Fun Fabrics For Bags

Travelling to the south will bring you unexpected happiness...my fortune

We went up to Portland to spend the afternoon with Emma. It has been too long! We picked her up at her weekend coffee job.We first stopped at a pumpkin patch that doesn't really grow pumpkins, they just pretend too; they scatter them about their lot. But, it wasn't open.

We then went shopping for stuff.

 Meggie found her homecoming dress. Eva got more material for her bags. Simon has a new lampshade for the lamp that will now go on his desk so his eyesight doesn't flounder.

We then went to eat at a delicious Chinese restaurant. We had been there with our friends who adopted their daughter at the same time we adopted Lydia. Ironically, they are also waiting for their child from China. Although, whereas, we can expect to wait 61-120 days(we are at 60 days today) before we get our Letter of Acceptance they are on the healthy, as young as possible track and, therefore they can expect to wait about 1090 days for their Letter of Acceptance.

We had a lovely dinner and evening which culminated with a walk along the river and through downtown back to Emma's apartment. It was great seeing Emma!

LeiLei and Log-In-Date

Received an e-mail from Tiffani, whose daughter is in the balloon picture with Yu Lei, letting us know ZhenZhen called the Social Welfare Institute yesterday and talked to her friends, including our Yu Lei. ZhenZhen calls him LeiLei. Tiffani said from what she could tell there wasn't too much to their conversation, but ZhenZhen said that Lei Lei kept saying - Ni Hao ZhenZhen, Ni Hao ZhenZhen. These updates are so amazing. Wish we had his voice recorded!

And, on another note, we finally have our LID(log-in-date). It is August 27. There are so many acronyms but just know this is a good one to have. Our paperwork is all logged in in China and we will get our LOA(letter of acceptance) soon. We then need to fill out one more I-800(Immigration requirement) and then we will receive our TA(travel acceptance) from the American Consulate in China. We then apply for VISA's and make our arrangements.

Lydia's Letter

Lydia is a fabulous seven year old writer. She is an incredibly sensitive and perceptive (mischievous and temperamental, too) child and this comes out in her writing. She is always writing and creating stories. Ahhh...managing her own day is a gift of home-schooling. This is her most recent writing. She's a treasure.
.                                                   

                                                               

Yu Lei Holding the green ball

Xinyu China

Click on the link above and get the newspaper article sent to me by Tiffani, ZhenZhen's(holding the yellow ball) mom. Amazing! Thank you Tiffani and ZhenZhen.

Sweet, sweet, sweet!

Xinyu China

Look at how sweet!

This was just last month.

Yu Lei update

I have been asking for a Yu Lei update and we got this information from our agency today:

I have received this update from Marsha, she received the information from Xinyu orphanage.

Yu Lei’s size: height 101cm, head 53cm, chest 57cm, feet-length 17cm. He is healthy, active and lovely. He gets up at 6:30am, goes to bed at 20:30, takes a nap 11:30-14:30. Eats very well, breakfasts at 7:00, lunch at 11:00, dinner at 17:00, he is not picky, likes to eat. He likes to sing and to dance, likes to do things with others.

Lydia's Passport arrived

Lydia's passport arrived without much ado. We had the girl's awesome Chinese teacher translate Lydia's Chinese adoption certificate into English. We then sent the original adoption certificate along with the translation and had the passport within the week.

Now if only we can get our Letter of Acceptance from the Chinese officials. It can take as short as 35 days to as long as 120 days plus. Since our agency has not been able to track our dossier with the Chinese liason, we don't know our exact log-in-date yet. I'm guessing September 1st, give or take some days. That puts us at around 42 days.

Yu Lei's Finding Ad

We ordered, through an organization, a copy of Yu Lei's finding ad published March 20, 2006 in the "Jiangxi Business Daily". Since 1999, the orphanages in China are required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. We call them "Finding Ads." These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them.

This ad states his birthday is February 8, 2005 and his finding date is May 8, 2005. All the papers we have received previous to this have had his birthdate as February 18. He just got 10 days older.

Below is the actual edition of his little face along with over one hundred others listed.

Lydia, Lydia, Lydia

This story begins well over one year ago. International adoption requires mounds of paperwork, before and after our children arrive home. Once home we need to get their permanent resident card, social security card, a formal American adoption and name change, birth certificate, citizenship papers and passport. We waited some years before applying for the citizenship papers for the girls because of the time commitment and expense. But finally when faced with another exorbitant fee increase, we quickly did all that was needed(and more) for the girl's citizenship document. Now mind you they are already citizens, this is the $400.00(before the fee increase) citizenship certificate we need to purchase from the government to have in case the government ever questions their citizenship.

