LEAVING ON A JET PLANE................

That's right! We're leaving on a jet plane..........this Tuesday! It's finally here, we're off to China to bring Hunter home! We've been rushing here and there making sure we have everything. We're excited, nervous and anxious!

 Here's our itinerary....

 July 16th- Fly from Boise to San Francisco to Beijing

 July 17th- Arrive in Beijing at 3:15pm

  July 18th- Visit Hunter in the Amazing Hands home in Beijing

 July 19th- Free Day

 July 20th- Adoption Orientation and Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square tour

 July 21st- Fly to Taiyuan, Shanxi (Hunter's Province)

 July 22nd- HUNTER DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We get Hunter!

  July23rd- Adoption Processing,Registration,notarization at the Civil Affairs office

 July 24th- Free Day......Visit the town of Pingyao (2,700 years old)

 July25th- Free Day- Visit Changzhi (the city Hunter is originally from)

 July 26th- Fly to Guangzhou and meet up with the fellow parents in our travel group

 July 27th (Our 22nd Anniversary) Visa paperwork and Hunter's medical check up

 July 28th- Free Day

  July 29th- Visa Appointment and Oath Ceremony at the US Consulate office

 July 30th- Visa pick up, Train to Hong Kong and spend the night there

July 31st- Fly Back Home!!! Immigration and Hunter will become US Citizen! 

ATTACHMENT AND BONDING

We have all been waiting a long time to see and hold our little boy. We’ve had several years to prepare for the changes we will experience, to learn as much as we can, to contemplate what adoption will mean to us as a family, and to anticipate the changes we will experience as our family grows from a family of three to four. We have started to come to know and love Hunter through the photos and updates we have received from our agency. It is hard for us to believe we are still strangers to him! While we are preparing a place for him in our home and hearts, Hunter has not even thought of leaving where he is. He is happy and content in the loving arms of his Nannies and Caretakers. In just a few short weeks, Hunter will be experiencing the loss of everything he has ever known. We anticipate that this will be a very difficult time for our little boy. We ask that you keep Hunter in your prayers. As Hunter's arrival is approaching, we wanted to talk to everyone a bit about bonding and attachment. We are thrilled that everyone is so excited to welcome our new son. That said, we want to make our expectations clear from the start, so that there won’t be any confusion, misunderstandings, or hurt feelings after his arrival. We have talked a lot with our social worker and agency about this transition and have done a lot of reading about ways to make healthy attachments with adopted children. As hard as it is to say, please enjoy him from our arms for a while. Hunter needs to recognize us as mom and dad before he is ready to be passed around. This is a small window of time we have to develop an appropriate bond. He will be a much happier child if we give him time to grieve his losses and then form a forever bond. There is no set length of time for this, but we will be able to tell by his reactions whether or not he is ready to be held by others. We still invite you to say "hi" to him, talk to him and play with him (keeping in mind his reaction of course); but, for a while, we need to be the only ones to feed, diaper, bathe, cuddle Hunter. He will be grieving the loss of his Nannies and Caretakers, this usually lasts for at least a few weeks, but grieving episodes could occur for months after his arrival. Grieving episodes are intensified by over stimulation, so we need to keep his world quiet and small for his first weeks with us. We have been so blessed by this gift. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can for Hunter to feel secure. We know many of you have bonded with him just as we have! So many of you have prayed daily for him and we do not underestimate the bond or love you feel for him. We hope you understand our need for this special time with our little boy. If you have any questions, please call or email. Thank you in advance for understanding!

TRAVEL APPROVAL AND TICKETS.......... OH MY!!!!

Wow! What a month it's been. We received our Travel Approval on May 22nd. It's such a relief to finally get to this point! Unfortunately, we couldn't purchase our plane tickets at that point, as it was 6 weeks away from our travel time, therefore we had to wait and wait! It seemed like a lifetime! The phone finally rang, it was our agency. We were so excited, thinking we had our Consulate appointment and everything was a go! Well, it wasn't. We hit a wall, a brick wall. We were told that the Consulate was going to be closed the week we were planning on going, so no adoption processing at that time! They said we could travel towards the end of July and return on August 1st, once again a wall, a BIGGER wall than before!!! Our son's birthday is August 1st, he'll turn two that day. What seemed like something minor, wasn't. Since he would be turning two that day, we would have to purchase a whole ticket for him, rather than a lap ticket. When you're budgeting a huge trip like this, then with the adoption fees, it was way out of our range to come up with those fees in such a short notice. We prayed that we could have our Consulate appointment earlier so we could leave on July 31st to come home. The agency said they'll see what they could do, but plan on having to buy him a ticket just in case. We were also told that they would let us know earlier in the week, but then shortly afterwards we got a call, saying that the Consulate was closed on Monday and Tuesday due to the Dragon Boat Festival. Oh my goodness, you've got to be kidding, we thought! So, we took a deep breath and realized that we had to wait it out until Wednesday. We were stressed that the ticket prices would be rising, and they were! We continued to pray! Monday morning, we got a phone call, it was our agency! They got the approval early! Indeed we got an earlier appointment!!! We are able to leave China and return to the US on July 31st!!!! They said to go ahead and purchase our tickets! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ran outside to tell Paul, he was mowing the lawn. We both came back inside and looked up the ticket prices. Wow, we couldn't believe our eyes! The prices went down from where they were! Immediately we bought them! Whew......we got them! We are so thankful that God took care of that stressful moment! The next day, the prices jumped by $200 each! Amazing how faithful God is!!!!! We've been looking up prices for hotels and transfers too! Our brains are fried!!!! We're so excited to meet our son! Please pray for his attachment, his foster home contacted us, they shared how he has anxieties with strangers and to be prepared for a rough beginning, so if you could please pray for him that he will have peace and we can start a wonderful bonding time together.

