Our Family's Journey

Monday, May 20, 2013

May 11, 2013 - Disney Cruise Day 1

The first day on the boat, we checked out the Oceaneer's Club and the Oceaneer's Lab for kids. They had a lot of cool technology stuff in there and cool play areas. Then we went swimming and rode the Aquaduck, which was a water slide that goes around the entire boat, including over the ocean. Then we set sail as a storm approached! We went inside a did a mystery game where you get a card that has a code on it and you go around to different paintings that come to life when the card is placed in front of it. You gather all the clues and find out who the bad guy is. There's multiple cases to solve and each case has multiple avenues of clues.

May 3, 2013 - CCA's Talent Show

Kaylyn decided to be in the talent show again this year. She performed her Christian jokes. She knew most of them by heart, but wanted the paper up there just in case (it was also sort of her safety net so she didn't have to look at the audience the entire time). She was very dramatic with her delivery of each joke and she did very well. Everyone thought she was very funny!

April 30, 2013 - Fruit of the Spirit Award

Kaylyn won the fruit of the spirit award for Faithfulness. She was so excited! Ashlyn got to get on stage with Mrs. Bonnie and do a dance. They posted the pictures on facebook, which is where I pulled them from.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

May 18, 2013 - Wai-gong's Company Picnic

Going back in time...My dad had his company picnic this lovely Saturday. My friend Tara went and hung out with everyone. I, unfortunately, did not get to attend since I was trying to get work hours in so that I didn't have to take as much PTO during Jason's surgery. The kids had fun! Daddy took lots of pictures and the big slide was a big hit again this year. Corn hole was fun too!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

May 5, 2013 - Shopping & Swimming

We spent most of this day shopping for cruise wear for us and the kids. After a boring long day of shopping, we let the kids go swimming!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

May 4, 2013 - Beach Cleanup for Connect1NG

Through my work's Connect1NG, we volunteered to cleanup the beach this wonderful day! There was a lot of trash to pickup and we got to play with a crab. Later that night after church, we went and got some frozen yogurt at Menchi's.

Ashlyn

is an adorable 13 year old girl who has overcome VSD. She had surgery when she was 2 years old to correct this heart defect and God put it in our heart to reach out to her and take her in to be our daughter. Kaylyn was excited about getting a younger sister (even if it's only 6.5 months younger). We couldn't wait to go to China to get her and bring her home so that we could be her forever family. Since being back, we have learned that she has had other special needs like infundibulum of the right ventricle, a submucous cleft palate, and a cholesteatoma with hearing loss. We take it day by day and we wouldn't want it any other way! She is a joy to everyone who meets her and God has very special plans for her.

Our Adoption Timeline

12/5/2009 - Travel back home

12/3/2009 - Oath-taking ceremony

11/24/2009 - Adoption is finalized with China

11/23/2009 - Gotcha Day...meeting Ashlyn

11/19/2009 - Travelling to China to pick up Ashlyn!

11/11/2009 - Mommy, Daddy, & Kaylyn getting 2nd Hep A shot. Done with immunizations.

11/5/2009 - Received Travel Approval (TA) (~ 42 days from Article 5 or ~ 87 days from LSC)

9/24/2009 - Article 5 is approved and paperwork is being sent to CCAA. (~15 days)

9/9/2009 - I800 paperwork was sent from the State Department's National Visa Center to China. (~ 13 days)

9/8/2009 - Received our Passports with the Visas in the mail. (~ 19 days)

9/3/2009 - Sent Ashlyn her second care package from Ann at Red Thread.

8/27/2009 - I800 was approved. (~ 13 days)

8/20/2009 - Sent off passports and paperwork to get Visas.

8/14/2009 - Our signed LSC and DS-230 paperwork was sent to China today and USCIS received our paperwork today

8/13/2009 - Sent the I800 and I864W along with all the proper paperwork to USCIS

8/12/2009 - Sent the signed LSC and DS-230 application to GWCA

8/10/2009 - Received Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) through agency (~59 days)

7/20/2009 - Received the updated I-797C letter from USCIS and emailed copy to GWCA (~ 17 days)

7/19/2009 - Received updated pictures and measurements for Ashlyn.

