Docs at the Consulate in Los Angeles

My agency coordinator suggested we fax the Consulate regarding our documents being as though you can't speak with a person. I did so yesrterday. They called me back in a hour and told me they sent them back to me that afternoon. Ok Great. I still haven't got them and the return envelope I gave to them was express. It better get here tomorrow or I think somethings going on. I can't believe it took over 2 weeks to get our document authenticated. I hope being as though our final document to get authenticated is only one document, it will be faster. And now we know the other 2 pieces of documents they need personally. Shesh. Almost there. Finger print appt is 10/29/09. Finally, next week. Feels like forever since I got the notice.

Authentication of Docs

11 of our documents were sent to the Consulate on 10/05/09. We received a call that they needed a letter from our agency that I was a client of theirs and a copy of the photo page of my passport on 10/08/09. Thought that was a good turn around. They received both of those on Thurs 10/08. We are still waiting for our docs to return to us as of today 10/17. Not so good turn around. Hopefully Monday they come. My one document from NY, my BC came back in 3 days. What gives CA???

Thoughts about our travel

When ever one of my friends from my many adoption groups goes to get their child, I can't help but feel along with them what they are feeling. It's something you can only know if you've experienced it. Because we all go through the same exact thing, you know whats going on with them and how they are feeling through it. Even though the children come from all over China, we all pretty much do the same things and everyone has to end up in Guangzhou as the Consulate is there. Any time I see a post titles, what to bring, what not to bring, where to eat, what to do in ---, I can't help but respond EVERY time. I know going this time will be easier in some ways but more difficult with 3 toddlers. When we returned from China in Feb, I posted somewhere on my blog what I'd do differently or something IF I even go back. Hmmm, must have seen someting coming.

I try not to think about Penny being so far away from us. It's tough but in the end, we will only have waited about 8 months for her. Technically, not counting the last 4 years of waiting for her originally. 8 months, less then a pregnancy term and a lot more paper work. I think when we left the hospital with Sami, I sign one release form and filled an additional 20 adoption docs from our agency/social worker. Well worth it in the end.

I'm just putting together a care package for Penny. I just did a cute photo album of her new family and 5 pets. I hope she likes them. There are about 6 outfits, a snugglie, camera, undies and some lollipops. I have to keep it light. It will cost about 35.00 to send the items. Can't wait to see pictures of her in our outfits!!

Finger Prints

Because this blog is mainly for waiting families from China, I post all updates and timelines so we can all compare. It will be interesting to see these results in 10 years from now and compare it to the families at that time. That is IF the China program is still open to USA.

Sent in our 800A 9/17, USCIS received it 9/18. They issued our receipt on 9/21/09, received finger print appt on 9/5 for 9/29. Quite a long time to wait for your appt. In the past, our last 3 appts were that same week we received the notice. I'm just hoping this gives them ample time to review our home study and give us our I797 C approval. When we get that approval, I send it in to get certified, then authenticated, THEN I can send everything to our agency for translation. When it's translated, it goes to China then we are really waiting to travel.

My hope was that we'd be DTC "date to China" in Oct. That obviously is not going to happen. I hope everything is ready to go and we can be DTC mid Nov. If that happens, I can still hope for a Feb. CNY "Chinese New Year" travel date. Felix has grown out of his CNY oufit so I need to be back during/before CNY to get him a new one. Sami of course got several so she's good.

Family Pictures for Dossier

It's took me some time to dig up 6 family photos of all 4 of us from Feb for our dossier. I was trying to remember where we were when we got any family pictures taken. I came up with 7, 2 of which were taken in the past week as I knew I needed more. I got them printed out along with some photos that I will be sending to Sami's birth mother.

On Sat. I went over to Staples to print out copies of the 12 out of 13 documents for our dossier. Only you need to make copies of the doc, the notary page, certification page and "yet to come," the authentication page. I also needed 3 batches done. One for us, agency and the authentication process as they require you to send in your docs to be authenticated and copies of the docs, notary pg, certification pg. Something like 120 copies and 1 hour and 15 mins it took. It's annoying because the notary pg and the certification pages are stapled in different places so you have to be careful not to damage any of it.

BTW, for the record it took 4 days to get my docs back from Sacramento for certification, by mail. Hopefully Authentication is as fast. Will be sending docs in to get Authenticated at the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles tomorrow.

