While We're Waiting (14 months) - - and Other HUGE NEWS

March 30, 2014           - 14 months waiting since our LID (log in date in China)
                                     - 22 months waiting since we began our adoption process
                                     - 41 months (3 years, 5 months) since we began the process of adding
                                        to our family

We finished Emma's room - or mostly finished Emma's room.  There are a few small projects that will be completed later on.

 

My sweet friends hosted the BEST.adoption.shower.ever!  There will be an entire post devoted to that fantastic event very soon.  Here are a couple fortunes from the delicious chocolate dipped fortune cookies - very appropriate for the occasion - thanks for leaving your fortunes Jessica and Megan :)

I called the National Visa Center for the cable letter about 226 times - probably about 8 times over the week it took to receive our cable letter.  Perhaps one of the most frustrating experiences in this last phase of paperwork.  No one who worked for the NVC seemed to know what the process was, how long it would take to complete or the answers to any of my questions.  I'm thankful I shared the most frustrating night of 2.5 hours of hold music and recordings with my friend Marianne while we attempted to make curtains for her family room - "we are working hard and will be with you momentarily!"  I finally received the PDF cable letter on March 6 and completed the DS 260 for submission online so our Article 5 could be delivered to the US Embassy in China on March 10.  The Article 5 process is a very specific two week process so our pick up date was set as March 24.

Our passports were couriered to the Chinese Embassy in Chicago to receive our visas.  They were submitted on March 3 and we received them back on March 12.  We have permission to enter China multiple times over the next 12 months and we can stay up to 90 days with each visit!

Another ladybug - a wonderful sign of hope!

Also on March 10, we spent 8 glorious long hours in our allergist's office conducting a rice challenge with Aidan.  For those of you who don't know, Aidan was diagnosed with a rare food intolerance to rice when he was just 6 months old.  Specifically the intolerance is named - Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome (FPIES) - his body could not digest the protein in rice - if he ingested it, he'd violently vomit until it was cleared from his body.  He'd usually end up in the hospital from severe dehydration and required IV fluids to help him recover. We've spent the last 5 years avoiding any type of rice product at all costs.  So scheduling the appointment to willing feed him rice to see what his reaction might be caused a GREAT amount of stress for this mommy.  The nurses placed an IV, started fluids and we fed him rice and waited and waited.  After spending an uneventful 8 hours with the lovely Dr. Maeve O'Connor and her staff, they sent us home.  Aidan did a fantastic job - he only asked to go home once when they were trying to start the IV for the second time and around 5:45pm, he said, "Mommy, when can we go home, this is taking forever!!"  We continued to feed Aidan increasing amounts of rice over the next few days and weeks.  And he's had no reaction!!  What a blessing.  We are so thankful - this makes traveling to China with Aidan much less stressful.

While Aidan and I spent the day in Dr. O'Connor's office, I received our final update from China - with photos of Emma!  She is stunning - our girl looks amazing in orange!

Aidan continued to enjoy his daily amounts of rice chex.

Pardon the blurry photo from Ian - we received and tried out the Ergo carrier we are taking to China to carry Emma around.  Luckily, Aidan is still small enough I could test it out with him.  But he weighs about 15 lbs more than Emma, and I have NO plans to carry Aidan around China in this carrier - I'm not strong enough!

I've made some hair bows to match Emma's outfits.  Our girl has some seriously cute pig tails - she needs matching sets of bows for her wardrobe!

We had our final beach trip before Emma joins our family.  During our drive to the beach house, I realized I have NO concern about the boys' ability to sleep while traveling - Brian and I may be exhausted, but these two could sleep any place!

  

It was too cool at the beach to enjoy any time out on the beach, but we did have the chance to visit the SC Aquarium - one of their favorite places.  It was stingray feeding time - so both boys had the chance to feed them raw shrimp.

 

With our Article 5 pick up on March 24, we were officially waiting for Travel Approval from CCCWA in China.

Our agency had alerted us that the recent Travel Approvals they'd received had been arriving in about 1-2 weeks.  So we began our wait.

