Another bump in the Road

This notice was released by the CCAA this morning.

Currently there are cases of human infection of the swine flu found in some countries and regions. With the high infectivity of this disease, children are susceptible to it for their low resistance. In order to avoid cross infection during the process of adoption registration and protect the health of children in orphanages as well as the adoptive parents, we hereby announce that:

Adoption agencies are required to counsel the adoptive parents who have received Notice of Coming to China for Adoption to postpone their trip to China for the registration procedure.

The validity period of Notice of Coming to China for Adoption issued between March 1 to April 30 this year is prolonged from three months to five months (There is no need to update the paper).

Adoptive families are advised to follow the arrangement of local registration authorities and cooperate during the entrustment of child for the harmony period and the adoption registration process.

If adoptive parents feel unwell during their stay in China for the registration procedure, they shall go to the hospital for medical checkup in time and report to CCAA about relevant situation.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

So....yet another slow down. We are still expecting that our LSC will arrive this week or next as it has already been mailed out from China...it is probably on someone's desk in Victoria waiting to be stamped. From what we understand the CCAA is still working, so they will be able to process our LSC when we send it back, BUT (lately there is always a but)...they will not issue us Travel Approval to come to China until this whole outbreak is resolved. I am so sad for my friends who have plane tickets and are ready to go get their daughters in three weeks. So close and yet so far! I think I need some chocolate!!!!

27 Days!

We received an email this morning from our Travel Facilitator that the CCAA (China Center for Adoption affairs) has reviewed and approved our dossier and that they have sent out our Letter Seeking Confirmation. We are very excited and a bit surprised because we were told to expect it in two or three months.

The next step in our paperwork is for the "Hague Requirements" for inter-country approval. We now need to get updated criminal record checks for both of us and a prior contact sheet from the Ministry of Children and Family signed.

After we receive our Letter Seeking Confirmation, we sign it and send it off to the CCAA. (WHICH OF COURSE WE ARE SIGNING WITH A BIG YES!!)When CCAA receives this information we will then be given travel approval to go to China and bring Miah home! We have heard from others that travel approval usually comes about 6-8 weeks after we sign the Letter Seeking Confirmation. That would put us traveling at the end of June or early July....that's our guess anyway.

Update!

We received an update today from our agency. Here are Ni Ni's updated measurements...time to go shopping!

Height:82cm (2'7")
Weight: 12.5kg (equals 27.5 pounds..she doesn't look this big, I wonder how many layers she had on when they weighed her?))
Head Circum: 45cm
Chest Circum: 45.5cm
Foot length: 13.5cm (I wonder what shoe size this is?)
Teeth: 16

Miah's Care Package

Last week we ordered a care package to be sent to Miah at her Orphanage. We were able send up to a 600 word letter to the Orphanage to introduce ourselves. In this letter we also asked if they could take pictures of Miah with her friends and caregivers, and included a disposable camera. We also sent a photo album with photos of us. They will label the photos (in Chinese) Mom, Dad, Sisters...etc. We also chose to send a kitty stuffie for Miah and a cake to celebrate that she now has a family who loves her very much. We have been told that we may receive photos of her with her cake. We included candy and nuts for the nannies to express our gratitude for taking such good care of Miah. The business that provides this service is called Ladybugs and Love from Above. It was created by two women, an adoptive mom (Kelly) and friend (Angela) in China. Today we received an email letting us know that Miah's package had been put together and sent. They sent us a picture of the gifts they mailed. Here is their website address:

http://www.ladybugsnlove.com

New Photos of Miah!

A friend who I met on an Internet chat group took her son back to China for a homeland tour. One of their stops was at the Orphanage he first lived in. While they were there they we given permission to take some photos of Miah for us. Thank you so much Steph. We are truly blessed by this precious gift! On this Easter Sunday we are reminded that we have much to celebrate! Because of the Resurrection we have hope eternal! God is so awesome!

Pre-Approval!

Today we received our pre-approval. Basically that means they have reviewed our family information summary, Letter of Intent and our care and nurturing plan for "Ni Ni." Now we wait for them to issue us a Letter seeking Confirmation. We hope that this will arrive sometime in early May.

We also received good news today from a family who visited Ni Ni's orphanage. They told us that the Nannies were very excited to hear that she had been matched with a family and they allowed them to take photos for us. What a gift! The family is flying home from China today so once they get over their jet lag, they will e-mail the photos to us!

Waiting for Approval...

It has been just over 1 week since we first saw our daughter's sweet face. We are very excited and thought we would share a little of what we know about her personality.

We have been told that little "NiNi" is outgoing, has a ready smile, likes listening to music, is active, full of curiosity, likes to imitate others, has a great desire to 'show herself' (I wonder if she will like to be the center of attention like her sister?) likes playing with toys, likes to have heart-to-heart talks with the nannies and gets along well with other children. She also likes to be clean (likes her baths), is a deep sleeper (Yeah!) and has a good appetite.

We have been told that our progress status has changed from 'Submitted' to 'Assessing'...hopefully sometime this week it will change to 'Approved.' We have been told that this pre-approval may take up three weeks....after which they will start digging through our larger dossier (all those papers we completed two years ago) and send us a Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC). (Basically a letter asking us if we are still committed to adopt her.) It could take anywhere from 30-100 days to receive the LSC, after which we will be granted travel approval which will be about 6-8 weeks later.

Please pray that our paperwork will be handled quickly. Once we receive pre-approval we will be able to send a care package for her to her orphanage. Another adoptive family is visiting NiNi's orphanage on Tuesday. They are going to ask if they would be allowed to take some updated photos for us. please pray that their request is granted. We would love to see a more recent photo.