TA RECEIVED!!!!!!

Our TA was received today! The agency is waiting on a call back from China in regards to our consulate appointment. We will have a definite date, flights booked and hotels reserved by the end of the week. YAY!! Because of the Chinese New Year there was one complete week that everything closed. Because of this our appointments may be pushed back to March. Possibly the first week. That will put us flying out the last week of February. Our prayer is that we leave much sooner. We will let you know as soon as we find out.

Travel Approval has been mailed!!

Our agency emailed yesterday and said that they were concerned because they did not receive any TA's last week. The agency contacted China and were told that ours was mailed out and should be received Monday or Tuesday. This means that we should have our itinerary later next week if not sooner. The date that we leave on will be determined by the US Embassy and Chinese Consulate appointments. These appointments are the critical ones and are also our exit appointments. YAY!!! I hope to tell everyone next week our confirmed dates.

If you can recall, when we originally began the adoption process we were adopting a girl or twins girls. Well, our homestudy was approved for girls, not boys or a boy. Crazy!!!! I freaked when I heard that we had to redo this paperwork process. It originally took approximately 6 months to do this part the first time. The agency told me that it should not be problem that all we needed to do was an addendum to the original homestudy. No problem, so I thought. Then she followed up by saying that if we did not get it corrected on State side than we may have to stay longer in China to have this completed. I contacted our local agency and she got right on it. We re-wrote the homestudy to say that we were adopting a boy and somehow she managed to get it sent out rather quickly. Believe it or not, the form that took originally 6 months to receive was received in 6 days!!!! I have it to take with us so everything in China should be correct and there should not be any delays. Even if there was a delay it would not have mattered because we would have already had Kaegan in our arms. Once I get him in my hands they can have all the time they need.


Lastly, I had to tell the agency his full name for the paperwork. That means we are very close to seeing him. In case you are new to the blog our son's chinese name is Dang He Liang. We will rename him Kaegan (Kay-gan) Michiah He Liang Kent. I know that it is long but we wanted to keep a part of his chinese name. In China the first name listed is actually the last name. So we are dropping the last name of Dang and keeping his first name He Liang.

Thanks to everyone who has followed us on this journey. I can't wait to share more with you soon!

I hope to blog the itinerary next week. Talk to you then!

VISA's Received!

YAY! We got our VISA's today. Now it is official!! All paperwork is complete on this end of the adoption. The rest is to be done while Kaegan is in my arms!!!! We are still waiting on the travel dates. Please pray that we receive them this week.

Tracking VISA

Our Visa's have left Washington and are on their way to us. We should receive them tomorrow. YAY!!! Now all we need are our confirmed travel dates and we are good to go.

Tracking the paperwork

Ok, so call me crazy but I have tracked the package that is holding our VISA paperwork. It was received today!! YAY! I actually used a courier service that will hand deliver the paperwork. The courier service will mail it back to me next week. I have the tracking number for the return envelope too because I sent them one that was prepaid. Thought it might speed up the process. Anyway, I had to send our original Passports to them because the VISA is actually a stamp that is stamped into the Passport. CRAZY!! I did not realize that. Can you imagine if this were to get lost in the mail. This is why I am tracking it's every move. We are too close to have any mistakes now.

Applied for Visa!

I just mailed off the Visa paperwork. This is the last bit of paperwork needed in order to travel. We still do not have our travel dates yet. I am hoping for a phone call this week. I will let you know as soon as we hear something.

The Conference Call

Well, we are still waiting on our confirmed travel dates. They stated it normally takes 3 weeks to receive them. We should receive them next week.

Things that we discussed were the documents needed when traveling, traveling in country, hotels, money, visiting the orphanage, what the coordinator will do with us and not do with us, site seeing and the "Gotcha Day." Lots to remember.

Another step closer. I will let you know when we get TA.

Pediatric Appointment

We just returned from our first appointment with Dr. Rich. He is Kaegan's pediatrician. Dr. Rich was great. He read the medical reports that we have, answered all of our questions and set Kaegan up as a patient. We will schedule Kaegans first check up the following week we return home. Dr. Rich is not too concerned about the hole in Kaegans heart but does want to check it out. He said that it amazes him that China would consider this child a special needs. His heart condition is so normal here and has most likely already healed up. Isn't that great!! Dr. Rich will run some blood tests and check all vaccinations to determine if a certain vitamin will be needed. Most of the adopted children are malnourished and he said that it is nothing that a few happy meals won't fix.

It was great meeting with the Doctor and I look forward to Kaegan's first visit. Hopefully next month.

Conference Call set for next week

Just an update for the bloggers. We have a conference call scheduled for next week. There are 3 other families that received their LOA's the same time we did. 2 from Ohio and 1 from Tennesse. The agency wants to conference us all in together just to introduce us and talk about applying for VISA's and travel plans. We hope to find out more then but for now this is all I got.

LOA signed and mailed again!

