leave it on. We appreciate all of you who have been praying for this little doggie. We feel so sad about it. The kids have been especially worried. It is for the best though, as that eye is unrecoverably blind already, and looks horrificly painful. I took a photo this morning. Maybe I can try to post it later.

~Lily's adoption: I mailed off last Friday our I800 petition, with an I800a supplement 3 (which is our homestudy update because of our move) and supporting documents. Those things go to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). Another packet with other important documents including our original signed LOA, went to Xiaoqing who will be forwarding it to China. When I write it down like this it seems so easy. But I worked many hours on the paperwork and drove to BAAS twice to have it checked, and stayed up until 2am Thursday night/Fri morning to have it ready to go by FedEx that afternoon. They estimate 3 weeks for the homestudy amendment to be approved and our I800 approved, Lord willing. Hurry, hurry!

~My men: school is out! Yahoo! I think I am the most relieved. I need a break, seriously! The older two boys are at soccer camp this week in Sunnyvale. They are loving it. It is their first time ever playing the game, and they are having fun! We are doing the camp through Griffin Soccer and we highly recommend it. Coach Andrew is not only an awesome coach for the kids, he also is the coach for De Anza College's women's soccer team, and more than that - a homeschooling dad himself :-).

~We are enjoying the relatively slower pace of life right now. Phew - it has been a rough few weeks for us (even for our dog!). Hoping to have more rest and relaxation - and more adoption news SOON, SOON, SOON!!! My baby girl is getting bigger every day and we are not there with her! I have been buying second hand clothes from Goodwill for my girl, and doing research online about specialized bottles they have for cleft babies. I am wondering about her every day. Is her hair getting longer? Is she learning to walk? Is she safe and happy? What makes her smile? I am thankful that the LORD knows all of these things and she is in Good Hands. But I can't wait to get my hands on her, too :-). We are all anxiously wanting to love on her.

Ok - I think my time is up. The kids are microwaving their own pasta right now - yikes - better go make sure there isn't marinara everywhere!

Busy and Overwhelmed

Even superheroes get headaches :-).


I have been neglecting this little blog as of late :-(. We have been crazy busy, moving and getting settled in. I haven't even had time to do a decent post about Dr. Phil's adventure. To make a long story short - he got sprayed by a skunk a couple of days before we had to move. He has a doggie door he uses to go in and out. He does this easily and independently. Even though he sleeps in the boys' room at night, when nature calls he just goes out the doggie door and does his business and comes back in. Well, on that fateful night, (we are guessing) he went out and he met a skunk and got sprayed. He ran in and immediately started rubbing himself all over the blue area rug in our family room to get off the horrendous smell. Then he returned to the boys' room and jumped onto Aaron's bed (which was unoccupied, Aaron was sleeping with Dave and I in our bedroom) and rubbed himself all over that as well to try to get the smell off. :-(

All of this was happening unbeknownst to us. We were all sleeping soundly. I was awakened not by the sound of Phil, but by a horrible noxious pungent smell that had wafted all the way down to our master bedroom. :-(

Bad, bad, bad.

Anyway, we have spend the last couple of weeks "deskunking." It has honestly been worse than the move. We have soaked and washed and bathed Phil numerous times. We have laundered, thrown out, aired out, baking soda-ed, Febreezed, our sheets and rug. We have had to throw stuff out that just could not be washed. Even after all of our efforts, we feel like we can still smell skunk :-(. Now that it has been a couple of weeks since the event, things are much better. Sometimes, though, Dave and I still feel like we can smell it :-(. That smell really just seeps into and holds onto anything porous - like fabric, hair, cardboard (remember we have cardboard moving boxes everywhere because of the move), and books. Blech.

When I texted a dear friend about the event, she wrote back:
"Consider it pure joy, my sister. . .You will probably look back on this and laugh someday, but not anytime soon."

Very true.

Actually the skunking made me think a bit about sin. How it is so invidious and repulsive. How you might think it would only affect a small compartmentalized part of your life - but actually it invades and touches everything in your life. Even the stuff that did not have direct contact with Phil stunk horribly! It also made me think about how all of our efforts to rid ourselves of sin' stencha nd effects are futile. It is pervasive, it endures. We need the Lord Jesus. He is the ONLY One who can cleanse us from sin and be that literal breath of fresh air.

In other adoption related news, our social worker came today to check out our new home and she is going to write an update to our homestudy. When that is finalized (hoping that it is next week) we will send off for out I800.

Hurry home, Lily Claire!