NVC Cable (+plus+) My Heart in Bubble Wrap

We have been Cabled!  Our paperwork has been cabled (sent electronically) to the Consulate in Guangzhou.  Now we wait about 2-3 weeks for our NVC Letter from the National Visa Center.  It will be sent directly to us rather than our agency.  It could even be emailed and I will contact the National Visa Center in the coming days to request an emailed PDF so that nothing gets lost in the mail.

Please pray for no delivery hang-ups with our NVC Letter and that we could receive it in record time!!!

In the meantime, enjoy another post I wrote a while back.  I have also updated our Prayer Request Tab at the top of the page.


My Heart in Bubble Wrap

Do parents still send their college kids care packages anymore?  I remember opening my tiny mailbox at WSU, Japan and ISU (um, yes, I moved around a lot in college) and being excited to see a little slip of paper inside telling me I had a package waiting for me at the dorm office.  Something from home!  Something from MOM!

After we received our LOA, I sent my daughter in China a care package.  I hope she has received it.  Our agency did tell us to send it via UPS or FedEx so that we could track it, but they wanted $50 to send a package under 4 pounds.  The USPS said that we could send our package for under $20 by first class mail.  Um, much better on the wallet but I had to let go of the idea of tracking my package.  I guess I'll find out in a few months if she received it or not.

I loved putting it together!  I certainly didn't put anything of great monetary value inside since it might not even reach her, and if it does, there's no guarantee that the nannies at the orphanage will send the items back with her when we go to pick her up.  I found a cute polkadot blanket at Ross on clearance for $4.00.  And I found a small stuffed tiger in the dollar bins at Target (yes, the same one I wrote about in a previous post).  I bought one of those soft plastic toddler photo albums and filled it with pictures of all of us (even the dogs).  I picked up some packaged treats for the nannies.  And a friend from high school helped me translate 2 letters - 1 for my daughter and 1 for the nannies who have been raising her for the last year and a half.

What I had purchased that I later learned I couldn't send was a disposable camera (yes, they still make those things).  After sealing the package shut and filling out the Customs form, I learned that cameras aren't allowed into China.  Bummer!  Since we won't be able to make it to Hu Jing's hometown and orphanage, I had hoped that the nannies might find time to take a few pictures of the place for me: pictures of her home and pictures of her crib, her high chair, her favorite toys, her wonderful nannies who have loved on her.  I'm hoping I can connect with other families from my agency who are making the trip to the orphanage or who have gone ahead of us.  Perhaps they will share a picture or two.  Now, I've met some families who did send a camera and I don't know how they did it.  Perhaps it wasn't included on the Customs form.  But I didn't want to risk the entire package not reaching her, so I just took mine out.

I hope my package has reached my daughter.  And I hope she and the nannies love it as much as I loved putting it together.  Although I didn't spend a lot of money, I put my heart into that package, along with a few happy tears (I'm an expert at crying in public places now), sealed it up and shipped it overseas.

All for the love of my daughter.