Nothing at all has happened this week adoption-wise.
1. We are waiting for an update on Kenzi. We're hoping to get new pictures and some answers to questions we submitted. Our agency said it could be 2-3 weeks from when we asked. Today has been 2 weeks and 2 days. So hopefully any day now ....
2. No LOA yet. We're at 28 days and the average is around 60. Lots of people do get them around the 30 day mark, though.
So that's it. Nothing. Luke and Jacinda pray every night that Kenzi would get home soon and safely.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
An Update ..... of sorts ....
There's not much going on, but I thought I'd post an update of sorts.
1. We FINALLY got our tax refund!!!!!!!!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. We sent a few questions to our Agency regarding Kenzi. It could take a couple of weeks to get the answers. We're hoping to get some new pictures, but we aren't counting on that.
3. We have a few low-interest adoption loans we need to apply for. We are waiting to hear about a grant we applied for. I believe our application is being reviewed in August.
4. Waiting. That's mostly what we're doing. It seems the average wait for LOA (our approval from China) is around 60 days, and we're at about 21 days. But the LOA wait seems to have no rhyme or reason and we could get it much sooner than 60 days (or much later). I need to get our next US Immigration form (it's a long one) ready to go so that when we get that LOA, the form is ready to go out the same day. We're REALLY hoping to go to China by the end of the year, and we may be down to a matter of a few days making the difference.
5. We sent Kenzi's photo album to our agency and it's getting sent to China today. Hopefully by next week sometime, she'll be looking at all of our pictures we sent her! We also included a few sheets of stickers and a CD with Lullaby songs. I hope they can play it for her! (Click the pictures to make them bigger.) Aaron works with a guy from China and he has been so helpful to us. He translated the captions for the pictures.
The kids drew pictures for Kenzi!!!
1. We FINALLY got our tax refund!!!!!!!!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. We sent a few questions to our Agency regarding Kenzi. It could take a couple of weeks to get the answers. We're hoping to get some new pictures, but we aren't counting on that.
3. We have a few low-interest adoption loans we need to apply for. We are waiting to hear about a grant we applied for. I believe our application is being reviewed in August.
4. Waiting. That's mostly what we're doing. It seems the average wait for LOA (our approval from China) is around 60 days, and we're at about 21 days. But the LOA wait seems to have no rhyme or reason and we could get it much sooner than 60 days (or much later). I need to get our next US Immigration form (it's a long one) ready to go so that when we get that LOA, the form is ready to go out the same day. We're REALLY hoping to go to China by the end of the year, and we may be down to a matter of a few days making the difference.
5. We sent Kenzi's photo album to our agency and it's getting sent to China today. Hopefully by next week sometime, she'll be looking at all of our pictures we sent her! We also included a few sheets of stickers and a CD with Lullaby songs. I hope they can play it for her! (Click the pictures to make them bigger.) Aaron works with a guy from China and he has been so helpful to us. He translated the captions for the pictures.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
What's Next?
Now, we wait. We are waiting for China to issue our LOA, which is our Letter of Acceptance. This means that China has reviewed all of our paperwork and we are officially approved to adopt that specific child. Right now, the average wait is around 60 days, with some people receiving it in as few as 30 days. While we wait for that, here's what we're up to:
1. Jacinda's Readoption paperwork - I still have not submitted the last few documents to our local circuit court. Once we get her readoption done, we will be able to get an English birth certificate for her. Theoretically, this should make it easier to enroll Jacinda in things that require a birth certificate.
2. Photo Albums - I'm a little behind on organizing our pictures and putting them in albums. Like, about 7 years behind. Oops.
3. Figuring out bedrooms - Jacinda and Kenzi will be sharing a room. So we need to figure out what kind of beds they need and getting that set up. Their room is VERY small, so we need to figure out how to maximize the space.
4. Tax Refund - We STILL don't have our tax refund. We should hear something any day now.
5. Travel Plans - We're trying to figure out who is going to go to China to get Kenzi. At this point, it's looking like it might be Aaron and my brother, John. There are a few reasons I may not go, namely that we have no one to take care of both kids while we're gone. Plus, I'm not a good traveler. But we're still working all of that out.
6. Yard Sale - We're having another yard sale on July 16th. Our wonderful friends are hosting it for us! We made about $400 at the last one.
7. Stuff for Kenzi - We can send her a small photo album. Aaron has a friend at work who will translate the captions for the photos into Chinese for us. We can also put in a few sheets of stickers and pictures colored by Luke and Jacinda. The last thing we can include is a CD of lullaby songs her caretakers will play for her. We're hoping they will be able to play the CD for her and then we can play it at home and it will be familiar to her.
8. Medical Questions - We can submit 5 questions to Kenzi's orphanage. Her medical report we have already received was just done in May, so that is fairly recent. We're waiting to hear back from our cleft team to see if they have any questions/requests. We will also ask if she uses special bottles since her lip is still unrepaired. There are special cleft bottles that you can squeeze because cleft kids can't suck out of a regular bottle.
So as you can see, we have plenty to keep us busy!!!
1. Jacinda's Readoption paperwork - I still have not submitted the last few documents to our local circuit court. Once we get her readoption done, we will be able to get an English birth certificate for her. Theoretically, this should make it easier to enroll Jacinda in things that require a birth certificate.
2. Photo Albums - I'm a little behind on organizing our pictures and putting them in albums. Like, about 7 years behind. Oops.
3. Figuring out bedrooms - Jacinda and Kenzi will be sharing a room. So we need to figure out what kind of beds they need and getting that set up. Their room is VERY small, so we need to figure out how to maximize the space.
4. Tax Refund - We STILL don't have our tax refund. We should hear something any day now.
5. Travel Plans - We're trying to figure out who is going to go to China to get Kenzi. At this point, it's looking like it might be Aaron and my brother, John. There are a few reasons I may not go, namely that we have no one to take care of both kids while we're gone. Plus, I'm not a good traveler. But we're still working all of that out.
6. Yard Sale - We're having another yard sale on July 16th. Our wonderful friends are hosting it for us! We made about $400 at the last one.
7. Stuff for Kenzi - We can send her a small photo album. Aaron has a friend at work who will translate the captions for the photos into Chinese for us. We can also put in a few sheets of stickers and pictures colored by Luke and Jacinda. The last thing we can include is a CD of lullaby songs her caretakers will play for her. We're hoping they will be able to play the CD for her and then we can play it at home and it will be familiar to her.
8. Medical Questions - We can submit 5 questions to Kenzi's orphanage. Her medical report we have already received was just done in May, so that is fairly recent. We're waiting to hear back from our cleft team to see if they have any questions/requests. We will also ask if she uses special bottles since her lip is still unrepaired. There are special cleft bottles that you can squeeze because cleft kids can't suck out of a regular bottle.
So as you can see, we have plenty to keep us busy!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
