Good News about Austin

He is in an orphange that is sponsored by Half the Sky. Half the Sky is an organization that helps train orpahnage workers to provide a loving environment for children. Orphanages usually feed and clothe children in the masses but do not teach them love or feel other emotions. Half the Sky teaches the importance of love and emotions to make sure a child will know what love is. It is important in the early years to teach a child about love so they develop the ability to love and be loved. Long term bonds and attachment to adoptive parents is crucial to the well being of the child. If the child does not receive this early loving care they may not be able to form that crucial bond with their family. Also Half the Sky helps make sure sick kids are given medical attention and all kids get healthy meals. Austin seems to be on track developmentally and seems to be on target for weight. We believe Half the Sky is the reason why he is thriving. If you are interested in learning more about Half the Sky they do have a web site. We are so grateful Half the Sky is taking care of our son.

We got a referral

We were on a disney cruise sailing on the Disney Dream. We were at the private island all day Tuesday and returned to the ship to find a message light blinking. We listened to the message Christy's mom had called to tell us Holt was trying to reach us. They had a little boy for us. We had no cell service and internet was down on the ship. Mom got the information and told us about our son. He was born 4/28/10 and he is in Hunan China. The Disney staff went out of their way to help us look at the file in time. We had less than 24 hours to decide. Eventually email service was restored and we got to see the photos. Looking at his face we knew he was ours. We submitted the letter of intent to adopt him on 5/25/11.

LID!!!

China logged in our dossier today. That means they looked through and accepted our paperwork. We can officially be matched with out little boy at any time. We would then wait 4-6 months to travel to China to bring him home. It is time to prepare his room and get ready time for him.

DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today our dossier was shipped to China. That is big news to an adoptive family. All the documents we have labored over for 5 months are complete. The dossier has to be in China to get a referral of a child that is newly released for adoption. Now we wait for a referral. Our paperwork is ready to find a child's paperwork. We ordered Chinese food delivery to celebrate. A huge weight has been lifted off just sending this monster of paperwork to China. We are so ready to see Austin's face for the first time.

Immigration Said YES

We found out today that our paperwork has finally been approved. It feels so good to finally have it after so long waiting. Now we have to authenticate our approval and send it to China. We hope to still be DTC this week but it may be next week now. At least we are this close we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Last Mother's Day without my son. Prayers are being answered please keep them coming. The rest of the process should not take as long. We sure hope what we hear is true that the inital immigration wait takes the longest. Once we are matched with our son we have to go back to immigration to add his name to the approval but should take 2-3 weeks instead of the 3 months we just waited.

We have an officer finally

After waiting over 2 months we have an officer at immigration. I called him today to ask if he has processed our file. His answer was it is on my desk I don't know when I will get to it. I have a lot of files on my desk. I said I will call back Monday and get an update we are ready to move along. He said don't bother I won't get to it by Monday. I always draw the short straw or pick the slow line at the grocery. I pulled the short straw again, most officers pick up a file and approve it the same day. This guy is saying over 2 days and no end in sight. I cannot belived my luck. One lady I met recently had the same officer and her file sat on his desk for 2 weeks. Please help us pray we don't sit another 2 weeks on his desk. It is our time to be processed and we don't want to sit on a desk any longer. Thanks everyone.

Documents Are Back

We used a courier to hand carry our documents to the US Dept of State and the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. We received all of the documents we sent to the courier back in our hands in yesterday. Our dossier is all ready to send to China except the immigration letter. We hope to hear from them this week. As soon as we receive the approval letter from immigration we will need to make a copy and send it to the courier. The courier will have to take the single letter through the same process as the others have already been through. As soon as the letter has been approved by the Embassy our courier will overnight it to our agency. Our agency will then look over our COMPLETE dossier and if they find everything is in order they will send to CHINA. They only send mail to China on Fridays so we hope immigration gets us an approval letter and the courier gets the letter back to our agency in time to be DTC on May 13. DTC means dossier to China. That is what we have spent over 4 months getting ready to do. Once we are DTC China will give us a LID. LID is the date China officially logs in our dossier and makes us eligible to adopt a child newly released for adoption. It takes 1-4 weeks to get a LID after DTC so we hope for 1 week. There should be a new list of children out sometime after May 18 so we hope to have LID in time for the May list.  We are praying every day to be LID in time. We are very ready to see Austin's face for the first time. Please help us pray for this all improtant LID before May 23. My guess is the next list will be May 23. Thanks everyone we are so close to the good part. So far it has all been what is called the paperchase. The paperchase is not fun and really makes you look deep inside to be sure the adoption is what is meant to be.