Our Family's Journey: November 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Friday November 23, 2012 - 3 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary

We celebrated our three year Gotcha Day anniversary at Stone Mountain and a beautiful, fun wedding on Friday November 23rd. She has grown so much, not only physically, but in learning also. She still has such a long way to go, but we pray that one day it will be easier for her. We've hopefully settled down with most of the medical stuff (hopefully no more ear surgeries) and we did the Suprellin LA implant two weeks ago to stop the precocious puberty. It will probably be a little bit before we see the effects from this. She has been through so much, but still walks around happy and joyful, touching the lives of everyone she meets. Don't get me wrong...she definitely has her moments, like at school the other day, but that's a tale for another time. But, funny thing about Ashlyn...she gets over things easily and forgives easily.

Gotcha Day (Nov. 23, 2009)

1 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary (Nov. 23, 2010)

2 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary (Nov. 23, 2011)

3 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary (Nov. 23, 2012)

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary Ashlyn...Mommy, Daddy, & Kaylyn love you very much!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

November 25, 2012 - Visit with Santa & Christmas Tree

Yep, it's that time of year again! We visited Santa in the mall today and ate lunch with Brittany (who is Santa's helper this year). Then we went home and decorated the Christmas tree. Jason started hanging the Christmas lights outside, but still has a long way to go, so I will wait to post pictures of the outside once he is done.

November 24, 2012 - Wai-gong & Wai-po's House

Driving home from Atlanta, we stopped off at Wai-gong & Wai-po's house where we watched the Gator football game and had a huge dinner (turkey, chicken, green beans, stuffing, & rolls). We got to see Aunt Kara, Uncle Chris, Kalia, & Kodi. Uncle Adam, his brother, & Shyanne were even there. Aunt Jessica showed up as we were leaving so we got to see her too.

November 23, 2012 - Shawn & Samantha's Wedding

After Stone Mountain, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for Sam's wedding. It was at a historic mansion and was very nice. They looked so happy and Sam looked beautiful! The food was excellent, including the cake. They had little Chinese take-out boxes that you could fill with Shawn & Sam's favorite candies and take home. The kids danced away until 10:30 pm. It was a lot of fun!

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