The Cheeky Robinson Clan: Chinese-American Robinson baby!

We completed our adoption yesterday! According to both China and America, Abigail Mei Zhifu is officially ours!! And once she steps on American soil, she will be an American citizen. The US Consulate doesn't allow cameras, so we couldn't take any photos. But what it included was a pledge and the final paperwork. It was very special to say the pledge (I cried through it), which said that we have completed all of the necessary legal paperwork to adopt Abigail. She is now ours!!

The night before, we personally pledged to Abigail that even though she was going to become and American citizen, we will honor her Chinese heritage and raise her in it. She is Chinese-American, and we celebrate her culture and heritage!

Welcome to our family, Abigail Mei Zhifu Robinson!! We love you with all of our hearts!!!!

Here are pictures we took before we left the hotel for the US Consulate!

Abigail looks tired because she was. :) She slept a whopping 7 hours the night before (usually sleeps for 9-10 hours) because she decided to scream and cry for three hours the night before, from 9pm to midnight! :) But mama is ready to finalize the adoption and call her our own, so she is very happy. :) I also wore a necklace that I got here, which says in Chinese characters, "Mama and Daughter."

Miss Abi Grumpy Face in this photo. :)

Andrew was naturalized, and now Abigail will be! We are an international multi-cultural family.

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/

4 comments:

JamieJuly 26, 2012 at 7:08 AM
Yes!! Praise the Lord, it is official! :) you are on the home stretch now baby! I can't wait to see you all & I'll be praying for restful nights of sleep & a great little traveling partner for the flight home. Love you
JamieJuly 26, 2012 at 7:40 AM
Side note: is that the lowest ceiling/smallest hallway ever, or what? ha ha
Another note: I've never seen either of you as happy as you are now! For the past week your beautiful faces have been radiating joy & I LOVE IT! :) ♥
KendallJuly 26, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Such amazing blog stories and pics and I haven't missed one.

I was reading these in various restaurants last week while traveling and I whenever the waitress came by, my eyes were filled with tears of joy. I am sure she thought I was going to cry. I eventually left and finished reading the rest on my iPhone.

Anyway have a wonderful flight back. Can't wait to see you guys. I tried a number of times to Skype yesterday but kept missing you. I will probably just have to wait until next week. If you have a chance try Skype us when you wake up tomorrow or when you read this next. I'll leave it on.
Emily BillingsJuly 28, 2012 at 9:40 PM
How exciting. The tears would have been falling out of must eyes like a waterfall.
your necklace is perfect for making it official. What an amazing journey for all of you.

The Cheeky Robinson Clan

Chinese-American Robinson baby!

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