The Cheeky Robinson Clan: May 2012

Great news!

Our USA approval for Tan Zhifu has been fully processed and has been sent to the US Consulate in Guangzhou!! This now begins the second-to-last step in the process! The US Consulate will create something called the Article 5. It takes two weeks to process. Then the Article 5 goes to the China Center of Adoption Affairs to begin the LAST step in the process...travel approval!!

We are getting close!!

Hallelujah!!!!!

A beautiful post!

There is a fantastic blog I follow and Lori wrote this article last night that I wanted to share with you. It's called, "Adoption is Healing." Please read it if you have a two or three minutes. It is beautiful!

http://fiveofmyown.blogspot.com/2012/05/adoption-is-start-of-healing.html

i800 approval - 5/16/12

The US has officially approved for Tan Zhifu (Abigail Mei) to be ours. :)

Hallelujah!

A True Bond

I can't remember who said this (it was written to the author of something I was reading on a blog or something), but I've saved it for a long time, and love it so much. I had to share it with you.

"If anyone doubts the power and permanence of the adoptive relationship, let me remind your readers that marriage is a similar commitment of life-long love and support between two people without prior biological connection. The lack of shared blood does not cheapen this profound relationship. My husband and I honor our children's unknown birth parents, but we are still their mom and dad, forever and always. We believe that this is our destiny, just as it is theirs. We are greatly blessed to have each other."

Step by step

We heard from the USCIS on 5/7/12 that they are processing our i800. The i800 is our petition to the US to allow Tan Zhifu to be our adopted daughter. Now that our application is in process, our agency said we should hear of approval from USCIS in the next 7 to 10 days!

Step by step, we are getting closer to Tan Zhifu, soon to be Abigail Mei, being our daughter!

Heather

$650!

Yes, we made $650 in our yard sale today! Hallelujah!!! All of the money goes towards our China travel. I thought we'd make about $250. Oh Jesus, thank You for surprising me! Thank You for blessing us! And thank you to everyone else for coming and being a part of it!

Reminder: Yard Sale tomorrow for our China travel!

We're having a yard sale tomorrow to raise money towards our China travel.

It's from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and our address is 555 Stone Creek Place. We're in the Stone Creek Neighborhood off of Plaza Way.

We'll have coffee and donuts too!

This is also our neighborhood's annual "Stone Creek Neighborhood Yard Sale" so there will be many other houses to walk around to as well!

Hope to see you there!

Heather

Yard sale this Saturday - May 5

We're having a yard sale this Saturday to raise spending money for our China trip. Please drop by if you can! It's from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 555 Stone Creek Place in Walla Walla. We have clothes, kitchen items, books, DVDs, candles, scrapbooking supplies, and many other items. We will also have coffee and donuts!

This is also the same day as our "Annual Stone Creek Neighborhood Yard Sale". So there will be many homes that you can walk around to and find treasures. But mostly you can spend your money at ours. :) It is truly for a good cause! Hope to see you there!

