The Cheeky Robinson Clan: We are here!

We are here!

Hello, precious people!

We arrived in Wuhan late last night. After 25 hours of traveling, we were exhausted! But the traveling went well, we got all of our bags, and we are absolutely thrilled to be here. The Chinese people are very welcoming, and we love it here!

We slept for nine hours - from midnight to 9 a.m., then showered and went and had breakfast at the hotel's buffet in their main restaurant. It was delicious! Lots of wonderful Chinese food, with some American food too.

The hotel is wonderful, and we are settling in. We get to meet and have our daughter forever tomorrow (Monday, July 16) at 3 p.m. We're 15 hours ahead, so that will be 12 a.m. in Washington state.

Our room has a crib, baby bathtub and potty seat. :) Here are a few pictures - one of our luggage before we left, one of Andrew before we boarded the plane to go to Beijing, and the three others are from our hotel room.

My next post will be about Gotcha Day, and it will have pictures of us with our little girl, Abigail Mei!!!

Love to all,
Heather

11 comments:

froggletJuly 15, 2012 at 9:07 AM
So excited for you! Isn't it the most surreal thing to see that crib in room?!
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Roaming GnomesJuly 15, 2012 at 9:16 AM
I am also from easten Washington! I wish youthe best and am excited to follow your journey!
Juliette
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KristenJuly 15, 2012 at 9:36 AM
I'm doing a happy dance!!! I can't WAIT for your next post!!! I was doing the math and figured out that it will be 9pm my time for your gotcha day! I will be specifically praying for you, Andrew and Sweet baby Abi Mei!!! I'm SO EXCITED for you Heather!!! Yeah!!!
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MinJuly 15, 2012 at 11:05 AM
This is too wonderful! I can't wait to read your next post tomorrow morning!
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Shelly & TimJuly 15, 2012 at 12:14 PM
I am sooooo excited for you. I have been following along since Nepal and am truly happy for you!! God is sooo good. You will find that he has chosen the perfect child for you! I am so happy you are posting and cannot wait to hear when you have met your daughter!!! -Shelly
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RachyLeeannJuly 15, 2012 at 2:25 PM
I am so excited for you!!! And her. She's going to love you guys! :)
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UnknownJuly 15, 2012 at 11:32 PM
I have been counting down the hours all day now. In just 30 minutes, Abigail Mei will be with you. Wow. Happy, happy Gotcha Day!!! Love you soooooo much, and I am praying that the transition goes smoothly for all. I CANNOT WAIT to meet your wonderful baby girl!
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LDS Aspie WifeJuly 16, 2012 at 8:13 AM
I think it's 11:00 PM Monday night there...I've been thinking and praying so much for the 3 of you. I hope everything is going well!!! I can't wait to see pictures! Love you all so much!!!
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JamieJuly 16, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Eeep!! I'm squealing with excitement & I'm so happy you are updating from China! We were thinking & celebrating with you (last night) as we knew you were getting her! Ahhhhhhh We will continue to pray for you guys & can't wait to see pictures! We love all of you & will see you soon. The boys can't wait to meet their God-sister!!! :) <3
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Emily BillingsJuly 16, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Oh my goodness how exciting! I am so overwhelmed with joy for you guys. Give her a great big hug from us too
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thugpug888July 16, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Dying for pictures from today and to hear about the moment you first laid eyes on her!
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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

We are here!

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