While I was in UT doing various UT things (spending money, mostly...on clothes for our soon-to-be-missionary son, school clothes from DI (does anyone else buy all their school clothes from DI???) and lots and lots of books) the papers arrived from the USCIS telling us we have to get our biometrics (fingerprints) taken on July 30. So...small bit of progress.
We found out that we had to get child abuse clearance letters from every state we've lived in since age 18, so we're in the process of collecting those. Heard through the adoption grapevine that all of our 13 dossier documents (medical reports, employment verification, etc etc etc) have to be less than six months old when the whole dossier gets authenticated at the Chinese embassy. Which is not nice to hear, as some of those documents date back to Feb 2008, and what a pain to have to go back and get more doctors appointments, etc...but our adoption coordinator says that they only have to be less than a year old, and to go ahead and get the individual documents verified at State level and Chinese Embassy level now, rather than wait until the whole dossier is put together. So we'll start that adventure next. I hate paperwork. But getting all those official, notarized, fancily verified papers back from official sources is kind of cool. The authentication mark from the Chinese Embassy is very pretty...a hologram kind of thing, all different reflective colors.
Our friends ,the Watsons, who adopted Lou Juan's best friend Lou Ming are home from their trip to China and Lou Ming is now adjusting to being a kid in the United States. She had a tough time for a few days, missing and grieving for her caregiver from the orphange in China. Many of the workers in the orphanage (SWI is the real term...social welfare institute) are there for years, and raise the children from babies until they're adopted. They bond with them and miss them terribly when they go. The children miss their caregivers a lot. But Lou Ming is doing better. She was hoping Lou Juan would live next door, so they could be together in the US...hard to explain that Texas and California are very far apart, so probably no play dates for them. But both families have relatives in San Diego, so maybe the girls will be able to see each other occasionally on trips out there.
We heard that Lou Juan did very well on her school exams at the end of the year. She has had trouble with school before, but I think her tutor is helping her a lot, in many ways.
The Watsons carried a package for Lou Juan with them to China...and had to take it in a cooler, since I didn't know I wasn't supposed to send chocolate in July...and so Lou Juan now has a bunch more US made toys (hard to find, by the way...everything is made in China, go check it out!) and a bunch of Little Debbies, which she apparently likes a lot.
Tomorrow, we will see our daughter, Caitlin, for the first time in 18 months. She's been serving a mission in Taiwan. We're very excited!
3 comments:
so did no surf get to see her brother buy clothes, i am sure some of them were at mr. mac. , you know he slashess prices for missionary sons....
Hey,
That is great that she actually got the package. And sooo awesome that the family was willing to take a cooler to china! Haha!
Anyway, it sounds like you are already doing very awesome stuff for Lou Juan. Even before you bring her home. I bet that will make the transition even better... she knows you cared about her all the way across the ocean, and not just when you brought her home to be in your family.
What a hassle! But good to be making progress.
Hope everything has gone smoothly with John leaving. I'm glad Caitlin got to see her brother before he left.
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