Cleared For Travel

This is what A and B look like after 2 shots each and a 2 hour dr. appt. But they are cleared for international travel and holding their signed paperwork. Tomorrow I have to mail these sheets in along with copies of their passport photo pages and a signed Travel Companion Acknowledgement form from our agency. I'm still waiting on an approved I800. I called Monday and they had no record of my SIM #. They said to call back 7 business days after our receipt was mailed to us, which would have been today. I'll call tomorrow around lunchtime and see what's up. Keep your fingers crossed that they have our paperwork; even better if they can tell me we're pre-approved!

Back From Vacation!

Here are A, B, and A's BF at California Adventure and J and I with Goofy. We bought tix to go to Disneyland 7 days prior to receiving our referral. In January our agency told us we would most likely be waiting for 18-24 months to receive a referral. I had a conference to attend in Anaheim so we thought, what the heck?! This will be our last vacation until China and we'll just start saving $ right after this trip. We purchased the tickets on June 15th. Seven days later we were referred our fabulous little princess. So I guess we'll just start saving $ now! :)

We tried something new called Ride Max. A found it on the internet. For $15 you put in the dates you're going to Disneyland and California Adventure and it will tell you what time to go on what rides, when to get Fast Passes, etc. I gotta tell ya, Ride Max ROCKS!!!! We rarely waited more than 20 mins for any ride. We went on several of the biggies (Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, California Screamin') 4 or 5 times. In the future, I'm all about the Ride Max.

On the adoption front, we received a letter from USCIS saying they are processing our I800. I will most likely call sometime tomorrow and check on the status. I just want to get her home ASAP!

The Decision is Made~

I have read a few blogs from people who followed the Nancy Thomas method for attachment, but had not ordered the CDs "Taming the Tiger While its Still A Kitten." I left a post on RQ asking people about using an Ergo for a 3 year old and got mixed responses. The post kind of turned into more of a "theory on attachment" kind of post, which wasn't really what I was looking for. I just wanted to know if an Ergo would work for a 28 lb child. I listened to what everyone had to say, and vacillated myself on whether or not to "pouch" Cara and use Nancy Thomas' methods for attachment. I bought the CDs and listened to them twice. I really think, for me, that the Ergo is going to help with attachment, so this weekend I bought one at REI. I went with the Ergo sport since it has more venting to keep Cara cooler. We'll see how it works, but I think our family is going to try to follow this method. I work in a school as a VP and my "frequent flyers" for discipline issues tend to be kids who have issues with attachment, so I know how important it is. I will keep you posted on how it works!

Update!

I did not expect to get an update from the Shanghai SWI. They are not known for providing updates. Imagine my surprise when this mischievious little face showed up on my email! I'm so excited to go get her, but we still have about 5 more steps. I800 approval, NVC cable to Guangzhou, letter received from NVC, Article 5, then TA. It's a long process, but then, all of it has been a long process! I just hope we can travel before our fingerprints expire in mid-October. I don't want that monkey-wrench thrown into the whole thing.

The Stork Came Today!

We received notification from our agency, CCAI, yesterday that our LOA had arrived and they would be overnighting it to us today. The FedEx stork was gracious enough to pose with our LOA and dog, Buddy. This afternoon J is coming home from work early so we can FedEx our signed documents back to CCAI and get some other docs notarized. Lately it seems like its been taking approx. 80 days from LOA to travel, so it looks like we will be in China in September.