H1N1 and the changes we have made

Last week when the WHO raised the level of advisory to a level 6 we began thinking about how this might effect our plans to go to China. We spoke with a few adoptive families who had been to China during the past few weeks and all told about the numerous checks points that included temperature screening and nose & throat swabs. Apparently any individual with an elevated temperature and is showing flu like symptoms will be quarantined for 7-10 days. And if you have just been on a plane the people sitting in about a 6 seat radius from an ill individual will also be quarantined. There is one adoptive family who is currently living out this nightmare. You can go here to read their story.

After much prayer and discussion we decided it would be in the best interest of our family if I stayed home with our girls and Drew went to China to bring Miah home. Drew's parents graciously agreed to go with him. They will be leaving Vancouver on July 10th and returning on July 24th. The girls and I will drive down to Vancouver and meet them at the airport. The photo above is the plane that Drew and his parents will travel on to China. They will fly through Shanghai on their way to Nanjing and end their time with a 10 day stay in Beijing. We are very disappointed that our plans have changed in this manner, but believe that it is in everyone's best interest. We have promised our girls that we will all go to China in a couple of years as a family and do a tour once all this craziness is over.

Travel Approval!

Today we received our official Travel Approval from the Chinese government. It is the official piece of paper that we have to take with us and show them when we receive Miah. There are two other families that are potentially travelling with us so we are praying that they receive their travel approval soon too. Both families are also adopting girls who are about the same age as Miah. What fun it will be to stay at the same hotel and tour with other fellow Canadians. As it turns out one of the other couples is also naming their daughter Miah, spelled the same way! We are now waiting to hear back from our travel facilitator but our tentative dates are to leave Vancouver on July 16th and return on July 30th!

Finding Ad

Today we received a copy of Miah's Finding ad. Before a child can be placed up for adoption the government runs an ad in the local paper. If no one responds to the ad the child is deemed abandoned and is eligible for adoption. This ad ran in the "Jiangsu Legal System Paper" in January 2008. We are guessing Miah to be about 5 months old in this photo. This will probably be the youngest photo we ever get of her.

Where is Miah?

Miah Fu Ni (just trying out her new name) is currently residing in Taizhou city. Taizhou City is situated in the Jiangsu Province, near the mouth of the Yangtze River and a four-hour drive from Shanghai. Taizhou belongs to the sub-tropical monsoon climate region. It covers a continental area of 9411 square kilometers, a sea area of 80,000 square kilometers, with 745 kilometers of coastline and a population of 5.36 million.

Today we have been waiting 18 days for our travel approval to arrive. Last week we heard from our agency that all referrals and TA's were being held due to the swine flu concern, but yesterday new referrals came out and many families did receive their travel approvals....so maybe things are looking up.

From what we understand, we will fly from Vancouver to Beijing to Nanjing. Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu and Miah will be brought to us at the Civil Affairs building in Nanjing. It is there that Miah Fu Ni will become officially ours! We will probably spend about 4 days in Nanjing and fly back to Beijing for 10 days to complete more paperwork for the Canadian government....and then back to Vancouver!!!


Fingers crossed that our TA will arrive soon!!! (If you click on the photos you can enlarge them)

Split Pants

We received some more treasured photos today of Miah. Here she is sporting her famous Split Pants.

God has a sense of humor

Today we received photos of Miah (wearing the red sweater) and her friends enjoying the cake we sent as part of her care package. With all the worry about how this Swine Flu might affect our travel I found it ironic that the cake we had purchased was decorated with the photo of a pig! It is such a treat to open up the morning e-mail and find new photos of our daughter! I treasure each one of them!

Signed and Sealed!!!

Today our Letter Seeking Confirmation arrived at our agency. We quickly went down and signed it, so now it is off to the CCAA. At this point, travel usually happens within 6-8 weeks. Depending on what happens with the Swine Flu we could travel as early as mid-June. The latest rumor is that travel may be delayed for 20-30 days depending if there is a increase in the number of new cases. Hopefully our travel facilitator will have a better idea of how this might affect us in the coming few days. But for now we are one step closer to our daughter!

Today we also had our first meeting with the Cleft team here in town. They gave us some cleft bottles to try with Miah (if indeed her palate has not yet been repaired). We are feeling confident that we will be able to care for her needs and there is a great team here in town to support us. God is good!