We got a message today that our final paperwork was hand-delivered to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China, today. They will issue our Article 5, and it should be ready to be picked up on March 3rd. It will then be ready to go to the CCCWA (the Chinese agency in charge of adoption) so that our travel invitation can be issued. It should take 2-3 weeks to receive our invitation from that point. Once we receive our invitations, we can get our visas and our travel arrangements can be planned so that we can travel with the next group. Our official timeline is 6-12 weeks...we figure we should travel in April as long as we have our visas in time for that group.
....and I (with a LOT of help from Aaron) got Leah's shelves up in Eli's closet, and even got some clothes hung up too! Now, If only I knew how to decorate a girl's room! ;-)
Sounds like a lot to think about! I hadn't even thought about the need to decorate a room for her. Do you think she will be ok sleeping alone? I wonder if that would be scary if she is used to having a room full of over kids? Do you know her condition in that respect? I'm sure she'll be so happy with three boys around. She can sit back and laugh at their shnadigans. Do you know her taste for or distaste for different foods? Wouldn't it be funny if she only wanted rice and veggies? So much to think about! Clothes, decorations, food, etc.....
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about her sleeping alone, Greg. She'll be in a room with us in China, of course, and we thought about having her sleep in our room when we get home. Thinking on it further, though, we may just sleep on a mattress in her room with her, and eventually faze ourselves out over the course of a few weeks. Really, though, we have no clue! I've read of families doing it both ways, but it will ultimately depend on what works best after we get here. Most kiddos in orphanages have crib-mates, and none of them have a room to themselves as far as I know, so I don't imagine that we'll be able to leave her alone for a while no matter what we decide to do.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure her tastes will be different, she's probably never had the types of food that we're used to, just like we will be when we go there. Add to that that she can only eat certain types of things due to her cleft, and the fact that her orphanage may not have a wide variety of foods due to cost, and I'd say she'll be very limited in the types of things that she has ever been able to eat - even of her native foods. Could prove to be very...um, interesting is the word I think we'll go with today! ;-) Most likely the food she eats the most would be congee - kind of like a rice porridge that can be eaten either in a bottle or out of a bowl.
One of the biggest things with her room is just knowing what to put in it. We don't know exactly what development level she is at, so I don't know what kind of toys to get out. We don't know which kind of bed she'll want - toddler or crib, and we don't know what size of clothes to buy her. So many unknowns! Good thing we can rely on the One who already knows it all, otherwise all these unknowns would be so totally overwhelming! I'm always glad to be able to turn my fears and questions over to Him and feel His calm settle over me! :-)