Months pass and we receive Eva's citizenship document but not Lydia's. Apparently when filling out the form on one document I put the wrong birth year. My bad. But, we did have other forms with her correct date and they have forms in their files with her correct date and I sent her photos passport style, six years old, 3'7" and 45ish pounds. Their response is send the replacement fee of $380.00 and we will send a correct document.

So, the letter above is one Simon sent during his Civics class to Nancy Nathanson, state representative, pleading our case and asking for financial leniency. In her reply she stated she had no jurisdiction with a federal agency but she would forward the letter to Congressman Peter DeFazio and suggested Simon contact him directly.

Simon never did write Congessman DeFazio but two months later, due to the forwarded letter by Nancy Nathanson, we received a letter from DeFazio stating he would be happy to contact U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on our family's behalf if we were to file a request for a fee waiver, which he included.

Hurray! A lot of work but justice might be served and we might just get a certificate without putting out more money. Just a bit more work for us now.

Now forward to yesterday when we received a letter from the U.S. Department of State Passport Agency telling us, after being told we had turned in all that we needed 5 weeks ago for Lydia's passport, because she doesn't have a Citizenship document we need to send a certified copy of the full and final foreign adoption decree, translation included, before they can process Lydia's passport request.

I've got some work to do tomorrow. End rant.

Package of Goodies on its way to Yu Lei!!!

Last spring our friend traveled to China to visit her son who was there studying. We sent a package with her for Yu Lei to leave with friends living in Shanghai. We did not have permission to send the package until all the paperwork was approved. Well, our paperwork is mostly approved and our agency has given us the green light to send the package. Below is the letter from Elizabeth, who has been holding the package for five months now. Once Yu Lei gets the package he will know he has a family coming to bring him home.

The package includes snacks for Yu Lei and his friends, a light up Superman shirt!!!, a disposable camera, a photo album of all of us and his new home, matchbox cars, and other toys. Wish I had thought to take a picture of the items. I just can't remember all of them. Never-the-less, can't believe it's finally sent.

Diane,

I just sent the package and I must say that Yu Lei looks like he's going to a very loving family. I'm very excited that you received your approval and would like to invite you to stay in our guest room if you are ever in Shanghai. It sleeps 2 people and there's room for a cot (or 2) on the floor (with attached bathroom). We love guests!

God bless,

Elizabeth

Passports arrived!!!

                              Yesterday the passports arrived

                                      in the mail, minus poor little Lydias. Hers was a bit more paperwork and will show up this week, I'm certain. Another huge step in the process.

Springtime picture of Yu Lei

 

                                       Photo of Yu Lei sent by 

                                       a woman who sponsors

                                       him. What an amazing

                                       connection.

Treasured photo sent by Eden's family

 

This photo, taken in the summer of 2006, was recently sent to us by a family whose adopted daughter was very close to Yu Lei.

Summer Hikes and finally, all our paperwork submitted

Family hike to Mathieu Lakes along the Old McKenzie Highway. 

And randomly connecting this to our dossier completely finished and turned into our agency! We had thirteen documents, all locally notarized, eleven sent to Salem to be notarized with the state seal, two sent to Lincoln for the state seal and then onto the Natl. State Secretary's office notary(Hilary Clinton) and then all of them sealed with a seal from the Chinese Consulate Offices in Washington DC and San Francisco(depending on the document). Now we sit and wait for final approval of our little guy.

...Sweet

...Sweet
Originally uploaded by dileob

This is an incredible connection. The mother and daughter in this photo sponsor Yu Lei through "Our Chinese Daughter's Foundation". We made the connection last spring and received these amazing updated photos of Yu Lei.

Looking forward to our newest addition!!!

 

Our first picture of Yu Lei. We inquired November 14, 2008, about all the little boys on our agency's waiting children list and Yu Lei was one of many on the list. It wasn't until January 21, 2009 that we felt we could commit. Yu Lei was locked in for us on February 9, but pre-approval from China didn't come until March 3 because of Leo's MOHS surgery for basal cell growth three years prior. This acceptance was huge because of the tough standards China has set on what is acceptable and not for adoptive parents. Hurray!!