Moon Pies and Festival Facts

The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on October 3rd in the year 2009. What is the Moon festival? Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.Other Moon Festival LegendsAccording to another legend, on this day the "Man in the Moon" was spotted at an inn, carrying a writing tablet. When questioned, he said he was recording the names of all the happy couples who were fated to marry and live happily forever after. Accordingly, just as June is the traditional month for exchanging nuptials in the west, many Chinese weddings are held during the eighth lunar month, with the fifteenth day being the most popular.Of course, the most famous legend surrounding the Moon festival concerns its possible role in Chinese history. Overrun by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Chinese threw off their oppressors in 1368 AD. It is said that mooncakes - which the Mongols did not eat - were the perfect vehicle for hiding and passing along plans for the rebellion. Families were instructed not to eat the mooncakes until the day of the moon festival, which is when the rebellion took place. (In another version plans were passed along in mooncakes over several years of Mid-Autumn festivals, but the basic idea is the same).How to Celebrate the Moon FestivalToday, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Not to mention mooncakes. While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One type of traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste (see side photo). Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. This explains their rather steep price (around $5.00 in Canada). A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories.While in the past mooncakes took up to four weeks to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages. More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets.

Moon Festival Celebration

Today we celebrated The Mid-Autumn, Moon Festival with some moon pies. Well, actually Whoopee Pie's from Trader Joe's. The chinese tradition is to eat Mooncakes and watch the full moon. Being as though mooncakes are not that good and difficult to find, we settles for moon
pies, but I couldn't bring myself to buy moon pie's, we got the whoopee pie's. Better ingredients!

The kids ran around after their whoopee pie's and I drank my coffee from Peets. We'll watch the full moon tonight and hope that Penny is watching along with us and we can feel like we're with her.

The Moon Festival is on Oct. 3rd in China but on the 2nd here in the USA. Tomorrow we're going to the Chinese Museum Down Town for some festivities.

Starfish Poem

THE STARFISH POEM
Once upon a time there was a wise man
who used to go to the ocean
to do his writing.
He had a habit of walking
on the beach
before he began his work.
One day he was walking along
the shore.
As he looked down the beach,
he saw a human
figure moving like a dancer.
He smiled to himself to think
of someone who would
dance to the day.
So he began to walk faster
to catch up.
As he got closer, he saw
that it was a young man
and the young man wasn't dancing,
but instead he was reaching
down to the shore,
picking up something
and very gently throwing it
into the ocean.
As he got closer he called out,
"Good morning! What are you doing?"
The young man paused,
looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish in the ocean."
"I guess I should have asked,
why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"
"The sun is up and the tide is going out.
And if I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But, young man, don't you realize that
there are miles and miles of beach
and starfish all along it.
You can't possibly make a difference!"
The young man listened politely.
Then bent down, picked up another starfish
and threw it into the sea,
past the breaking waves and said-
"It made a difference for that one."

Paperwork coming to an end, Almost

After putting together our first dossier back in 2005, I swore I'd probably never do this again. Three + years of updating immigration stuff, home studies, social worker visits. Then came the process for Sami, which was not even close to what it took to get our China dossier prepared. But not any less difficult as I though I might be doing it for no reason. Can you fault me for thinking it might not happen? Then I was compelled to pick up and search for our Penny. I went into the process much different this time, very positive but a little guarded. I thought I'd be able to conquer this dossier much faster and with less stress. Well faster yes, not as fast as I thought due to hold up here and there, less stress, no. As many of you know, we go through so many ups and downs throughout the adoption process. Once your done with your dossier, you wait for either your child to be referred to you, or your waiting for your next of many more approvals. I think for many of us that go through the adoption process more then once, especially with special needs, we love the feeling of making a difference. When you get home with your child and realize how perfect they fit into the family, you think about "what if you never did this, your child might still be in an orphanage cold, hungry, sad." I came across the Starfish poem today as I thought about our waiting Penny and how we're going to give her such a wonderful life. I'm so happy and proud to be able to go to China and adopt our children. I am always grateful to Sami's birth mother. Again, I couldn't imagine our Sami living a life not as it is now.

800A sent!!!

So we sent out our 800A finally on Thurs 9/17. We had a hold up on our home study as NY State took forever to issue my abuse clearance report. We received the home study and sent it right off to the USCIS. They had it in their hands on Friday, the next day. I hope.
Apparently the USCIS is processing quicker at this time due to decrease in foreign adoptions.
It tyically takes any where from 30-90 days. Some people are getting their approvals in 30 days or less now. As we wait, I'm sending all our documents to get certified. When those return to me, I will send them out to get authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. When we get our 800A approval, I will have to send that out to get certified/authenticated as well. I will expedite that one though. Then when all docs are authenticated together, I can send them in as our dossier to our agency. Then........it gets translated to Chinese, then..........they send it off to get logged in. This is the LID. Log in date. Remember, Penny's original date was 3/21/06, which ended up being Felix's. Funny enough, we ended up finding Penny the same time that her original LID 3/21/06 was referred. Which was in July 09. I'm hoping that we can get logged in sometime in November and travel in Feb 2010.

Great Week

We had a great week. Sami and Felix started art class and PreK. I go to both classes with them.

They learned a lot in both. They really liked Pre K as there is so much to do and there are more kids in the class. Sami sat in the front row answering all the questions and participating. Felix was a little shy in participating but really liked playing with all the boys. He liked the music part of school, gym and snack time.

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