Things are moving along! It seems like the final steps leading up to Travel Approval are the most stressful and move the fastest. There is more paperwork to fill out and time frames between steps are shorter and more precisely predicted (well, kind of!). Things have moved faster than we ever anticipated to bring Isaiah home. We honestly didn't expect to be traveling until November or December of this year. Traveling this fall was not on our radar at all. So here is where we stand!
August 19 our Chinese visas arrived. China wants to know when you are arriving and when you are leaving their country and you must have permission to enter. These visas are our ticket in!
August 25 was marked by the receipt of our Article 5 letter. This letter deals with Isaiah's visa to enter the United States. We will receive his visa from the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China before we travel home. This piece of paper is also what China needs to issue travel approval to adopting families.
August 27 . . . . WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL! WHAT??!! Yes, we have travel approval 2 DAYS after our Article 5. It is supposed to take two to four WEEKS! While we could have chosen to travel in the September 11th travel group, the last travel group to leave in the month of September (due to the Mid-Autumn festival), we have decided to wait until October. While it was difficult choice to wait a few more weeks, several things factored into this decision and we felt it was best for our family. God has Isaiah in His mighty hands.
August 28 was ticket day! Even though our travel dates are weeks away, we wanted to purchase our tickets as far in advance as possible with the hope that prices would be a bit less. We are now the proud owners of sets of tickets for two adults and two children!
Now we will start pulling things together so when it comes time to pack we will be ready. And yes, there is already a small stack growing in the corner of our bedroom. So, I suppose I should have written we will CONTINUE pulling things together. :)
Never did I imagine I would travel to China once, let alone twice. (Randy, on the other hand has always had it on his "bucket list.") And to be doing so to grow our family? God is amazing!
Thank you for your continued prayers for our family!
Friday, August 7 goes in the books as "Crazy Friday!" Three major things happened all in one day: our NVC letter arrived via email, our I800 approval arrived via mail, and we received an update about Isaiah. I checked my email on Friday morning and it was gift after gift!
First, I opened my email and saw one from NVC (National Visa Center). This came as a SHOCK because the NVC letter isn't supposed to be received until 2 to 3 weeks AFTER receipt of our I800 approval. We hadn't received our I800 approval yet! This letter provided us with a case number that will be sent to the US Embassy in Guangzhou with our I800 approval so a visa can be issued for Isaiah to enter the US. (This will be approved and then issued when we are in China).
On Thursday I had emailed Immigration asking about the status of our I800 approval. The second important email I found Friday morning was a response saying that our I800 had been approved 7/31 and should arrive in the mail in the next few days (it arrived later that day). This approval from US Immigration classifies Isaiah as a relative and allows him entry into the United States, becoming a US citizen as soon as he touches US soil. The HUGE thing about this is that our NVC letter and I800 arrived on the SAME DAY so we don't have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for the next step!
Lastly, we had paid a company that specializes in sending care packages to children being adopted to obtain the answers to 10 questions (written by us) and updated photographs of Isaiah. The answers to our questions (about 40 when all said and done - the art of a question within a question), updated photographs AND 6 short videos were also waiting in my email inbox. Like I said, a CRAZY Friday!!
We are two steps closer to bringing our little boy home!
Now we will start pulling things together so when it comes time to pack we will be ready. And yes, there is already a small stack growing in the corner of our bedroom. So, I suppose I should have written we will CONTINUE pulling things together. :)