Adoption Timeline At-A-Glance

March 28, 2009: Made the decision to adopt from Nepal.
March 30, 2009: Google-searched for an agency that has a Nepal program (there weren't any in 2008 since we had searched at that time), and found Adoption ARK.
April 6, 2009: E-mailed Adoption ARK expressing interest in Nepal.
April 6, 2009: Linda Podas (adoption consultant) at Adoption ARK e-mailed back, and sent the pre-qualification application.
April 7, 2009: Completed the application and faxed it to Linda.
April 8, 2009: Linda lets us know that we pre-qualify, and have been put on the 2010 Nepal waiting list.
April 16, 2009: Linda e-mails letting us know that our name has come up on the Nepal waiting list and we can officially apply into the Nepal adoption program!
April 17, 2009: Linda sends us the official contract, and says that we need to turn it around within 72 hours, along with money. :-) The contract is 35 pages (!).
April 20-22, 2009: Read the contract, filled out all the pages, and sent it in the mail with our money by April 22.
April 23, 2009: Linda e-mails saying our contract has been accepted, and that we are officially in the program. She said our case manager would be in touch with us within 48 hours.
April 24, 2009: Alina Radoslav e-mails us introducing herself as our case manager. Sends us lots of information and lots of attachments to fill out!
April 30, 2009: Phone call with Alina to meet each other and go over what we should be working on right now.
May 1 - June 9, 2009: Worked on our home study.
June 17, 2009: Overnighted our home study packet.
July 14, 2009: Mailed I-600A form to USCIS.
July 31, 2009: Home Study interviews in Seattle.
Aug. 28, 2009: Home Inspection at our house.
Sept. 30, 2009: Heather has her doctor's appointment for dossier medical report.
Oct. 3 and 4, 2009: Psychologist interviews; MMPI-2 test (457 questions!); Rohrschach test; intelligence test; and some other test that I don't know the name of.
Oct. 5, 2009: Meeting with psychologist to discuss report findings and review letters written by psychologist for our adoption agency. (Note: Tests confirmed that we are not crazy. Whew!)
Oct. 13, 2009: Andrew has his doctor's appointment for dossier medical report.
Oct. 22, 2009: Home Study approval reports received in the mail. (!!)
Oct. 22, 2009: Home Study approval reports sent to USCIS for I-600A application.
Nov. 10, 2009: Found out the USCIS address they gave us to send our home study report to was incorrect. Had to re-send to a different address.
Nov. 18, 2009: Sent all of our notarized documents to the Secretary of State for certification approval.
Nov. 30, 2009: Fingerprinting for USCIS approval.
Dec. 1, 2009: Dossier sent to Adoption Ark.
Dec. 7, 2009: Dossier sent to Nepal.
Dec. 11, 2009: Our agency's in-country Nepal represent receives our dossier.
Dec. 15, 2009: We are officially on the Nepal 2009 list! We are #500.
Aug. 6, 2010: The US closes adoptions to Nepal. We plan to keep our file there, praying that the doors will open again. May the Lord move mountains so these precious children can be with their forever families!

A New Beginning - China
Mar. 21, 2011: Chose Lifeline Children's Services as our agency.
Mar. 22 to Oct. 5, 2011: 10 months of all of the same stuff as above. :)
Oct. 21, 2011: Received USCIS approval to adopt from China.
Nov. 9, 2011: DTC! (Dossier To China)
Nov. 23, 2011: Our agency confirmed that CCCWA has received our dossier.
Dec. 20, 2011: Matched to our amazing 12-month old daughter!!
Dec. 30, 2011: Pre-approval received from China for our daughter!
April 24, 2012: Letter of Approval (LOA) from China
May 16, 2012: i800 approval (USA approval) for our daughter
May 25, 2012: USA approval cabled to US Consulate in Guangzhou. Now the Consulate will prepare the "Article 5."
June 11, 2012: Article 5 picked up from the Consulate and taken to the CCCWA.
June 25, 2012: Travel Approval (TA)!
July 13, 2012: Leave for China!
July 16, 2012: "Gotcha Day" – family of three!
July 17, 2012: Official adoption day with China.
July 25, 2012: Consulate appointment – Abigail became officially ours according to the US, and officially an American citizen!
July 28, 2012: We returned home to Walla Walla as a family! Abi also became an American citizen the moment she stepped on American soil.

Adoption blogs I follow (all but the first one are Nepal adoptions):

http://hernkekid.blogspot.com/ http://achairtospare.blogspot.com/ http://aboyfortheharrells.blogspot.com/ http://pebbletostone.blogspot.com/ http://apennyanickeladollaroradime.blogspot.com/ http://themelsersfaith.blogspot.com/ http://yoloholloway.blogspot.com/ http://bfsmoms.blogspot.com/ http://oak2ktm.blogspot.com/ http://nepaladoptionadventure.blogspot.com/ http://bugbeanandreed.blogspot.com/ http://kjernald.blogspot.com/ http://www.nepaladoptionblog.com/ http://jsjobeadoption.blogspot.com/ http://whenwebelong.blogspot.com/

The Cheeky Robinson Clan