I told Marty this morning that I was not leaving the house until I had the LOA document in my hands. I sat here all day and finally it arrived by UPS around 3:30. The UPS man thought I was nuts because I was so excited to see him. I ripped open the folder and read the paper. I cannot explain the emotions I was feeling. Now I had to rush to the office to get Marty to sign it and then stop by the post office to overnight it back to the agency. I was at the post office by 4:30. The day was a successful one.

The agency will now process the paperwork and mail it China. We still do not know our travel dates but they are coming soon. As soon as I hear I will let you know.

By the way, On the LOA document China uses a red seal with the date of actual approval. Our date stamp is 12/25/08. CHRISTMAS DAY!! Isn't that an awesome Christmas present.

His Timing

Isn't God amazing! As I was driving home this evening praying to the Lord asking Him to wrap His arms around my son I began to think about my friend Shelli and how I wish I could call her and tell her the good news. It is so hard to believe that this New Years Day marks one year since Shelli went home. I now know why it has taken so long to receive our LOA. Crazy huh! Well, today is the day that I recall holding Shelli's hand in her hospital bed telling her over and over that I loved her and to stay strong and fight. At this time Shelli knew I was there. Her heart rate was lowering to normal and she just sat there and listened to me. I am so thankful for that time with her. "I love you", were the last words I spoke to her. Today Shelli let me know that She loves me and reminded me once again that God is control and His timing is always perfect. I guess a phone call wasn't necessary after all, Shelli already knew.

Please keep Eric, Dawson, Brit and the rest of the family in your prayers this week.

LOA - YES!!!!!!!

YEAH!!!! We finally received our LOA today! We are so excited and are looking forward to seeing our son soon!

LOA - A BIG FAT NO!!!!

It is Christmas eve and still no LOA! Tomorrow is Christmas and also day 130. The wait is getting harder and harder. I have been keeping up with other blogs and the LOA time frames have been from 115 days to 132. If things are normal for us than that puts us getting our LOA any day now. However, the agency is in Oregon and they have been closed this week because of the snow. Christmas too. It would be great to receive the call next week. We really need to receive the LOA soon in order to travel in January. Honestly, it appears that we will not travel until February but January is still possible. The Chinese New Year is also coming up at the end of January so we have to schedule around that as well.

We started this process in August of 2007. Kaegan was born on August 3rd, 2006. We chose him to be ours on September 3rd, 2008. It would be wonderful to welcome him home in January of 2009.

Keep on Praying!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Day 115 Still No Call

It has been 115 days and still no call. Please continue to pray!!!!!!!!!!

105 Days

We have been waiting 105 days for our LOA. Please pray that we receive it this week!!!!!

Update

I just confirmed with the adoption agency that our Log in date is actually 8-18-08. That is the date that we should begin to count our 12-15 weeks from. That puts today at week 13. We could get our letter any day now. If we get it this week it is possible that we could get our travel approval in time and still get Kaegan home before Christmas. If not, then we will definitely have our flights scheduled for the month of January.

This was good news. We thought that our log in date was in September not August. Anyway, keep praying. I will let you know when we receive the letter.

Update on Paperwork

We received an email from the agency today stating that if we do not receive our travel approval before November 21 we will not travel until January. This is due to the Holidays. It takes a few weeks to prepare ones travels therefore November 21 is the last dates that will be processed for travel before Christmas. Knowing this now confirms that it will be a miracle if we get our letter. The time frame now appears to be 3 months for the approval. That would put us receiving ours December 3rd. Too late to make it to China before Christmas.

Please continue to pray. We know that having Kaegan home for Christmas is almost impossble at this point but receiving our approval before then is not. We would love to have the letter before Christmas and travel in January.

Keep on praying!!!

Our Sonogram

Now that we are finally "pregnant on paper" we thought we'd share with you our sonogram.

Pray for a Speedy Process!

Ok. It is has been 58 from the time we received our referral, therefore it has been 58 days of waiting for our LOA. (letter of approval) I have just read on another blog that a family received their LOA and it took 134 days!!!!!! That is a very long time for me. Not to mention that is not even before Christmas. This family however will receive their travel notice and will travel before Christmas. What an incredible gift!!! I am so happy for them.

Please continue to pray for our process. We are anxiously waiting for him!

Pre-Approval Letter

We received a call from the agency today that they received our Pre-Approval letter. YEAH!!! We received this much quicker than normally. China has a new system and it appears that things may be speeding up. We are still hoping to get Kaegan before Christmas. The LOA is what we are waiting on now. That is the Letter of Approval. Once we receive that we will then wait on the travel dates.

Kaegan has received the news that he has a Mommy and a Daddy in the USA. He has also received our pictures. The agency said that the orphanges do a good job trying to prepare the child to meet his family by showing them pictures as often as they can. I sure hope this is true. It is just exciting to know that he now knows about us.

Keep on praying!!!