Finally Photos...

I'll let these photos of our trip and our first couple of days home do the talking for this post...

We're Back...

WOW - China is amazing and our son is just perfect in every way. With our three week stay in China we were able to see some of the most amazing places that you could ever imagine. We got to see the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Open Air Markets, Hutongs, spectacular parks and squares, The Great Wall, and so much more!

Getting our hands on Will didn't happen quite like we imagined, but how wasn't the important part, getting him in our arms was. We knew that meeting him at BWCI was not an option with H1N1 and had been told we would meet them in a conference room at our hotel.

Well all the kids in our group (four, including Will) were considered special needs so we got a call to meet them in the hotel's parking lot. Two nannies, a driver, four kids (from 22 mo to 7 years) and medical equipment all piled out of a small car (like an Accord). They looked at us, handed us our little ones, turned around, got back in the car and left us with our sweet kiddos standing right there in the Poly Plaza parking lot. Not the emotion filled hand off that I always envisioned, but the perfect moment for us.

Pictures and more updates to follow over the next few days as we settle back in and get readjusted back to our time zone.

And we're off...

Tomorrow afternoon we board the plane that will take us to our newest son. Tonight we will stay at a hotel near the airport to avoid any possible delays heading to Newark during morning rush hour.(No NJ Turnpike jokes - and in case you're wondering we are way south, closest to exit #2, just to get that out of the way)

We are anxious to get to Will but are finding it a bit difficult to kiss the kids good night and put them to bed knowing we won't see them for three full weeks. We know they will be fine, they are with my parents. It's just that this will be the first time we are both away from them at the same time (with the exception of one night while we attended GWCA East Meets West Conf where we first saw our Will) for any length of time and three weeks seems so long.

We were able to get Skype accounts set up on both our lap top and my mom's computer (thanks Satyra) so we will be able to see each other almost daily but not to get hugs and kisses will be miserable. We know it won't last forever, but will just feel like it.

This is a joyous time and we are going into this trip as a once in a lifetime event and will soak in as much of Will's culture to bring home with us and make it part of our family.

We'll see you all very soon and hope to be able to add to the blog to keep everyone up to date and involved (we have heard that we may not be able to access the blog from China, but will try)

Thanks to all for their support, encouragement, help, congratulations, etc. It means the world to us and we're glad to have you on our journey with us and are happy to share our joy with you all.

Three - Two - One...

We are only THREE days out from departing, can you believe it, we can't! We are double and triple checking every packing list we've been given, making absolutely certain that we have every possible form, document and ID that we require and are still trying to get the house in some sort of order (as if that will ever happen).

Griffin and Elena started school today so that was a big exciting morning. They both seemed excited to see who was going to be in their classes, This week is usually pretty good as it's mostly getting their desks/rooms together and getting reacquainted with their chums, next week will be a different story.

I see a lot of sleepless nights ahead due to excitement, nervousness and worrying about missing the kids while where gone.

The Clock is ticking.

T-minus 7 days...

We are a week from take off and starting to get more excited by the minute. I can throw nervous in there too. There's still so much to do! And leaving our other kids behind is going to be a bit tough for us. They are excited to be staying with their grandparents for a loooonnnnggg sleepover, but I'll miss my snuggles, hugs and kisses.

Here's a couple more photos of Will from various times at the orphanage. We can't thank them enough for taking such good care of him for us. It would seem he was very well taken care of and loved.

We Have Liftoff...

I do think the same amount of planning goes into a shuttle launch as it takes for adoption. I'm sure their view from space is spectacular, but it can't even compare remotely to when we actually lay eyes on Will for the first time.

Here's what our trip will look like per our Travel Advisor, Nancy:

09/11 - Depart U.S.
09/12 - Arrive in Beijing
09/13 - Gotcha Day!
09/25 - Fly to Guangzhou in the morning
09/28 - Consulate appointment
09/29 - Pick up Will's visa
10/01 – Depart from Hong Kong

We'll be jet setting (with jet lag) through China for 20 days.

This is so exciting and scary all at the same time. Talk about an adventure!

It's finally here...

What you ask - the TA!!! Got the call this afternoon that the TA for Will had arrived in today's package to GWCA and we are going to travel in September vs. October. On Sept. 11 to be specific and will have William on Sept. 13. Can you believe it? (Not only did we get our TA call but about two minutes after that my mom called to let us know that our two newest nieces - Kendall and Brooke just made their way into the world kicking and screaming - so congrats to my baby brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Jenn).

We are more than thrilled. We really thought we weren't going to be able to be with our son until October at the earliest and more than likely November so this is fantastic.

I was pretty calm when the call came in as I was in Lens Crafter's with Griffin getting his new glasses (yes another new pair - I can't even tell you how many he's had since he was one - 20, 25 maybe) and didn't want to seem like some crazy lady on the phone. We had just come back from picking Len up at the airport from his trip to TX so he got to hear the GREAT NEWS first hand.

