We didn't receive our TA this week. I had hoped, but it didn't happen. Perhaps next week. I'm also waiting for my visa which I pretty much expected this week too. Perhaps next week.
Instead, I did complete our homestudy update meeting. It was a necessary evil, another hoop we had to jump through to bring Hu Jing home. As I have mentioned before, our homestudy expired in November and although USCIS won't care at this point in the game, the state of NE will. And since our paperwork is still registered in NE, we have to comply by their laws. Hopefully our SW (social worker) will complete the update and send it to our agency this coming week.
One thing I'd appreciate prayer for (in addition to TA) is the elimination of one more hoop we may have to jump through - renewing fingerprints at USCIS. Our prints expire in July. Yes, we "should" be bringing our daughter home long before then, but most agencies agree that prints expiring that close to travel should just be renewed. I've called multiple agencies for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th opinions and all agree that they'd have their clients renew prints as well. Bummer! The bigger problem is that we'd have to fly back to NE to complete the prints, unless a local USCIS office in NoCal would have mercy on us and print us there. Probably not very likely. We'll see. But prayers appreciated for either the eliminiation of the prints, or ease in being printed here instead of flying home AGAIN!
Back to my wait for TA.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Article 5
I received an email today that our Article 5 has been picked up by our agency's China representative and is being delivered to the CCCWA (China government agency responsible for all adoptions).
Now we wait for TA - Travel Approval. Some have waited a record time of a little over 1 week, the standard being 2-3 weeks, and some have waited an agonizing 5 weeks. We cannot travel until we are officially invited via our TA.
Here is the big prayer request... Please pray we get our TA in 1-2 weeks, reason being that we have flights booked to China already for the end of May! Yes, we can move the tickets if we don't get our TA in time, but it will mean spending money to do so.
My visa application will be in the mail today and hopefully I'll have my passport and visa back next week at this time. Pray for no hiccups with the visa process.
Now we wait for TA - Travel Approval. Some have waited a record time of a little over 1 week, the standard being 2-3 weeks, and some have waited an agonizing 5 weeks. We cannot travel until we are officially invited via our TA.
Here is the big prayer request... Please pray we get our TA in 1-2 weeks, reason being that we have flights booked to China already for the end of May! Yes, we can move the tickets if we don't get our TA in time, but it will mean spending money to do so.
My visa application will be in the mail today and hopefully I'll have my passport and visa back next week at this time. Pray for no hiccups with the visa process.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
China Shirts
Week 1 of waiting for our Article 5 is now behind us. Just one more week. Next Tuesday I should get word that our Article 5 has been picked up and then delivered to CCCWA (Chinese adoption authority) for Travel Approval. So while we wait, I'll show you my latest craft for the family.
My friend RM made adorable bleached t-shirts for her family's Uganda adoption. I knew that once we were getting close to travel to China, I had to make these for our family. All truth be told, the first batch failed with only 1 of 4 turning out. It was definitely user error and being a bleach design newbie. However, I do think I learned from that first mishap not to use lighter colors. Sure, they will bleach, but it won't be as pronounced. Darker colors work the best! If you want to see how to do it for yourself, read on. Would make for a fun project for teens. (I can't imagine, nor would I suggest younger kids with spray bottles of straight bleach).
My friend RM made adorable bleached t-shirts for her family's Uganda adoption. I knew that once we were getting close to travel to China, I had to make these for our family. All truth be told, the first batch failed with only 1 of 4 turning out. It was definitely user error and being a bleach design newbie. However, I do think I learned from that first mishap not to use lighter colors. Sure, they will bleach, but it won't be as pronounced. Darker colors work the best! If you want to see how to do it for yourself, read on. Would make for a fun project for teens. (I can't imagine, nor would I suggest younger kids with spray bottles of straight bleach).
All the supplies you'll need.
- Dark colored t-shirts (I gave in to all black even though black isn't the most girly color). Keep in mind that reds will bleach pink which isn't very manly for the guys in your life. Sure, I wanted the red shirts for me and my daughter, but of course Walmart didn't have them. I got our shirts at Walmart for about $4.00 each.
- Reynolds Freezer Paper. I found mine at Safeway simply because the Walmart and Target by me are pretty tiny and didn't carry it. I thought this was outrageous at over $7.00 a box, but I'm happy to share it with friends and I'm bound to make more with this. The box is huge!
- Scissors
- Bleach
- Spray bottle. I've been told the finger spray bottle works better than the trigger style. Picture a hairspray bottle -- that kind of sprayer. I got mine in the travel toiletry aisle at Walmart for less than $1.00.
