Our Family's Journey

Thursday, January 3, 2013

December 31, 2012 - Day 5 in Washington D.C. - New Year's Eve

Today we walked over to the Smithsonian National Zoo. It was huge! I got over 25,000 steps this day and we only did the zoo. It was really cold, so a lot of the animals were moved in, but a lot of these had enclosures inside that we could go into. Some did not, but there was definitely enough to see and do. I forgot to mention from the beginning that anything Smithsonian related (museums and zoos) were all free to go to. The bad thing about D.C. is that the tax and food and beverage is 10%. So, when you get your dinner bill at a restaurant, add 10% before gratuity because that is the tax on food. Also, parking is expensive. If I had known, we would not have gotten a rental car and we would have just used the metro all week instead. It even went all the way to Mt. Vernon. Parking the car each night at the hotel was $34 and most hotels were more than that. Oh well, live and learn.

December 30, 2012 - Day 4 in Washington D.C.

Today we took the rental car and headed over to Mt. Vernon and spent the day. We did the special National Treasure tour and got to see all the cool places and things that were in the movie since part of it was filmed at Mt. Vernon. I got over 16,000 steps this day (helped that we drove to and from our destination). Couldn't take pictures while inside the house unfortunately, but we got to see the bed that George Washington died on and the bed that Martha Washington died on. Kind of creepy and cool at the same time!

Gas prices in downtown D.C. Near the car rental place just outside downtown, it was $1 cheaper.

The Thanksgiving turkeys

The womens' slave building (the men had a separate room).

The view of the Potomac from their back yard

The pigs

The bulls

The crops

Another view of the Potomac by the family vault

George Washington's workshop

George Washington's house

The Christmas camel (George Washington brought one over for Christmas to entertain guests)

George Washington's casket

Martha Washington's casket

The slaves kitchen

George Washington's house from the back

The Potomac near George Washington's wharf

The barn

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