Birthday Girl!

Xin Yu is 2 years old today! We were so sure we’d have her in our arms by now and safely home.

It's getting colder in southern China

Xin Yu here.
It's my turn to say something! It's getting colder in China, but I wanted to get my picture taken for my mom, dad, and big sister. I sure hope they can come and get me soon. I know they love me a lot and wish the paperwork would move faster. The new adoption rules have really slowed things down.

LID!

Our dossier has been officially logged in at the CCAA in Beijing, China.

Dossier To China

Our dossier has finally been sent to China. We are DTC!!!!!!!!

U.S. Immigration Doc's Approved At Long Last!

We’ve waited another 45 days for our I-800A to be approved after the original 90 days. After almost 5 months of waiting, we finally receive word that our I-800A has been approved!!

More Surprises

After 2 weeks, the updated home study is completed. But now we find out that Immigration also needs us to get clearances from Child Protective Services in every state we’ve each lived in since we were 18 years old!! The two of us have lived in 5 states. We send out the paperwork and it takes another 3 weeks to get them all back.

Waiting . . . . .

It’s been 90 days since we sent off our I-800A documents. We haven’t heard anything. On day 94, we get a letter in the mail from U.S. Immigration. We’re excited because we’re sure our I-800A has finally been approved! But no, Immigration is requesting additional information. We are seriously bummed out. We contact our adoption agency to see what’s going on. They contact Immigration and find out that our home study needs to be rewritten to conform to the new I-800 guidelines.

It's August and Xin Yu is growing up

We received new photos of our little girl. Our little baby is becoming a little girl. We are so excited to travel to China and go get her. Hope our paperwork goes through US Immigration Services quickly.

Mom, Dad, it's my turn to talk. Hi everyone, Jenna here. Mom and Dad have been talking to me about what it means to have a little sister. Hmm, sharing toys? Well maybe I can share some of them. One thing I want to do for my little sister is to hold her when she cries. Sure hope to go see her soon. I found out that I have to get a shot before I can go to China. That doesn't sound like fun. I'll have to think about. Talk to everyone soon. Bye,
Jenna

Home Study Mailed Off

Yippee, our home study and I-800A paperwork is mailed off to U.S. Immigration. It should take 90 days to get our I-800A approved.

New U.S. Immigration Procedures

It's May and we've completed more paperwork. We received an update and some new photos of Xin Yu. Here is one of our favorites. We need to get busy again if we hope to have her home by Christmas. But . . . . . new adoption procedures have been put into place by U.S. Immigration since China is now recognized as a Hague country. There will be more hoops to jump through and longer wait times for adoptive families. We hope this doesn't add too much time onto our wait.

Paperwork ... here we come

We think that Guan Xin Yu will fit in well with our family. We accept the referral and begin the paperwork to adopt her. The first step is to get our home study updated.

We receive a referral. Could this be our Daughter?

Our journey for Jenna's sibling . . . on March 31, 2008, we receive a phone call from our adoption agency. They have a referral for us. Her name is Guan Xin Yu. She's 15 months old and has a repaired cleft lip. There are 5 cute photos along with medical information. The translation of her Chinese name: Guan is a type of grass in the city where she lives (Dongguan City). Xin means heart. Yu means rain.

We laugh when we find out her birthday is December 22. That’s the same day as Margaret’s birthday and the day before Jenna’s birthday. We figure that God has a sense of humor! December will be a super busy time for our family if we accept this referral. We wonder how Jenna will like "almost sharing" a birthday with a sister. They would be 3 years apart in age.