7/10/2009 – Sent care package for Ashlyn XiangLing to China. Sent to Ann at Red Threads to send out to the proper place

7/3/2009 – Sent paperwork to USCIS to get updated Approval Letter I-797C

7/2/2009 - Received updated Homestudy update correction in the mail

6/25/2009 - Received updated Homestudy in mail and found mistake with age range, so it had to be re-done

6/17/2009 – Signed the Homestudy Update Agreement

6/12/2009 – Received Pre-Approval (PA) letter from China for Xiang Ling and our dossier would go into the procedure for adoption of special need children. (~ 8 days)

6/5/2009 – Learned what Xiang Ling’s name means:

XIANG:From Chinese 翔 "to soar", 祥 "auspicious, lucky" or 香 "fragrant" (which is usually only feminine).

LING: From Chinese 灵 "alert, quick" or 铃 "bell, chime".

HUANG: From Chinese 煌 "bright"

6/4/2009 – Got more passport photos so that we could send color copies to GWCA for our LOI package & LOI was officially sent to China

6/3/2009 – We locked in Xiang Ling’s file to put together our Letter of Intent (LOI) and Waiting Child LOI Referral Agreement

6/1/2009 – Xiang Ling’s file was pulled for us

5/27/2009 – Another shared list came out and we saw a little girl named Huang Xiang Ling, age 6, on the list. We did not see the list till Saturday 5/30/2009 because we were on our 4th Disney cruise. We emailed GWCA and asked to see Xiang Ling’s file.

5/15/2009 – Mommy & Daddy got 3rd Hep B vaccine and Mommy, Daddy, & Kaylyn got 1st Hep A vaccine

4/8/2009 – Dossier Log in Date (LID) (~19 days)

3/20/2009 – Great Wall China Agency approved dossier and sent dossier to China

3/18/2009 – Sent completed dossier to Great Wall China Agency with next day delivery

3/17/2009 – Received the authenticated document from Los Angeles Chinese Consulate (~ 14 days)

3/15/2009 – Gathered pictures and created the lifestyle pages for the dossier and obtained our passport photos for the dossier

3/14/2009 – Received the authenticated documents from Houston Chinese Consulate (~ 12 days)

3/3/2009 – Sent the New Mexico document to Los Angeles to be authenticated by the Chinese consulate

3/2/2009 – Sent the Florida documents to Houston to be authenticated by the Chinese consulate. Received the certified document from the state of New Mexico (~ 7 days)

2/28/2009 – Received the certified documents from the state of Florida (~5 days)

2/23/2009 – Sent all Florida documents to Tallahassee for Certification & sent my birth certificate to New Mexico for Certification

2/20/2009 – Received I-797C Approval Letter (~30 days)

2/13/2009 – Approval for I-800A

2/10/2009 – Biometrics for I-800A

1/21/2009 – USCIS received I-800A

1/16/2009 – Completed the course With Eyes Wide Open and received 4 hours of Hague training (this completes our 10+ hours of Hague training)

1/14/2009 – Home Study complete and received

12/29/2008 – Home Study home visit

12/23/2008 – Mommy & Daddy received 2nd Hep B vaccine

12/8/2008 – Completed the course The Journey of Attachment and received 2 hours of Hague training

12/1/2008 – Completed the course Medical Issues in International Adoption and received 2.5 hours of Hague training

11/30/2008 – Completed the course Conspicuous Families: Race, Culture, and Adoption and received 1.5 hours of Hague training

11/25/2008 – Mommy & Daddy received 1st Hep B vaccine. Attended a China Adoption Waiting Child Webinar and received 2 hours of Hague training

11/24/2008 – Signed adoption agreement and paid 1st adoption fee. Received our birth certificates & marriage license

11/22/2008 – Attended Great Wall China Seminar