- OxyClean & water solution. Supposedly OxyClean neutralizes the bleach. Some websites say they skipped this step, but I did it and it seemed to work just fine. A small box of OxyClean was under $4.00 at Walmart.
- Your design. I printed out a map of China.
- Iron.
- Cardboard. Just a scrap to put in between layers of the shirt so the bleach didn't soak through to the back.
- Towel. Just in case!
Trace your design onto the paper side of the Freezer Paper.
Cut out your design.
Place on your shirt wherever you like, waxy side down, paper side up.
Iron with a hot iron.
I used the Cotton setting on my iron. Be careful not to move the iron back and forth because it could peel back your edges. The 2 little islands on my design were tricky.
Change into grubby clothes. (Yeah, I'd be the one to spill bleach all over myself. You too?)
Head outside or to the garage or your laundry room to do the bleaching. Mind the wind if you do it outside because the wind could take your bleach mist and send it just exactly where you don't want it.
Place cardboard in between the layers of the shirt so the bleach won't soak to the back side.
Using your spray bottle filled with straight bleach, lightly mist the freezer paper edges. Don't overdo this! My first time around I over saturated and the design bled underneath the freezer paper and the shirts bombed. Boo. Back to Walmart I went for 3 more shirts.
Wait until the bleach reaches your desired intensity.
Carefully remove the cardboard, making sure the front and back layers of the shirt don't touch so the bleach doesn't soak the other side.
With Freezer Paper still attached, immediately dunk into a bucket of OxyClean and water solution to neutralize the bleach.
Ring out the shirt. Some have rinsed it in clean water after that. I didn't do that. I just went straight to the washing machine. Peel off Freezer Paper before washing.
Wash and dry as you would normally. Keep in mind that the cheap shirts from Walmart will shrink, so plan accordingly with your temperature settings.
Enjoy your new creation! My little girl will enjoy hers when she's home this summer.
There you have it. Back to my waiting game for the Article 5. Next post when we're officially waiting for Travel Approval!Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Travel Decisions
It is afternoon on Tuesday in China as I type this (see my new widget on the side bar) and our NVC Letter is being hand-delivered to the Consulate in Guangzhou. In exactly 2 weeks we will have our Article 5 granting us guardianship of Hu Jing upon arrival in her province. No chance of this coming sooner, it's a standard 2 week process - in today, out on Tuesday the 17th. Now onto a post about our travel plans.
In the interests of posting this for other adoptive families making travel decisions, here is a post about our thought process.
We've known all along that sending both of us to China would be outrageously expensive, but we wholeheartedly wanted to make it happen. The joy of meeting our daughter together and sharing in that moment as husband and wife, mom and dad and daughter is a dream. We've been in this adoption drama together and we want to see it through together. And we certainly dreamed the impossible dream of taking our boys with us and making this happen as an entire family. Unfortunately, it won't happen that way.
It was a hard decision to make, but only I will travel to China. No, we don't have any fears about the plane going down and leaving our 2 boys, plus our new daughter as orphans. It just came down to a few slices of reality.
For the most part, it came down to dollars and cents. Had we been able to fundraise both airfares, we wouldn't have struggled with the decision - we both would be going. But we didn't meet our fundraising goals and had to use funds from my retirement account to pay off the final adoption fees, not even including the travel fees. We had to trust God with the money He gave us, the money that we had chosen to save for decades from now. A lot of adoptive families use their retirement accounts. It's just what needs to be done and God asks us to trust.
The idea of leaving our boys on one side of the globe with 2 of us on the other side didn't sit well with me either. We don't live anywhere near family who would come out and care for them during our absence. And in my opinion, our boys have been shuffled around enough in the last 6 months and the thought of shuffling them around for 2 weeks between friends' houses without mom and dad during our trip to China just doesn't seem fair to them. We have enough behavioral struggles as it is these days, let's not compound things.
And lastly, my husband's back played a pretty good factor in the decision. While he'll tell you that he'd be fine in China, lifting heavy luggage and carrying around a toddler just didn't seem to mix. And I don't think anyone wants to be hurt or sick away from home! We don't need his herniated disc rupturing in China, thank you very much.
So, friends, we've made the decision to send me to China alone. I'm certainly sad that Jay can't go and I'm bummed that we can't make it a family trip with all 4 of us going on this trip of a lifetime. I know Jay is sad to be missing out on those first moments with Hu Jing too. I'd appreciate your prayers for him and his tender heart.
