Another step closer!

We came back from our 2 week Thanskgiving extravaganza to our US Govt provisional approval to adopt Emma. We have to wait now for the National Visa Center to send us a letter and then we can send those papers to China to the consulate, who will issue us and Article 5. Then the article 5 gets submitted to China and 3-4 weeks after that we get our Travel Approval. The Travel Approval is the final China approval! From there we set dates for a consulate appointment in China and once we have that, we set our travel plans! I'm amazed that we are this close! We need to even submit our visa applications soon! Woohoo. I'm still planning on early Feb.

So here are the steps:

1. Get approval from NVC

2. Apply for Article 5(from US consulate in China)

3. Get Travel Approval from China

4. Request a consulate appointment in China

5. arrange travel dates

6. Go get her!

We're excited! They are supposed to send us updates every 3 months, which means we'll get one in Dec. Can't wait for that!

And, for your viewing pleasure. Judson's latest musical adventure.

Memories

My grandparents loved me. I was their only granddaughter and they spoiled me. My grandfather was a carpenter, and my grandmother liked to sew and paint. So, anytime I needed anything, all I had to do was call them up(they lived 8 hours away) and make my little requests known. I honestly don't remember if I asked for the doll house or not, maybe they just made it for me? I do know at some point that I would think up things to get and call and lay it on them!

Its time to get rid of the dollhouse, and its so hard for me! Mark has been trying to get rid of it without me knowing, he actually commissioned Lisa to take it to Goodwill while we were out of town, but she couldn't do it(yay Lisa!). I've been trying to find a good home for it, and my sis-in-law finally came to the rescue!

So, without further details, I present to you, me and my dollhouse-made with love-by my Grandma and Grandpa Clarke.

Everything in the dollhouse is handmade! The furniture and curtains! WOW.

And for your bonus viewing pleasure a pic of me and some drawers my Grandparents made and Caroline with them now.

So, goodbye dollhouse. Its not really the dollhouse that I'm most sad about. Its that it reminds me of my grandparents. They both died this past year. Its been many years before that I was able to spend any good time with them. In these last years my grandma would always say, "we have our memories Megan". Here are a few of them, and I'm very thankful.

Morning with Judson

We just got our Letter of Acceptance!!!

I was excited to send on some pics from the last week, and then my agency called and said we got our LOA-Letter of Acceptance from China!!! WOohooo! A step closer to getting Emma!! So excited! It was 34 days after we got our last approval which is pretty fast! I am very thankful!! In the funding department, we got enough and more to match our grant, and just received another grant this past week. We are about half way in support with what it will cost. So thankful for this as well. Praise God with me for working this out and providing for us.

So, what does this mean, you ask? Ha. It seems like now we have a few more steps. . .
1. They overnight us the LOA and instructions to fill out our paperwork for the US-(I-800)-this process takes about 3 weeks
2. Once we receive approval from the US govt we fill out an application for a DS 230 (no idea what this means:), that is sent to our agency and they send it to the US consulate in China and issue an Article 5 - this takes about 3 weeks
3. Once China gets this, they will give us our Travel Approval(TA)-3-4 weeks later
4. 3-4 weeks later we can travel to China and bring Emma home!!!

Looks like February sometime. Feb 3 is Chinese New Year, so maybe we could go after this?

Some pictures for you.
This is a picture of Emma's orphanage, the baby room. Clean, sterile. Makes you want to go get her huh?

This is one of Lawrence's zoos that he builds during rest time. . .

And a lego creation. . .
Judson wants to be like his big brotherThe day after a library run. . . Found them like this while I was doing the dishes. . .
I found Jud like this:) Some friends had borrowed it and given it back and he was enjoying sitting in it on the floor!!
Halloween House from Grandma Susan!
Trick or treaters