Chinese Festivals

October 1st kicks off the beginning of China’s National Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays in China.

This year, marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Festivities for these holidays which last from October 1st through October 8th will begin with a speech from President Hu Jintao followed by the National Day Parade.

The Mid-autumn festival is a very important occasion in the Chinese calendar. Every year, when the festival comes people go home from every corner of the world to meet their family and have dinner with them. The festival is a time for families to be together, so people far from home will gaze longingly at the moon and think about their families.

Because of this, the CCAA will be closed for one and a half weeks (opening back on October 9th). This means that our TA will be in the queue for an extra week making the 2-4 week wait to 3-5 weeks. Like I said before though, I will try to not be impatient with this and leave it up to God's timing no matter how difficult this is for me. Please pray for me to have patience :-)

Article 5 Approval Today

We received our Article 5 Approval today (which is the Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) approval for Ashlyn by the US Consulate in China). Now the paperwork has to go to China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). After they review the paperwork, they will issue us Travel Approval (TA). I was told that the average time from CCAA receiving Article 5 Approval until TA is issued is approximately 2-4 weeks. Hopefully it's only 2 weeks, but it will be what it is. I decided to consciously leave everything in God's hands last night and I believe that this is why we received Article 5 Approval this morning. God is good!

WHEN???

Alright, I'm getting frustrated. I have one person tell me that we will most likely be going to China around October 28th. Then later on, another person tells us of the possibility of going the first week in October. Now, I'm being told by yet another person maybe the end of November. This is about all I can say, because now I'm completely confused and longing to go get Ashlyn with no clear cut estimate of when we might do that.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

National Visa Center

Got a letter today in the mail, dated September 09, 2009, that stated they received our approval Form I-800 and our petition has been sent to US Consulate in China. Not sure if that means it was sent on 9/9/09 or this letter was sent after the fact??? Hopefully the latter. Well, I think if we have any chance of going the first week in October, we'll need TA by next week. I think this is a long shot, but sometimes the Lord does work in mysterious ways. If we don't go the first week in October, then it's because it wasn't our time to go yet. I just pray for God to keep giving me patience.

Visas

We got our Visas in the mail today! I believe we are done with paperwork until we get to China. Talked with our agency today and there's a possibility of going over at the beginning of October. We just have to get our TA before then. They are doing this for the people who are adopting a child in Guangdong province because the trade fair doesn't start until the end of October and they think they can get us out before then. This is possibly good news, now just need some prayers answered for our TA to make this happen!