I choose to look at it this way. I've carried 2 baby boys in my womb and with each c-section delivery, Jay has always been the first to see our boys, to hold our boys, to kiss their faces and hold their hands. He has been the one to place our sons in my arms. With just me going to China, I get to experience that first meeting, that first touch, that first kiss of those sweet round cheeks. And when I come home, I get to be the one to place our daughter in my husband's arms. That's a pretty powerful moment for me that gives me goosebumps.
Having traveled to Japan for a year back in my college days, I'm not afraid to travel alone to a country where I don't speak the language. Once there, I will have guides at my disposal. But I know Jay will have a hard time putting his wife on a plane and not seeing me for 2 weeks. I hope I can borrow someone's laptop (I only have a 10 year old dog of a desktop PC that's packed up) so that I can update the blog and Skype with my family to remain connected. And I hope my husband can enjoy the male bonding time with his sons before a certain little brown eyed girl comes home and steals his heart.
My visa application is being shipped to the courier service this week and I hope it gets returned to me soon. It's always nerve-wracking to put your passport in the mail not knowing when you'll receive it again, but knowing you'll need it in a couple of months.
I'm hoping these next two weeks fly by quickly. Between spring break and Easter, I think we'll be able to stay occupied. But "Article 5" will always be in the back of my mind.
In the interests of posting this for other adoptive families making travel decisions, here is a post about our thought process.
We've known all along that sending both of us to China would be outrageously expensive, but we wholeheartedly wanted to make it happen. The joy of meeting our daughter together and sharing in that moment as husband and wife, mom and dad and daughter is a dream. We've been in this adoption drama together and we want to see it through together. And we certainly dreamed the impossible dream of taking our boys with us and making this happen as an entire family. Unfortunately, it won't happen that way.
It was a hard decision to make, but only I will travel to China. No, we don't have any fears about the plane going down and leaving our 2 boys, plus our new daughter as orphans. It just came down to a few slices of reality.
For the most part, it came down to dollars and cents. Had we been able to fundraise both airfares, we wouldn't have struggled with the decision - we both would be going. But we didn't meet our fundraising goals and had to use funds from my retirement account to pay off the final adoption fees, not even including the travel fees. We had to trust God with the money He gave us, the money that we had chosen to save for decades from now. A lot of adoptive families use their retirement accounts. It's just what needs to be done and God asks us to trust.
The idea of leaving our boys on one side of the globe with 2 of us on the other side didn't sit well with me either. We don't live anywhere near family who would come out and care for them during our absence. And in my opinion, our boys have been shuffled around enough in the last 6 months and the thought of shuffling them around for 2 weeks between friends' houses without mom and dad during our trip to China just doesn't seem fair to them. We have enough behavioral struggles as it is these days, let's not compound things.
And lastly, my husband's back played a pretty good factor in the decision. While he'll tell you that he'd be fine in China, lifting heavy luggage and carrying around a toddler just didn't seem to mix. And I don't think anyone wants to be hurt or sick away from home! We don't need his herniated disc rupturing in China, thank you very much.
So, friends, we've made the decision to send me to China alone. I'm certainly sad that Jay can't go and I'm bummed that we can't make it a family trip with all 4 of us going on this trip of a lifetime. I know Jay is sad to be missing out on those first moments with Hu Jing too. I'd appreciate your prayers for him and his tender heart.
I choose to look at it this way. I've carried 2 baby boys in my womb and with each c-section delivery, Jay has always been the first to see our boys, to hold our boys, to kiss their faces and hold their hands. He has been the one to place our sons in my arms. With just me going to China, I get to experience that first meeting, that first touch, that first kiss of those sweet round cheeks. And when I come home, I get to be the one to place our daughter in my husband's arms. That's a pretty powerful moment for me that gives me goosebumps.
Having traveled to Japan for a year back in my college days, I'm not afraid to travel alone to a country where I don't speak the language. Once there, I will have guides at my disposal. But I know Jay will have a hard time putting his wife on a plane and not seeing me for 2 weeks. I hope I can borrow someone's laptop (I only have a 10 year old dog of a desktop PC that's packed up) so that I can update the blog and Skype with my family to remain connected. And I hope my husband can enjoy the male bonding time with his sons before a certain little brown eyed girl comes home and steals his heart.
My visa application is being shipped to the courier service this week and I hope it gets returned to me soon. It's always nerve-wracking to put your passport in the mail not knowing when you'll receive it again, but knowing you'll need it in a couple of months.
I'm hoping these next two weeks fly by quickly. Between spring break and Easter, I think we'll be able to stay occupied. But "Article 5" will always be in the back of my mind.
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