More pictures of Claire

 One of my friends was looking at the foster home site and immediately let me know that she thought she found more pics of Claire when she was looking for pics of her son. And she was right.  I love that the nannies are in a lot of the pics because they have taken such wonderful care of her- and my gratefulness cannot be expressed in words. I pray that we will be able to get in touch with them after the adoption is final, and that we will be able to take Claire to visit them when she is older.

 Here is sweet claire after arriving at the foster home, sleeping with her nanny. They loved her already!!!!

 

Here she is smiling. In so many of the pics she is so happy. I think this is in Nov 2011 right before her lip repair.

 

 This one is I think January this year- she seems so content.

 This one is from this summer- August maybe. She is the cutie on the back!

Playing with a toy and standing in her crib.  Her hair is growing. Hmmmm methinks I need more hairbows (those who have seen my hairbow collection- don't laugh. A girl cannot have too many!)

In other news, I am frantically trying to get things I will need to travel. Snacks and hats and socks and gifts and hairbows ;)

So what's next?

I think most of you know that we got our LOA last Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  If not- you must be under a rock because we all (including Noah) were shouting it from the rooftops!!  This means we should travel in 10ish weeks.  Why does it take so long? Well there are a few more steps of paperwork to complete.  This is what happens next!

1. Our 800 paperwork is filed with USCIS. This is the paperwork that requests immigration to approve Claire specifically for us to adopt and bring into the US. This takes about 2-3 weeks. They grant a pre-approval.
2. The pre-approval goes to the National Visa Center (NVC) who generate a paper that will allow Claire to be granted a visa into the US. This takes about a week (so total 3-4 weeks so far).
3. The paper from the NVC and Claire's actual Visa application go to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China. They will grant what is called an Article 5- which states they will give her a visa when we get her there. This takes 2 weeks at the embassy and a few days for our agency to get the paperwork there. (so 5.5-6.5 weeks total).
4. The article 5 is sent to Beijing to the CCCWA (China's version of family services) and they invite us to travel. This is called the Travel Approval (TA) and takes 2-3 weeks.  ( so 7.5-8.5 weeks total)
5. Our agency then has to secure our consulate appointment (to pick up that visa for Claire so she can enter the US) and plans our travel around that. Most people leave a week to 3 weeks after TA. (so 8.5-11.5 weeks).

I would love things to move fast and we travel in 8 weeks, but 9-10 is most likely!!

The next question is what does the travel trip look like?

 We will probably fly out of the US on a Wednesday and arrive in Beijing on Friday. Our agency rep will show us around Beijing Friday and Saturday to get over the jet lag. (China is 12 hours ahead of us basically). Sunday we fly to Zhengzhou, Henan (the capital city of Claire's home province in China). Monday- they bring us Claire and we get her forever!!! Tuesday-Saturday is in Henan doing paperwork, bonding, and touring. (it takes that long because they issue her passport in province and that is how long it takes). Sunday we fly to Guangzhou which is where the US embassy is in China. Monday we have a medical appointment, and then on Wednsday or Thursday is the consulate appointment and they issue Claire's visa. Then we can leave and fly home!!!  I will post a final itinerary when we get one.

We are also working on paperwork for our visas to enter China.

I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by what we still need to get for Claire (carseat, diapers, wipes, food and bottles for China, clothes, oh my!!!), by the packing lists, and gift list for the officials, and the paperwork we must bring list.

But it will all be ok because WE ARE ALMOST TO CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!