Well, now that we have been home for almost 3 weeks, I've found a moment to post to the blog.
Anna is doing great! She continues to adjust well, attaching to me as well as to John. She likes playing with Cara and Rhodes, as long as they are not trying to kiss or hug her! Anna has learned to ride a tricycle, play basketball, and drive a gator.
Thank you for your prayers for us. God has certainly blessed us, not just with Anna but with Anna's adjustment.
A post with lots of mixed up pictures is below, plus a second post with a short video follows that.
Thanks again, everyone!
Thursday, April 03, 2008
"Christmas" in March
The children and I had picked out and wrapped Christmas presents for Anna to have under the tree on Christmas morning. Anna opened them last week. She didn't understand unwrapping the gifts at first, but it didn't take long for her to catch on! The main gifts were a tricycle and a doll from www.annabelleswish.info (an organization that helps orphans in China).
Anna did fairly well on the tricycle that first night and was doing great just a few days later!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Last Night!
We fly out of Guangzhou tomorrow morning at 8:20 local time! Our flight times are the same as I previously posted. The flight numbers are Northwest 10, 20, and 444. We are scheduled to arrive in Memphis at 5:12pm, Saturday, the 15th.
There are two posts of new pictures below.
Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers!! We'll see a lot of you soon!
There are two posts of new pictures below.
Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers!! We'll see a lot of you soon!
More Pix
Taking pictures of newly adopted babies in Chinese outfits on the red couches at the White Swan hotel is traditional:
Photos
Eating at another non-English, very local restaurant (we ended up with 6 meals at 3 of these restaurants):
Trying on new clothes, which Anna LOVED:
The traditional Red Couch at the White Swan photos:
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thursday, the 13th
Tuesday was the last day for our first guide from the adoption agency. Wednesday morning, our adoption agency's main representative here in China took over as several families had come from picking up their children in various provinces in order to get the U.S. immigrant visas from the U.S. Consulate here in Guangzhou.
Yesterday, John and I took Anna to have a medical exam and to get her photo taken for her US immigrant visa. Everything was fine, although Anna did not like the medical. Then that afternoon, I went through all our paperwork for the U.S. Consulate with our adoption agency's representative.
This morning we had quite a scare. Soon after we got downstairs for breakfast, the staff came and got me for a phone call. The rep was at the U.S. Consulate and had been told that the consulate had never received our updated approval from the Memphis immigration office. (The adoption took so long that the initial approval -- the one when the paperwork kept getting lost -- had expired. We had to redo it earlier this past fall.) Although the approval update was dated December 7, 2007, the immigration office in Memphis sent it to a visa processing center in New Hampshire which never forwarded it on to the consulate in Guangzhou. Our adoption agency's rep saw an email from U.S. immigration to the consulate here that stated it would take 10 more weeks to have the approval cabled to the consulate here. Well, according to China, Anna is ours, but without that approval from U.S. immigration we can't take her to the U.S.
I had to fax our approval letter to the consulate. Then they said they might grant us special permission to take Anna home if they saw the original. Well, when I had looked for the form to send the fax, I couldn't find the original. I'm sure you can imagine that I was having to pray myself through not getting panicked. I was envisioning having to stay here for 10 more weeks with just Anna and me while John and the kids went home. Well, I did manage to find the original just where it should have been. Our adoption agency's rep seemed fairly calm about it, so John and I felt like it would work out. She took the original to them sometime this afternoon.
She had also found out this morning that the consulate had moved our oath-taking and the receival of the children's visa and immigration packet to today at 4pm, a day early. So we went downstairs to meet the group wondering if we were going to be able to go. The rep told us that the consulate staff had taken our original approval form to the consular who had agreed to extend the special permission to take Anna home!
We went to the consulate with the rest of the group, showed our passports, and swore that all the information we had given them was true to the best of our knowledge. We were then handed Anna's Chinese passport with the American immigrant visa inside it and her immigration packet. It's a done deal! We could have left tonight if we could have gotten our plane tickets changed (which we've about decided not to try as we really need tomorrow to pack and make sure we don't need to buy an extra suitcase for all the stuff we bought!). After we were outside the consulate building boarding the bus, our adoptions agency's rep admitted to us that "this morning was pretty scary." Man, she was good at staying calm and not letting us see that she really thought there was a chance it might not work out!
But everything has worked out by God's grace and Anna will become a U.S. citizen once the customs officials in Minneapolis check her immigration visa and packet and stamp her paperwork!
Thank you all so very, very much for all your prayers! We couldn't have gotten through this 38 1/2 month process without those prayers!
Yesterday, John and I took Anna to have a medical exam and to get her photo taken for her US immigrant visa. Everything was fine, although Anna did not like the medical. Then that afternoon, I went through all our paperwork for the U.S. Consulate with our adoption agency's representative.
This morning we had quite a scare. Soon after we got downstairs for breakfast, the staff came and got me for a phone call. The rep was at the U.S. Consulate and had been told that the consulate had never received our updated approval from the Memphis immigration office. (The adoption took so long that the initial approval -- the one when the paperwork kept getting lost -- had expired. We had to redo it earlier this past fall.) Although the approval update was dated December 7, 2007, the immigration office in Memphis sent it to a visa processing center in New Hampshire which never forwarded it on to the consulate in Guangzhou. Our adoption agency's rep saw an email from U.S. immigration to the consulate here that stated it would take 10 more weeks to have the approval cabled to the consulate here. Well, according to China, Anna is ours, but without that approval from U.S. immigration we can't take her to the U.S.
I had to fax our approval letter to the consulate. Then they said they might grant us special permission to take Anna home if they saw the original. Well, when I had looked for the form to send the fax, I couldn't find the original. I'm sure you can imagine that I was having to pray myself through not getting panicked. I was envisioning having to stay here for 10 more weeks with just Anna and me while John and the kids went home. Well, I did manage to find the original just where it should have been. Our adoption agency's rep seemed fairly calm about it, so John and I felt like it would work out. She took the original to them sometime this afternoon.
She had also found out this morning that the consulate had moved our oath-taking and the receival of the children's visa and immigration packet to today at 4pm, a day early. So we went downstairs to meet the group wondering if we were going to be able to go. The rep told us that the consulate staff had taken our original approval form to the consular who had agreed to extend the special permission to take Anna home!
We went to the consulate with the rest of the group, showed our passports, and swore that all the information we had given them was true to the best of our knowledge. We were then handed Anna's Chinese passport with the American immigrant visa inside it and her immigration packet. It's a done deal! We could have left tonight if we could have gotten our plane tickets changed (which we've about decided not to try as we really need tomorrow to pack and make sure we don't need to buy an extra suitcase for all the stuff we bought!). After we were outside the consulate building boarding the bus, our adoptions agency's rep admitted to us that "this morning was pretty scary." Man, she was good at staying calm and not letting us see that she really thought there was a chance it might not work out!
But everything has worked out by God's grace and Anna will become a U.S. citizen once the customs officials in Minneapolis check her immigration visa and packet and stamp her paperwork!
Thank you all so very, very much for all your prayers! We couldn't have gotten through this 38 1/2 month process without those prayers!
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