I received an email yesterday from someone who just got back from an adoption trip to Ch*na. She had sent a disposable camera in a care package to her daughter, and it was with her things when she got her. She got the film developed, and lo and behold, there was a picture of our daughters together!!! Her daughter is in the pink jacket, and Raeanna, of course, is in the playpen dressed in her blue jacket. I also received pictures from our agency this morning of her hand. It looks pretty good. It will probably need a little more done to it, but there could be some swelling still.
Happy Fourth Birthday to our sweet little Raeanna! We wish she were here with us and we could celebrate her birthday together. We hope she enjoys her cake and her presents. We look forward to celebrating next year with our little girl!
Yesterday, we received a letter in the mail from our government! It says they received our application on February 4, 2010, and it is in process. Our notice date is February 8, 2010. Now, we are waiting for our fingerprinting appointment.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the Ch*nese New Year celebration, which is a very important holiday for the Ch*nese. It is also the date that Raeanna's birthday was estimated to be. We sent her a care package through a service called LadyBugs and Love from Above. The package we ordered included a birthday cake for her. Every picture I've seen of the cakes sent through care packages have been beautiful! Her orphanage won't send pictures until the adoptive parents pick up the child, except for the update pictures sent to the adoption agency, so we'll have to wait to see it. Angela, with LadyBugs & Love from Above, is in Ch*na, and she arranged it all. She bought candies and nuts for the others at the orphanage, and a panda bear and a little doll for Raeanna. We also sent a letter. The orphanage assured Angela that they would order the cake for her, and we're hoping they let Raeanna have some of it. She will be having her birthday, Ch*nese New Year, and Valentine's Day, all rolled into one! Next year, however, will be like a first birthday celebration for her, because she will be with her family!
Our agency mailed our I-800a today! I don't know why it took so long. The homestudy had to be notarized to go with it. Maybe it had something to do with that. We have all of our documents ready for our dossier to be authenticated, except for the I800a. We are praying that our fingerprinting appointment will come soon, but not fall on a day when Bob is traveling on business and not during a time when Katey is in class. I don't know what we'll have to do if he is out of town when they assign our appointment. I'll be so happy when we get our dossier to Ch*na! The documents have been notarized. Now, we take them to the counties where the notaries are registered to get the notaries authenticated. Then they go to the state to get the county clerks' seals authenticated. After the state, they go to Hillary Clinton's office to get the Secretary of States' seals authenticated. After Hillary's office, they go to the Ch*nese Consulate to get authenticated. Crazy, huh?!
The agency advocate got our birth certificates, our marriage certificate, and our police checks state- authenticated for us, since they had to go to 3 different states. We will send the documents altogether with a courier that the agency uses to get them done quickly in Washington.
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