Another Question ........ and a sort of answer

When are you traveling to pick up Jacinda and why does it take so long?

To be honest, we don't have a great answer to this question.  Our agency is saying we will travel sometime between August and November.  We're holding out hope it could be earlier than that, though.  It takes so long for a couple of reasons.

First, China has more paperwork requirements we have to complete.  Second, US Immigration has new rules and it's sort of a guessing game at this point what those rules are.  We believe that the overall goal of changing the rules to make international adoption more regulated is good.  We just wish we weren't caught in the uncertainty of the rule-changing.

Right now, we are preparing a package of documents to send to our agency … they include the contract that we agree to accept Jacinda, several documents that get sent to China, the biggest check we've ever written (gulp!), and a travel release form.  Once the Chinese government approves all our documents, we'll get a travel approval.  This will probably take several months.

In the meantime, we're getting ready to travel.  We've gotten some shots, and have more to go.  We're figuring out bedrooms and furniture for both Luke and Jacinda.  We're getting our house ready for 2 toddlers!!!!  Sherry is finishing up the school year.  We're getting ready for our Disney vacation with Sherry's family in June.  We're definitely keeping ourselves busy while we wait!