ARTICLE 5

We received our Article 5 on May 8th! This means that the US Government approved Hunter's Visa. We have one more step until our last and final piece that we need before we travel, this piece is our TA meaning Travel Approval. It's an invitation from the Chinese Adoption Center saying they have everything they need, and we can now come over and bring our son home. We will be traveling to bring him home the first week of July. We should be getting our TA this week or next. Wow, I can't believe we're almost done! We feel like 2 deers in the headlights right now! We're very excited, but anxious! We're writing lists of things to do, cause there's so much to do before we go. We've been checking airfare on a regular basis too. It's becoming 2nd nature in our household. We were blessed by a few of my mom friends from MOPS. They pulled together and did a fundraiser for us, to bring Hunter home. It was a babysitting night, it went very well. There's another one this week too, as well as our garage sale. We're very touched by their kindness! It warms my heart as we just moved to Idaho not too long ago, and have such amazing friends!

I 800 Approval, Visas and more.......

We received our I800 approval a few weeks ago, this is very exciting! This means that the US Government approved us to adopt and bring home Hunter. We're currently waiting for our Article 5, that's approval of Hunter's visa. We're hoping to hear something soon, we've been waiting 3 weeks! Once we have our Article 5, we should receive Travel Approval within 2-3 weeks! That's the last piece we need before we can bring him home, we will travel the first week of July to meet him and bring him home.


We're getting butterflies of excitement as we move closer to becoming a family of four! We've pulled out the suitcases and began the packing process. Funny, as I type this, 3 years ago today, we stepped foot on a plane to fly to a land that we've only heard of, to bring home a child that we only saw in photos. I can't believe that we're almost there again! We pulled out Sophia's Gotcha Day video's the other night, it was a tender moment watching them with her! She's getting excited as well, talks about him all the time, even telling him what to do........uh oh! Looks like big sister is kicking in early! :0)

Thank you for all your prayers and support, we appreciate them! It's been an emotional and exciting ride.....

WE HAVE LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a crazy, exciting and hectic month! A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from our agency, calling to let us know that they have our LOA. You may be asking yourself, what's an LOA??? An LOA is a Letter Of Acceptance from China. It means that they reviewed all of our paperwork and approved it! It came really fast, so fast that it took the agency by surprise too, 3 months early!!!! Paul was on a business trip, so excited and feeling numb, I called him! The next day via Fed Ex it arrived at our home. I had to wait for Paul to return from his business trip to sign it. I found myself pacing back and forth, looking at it, re-reading it, the English part that is....Wow...there it is! Hurry home, Paul! I spent a few days compiling the information that USCIS needed to review our paperwork, so they can approve Hunter's Visa and allow him to become a citizen of the United States. After I sent it off, I noticed there was an error on the address of USCIS given by our agency. Ugh, I thought....no!!! All of our paperwork out of our hands! I kept checking the tracking number, finally it said delivered. The post office obviously knew it was going to USCIS, so they most likely sent it forward. Talk about a STRESSFUL moment!!!!!!!! We're currently waiting for their approval. We should know something in a few weeks. Once again, the pacing back and forth! One exciting thing that happened this week was a grant from our agency! What a wonderful blessing! Every little bit counts, especially since it's 3 months earlier than anticipated. God has a plan, he knows why and when! We're trusting him with the last financial part! Please be praying for us on this, we really appreciate and covet your prayers, also please pray for Hunter. Pray that God will not only prepare our hearts for him, but his heart for us! He doesn't know us, it'll be all new to him! We also ask prayer for healing upon Hunter, he has clubfeet. He had surgery and casting, they're slowly turning, he's wearing a brace at night and a AFO during the day. We're very excited to bring him home and help him with his daily needs.