LID!!!!!!!!

We got the news today that we have an LID of 9/3/08!!!!! This was especially exciting news on this given day because it's Brian's birthday!!! So, when we first noticed "Wen's" picture on the waiting child list we were surprised to see that he and Jason shared a birthday. We then applied for his file and and several days later were offered his file for review on Ella's birthday! Now we got the email notifying us of our LID on Brian's birthday (our LID, by the way, is the day in between my Mom's birthday on 9/2 and my step dad's birthday on 9/4!!!). So if this pattern keeps up, we should expect LOA on 11/6---which is my birthday!!!! Wouldn't that be nice!! And a little weird!!!



Now for those of you not familiar with these terms LID stands for "log in date", which is the day our dossier is "logged in" with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. LOA stands for "letter of acceptance", which is the official approval from China. Once we receive LOA we will travel within four to eight weeks after that. We're gettin there!!

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

Very special Happy Birthday wishes to my husband today!!! I'm sorry the weather didn't cooperate with yours plans today, but we hope you had a wonderful birthday anyway! For those of you who don't know how Brian likes to spend his birthday it's by sitting in the hot tub, drinking a beer!! Unfortunately, it rained! Oh well! Since he did take the day off of work, we took the opportunity to go have breakfast together this morning while Ella was at school (today was also Ella's first day alone at school--she did great--I was merely OK!!). Then tonight we went out for what was to be a quick dinner, but turned into a loooong dinner, and ended up being a free dinner as an apology from the restaurant manager for a stressful dinner!!! But it all worked out in the end. We then went home for some birthday cake which was made by Brianna and Ella and turned out delicious! Great job B!

Ella helps bring in Daddy's presents
Ella INSISTED on wrapping her gift to her Dad in princess wrapping paper and a pink bow!! She said "he will love it!"
Daddy and the girls (J's on the other couch half dead from football tryouts!)
Brianna and Ella's beautiful cake(don't know why the picture got rotated and don't know how to fix it without deleting the pictures and starting again--so turn your head sideways and it'll look just fine!
Ella thought the best part of making the cake was licking the spatula when she was all done frosting it!
Our good friend and neighbor Stacy always delivers a special birthday tart. Yummy!! Thank you Stacy. Yep this one got rotated too! The tart's round though, so no head tilting necessary!!

Ella helps blow out the candles on the cake. J kindly requests a piece Ella hasn't "spit" on!
Happy Birthday Daddy. We Love You!!!!!!

DTC!!!!!!!!

I just received a call from our Great Wall case manager that we are officially DTC today!!!!!! For those of you not familiar with this term it stands for "Dossier to China"!!!! I've been waiting all day to hear that all of the paperwork was in order and finally ready to go! What a relief to know we've gotten through the most difficult part! Now we wait again!!

Dossier Done!!!

Hooray!!!!!!! Our Dossier is done!!!!

Last Tuesday, August 19th, our I800A was finally approved. I was all set to go to our County clerk's office to have them certify all of our documents on Wednesday and then head into the city on Thursday when I learned that Brian's birth certificate needed a "letter of exemplification" in order to be certified. I had never heard of this, let alone know it was necessary. I almost threw up when the women on the phone at vital records told me that I had to order a new birth certificate and this "letter of exemplification" and that it would take up to three weeks to get it!!!!! After speaking to a supervisor, and breaking down on the phone(though I tried really hard not to!), they finally agreed to process it immediately and send it overnight---Thank God! I was literally having trouble breathing thinking that everything would get held up almost another month! So, late Wednesday afternoon the package came, and Thursday I went to the county clerk's office. Friday, after a very sleepless night dreaming about all sorts of different things going wrong, I was off to the city to have everything Certified and Authenticated. We ended up making a family day of it and I'm thrilled to say that the day went seamlessly. We got into the city with little traffic and headed right to the New York county clerk's office to have Brian's birth certificate certified. With no line I was out in five minutes and off to the State Department. No line there either, was out in about 10 minutes and headed to the Consulate. Walked in, waited about two minutes, and handed my papers over to be authenticated. I can't even describe the sense of relief and overwhelming emotion I felt knowing that after six months of trying to push this paper work to get done, it was finally going to be complete. In the meantime we spent some family time at the wax museum and the toy store while we waited. Then the time came to pick up the paperwork so I walked back up to the Consulate while Brian and the kids finished shopping! I walked out of the Consulate with our completed paperwork in my hands and tears in my eyes, grateful for the ease of the day, and knowing we were finally getting closer to bringing our little guy home. We finished a wonderful day by going to another museum and then out for a great dinner.

Now I am just waiting for our social worker to send me a copy of the addendum she did for USCIS and our dossier will be off to our agency and off to China later this week!!!!!!!

Let the Room Shuffle Begin!

This week we started to job of moving all the rooms around. Monday, Brian cleared out the room that was the office and will now be Brianna's room. Monday night I painted the room so that when her new bed was delivered on Tuesday it wouldn't be in the way. Brian has been busy going through, organizing, and setting up his new office space. Now we're just waiting for Brianna's new dresser to be delivered so she can move into her new room. Then I can get started on Ella's new room (which is Brianna's soon to be old room). In the meantime the contractor has been here this week working on our new laundry room/mud room. I was able to convince Brian that it was definitely best if we bought the new washer and dryer that I wanted now so that the laundry room could be finished the "right way". I am excited to say I was successful and on Thursday ordered my new front loader steam washer, and new dryer.....in Wild Cherry Red. They arrived Friday morning. AAAAHHHHH they are so beautiful!! I went back and forth over the color, but LOVED the red so much. I figured with the number of hours spent each week doing laundry I might as well make it a little more fun! Who knew a washer and dryer could make you so happy :))))) Laundry for six should be a lot more fun now! I will of course post pictures when the room is complete!

USCIS Update

Well we're still waiting. The home study addendum was sent to USCIS on Thursday via the US postal service overnight. They should have received it by 12 noon yesterday, however for whatever reason our adjudicator did not have it by the time she left early yesterday afternoon. Hopefully it was on her desk when she got to work this morning and has or is being processed. She came in today, Saturday, to work because---are you ready for this----she's on vacation all next week!!!!!!! So hopefully it was processed today, or will be processed by someone else in her absence. I haven't heard from her, so I'm not feeling to good about it getting done today :(

We're Getting There!

We're almost there! Through to USCIS process that is. Our home study was finally reviewed yesterday (after 10 1/2 weeks!!!!) and as of this morning our case worker has sent an email listing the few very minor changes/additions she wants. Now our social worker needs to write an addendum to the home study addressing these issues. I'm told that as soon as they get it our approval will finally be issued! So hopefully in a few days we can move on. In the meantime my prune like fingers and I went back to get fingerprinted--again--yesterday morning. They'll have those results back by tomorrow morning. Even if the quality is poor yet once again, they will move forward recognizing that those are just how my fingerprints are! I just can't wait to move forward!!