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April 9th:
T-Minus 13 Days and Counting!
The news that has been causing us many
sleepless nights over the past month finally came today. We have
our travel approval and our travel dates. We leave on April 22nd
to China, and we'll meet Long Long on Sunday, April 25th! Due to
China's National Labor Day, we will have 12 days in Guangzhou navigating
the American Consulate appointments, and we will return home on May
13th.
The whole family is very excited to get
on the way, and we are already arranging travel, making preparations at
work, and clearing everyone's schedule for the trip. We'll update
our page frequently now as new information will come quite regularly.
Now we can finally feel justified having our bags
packed and ready (though Cortney has had them ready since February!)
March 25th: New Pics,
Grants, & the Countdown
No Travel Approval to report yet, but we do have good
news to share. Last Friday, we learned that we have received a
$2,000 grant from
Little Flowers, a foundation that supports Catholic families who are
adopting. We are so thankful to them for supporting us in our
adoption!!!
We also received new pictures of Long Long today. He has the care
package we sent him, and you can see he is really growing! With
any luck, we'll have our Travel Approval in the next week so that we can
get on our way.
March 10th: Still Waiting
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Since our last post, we have mostly been waiting and continuing to save for our trip. Our paperwork has
moved through the Department of Homeland Security and the National Visa Center. Tonight (Thursday in China) our Article 5
should be picked up from the American Consulate in Guangzhou. It will now travel to Beijing for one last approval. Once
they issue our Travel Approval (sometime in the next 2-4 weeks), we will be ready to travel.
It now looks like we will be leaving sometime in April.
Everyone is very excited--hopefully these last weeks will go by quickly! Tonight we began work on Colton and Abby's
China Blogs. They chose their banner images and Dad helped them
set up their pages. Check them out by clicking the links above. Soon we hope to be
changing this page over to a journal of our trip!
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While we continue our wait, we've sent another care package to
Tai to stay in touch with his orphanage and to remind him that we are
coming soon.
Jan. 22nd: New Pictures!!!
The last couple of weeks have been
very long and trying adoption weeks. We have been working through a
wording issue with our homestudy. It has been a mad rush to get our
homestudy updated, make sure everyone approves, and update all of our
clearances with DSHS and Washington State Patrol. Yesterday we put
it all together and sent it back off to the Department of Homeland
Security. Hopefully we will now be able to move on to the next stage
and remain on track to travel by Spring Break.
Today we had reason to celebrate,
though. We received new pictures of Tai! We recently had money
sent to buy Tai and the children at his orphanage a cake. They sent
back two new photos of him. Thank you, Angela, for facilitating the
cake delivery with the orphanage. For adoptive families interested,
Angela is an excellent resource. Here is her webpage: www.ladybugsnlove.com
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Jan. 3rd: LSC - Happy New Year!
We've been so busy this past week that I haven't had the chance to post
our great news. We received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) on December 29th!
OK, so what does it mean that we have our LOA?
Simply put, it means that we have our final approval from the CCAA in China to go forward with the adoption.
Now there is just a bit of paperwork left to do, and it goes something like this: |
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We fill out an I-800 and an I-864, attach our I-800A, LSC,
and Hague verification and send them to the USCIS. We fill out a DS-230
and send copies of our LOI, LSC, and I-797C to Great Wall. We also apply for our Visas
with the Chinese Consulate. After our papers spend four days in a "Lock-Box" with the
USCIS, they will process them and send them to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. Great Wall
sends our DS-230 to the American Consulate in Guangzhou where it will meet with the I-800 &
I-864 approvals. Once all of this is in place, the Consulate issues an "Article 5" that
then is picked up and delivered to the CCAA in Beijing. The CCAA processes the paperwork
and issues TA (Travel Approval). After that, we schedule appointments with the American
Consulate in Guangzhou, and we are ready to book our tickets.
All of this will happen in the next 10-12 weeks. . . . . It really is that simple.
Dec. 28th: Orphanage Update!!!
