Our agency sent our paperwork to the consulate in Guangzhou on Tuesday. We received our NVC approval yesterday so that was forwarded. We are really hoping for a miracle and the courier in Guangzhou receives it by Friday. With Chinese adoptions, you never want your travel dates pushed back because of CNY (Chinese New Year). It just so happened that we were able to travel in Feb, to adopt Olivia and ran into the same problem. Most businesses, including the CCCWA, shuts down for a week in China to celebrate. Therefore, we would not be able to travel then. I have been praying that our travel approval comes quickly so that we can avoid any CNY delays. Our little Sophia will be 17 months old in 3 days and it is really hard knowing she is growing up without us.
This is what we know about Zhuang, Lu Yu, soon to be Sophia Blythe Luyu Allen:
First and foremost her referral states that she is HEALTHY! She was found the day she was born and the main entrance to the Social Welfare Institute of Yifeng County by one of the staff named Feng, Jin Xiang.
The personnel of the SWI gave her the last name of Zhuang which means dignified.
Lu, her first name means road and Yu, her middle name means strong fragrant.
Her referral states that she sleeps well (yay us!), is a little naughty(lol!), and is a happy girl.
This is map of China provinces: Sophia is from Jiangxi. Her big sister Olivia thinks it's pretty awesome that the province that she is from (Hunan) is right next door.;)
Hopefully, in 4-6 weeks we will be on our way to Beijing, (where we will freeze our badoodies off). Terry and I have been there before but we wanted Olivia to experience it too. She wants to walk on the Great Wall of China, see Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. So, the first part of our trip will be site-seeing. Then we fly to Sophia's province (Jiangxi) and receive her!! This is the day we have been waiting for ( for far toooo long!!!). We are required to be in her province for a week to complete the China part of the adoption. We will be taking a side trip to Hunan, which is where Olivia was born. We will be traveling by train from Jiangxi to Changsha, Hunan, stay overnight and visit Liv's finding spot and orphanage. Terry and I are very excited because we have kept in touch with the facilitator for Living Hope Adoption who assisted us when we were in China in 2003 for Olivia's adoption. ;o) She will arrange transportation and lodging for us at the Dolton Hotel ( the hotel we stayed in 10 years ago when we adopted Olivia). After that, we will come back to Jiangxi for a couple of days and then fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong, where we will have a consulate appointment and finish the American part of the adoption for Sophia. We will be there for 4-5 days. After all is signed, oath is said, documents sealed, medical exam done, visa and passport received, we will be HOME BOUND, back to the good ol' USA!!
Please keep us in your prayers. Getting a little anxious about flying for 14 hours straight. I do NOT like sitting in a confined space for that long and I unfortunately CANNOT watch movie, after movie like my dear hubby. I would love to know how anyone can sleep on a plane. :)
3 comments:
Hi! I've been meaning to respond to your post on our blog, but have been super busy. We are leaving for China on February 28th. We could have left earlier, but my husband has a business trip that he cannot miss. It looks like you are waiting for Article 5 and then TA, so there's a good chance we may be there at the same time. Our 9-year-old daughter will be traveling with us. Are you bringing any of your children? Anyway, would love to chat more. -Tracy
Hi Tracy! Our article 5 will be picked up on the 19th of Feb. What was your time frame after pickup? We are so hoping that it won't be much later than mid March.
Hi Kim! I think our TA took 3 weeks. I know some folks waited longer and some received it in a shorter amount of time. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Have you heard anything yet? Any chance you are leaving in the next couple of weeks? I really wish Hannah could meet your daughter. Hannah just turned 9 and is also from Hunan. (We stayed at the Dolton back in 2005!) It's wonderful that you are planning to make a side trip back there.
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