First Day of School

Here are A and B on the first day of school last Thursday. A will be a sophomore and B will be a 7th grader. They were both being jerks right before I took the ceremonial first day of school picture, so they do look a little sheepish. It was an exciting day, because not only was it the first day of school, but our Article 5 was also picked up at the US Consualte in Guangzhou. This means we are waiting to receive travel approval from the CCAA. This last week people were receiving their travel approval in 9 days. 9 days! That's crazy fast! We also got our home study update on Friday, which means I need to send it in for fingerprint renewal. However, I need time to read through the I800 stuff to make sure I mark everything correctly. The problem is, if I have questions I can't ask them until people are in at the office; either USCIS or with our agency. When they are at work, I'm at work and it is REALLY difficult to make any sort of personal phone call at work. School just started and I'm SWAMPED with all sorts of little things. I guess I'll try to figure it out as best I can tomorrow and try to find time to call and ask questions if I need to on Monday. What I would really like is a super-fast TA and consulate appointment. That way I wouldn't have to worry about fingerprint renewal. But it's better to be safe than sorry.

Status Update

So, here's the status on our adoption as of Friday. We were "cabled" on Friday, which means our information has been sent to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. We need a pdf verification of being cabled before Cara's visa stuff can be turned in over in China, and China only accepts paperwork on Mondays and Thursdays. I asked for the pdf, but was told that I could not have it emailed to me. This means I will hopefully have the info I need for Cara's stuff to be turned in on Thursday rather than Monday, which kinda sucks. Then we wait for article 5 and travel approval. I just really, really want to travel before November, but I have a sinking feeling that it might not happen due to all of the holidays in China during the month of October.

Meanwhile, on the I800A renewal front: yes, both fingerprints and I800A expire on 10/13/10. This means we need a homestudy update, 2-supplement 2's, and a supplement 3 filed with USICS. Our social worker is coming on Tuesday and I'm hoping for a super-quick homestudy update so we can get all of this turned in ASAP. It shouldn't be that hard; especially since NOTHING has changed for us in the last 15 months. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Weekend Fun

I love, love, LOVE, summer Sundays on the Snake River. We launch the boat at Levey Park around noon and stay on the river until about 5:30. It is one of my absolute favorite things to do. This past weekend the kids were able to kneeboard and tube. A's BF had never kneeboarded before so he got to learn how. He was a pretty quick study. It looks like we only have a few weekends left on the Snake this summer since June was so cold in our area; we've only been 6 times so far this summer, and in my opinion, that's WEAK!!!! I have definately not gotten enough river time this summer.

This next weekend we'll go out in the boat, but we'll go Friday on the Columbia River. I don't like it as much, but hardly anyone is out there on Fridays and the houses along the river are awesome to look at. We will spend some time there, then go have appetizers and wine at Anthony's.