We are going to China!

We received TA on the 19th which is CRAZY fast!!  Most people wait at least two weeks for it and that's totally what I was expecting.  I about fell over when the adoption agency called and said, "It's HERE!"  

And then today we got our final thing needed from China.  We needed to get our US Consulate appointment set so we'd know when we absolutely had to be there.  This also lets the facilitator in China know when to set up the days/times to meet our girls.  (This is called "Gotcha Day" in the adoption world but I don't really like that term.  Not sure what we'll call it, if anything.  May end up calling it Gotcha Day anyway just because that's the language everyone speaks.  I don't know. . .)  So that Consular Appointment (CA) is set for Aug 20.  

We're still trying to figure out the flights and stuff.  Our travel agent is working hard right now!  We'll most likely be flying out on Aug 2 and arriving in Beijing on the 3rd.  Then we fly out that same day to Xi'an.  We'll actually be meeting Grace on Sunday, Aug 4.  Usually Gotcha Days are on Mondays but the orphanage requested Sunday.  One day closer to her is OK with me!!!  We'll spend the rest of that week in Xi'an and possibly (hopefully) catching a flight up to the city where her orphanage is.  We'll fly out of Xi'an to Nanjing on the 10th and we'll meet Emily on the 12th.  We'll hang out in her province and hopefully visit her orphanage as well.  Her's is a little closer to the capitol (Nanjing) so we could actually drive there.  It's all up to the orphanage directors though.  We'll fly out of Nanjing and head to Guangzhou on the 16th.  The girls will have their medical appointments on the 17th and our US Consulate appointment will be early in the morning on the 20th.  We'll fly out of Guangzhou back to Beijing on the 22nd and spend a few days there touring the Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc. with the girls and then we'll be headed home on the 25th-26th.  That means we'll be home for Josh's birthday!  We'll all be dead tired and won't feel a bit like celebrating but we'll be home!!

I cannot believe this happening.  I knew it would, but we are leaving NEXT WEEK!  Holy cow.  I've got some serious stuff to do!

NVC Letters and an update on the girls

After the I-800 approval letters arrived the next things we were waiting on were the letters saying that our petitions had been forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) and the US Consulate in China.  I knew it would take about a week, at least, to get these letters and the process would just be in a standstill until we got them.  Torture!  I kept feeling like I should research this a little more and so I did.  I spent a couple of hours on the internet and finally found someone who said we could email the NVC and ask them to send a PDF of the letters instead of just waiting for the snail mail.  I did it and got the PDF's that same day!!!  This was last Wednesday.  So the process is for sure moving again and we are officially waiting on our Travel Approval - the last step!  Incidentally, we haven't received the actual letters yet.  I am so thankful for the many promptings I have received throughout this entire process that have kept everything moving quickly and smoothly.  I haven't shared all of them here but I've tried to keep a record of most of them in my journal.  Someday I want to be able to share all the little miracles that have happened with my girls.  

Last week we also decided to send some care packages to the girls.  We can't package up a bunch of things and just send it over to the orphanage, unfortunately, but there are services located in China that will do it for you.  I had heard great things about Ann at Red Thread and decided to use her.  She was WONDERFUL.  She emailed me quickly and was so nice.  As part of the care package she will send a request to the orphanage asking for an update.  This is the main reason we wanted to send a care package - so we could get updated measurements and possible pictures of the girls.  Our agency can request an update but the orphanages don't respond very quickly or at all sometimes and Ann can almost always get an update.  I didn't realize how fast she would get it though!  We emailed back and forth a little on the afternoon of the 3rd and the pictures and updates were waiting in my inbox when I woke up on the 4th!  What a great way to start the day.  :)  So here are the pictures:

This is E.  I think these were taken the day the update was sent!  They are all taken from a weird angle so it makes her head look weird.  Plus she seems to kind of bow her head a little in all of them too.  She reminds us of S a lot.  There is a definite difference between the girls' photos.  We are thrilled to have these pictures but they're also a little heartbreaking too.  E just looks so sad in them.  I want to pick her up and hug her so much!  I am definitely more worried about E than G.  She needs to come home NOW.  

E is currently about 25 pounds (very underweight for a 2 1/2 year old!) and about 32 1/2 inches tall.  (S is about 39 inches).  

This is G.  She is a little chub!  So nice to see some smiling pictures.  I have heard some really good things lately about her orphanage and I think she is very well cared for.  (Evidence=chubbiness!)  It is a smaller orphanage and has seen many improvements in the last few years.  I'm so grateful!

It's good to see her standing.  I don't think she's crawling yet but at least we know she can bear weight.  Yay!!!

Oh, how I want to squeeze this face!!!  Those cheeks are just screaming to be smooched.  

G and E have almost exact measurements!  G is about 24 lbs (pretty close to where she should be at 1 1/2) and about 31 inches tall.  So they're both in 18-24 months clothes.  I bought a few 12 month sizes (that list the weight up to 24 lbs) and I bet those will fit them.  Especially E since she's a little on the skinnier side.  They are both wearing about a size 5 (American) shoe.  

Here are pictures of the care packages that they should receive today or tomorrow.  They got the exact same packages - two dresses, shoes, headbands, a stuffed toy, a soft picture album with pictures of us, a letter from us that Ann translated into Mandarin and an 8GB flash drive that hopefully the orphanage will use to put any and all pictures/information they have on the girls and send with E and G when we pick them up next month.  Not guaranteed but we can hope!  They probably have several pictures of them when they first arrived at the orphanage and we would desperately love to have any pictures they might have.  Oh, and there's candy for all the nannies included in the care package!

Hopefully the girls will actually get these things. I really don't care if they get the clothes or not - they're too little to care about stuff like that yet.  I DO hope they get the picture albums though.  I hope they have good nannies that will show them the pictures and tell them about their new Mama and Baba coming to get them soon!  

I can't say enough nice things about Ann.  Even though the care packages were exactly the same she took the time to take different pictures of each of them to send to us so we'll have pictures for each girl's scrapbook.  She was so genuine and sweet and VERY efficient - I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to send a package to their future kiddos.  Well worth every penny!