I-800 Approval

We got our I-800 approvals yesterday!  Yeehaw!  I was REALLY hoping this would come before my birthday and it did!  This means the US government has approved us to bring these girls to the US.

So now we wait.  Again.  This feels like an endless waiting game!  We're mostly waiting for our Travel Approval now but there are a few little steps included.  Not much for us to do on our end - just wait, of course.  

Our USCIS officer will send our approvals to the National Visa Center.  Then the NVC will "cable" (basically email) our file to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.  This is approval of our visa petition.  Then the NVC will mail us a letter stating that our petition has been forwarded to the Embassy.  This letter doesn't look like much but it's super important.  We have to have it in order to proceed with the adoption.  So now we wait.  Most people wait about 1-2 weeks for this so hopefully that will be the case.  

Then once our agency gets the NVC letter they will forward it to the US Consulate in China.  Once the Consulate has the NVC they can issue the Article 5.  This is the pre-approval for our girls' immigrant visas.  A courier will take the Article 5 and take it to the CCCWA and then our Travel Approval can be issued.  Then we can go to China!!!  

In our waiting, we've been trying to keep busy preparing everything for their arrival.  We have their cribs set up and I have some clothes washed and ready to pack.  We purchased some carseats but haven't taken them out of the boxes yet.  We should really make sure they fit though.  Maybe we should do that this weekend. We were able to get all the luggage we need for the trip and I've been collecting things here and there.  I think we're pretty much done with all the big stuff. We are also still trying to finish unpacking the boxes that are currently stored in the girls' room.  It's all my scrapbooking/craft stuff that just doesn't have a home here at the new place.  It had a room all to its self before though so there's quite a bit of stuff to go through!  Dreading it.  They won't need the room for a while but I'd really like to get it all ready before they come home.  I'm sure my time will be seriously limited once I have 3 under 3!

RFE sent!

Thank goodness for a wonderful adoption agency!  They got the original Chinese language documents printed out and sent off the Request For More Evidence (RFE) on Monday.  She was able to send everything off for us so we didn't waste time sending it back and forth in the mail.  Hopefully we'll get our approval sometime next week.  I'm thinking Friday would be the perfect day. . . ;)

No other news to report.  We're just trying to stay cool, trying to get ahead in our schoolwork and pretending that we're really patient.  

The Good and The Bad

That's life, huh?  You get to deal with good and bad every day.  Today is no different.  

The good:  Our T-shirts arrived today and we didn't expect them until Monday.  Yay!  I'll be spending time this weekend sorting through them and making sure we got all that we ordered.  I'll be sending them out or bringing them to you sometime next week.  

Thank you so much to all those who helped out with this.  You really have no idea how much we appreciate everyone's support! 

The bad:  We received a "Request for Evidence" from USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services).  They are the government entity where we sent the I-800 forms and stuff last month.  We had anticipated the arrival of the approval for these forms sometime next week.  Now with their "request" we have no idea when we'll get the approval.  We can't do anything else until we get this approval.  GAH!  They're requesting all the original language forms for G, saying the ones we sent were illegible.  Well, duh.  They're in freaking Chinese!!!  They are very faint but seriously, what USCIS officer is going to read these CHINESE documents?  The English translation is perfectly legible.  Stupid bureaucracy.  And, to top it all off, these aren't even documents that I have and can make copies and send them off tomorrow.  These illegible copies came straight from our agency (they look like they were faxed from China, thus the unreadable-ness.)  I talked to the agency last night and she helped calm me down a little.  She'll look at the originals when she gets in on Monday and see what magic she can work with the contrast on the copy machine.  Hopefully she can get it to be legible and we won't have to wait for China to resend the documents.  Who knows how long that could take?!  I guess I really shouldn't be complaining.  This is the first paperwork that hasn't gone through quickly and easily.  I have been a total Nazi about checking and double-checking the paperwork but this is something I had no control over.  Grrrrr.

Also, the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) switched to a new computer system the last week of May.  (This is the Chinese govt entity that deals with everything related to adoptions.)  They were supposed to be back up and running about a week later but there have been many problems.  I think they're finally starting to work through the backlog now but this has delayed a lot of people.  I'm not sure it has delayed us since we're mostly waiting on the US govt right now but if there's a backlog it might delay us when we get to that point.  Hopefully they'll have all the kinks worked out soon.  

And to top it all off, the US Consulate in Guangzhou is moving next month and they won't be setting up any appointments for consular visits for two whole weeks.  (This is the last stop in China and this appointment is what everything else centers around.  We have to stop at the Consulate and get the girls' visas before we can come back home.  Kind of an important appointment!)  We were hopeful that we could get our Travel Approval and set up our consular appointments before the closure and still travel in August, but it's not looking good.  

I'm really trying to be optimistic about all this (NOT an easy thing for me!) So here are a few good things I'm thinking can come from this: 

- If our travel is delayed that might push our trip right into the time when we usually take family vacations - right around when school starts here, about the end of August to beginning of September.  That is usually the slowest time for Josh at work so it's easier to get away for a couple of weeks.  

- It will give us some more time to work and save up money for the trip. 

- It might be a little bit cooler in China.  (Ya know, like how Dallas is slightly cooler in September than August? Yeah, this one's a stretch. . . )

- The prices for our airline tickets might be a little cheaper since traveling in July/early August is usually more expensive.  

- I'll have lots more time to get the girls' room and wardrobes ready.  :)

We have actually been very blessed that this has been our only setback so far.  There are so many hoops to jump through that I'm surprised we haven't stumbled up until now.  We are grateful for this adventure and are really trying to enjoy it!