Another Week Goes By...

Well here we are the last week of October.  We were expecting our Travel Notice to be coming in sometime this week so that we could leave on November 11th.  The unfortunate part is that we still have not received our 2nd Acceptance letter which we are on week #5 waiting on.  The average time is 2-4 weeks and unfortunately we have 2-3 weeks to wait for the Travel Notice to be processed.  I am finding myself constantly looking at my email for news on the 2nd Acceptance Letter but no such luck.  CCAI  did notify us that the CCAI representatives in Guangzhou have been requested by the US Consulate in Guangzhou to no longer ask the status of our precious documents.  Yes, the US Consulate has requested that adoption agencies nor Adoptive US Parents contact them.  Can you hear frustration in my voice?  There is no committed time for turn around on documents nor a channel to track them, we are just now at the mercy of the US Consulate... and after that at the Mercy of the Chinese Adoption Agency (CCAA) for our travel notice.

What does that mean for traveling to China... well our chances of leaving on November 11th are nil, there is a slim chance of leaving on November 18th, a strong chance of leaving the day before Thanksgiving- the worst day to travel in the US- especially with 7 days notice!!!  There is even a chance that we will not be able to leave until December 2nd.  I am praying for patience and understanding daily.  I know Jordan is being very well taken care of right now which helps, but we are not getting very anxious to get him home and move forward on our life with our new family.  The more delays means less time with David home and less time that Jordan will be home before we admit him into school.  Early November was just perfect timing for David's work and for Alex's school, the holidays, etc.

There is still hope that we hear about our 2nd Acceptance Letter this week and that we have a speedy processing through CCAA for travel notice... little miracles happen every day :)  We are ready!!!

If You Don't Succeed...

Try again and then again!!!   We just sent out our Adoption Photo Album again.  This time I sent it Global Express, by itself with a translated letter to Jordan.  I also used the new address so I am hoping beyond all hope that Jordan will get our information by October 27th, as the USPS promises.  It is trackable so maybe that will help too :)  I was thinking how fortunate we are to live in a country that ensures things like mail delivery.  I was talking to Mickey, our kids MiMi who lives across the street, about how amazing it is that I can drop a letter in a box up here at 3 or 4 pm and it can be an hour South the very next morning.  It has to be picked up out of the big blue box, sorted, sent down to that post office, sorted again and then delivered.  Really the USPS does not get enough credit for this service.  Now we have China where I have been told that packages or letters put in the mail Monday or Tuesday could be delivered at the same time as something just submitted on Friday.  There is not predictability nor commitments.  You are not assured that the package will find its way to the correct owner, you are just to be thankful that the service is provided.  How would Americans take these less than structured services?  I do have to say that standing 14th in a 40 minute line with my daughter, while the 5 postal service stations were only occupied by 2 Postal Personnel was a bit challenging.  As I have said before my patience has been tried so much these days... but I do appreciate the States every day I am dealing with P.R. China.

As the week is quickly diminishing I am still keeping the faith that the "National Holiday Buzz" wears off and business starts to flow again.  We really need our 2nd Acceptance Letter to come through this week so our Travel Notice can be processed.  Hey, if we get it in the Chinese mail by Friday we should have it at CCAA on Monday :)  See there are perks to a quirky system!

A little More Information

I just got an email from China telling me that Jordan does know about us !!!  They provided another address for the package too!  I have been so worried about him lately and I feel so bad that he has not received anything from us.  I did send digital pictures but I don't know if he would have been able to see those.

I now have to get a new album and package out tomorrow.  I have things to send him still because I was planning on sending him a package a week.  We were also told today that Jordan does know about us and that they are starting to prepare him for the adoption.  I have been so worried about him.  From the email, they mentioned that the National Holiday has slowed the country down quite a bit.  I just pray that this does not mean that it is slowing down our paperwork.  We can not really afford any delays with the American holidays coming up!  I just pray that the holiday has refreshed the country and now they are buzzing with new found energy and spirit!  We really need some news soon about our 2nd Acceptance Letter and then our Travel Notice.  We are in the homestretch now.  We need some lightning fast results soon.

Another Day

We put up the final pictures in the Boy's room today.  Aunt Lori gave us a shelf yesterday that worked great for some of Alex's Magic Tree House books and now I feel like we are ready for him to come and hopefully feel at home.  I took some pictures of the boy's room to put in Jordan's album should we get a different address to send another package.  I am glad I documented the album so I could re-create it.  I can only hope that I will get one more chance to send him something from us before he is moved back to the Orphanage.

I was folding some pajamas tonight for Jordan and I was looking at them.  I imagined what it would be like to have them filled with this little boy I only know through photos and stories.  I wondered if he would like us and feel comfortable with us.  I know that he is out there and we are here, just waiting!!

I am anxiously awaiting word that out 2nd Acceptance Letter is received so we can get our Travel Notice.  As each day and week goes by it just pushs our day to leave out even further.  The days go floating by and though I have a huge laundry list of tasks to do it is so hard to focus on anything except did we get an email about our status or did we get an email about the packages in China.  I know that we will be getting the call to leave and it will be a blink of an eye before Christmas is here, then it will be 2010 and I will breath finally to think... Wow 2009 was a wild year !

The Waiting Game continues...

I am sitting here on this beautiful, warm, sunny fall day thinking wow what has happened to the time.  Time has moved so slow through this process and now that we are in the home stretch I am finding myself saying... "wait I just need more time too...".  We have finally finished the boys room. We modified the closet to accommodate both boys clothes and we added a twin bed with matching quilt and headboard.  We did this while Alex was at school.  When he came home we showed him his new room and he started to tear up and said "Mom... is this my brother's bed?"  Then he said "Mom, I will not be alone anymore.".  We are so ready to have Jordan join our family.

Here is another picture that was sent to us recently of Jordan.

He looks so sweet.  We are focusing right now on our trip to China.  Items we need, how are we going to do things (mostly around Lauren) and how are we going to pack light.  We are going to try to pack a total of 2 bags (with a 44 pound limit) for all 5 of us.  The hotels will have laundry services and we are planning on shipping snacks and essentials to our hotel ahead of time so we do no have to deal with those on the plane. It will be cold in Beijing and a bit warmer in Guangzhou so we have to be prepared for anything.

This is how our trip is going to look like this:

We are going to leave on a Wednesday flying from Denver to SFO (San Francisco, CA) then from SFO to Beijing, where we will be until Sunday.  In Beijing we will be doing some sight seeing while we get adjusted to the time zone.  On Sunday we will be flying to the Henan Providence where we will be for a week.  Gotcha Day (the day we are matched and united with Jordan) will be on Monday so we will all be together from that day on!  We will stay in Henan until Friday when we fly to Guangzhou (Guangdong Providence).  We will be spending the remainder of our time there until we get Jordan's Visa from the US Consulate there.  We will be leaving Guangzhou on Saturday.  We will fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and then from Hong Kong to SFO to Denver.  Sounds like a fun trip home huh?  We are going to be so emotionally drained and excited to be home that the trip will be a welcomed event I am sure.  Here is a map to help you see the locations in China.

In the mean time we are waiting to see if Jordan's packages turn up.  Neither of them have gotten to Jordan yet.  I am nervous sending Jordan another package but I am anxious to get him something before he goes back to the Orphanage.  The return to the orphanage about 2 weeks prior to us getting there is a requirement of China.  I really want him to have a photo of us and know that we are coming from him.  I pray every day that he will receive it and will start to get to know us.  It is so hard being so far from him and having absolutely no control over anything.  It is a true exercise in patience and trust in what is meant to be.  I hope I am not failing too miserably:)