It's been a great day. Now we wait to hear that our appt. with the US Consulate was approved for Sept. 29 and then we are firm and can book our flight out of Newark.

Once I know the specifics of the trip, I'll throw that up here so everyone can get an ideas of the what and when.

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes for a speedy TA and quick travel - think it worked. Now happy thoughts for our Consulate appointment.

Travel Scenario...

Since we don't have our TA as of yet (day 22 on the TA count down) September travel is not likely. We we would have to have our Consulate appt. no later than 9/29 which at this time would leave only about a three week window before we would need to travel.

You see, October is a difficult month to travel to China for a variety of reasons that impact adoptions. So we've been advised that a November departure seems to be in our future. We were really hoping to have him home before his 2nd birthday so he and his dad can celebrate their big day together (Will and Len's birthday-11/13).

Why not October:

Reason One: National Holiday - the first week of October is the National Holiday - just about everything is closed in celebration, including government offices. Strike One.

Reason Two: Guangzhou Trade Fair (yep a tradeshow stands in my way - of all things. The tradeshow industry has been good to me for the past 17 years but now...). The trade fair, with an influx of tens of thousands of additional people into the city, takes place the last two weeks of October so flights, hotels, ground transportation, etc. is next to impossible to secure during this time. Guangzhou is where the US Consulate is and we can't take Will home without a stop there for the formalities. Strike Two

However, there is the possibility (and I emphasise possibility) that if our TA comes in within the next four weeks or less, that we could do the Beijing portion of our trip the last two weeks of Oct. (ex. depart 10/17 for Beijing) while the trade fair is running in Guangzhou and then fly there for our Consulate appt. on 11/3 and back home on 11/5. Now this possibility would require that all the stars aligned, everyone sang in harmony, pig's flying, etc. to make it happen, but... Wait, did I just see a flying pig whiz by my window :)? Here's hoping so!!

Hopefully our next post will be the BIG TA arrival announcement.

So...happy thoughts and fingers crossed from everyone for the TA to get here S~O~O~N.

Updated I171 Received

We are happy to report that when we got home Sunday from the camper, our amended I171H from USCIS was waiting for us. We are now cleared by our Government to adopt a child that is classified special needs.

USCIS has already sent the Visa cable 37 to the American Consulate in Guangzhou with our SN inclusion so we shouldn't run into any issues when we get there to get Will through Immigration.

Need everyone to think good thoughts for the TA to get here soon!

A Special Group

We found that there is a Yahoo group out there specific to adopted children with limb differences and joined last night.

We've already "met" one family and they have given us some pointers and even a suggestion for a physician in Philadelphia (apparently this guy is the supreme limb Dr. out there and happens to be in our backyard). It turns out that this family used our same adoption agency to bring their daughter home.

At one point (In May before we asked to see his file!), they even put out the word to advocate for Will to other families in the group to adopt him before we found him. Thankfully no one beat us to him because he's our so everyone else step away from the baby ;)

I think this group will be a tremendous help to us since Will's special need is new to us and there are so many families who have been in our shoes before.

What's in a Name...

I find naming another human being to be very difficult. Is the name unique enough, but not odd or strange? Will it fit their personality? Is it suitable as a child's name but adult enough for when they are grown?

If you ask Len, I poured over baby name books by the dozen each time I was pregnant and could only come up with a few names each time. So when it came to naming yet another baby I left that to Len, who in a matter of seconds, said William and that was the end of that.

WILLIAM (Irish/Scottish/English) - Determined Protector
JOSEPH (Hebrew) - God will Increase
XIAOHU (Chinese) - Little Tiger

Why William: Because of it's ethnic background (and my love of Mel Gibson-think Braveheart)
Why Joseph: That's for his Pop Pop
Why Xiaohu: That will forever be a part of who he is

The TA Countdown and ticker timing

Now we wait, again...(waiting is a very familiar theme with adoption). The countdown for our Travel Approval (TA) began on Friday, July 24 as that is the date GWCA sent out our signed LSC. The word is that is can take anywhere from 2-5 weeks for our approval to travel, with "WC" kids getting a TA turnaround on the quicker end. Here's hoping that to be true.

One of the questions we were asked involved our little countdown ticker on this page and why the length of time reads only 2.5 years. We started the ticker based on the date our dossier was officially logged in China (2/5/2007) not when we began the paperwork collection to form the dossier. While we were working on everything from June 2006, until you received your LID from CCAA with your completed dossier, your not eligible for a possible match with a child so we used that date to begin the official count down to baby Clark.

LSC in Austin...

We were able to get our signed LSC and the other required documents completed and copied in time for a 6pm pick-up by Fed-ex last night. To be specific, it was a 6:02pm pick-up. How do I know this? I stalked the Fed-ex man. Ok, there I said it. I waited in the car until he came and picked up all the packages from the box. Just call me Glenn Close.

