I-800 Approval!

Today in the mail we received our Notice of Provisional Approval of our Form I-800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative) from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Our paperwork now goes to the USCIS National Visa Center (NVC) where it will be processed and a 'cable' (which I suspect is really an email these days) will be sent to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China to let them know we have approval for Mei Mei's US Visa. An 'Article 5' letter will then be generated by the US Consulate in Guangzhou. Our agency will send a courier to pick up that letter and ship it to the China Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing. China will then process our final paperwork and issue our Travel Approval. Then, once we actually get to China and adopt Mei Mei in China, we get to do a bunch more paperwork and processing at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, including a medical exam for her, TB testing and vaccinations, and an oath-taking ceremony, in order to actually obtain her US immigrant Visa. Doesn't this process sound simple and straight forward - HA!

We are getting so close now! We hope to get TA sometime in January and complete the adoption formalities before the beginning of Chinese New Year, which begins February 14th, and perhaps stay for some of the festivities.

Oh, and here are pictures of the birthday cake we sent to Mei Mei and the fruit basket for her foster family. The cake has the Chinese characters for 'Happy Birthday' and the little animal is a snake - Mei Mei was born in the Year of the Snake.

We used a regular Chinese delivery service rather than an adoption care package service , so no pics of her with her cake, unfortunately. It was much faster and less expensive that way and I have a package on the way. I am having too much fun shopping for gifts for Mei Mei, most of which we will bring with us to China. We are bringing her her own digital camera to take pictures and a Leapster 2 handheld game and cartridges for entertainment and to help with language acquisition. Lots of markers, notepads. Next on my list are clothes! If you have suggestions for your favorite place to clothes shop for an 8 year old girl, please do tell! I need to bring lots of layers - it will be cold in Wuhan and even colder in Beijing if we can get her there, and in the 60's in Guangzhou. Need a bathing suit, too for indoor pools! Of course, we can shop in China too (and almost certainly will)!

Hugs, Laura Beth

Happy Birthday, Mei Mei!

Our girl turned 8 today! We had a birthday cake delivered to her and a fruit basket for her foster family. I am putting a care package in the mail this week with some more goodies for her too. I so wish she could have been home with us for this birthday! I have bought her lots of things, but plan on taking many of them with us to China to surprise her with, to break the ice, and to keep her entertained.

A few days after we sent our previous care package, we received a brief email (in Chinese) from Wuhan Children's Welfare Institute confirming its receipt...along with an quick update and two pictures! According to the email, Mei Mei is 130cm tall and 30kg, or about 4 feet 3 inches tall, and 66 pounds. I am having a hard time believing the weight, which would put her near the 80th percentile on the US growth charts. Especially looking at the way her pants are drooping off her little body in her new pics! I think she was weighed with all of her clothes and her coat on (and maybe her bicycle or something, too???)

I was very surprised, to say the least, that Mei Mei's cute pigtails are gone! Her hair has been cropped quite short, as you can see. Sort of a boy cut, unfortunately. I know it is shallow to be upset about someone chopping off my daughter's hair, but I will freely admit that I am. I have no idea why they would have cut her hair so severely. Of course hair will grow. And I am very glad that I found out now, rather than when we meet her face to face for the first time in China! I am not sure that I would have been able to disguise my surprise! So, I will leave all the cute pony tail holders at home and pack lots of hair clippies and some head bands instead, and some feminine looking clothes, so our beautiful girl won't be mistaken for a boy. I think that she has lovely, delicate features. Now, if we can just put a real smile back on her face!

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I am trying not to read to much into her expressions in these photos (sadness, apprehension, perhaps fear?) and I am hoping that she was just in a big rush, whisked off to the Wuhan Children's Institute for quick measurements and an unexpected photo shoot. I see that she is wearing the same Snoopy coat that she was wearing in her photos in March, which is much too large for her. Hopefully she got her new pink coat from us the same day! I was hoping for a big smile so that I could see if she has front teeth now.

Long hair, shorn hair or no hair at all, she is our daughter and we think that she is beautiful. As a matter of fact, it was the picture below, taken when she was about the same age as Eliana is now and about to go in for her shunt surgery, that made me fall in love with her:

With beauty like this, who needs hair???? Just look into those eyes. She has a beautiful soul and has been through way too much for one so young - too much sadness. I can hardly wait to meet her face to face and love on her. I just hope she will let me.

Hugs,
Laura Beth