When I was working on some sewing projects Monday morning, I was chatting on the phone with another sewing friend (asking her to help with an order I didn't think I could accept for time reasons), my caller ID flashed and I starting shouting that I'd call her back later - my apologies Jennifer Painter for shouting in your ear, but it was all for a good cause.

Our agency's travel coordinator was calling to tell us that we'd received Travel Approval - in one week!  And we had options about when our "Gotcha Day" could be - April 14 or April 21!  That phone call started 2.5 days of constant phone calls, emails and planning with our adoption agency, a travel agent and the rescheduling of lots of stuff for the next few weeks.

WE ARE LEAVING FOR CHINA IN 7 DAYS!!

We have booked flights to leave Wednesday, April 9.  We will spend a couple days touring Beijing.  Then we will arrive in Emma's province on Sunday, April 13.  Our "Gotcha Day" is Monday, April 14 - our forever family day.  Emma's adoption will be finalized on Tuesday, April 15.  We will spend several days in her province.  We will travel on Friday, April 18 to Guangzhou where the US Consulate Offices are located.  Our Consulate appointment is scheduled on Wednesday, April 23.  We will travel to Hong Kong on Thursday, April 25, spend a day in Hong Kong and depart to the US on Saturday, April 26.  Since we will cross the international date line, we are scheduled to arrive back in Charlotte on Saturday evening, April 26.  (Sorry Salem Sisters - I'll be celebrating our 15th college reunion with our McGinnis Party of Five!)

I will keep you up to date on our plans as we prepare for our trip - stay tuned - - -

While We're Waiting (13 months)

February 28, 2014       - 13 months waiting since our LID (log in date in China)
                                     - 21 months waiting since we began our adoption process
                                     - 40 months (3 years, 4 months) since we began the process of adding
                                        to our family

February was a busy month.  I started off shopping for curtain and roman shade fabrics for Emma's room.

Then Favorite Monkey needed serious surgery to repair his much loved neck.  It's a good thing I majored in Biology in college - mostly it's a good thing this mommy knows how to sew!

We mailed a package to Emma for her 2nd birthday - we included a blanket, lovey, baby doll, outfits, lady bug book and photo album.  (sorry for the sideways photo - blogger and I aren't friends today).

We took a trip to the beach house - it was cold and rainy so we made good use of our time and did some shopping for gifts we need to bring to China - for guides, officials, orphanage director, nanny.

Before the big snow storm, my very talented friend Heather helped chalk paint Emma's dresser (and by helped, I mean she chalk painted the entire dresser while I opened all of Emma's baby dolls and played with Margaret Ann).  She refused to let me photograph her while she worked.  But her little cutie helped out and let me snap her photo.

Since we were having another snow storm just in time for Valentine's Day, I sewed Emma's duvet cover together.

And we watched it snow and snow and snow.

Then my mom and I spent way too many hours working on the roman shades for Emma's room.  I love the end result, but I had an argument with the design and stopped speaking to those roman shades about halfway through the project!

I have a sweet group of friends who spent February planning an adoption shower for Emma.

Since our fingerprints were set to expire on March 5, we had to be re-fingerprinted at the Homeland Security Office in Charlotte.  It sounds very official, right?  When we first visited there in December 2012, I had this expectation of what this very important building would look like.  It couldn't have been more nondescript.  It's certainly an experience.  I can say with a fair amount of certainty that we were the ONLY people there to be fingerprinted for an international adoption.  They were very kind, efficient and prompt.  Fingerprints are good for another 15 months!

We took the boys to see a Davidson basketball game - Daddy's alma mater!  Someone might like popcorn.

Another lady bug!!

I finally have some curtains to show for all the hard work. 

Aidan had a multitasking breakfast - watch a show on the iPad, eat Lucky Charms and rub Favorite Monkey's ear.

We received I-800 approval on February 24th which allowed us to call the NVC (national visa center) to request our Cable Letter for our Article 5 drop off in China.  

So Emma's room is on the way to being finished - shower curtain hung and finishing up decorations in her room.

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday with some doughnuts.  We also received some photos of Emma and the birthday cake we sent her in China.

This process is moving along quickly now - look for another update very soon!