Our United Family of Five

Our United Family of Five
Hooray!

Waiting for our Sweet Girl

Waiting for our Sweet Girl
Before Lulu's Arrival

Monday, June 7, 2010

Care Package # 3- From Nana and Bapa

The third package for our dear Lulu is going out this week.  Ann of Red Threads (in Guangzhou) sent me this wonderful photo today showing the two piece silk outfit, matching Kai Lan doll, "hot pink" traditional silk dress, matching hair ribbons for each set and candy treats for the whole family.  This package was put together by Nana and Bapa along with their letter to the orphanage director.

This is the letter to be translated into Chinese:
"Dear Orphanage Director,

Please pass the contents of this package on to our future granddaughter You Min Lan, birthday 15 October 2006.  We will be eternally happy and content in our hearts to welcome her to our family.  We have a very kind loving family and are sure that she will enjoy her life as she grows over the years with her two brothers and her cousins.  We already love her very much and are sending these pretty items to let her know how special and beautiful our Little Princess is to us.  

Thank you for your care and guidance for her over her first three years.  We are very grateful to you for your efforts and expertise.  We are especially grateful that you were able to obtain glasses and patching of the right eye so that her left eye could become stronger.  This is so important for her development and vision.  Thank you so much for your fantastic care and nurturing of all the children under your supervision.

With gratitude and respect,
Marilyn "Nana" and Pete "Bapa" Bushre, grandparents of You Min Lan."

I threw in the part about the side that is supposed to be patched because her patch was on the wrong eye in the last photo set we got. Not so subtle hint from Mama...

Who knows whether we will receive any photos of Lulu opening her packages.  It is all up to the orphanage as our understanding is that they may or may not take photos and send them on to Ann.  I will certainly send them if any come.


This week we were lucky enough to receive some nice Summer as well as Winter items from Scarlett Lewis that she is passing on to Lulu.  A few items in size 4, a few 3s (soft pink sweaters), fuzzy footy jammies in size 5 and some other adorable items.  Thank you Scarlett and Mirka!  Additionally, two of the three bedspreads for the kids came.  Thanks to Nana and Bapa, Dec has a comfy new (to him) bed and each child has their own space in a now three-child bedroom.  We have turned everything upside down and are moving the playroom to the front of the house, the kids to the former playroom as a now bedroom, and the bedroom will soon be the guest room/media room.  It's all a wreck right now but I can work on it next weekend.  I can't wait to get the bedroom set up and put a picture on the blog.  I am waiting until it is mostly ready and then I will post photos.


Additionally, I have been invited to be there for our dear friends Katherine and Steven as they brings their son into the world.  She is having a planned c-section, two days from now, at 7:30 AM and my staff helped me to reschedle my morning patients for that day so that I may be there for Katherine and Steven.  I am so excited!  I will be there to film and photograph as well as to provide support to the team of Katherine, Steven, and Katherine's mom.  What an exciting time!  Soon we will be welcoming our own child into our world and I get to be a part a dear tiny boy's first moments.  Wow.  


So, as we continue in this first week of waiting for TA, life goes on in its special, amazing way.