Received an e-mail alert from Fed-ex that the package has already been delivered and signed for by GWCA this morning at 9:23am (8:23am in Austin) so we are off and running.

It looks like it will go to CCAA tomorrow (Friday) with a bunch of other lucky families who received their LSC's too.

(This is one of Will's first photo's that we know of - we don't know exactly from what date/age.)

Fed-ex has arrived...

The Fed-ex man dropped off the package with our LSC at 9:36am EST. It was stamped in China as approved on 7/17/2009 so it got here pretty quickly. We will sign and return it tonight for delivery to GWCA in Austin who will send it back to CCAA on Friday.

Now we wait for our TA. If all goes smoothly, we could be departing in mid September.

This is what it looks like. A simple, single piece of paper makes all the difference!

THE LSC IS COMING, THE LSC IS COMING...

WOW - You won't believe the call that I got on my cell at 4:33pm EST today. Well maybe you can by the title of this message. Stephanie from GWCA called and asked me "if I would like a son". You can imagine what my answer was! CCAA has approved us as Xiaohu's family!

Day 38 must be our lucky day. Tomorrow we should receive a Fed-ex to my office with the official LSC document to sign and return. If we can get it signed and anything else that is required to go with it back to Stephanie by Friday, it will be sent back to CCAA then. At that point CCAA will work on our TA and after that GWCA will secure our Consulate appointment.

2-4 weeks is the average time to get your TA back (we've been told the waiting child track is usually on the shorter side, so fingers crossed) and then another 6 or so weeks after that to travel to pick up the newest Clark. With any luck we'll be in Beijing September.

The kids are excited and we are just thrilled that it's all coming together. Talk about a loooonnnngggg labor. I'm only used to labor lasting from 6 hours at the longest to 20 minutes at the shortest. ;)

More on the LSC tomorrow once I know what it actually is.

Homestudy Update...

Last night we received our 2nd homestudy update since we began the process. The need for this update was to determine if our social worker felt we would be capable to parent a child with a special need. We are happy to report that we got a positive update and they approved us for a special needs child as well as a healthy child of either gender, up to the age of 36 months.

Our special needs, gender and age approved status has paved the way for us to now forward our homestudy to USCIS for their consideration and an update to our I-171 to include a child with special needs so we can continue on with Will's adoption and get through the US Consulate in China without delay.

Now we continue to wait for our LSC and TA! Hopefully we'll have some new information on that this week as we are at day 38 on the LSC countdown.

From the Beginning...

Back in 2000 we attended our first inter-country adoption seminar. We didn't have children at the time and thought this might be the way we wanted to grow our family. Not too long after that I became pregnant and had our first child, a son in May of 2001. Griffin was followed two years later by our first daughter, Elena Grace.

A few years went by and in early 2006 we started talking about adoption again. Talk became action and by June 2006 we found our adoption agency, Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) and started the process.

I use the term process versus journey, as that is exactly what it is, a full blown, long drawn, intrusive process. Not to scare any prospective adoptive parents away, but it's work. I would say this is the "labor pains" portion of adopting.

There are fees, and government forms, and finger prints and background checks, social worker interviews, home studies, birth certificates, references, etc. that have to be obtained, collected, authenticated, notarized, arranged, reviewed and so on.

We managed to accomplish all this by December and GWCA sent our dossier to China on the 22nd. A couple months later we received our official log-in date (LID) of 2/5/2007 from the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). As of this date, the time frames for adopting a healthy baby girl (approximately 10 months old) was about a year and a half, give or take so we figured by the summer of 2008 we should be matched with our daughter.

The summer of 2008 did bring us a beautiful baby girl, Jocelyn, but she came the old fashioned way(and very much by surprise!).

The wait times were growing and were looking more like three to four year now, so we continued to wait. I'd like to say patiently, but that wouldn't be true.

In April of 2009 we attended the East Meets West conference held by our agency, GWCA and I attended a seminar I wasn't even signed up for called "The Waiting Child".

A "Waiting Child" in the terms of Chinese adoption is a child with some level of disability, some mild, some not. GWCA staff had just flown back from Beijing after hosting a three day "rodeo" at an event called Hope Camp at the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute (BCWI) and they had photos of some of the children they had the opportunity to meet.

While watching the slide show I saw this beautiful little baby and even commented to the person sitting next to me how pretty he/she was, but didn't think more about it.

We did however, come home that night and submit a "waiting child" application with our agency just in case this was the way we were to find our child.

In Mid-May GWCA held a webinar with information on the Hope Camp Kids so I decided to attend. Well...there "HE" was again, that beautiful child with the pouty lips that I saw the month before. Staff from our agency met with, held and played with him and offered such sweet descriptions that we asked to see his file.

Needless to say, this is where our journey finally begins, with a few pictures, a brief medical history and hearts filled with love for a boy we've yet to meet, our William Joseph Xiaohu.