This morning we started the day with the regular check of
the e-mail for news. We have gotten used to checking and finding
nothing new, but we hoped for a post Christmas surprise. Well, Santa
was good to us--in our e-mail we found new pictures and an update from the
orphanage on Tai! Ann, a woman in Guangzhou who sent our care
package to the orphanage, managed to get us an update. It was so
exciting to have new news! Here is the update information. The
pictures appear to have been taken in the SWI director's apartment as best
as we can tell.
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Height :39 inches
Weight :37 lbs
He loves to eat, he is not picky with his food at all.
He is very happy, active, naughty, and a
strong willed boy. Strangers do not scare him at all.
Even when he doesn't know somebody, before long it looks
like he or she is his friend already. He loves to play
outside, he can walk very far away by himself. He can walk upstairs
or down stairs very quickly by himself. He cooperates very well when
people help him dress. Long Long started to go to school from May,
2009. He knows his bed. When he sees people, he will call aunt or
uncle. He also can sing some childrens' songs, too. Long Long can
count to 5.
45 kids live with Long Long.
Long Long is the first child to be adopted
from his orphanage by a foreigner.
Some of the nannies can teach Long Long some English.
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December 21st: Merry Christmas!
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Well, like so many other families who
will take time to read this post, we are still waiting! Right
now we are waiting for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance). This is
the next milestone in our adoption process, and we are really hoping
for it to arrive before the end of the year. Cortney checks
the e-mail about once every 5 minutes--if it is possible to wear out
the virtual "send/receive" button in our e-mail program, Cortney
will do it!
We also received quite a surprise in the mail
today. Ibsen Adoption Network, a foundation that was kind
enough to give us an adoption grant, sent us a Christmas card.
OK, so what is so special about that? Many foundations send
out Christmas cards to those who contribute or benefit from their
services.
Why was this card a big deal? When we opened
it we found a picture of our son and Tai's story inside! They
chose to feature our adoption in their Christmas cards.
It is quite a keepsake, and we wanted to share it with those
following our adoption. Click the pictures to enlarge them and
you can read the card.
THANK YOU AGAIN IBSEN ADOPTION NETWORK! For
those interested in learning more about them, here is the link to
their web page:
Ibsen Adoption Network |
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December 6th Update: Pre-Approval
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On Monday we learned that our pre-approval for the adoption of Long Long arrived on Thanksgiving
day. We have now sent him a care package that includes a photo album of our family, a letter,
and some toy cars (his file noted that he loves playing with cars.) The items were sent from
Guangzhou, China, and we believe they probably arrived this weekend. Hopefully he now knows that he has a
family coming for him!
We also have requested more information about him and about his home in Zaozhuang.
We can't wait to learn more about him and his orphanage! |
Introducing Tai Long Michael Dotson
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Click on Image to Enlarge
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Click on Image to Enlarge |
Click on Image to Enlarge |
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After months of putting together paperwork and preparing for our second
adoption, we have selected a child. Long Long is three years old (born April 4, 2006) and
lives at the Zaozhuang Social Welfare Institute on the east coast of China
in Shandong Province. He is an active, extroverted boy who loves to play with
toy cars, is close with his caretakers, and loves pretend play.
His Chinese name, Long Long, means "Imperial Dragon" and
his surname, Wan, means ten thousand. He was born without a right hand, so
he will be left handed like his father! We are very excited, and now
we look forward to bringing him home as soon as possible.
We have chosen the name Tai Long Michael Dotson.
We like the name Tai (pronounced Ty). In Chinese it means peaceful or grand.
It is also the name of a well known mountain near his hometown of Zaozhuang.
He will keep Long as a middle name and we will add Michael, a middle name
shared by his brother and father.
We are now waiting (as patiently as possible) for our paperwork
to process so that we can go to China to bring him home. Our best estimate is that this will
happen somewhere between April and this summer.
In the meantime, we are picking up extra jobs,
writing grants, and doing any work we can to raise the funds for our
trip! The kids are raising funds to donate to both Meilyn and
Tai's orphanages while we are there, and they are doing an excellent
job. We are very proud of their thoughtfulness! |
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