I am so enjoying our Christmas break. I always do. There is something so wonderful about being able to spend this special time with my children without worrying about taking time off of work. We bake cookies, sleep in, get the house messy, clean it up, sip hot cocoa by the fire after playing outside, and snuggle watching Charlie Brown's Christmas. We also get to sleep in, stay up late, have pajama days, and visit with friends. This break is unique because I am also working on applying for grants, trying to understand the dozens of acronyms that are used for Chinese adoptions, and are reading up on the history and culture of China thanks to a great book my parents gave us for Christmas. Our cake for Jesus' birthday was eaten this year by Buddy, who jumped up on the counter while we were at a party, but regardless - we did try to keep the focus of this magnificent holiday on Him and the true meaning of why we celebrate.
December 11th was the day Adam and I got our fingerprints done for our I-800A. We are about halfway through the waiting period for this process - six weeks in now. All of our other documents have been in China now for about three weeks, and we haven't heard anything yet, so fingers crossed that this means they have not caught anything yet that needs to be fixed up. We were told three different people will proof everything to make sure nothing is missed before they start the translation process. So...update on timeline is: in about six weeks (first week in February) we should get our I800A back...then to St. Paul and Chicago, so by around the end of February we should have our dossier all in Colorado. They take about a month to process and finalize/ translate - so around the end of March it should go to China. Then it should take about two months for processing...so end of May. Then 5-8 months to get a match... so October-January. Then another three months for travel...so January-April.
It was so nice being able to visit with our families this past week. We went to Adam's mom's house on Christmas Eve for supper, Adam's dad's the Saturday before, and the Giles side on Christmas day. My parents also spent four days visiting with us at our home. We made the Feast of the Seven Seas and gorged ourselves on shrimp, calamari (yucky to clean, delicious to eat!), clam bake, crab dip, and scallops. My favorite meal of the year! We look forward to bringing in the New Year with some of our neighbors at our home too. So many things to be thankful for!
No comments:
Post a Comment