!!!!

Oh my gosh. Today we found out that we will be getting our guy in less than 2 weeks. We are leaving in LESS than 2 weeks! This is crazy! We are freaking out! What VPN are we supposed to download?  What if we over pack??  What if we underpack??? Did I say we are freaking out? We are freaking out! But it's a good freak out. 

All we want for Christmas is him

Merry Christmas from us and this one. :D  We just received some updated photos of our little guy in his orphanage, and he looks like he's ready to get out of there! Also, did you know that you all have raised over $1500 for his great escape!?? (http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsordavis-8) That is an AMAZING present! I can't even believe it. We are hoping and praying that we get to storm the country and bust him out this January at the latest. Please hope and pray with us.

Cable Letter and Visa

So, I guess I was mistaken about our very next step being the Article 5 letter. Our *actual* next step was to get final approval from US immigration (I-800) for Daniel *specifically*, and not just "a child", and then receive our Cable Letter. The Cable Letter is needed for Daniel's Visa and is only sent to us when US Immigration (I-800) gives our final approval to the National Visa Center. Once processed, the NVC sends us their Cable Letter and this means that we basically have permission to start filling out the forms for Daniel's VISA and Green Card.

If this is confusing, don't worry. I am confused all the time with this process.

Last night I submitted his Visa information, which means that now we are waiting to submit/drop off our Article 5 letter to China (this is the 'a-ok, issue the actual visa', letter). So that's where we are today. 

Next steps are: 1) Article 5 sent to China, 2) Article 5 dropped off at the Chinese Consulate, 3) Article 5 picked up and couriered to the CCCWA (China's adoption center) 4) Wait for and receive Travel Approval from the CCCWA, 5) Wait for and receive Travel dates from the Consulate!!!

Whew.

Maybe I should get his room ready.

We saw the picture of our little one in 2013, but there were hiccups with his file so it stretched out the beginning process and stuck us in what felt like the middle stage forever.  But now.... the homestretch is here!  Hooray!  We received our LOA, sent off our I-800 and are waiting on Art 5!  Homestretch!!  This is really going to happen!!  We are more done than not done!!

So this week I was thinking that I should probably start converting our old guest/storage room into a little boy's room.  Is that procrastination?  Should I have already done this?  There is an adorable stuffed Red-Panda in there on a file cabinet all ready to be loved on, and in the closet is a brand new rhino sleeper that I couldn't say no to... so at least we have those things covered.

I think the only thing missing is this guy:

Match Reviewed!

LID was 10/14 and our Dossier was out of translation on 10/23. Today, we just received a phone call saying that today we have been matched reviewed! A Miracle!! Now we wait for our agency to receive our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) and send off for his USCIS (citizenship!) approval.

DTC

Quick update... We have been DTC for a little over a week now, which is a huge milestone!

DTC is when all of our certified paperwork, photos, etc, is finally sent to Danny's country. Once they receive our dossier then they'll give us a Log-in-Date (LID).

We still have a long while until we can expect our travel approval, but we are getting closer!

UnBirthday

We've been waiting on our I-800A approval, and in the meantime we had the wonderful opportunity to send a care package to our Danny.  A very sweet lady helped us assemble a photo book, some treats for the nannies, a disposable camera, and a small toy. She then shipped it to the orphanage, and we received word that they got the package and were very happy. But I think the most awesome part is that we were also able to order him a Birthday Party! Of course it's not his birthday, but oh well. There's always a reason to eat cake, I think. So either this week or next he should be getting cake, fruit, and juice for him and 10 other children. We hope that it will fill some bellies, and we're praying that we'll be able to get photos and that really really coveted video.

His great adventure - and he doesn't even know it

Yay!  We're adopting!  And whoa-boy, is he cute.

So how did we get to this point?  I guess for starters I should say that my husband, son, and I have dwarfism.  The reason my husband and I have it is completely random.  It doesn't run in either of our families.  It's not too much of a big deal, but sometimes other places in the world may be confused about our abilities, or may lack the possible medical care needed to raise a little person (although some people with dwarfism may never have medical issues).  While looking over orphanage photos of non-profits, and researching as much as we could, we were surprised to discover how many orphans with dwarfism there were.  Some were toddlers, some were older children, and one was a 33 year old woman with Achondroplasia who had lived her whole life in an institution.  It was a big wake up call.

We found our way to Reece's Rainbow through a friend's blog and started advocating a lot for their children, one in particular named Oliver. :)  He truly touched our hearts, and we started praying for God to let us know if we were only meant to be advocates (an awesome job) or if we were actually meant to be one of those families we had been advocating for.  After many prayers and reading many more blogs, we were given some information about a 2yr old boy with our same type of dwarfism. One look at his timid little face, and we knew he was ours. So with some incredible help from several people, we have been working to finish the mounds of paperwork, fingerprinting, doctor approval, and background checks, so we can go get him, and love on him all the live long day.

There’s still a long way to go, but we are very thankful for all the prayers! We definitely need them!