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Our Adoption Timeline

  • March, 2011. Start re-adoption process in order to have US Birthcertificate.
  • February, 2011. Our first post-placement report due.
  • October, 2010. US Passport applied for and received.
  • September, 2010. All kids start school. Lulu to pre-school with Daddy.
  • September, 2010. Social Security Number.
  • September, 2010. Lulu receives citizenship certificate.
  • August 7, 2010. Home to the USA.
  • July 27, 2010. Thumbprints and footprints- we adopt our daughter.
  • July 26, 2010. We sing to Lulu for the first time.
  • July 20, 2010. Left for China.
  • June 25, 2010. Travel Approval received by agency.
  • June 3-4,2010. Article 5 picked up and overnighted to CCAA. To be received 6/4/10. We begin the wait for TA itself.
  • May 18, 2010. NVC letter received by Email.
  • May 14, 2010. National Visa Center notified Guangzhou US Consulate of I-800 approval.
  • May 7, 2010. I-800 received.
  • May 5, 2010. I-800 approved by USCIS and in mail to us.
  • May 4, 2010. We bought tickets to China!
  • April 22, 2010. USCIS receives our I-800 application.
  • April 19, 2010. LOA on Mama's Birthday.
  • April 17, 2010. Daddio's and Uncle Alex's Birthday.
  • April 13, 2010. Pop's Birthday.
  • Apr. 7, 2010. Nana's 65th Birthday.
  • Apr. 3, 2010. Auntie Kayce's Birthday.
  • Feb. 11, 2010. LID! Our dossier has officially been logged in on this date. We found out about it two weeks later but very happy with quick LID after DTC.
  • Feb. 2, 2010. DTC (Dossier to China with courier)
  • Jan. 29, 2009. Our official deadline from China based on our pre-approval dated Oct. 29,2009. As of Jan. 26th our dossier is on its way to China. Marilyn assures us that the Chinese component of authentication will happen over three days and then the dossier will be received officially by the CCAA. This means our documents will be officially in on Feb. 3.
  • Jan. 23, 2009. Received I-797 (I-800A approval) in mail. Too late to meet Fedex deadline but turned docs around right away to get them to Utah as early as possible. Will be received in Utah first thing Tuesday AM on the 26th. Due in China on the 29th. Please Marilyn, our dossier specialist, save us! Lots of praying to be done....
  • Jan. 19, 2009. Day after MLK day so first day office is open. Get call from Officer Harrison saying that approval not yet completed but will be completed today and mailed out.
  • Jan. 15, 2009. Spoke with Officer Harrison about I-800A and fingerprint approval. Lots of snafus, some real, some not. Took 3 people to manage them. Should be approved today.
  • Jan. 8, 2009. Fingerprinted by Homeland security (FBI fingerprints passed months and months ago) a week earlier than invited so that we have a chance of making the China deadline of the 29th. Agency says we will ask for an extension if our entire file is ready except for the USCIS approval (I-800A)
  • Jan 6, 2009. Receive notice that our documents are all in Washington, DC for final authentication at the US State Department.
  • Nov. 2009. We move into speed mode to get all the documents together for federal approval and for the China Dossier.
  • Oct. 29, 2009. We receive the pre-approval letter stating that we have until January 29, 2009 to submit our full dossier and that agree to process her file as a "Waiting Child" due to her age and need for multiple eye surgeries.
  • AM Oct 25, 2009 (Quinlan's 6th birthday). We receive a forwarded email from China entitled, "She's Yours!" by the US folks. Her file is "locked" to us and China needs us to get our photos and letter of intent to them immediately to complete the lock.
  • AM Oct 24, 2009. We call back within the hour to say, "Yes!". We are told that we will have to wait 24 hours to see if we will be matched to her. We know it is possible that we may not be lucky enough to match with her and try not to get too excited but it was impossible not to already be attached and to know that we might have to grieve her loss if we find that we were not meant to be her family.
  • AM Oct. 24, 2009. We review the multitude of medical, developmental, and personal documents and photos and recognize right away that we have found our daughter.
  • AM Oct. 24, 2009. We receive excited call from Kathy Junk stating that Wasatch had matched 2 families that day and that they have a child to match that they think might be our daughter.
  • Oct. 23, 2009. We mail our check to Wasatch to commit to adopting through their agency.
  • Oct. 2009. Min Lan celebrates her third birthday in China with her foster family who loves her very much.
  • Oct. 2009. Completed pre-application with Wasatch and sent in list of medical conditions we could work with in our family.
  • Oct. 2009. Researched countries, adoption agencies, and our own hearts and recognized that we would find our toddler daughter in China.
  • Oct 1, 2009. Completed our homestudy with the fabulous Allison Reeves.
  • Sept. 2009. Completed our huge homestudy documents by pouring our souls on the pages detailing every aspect of our lives from childhood on.
  • After a poor experience with one adoption agency, we had 5 glowing references for Wasatch International Adoptions.
  • Sept. 2009. We decided it was time to find our daughter.
  • Jun. 2007. Baby Lulu has her second eye surgery to try to reduce the congenital esotropia (pointed inward).
  • Apr. 2007. Baby Lulu (Min Lan) has a congenital cataract successfully removed.
  • Feb. 2007. Min Lan is placed to be found in order to receive eye surgery to save her sight.
  • Oct. 2006, Baby Lulu (Min Lan) was born in Guilin, China.
  • Oct. 2003, Quinlan's birth in Seattle.
  • Dec. 2000, Declan's birth in Seattle.
  • Early 2001. Saw "Wednesday's Child" on Portland, OR TV and recognized that we would love to adopt a child someday