Our dossier is on its way to CHINA!!!!

We are so excited over here, because our dossier, which is all our important paper work that China has asked us to provide (birth and marriage certificates, health forms, employment info, etc) is on its way to China! Now, the count down to our dossier log in date begins and then we count down the days until we get our LOA or Letter of Acceptance! Yay!!!

I-800A Approved!

We just got our I-800A approval notice via email!! Now we just have to get a photocopy of it and then have it notarized, certified by the WI Sec. of State and authenticated by the China Consulate in Chicago.

I love this song and video.... enjoy, oh and grab a tissue! Oh, and I suggest, scrolling down toward the bottom of the blog to the music player. A song will start automatically but if you click on the arrow (triangle on it's side...) button, you can pause the song to listen and watch the video.

Another ICC video with a glimpse of Ava in it

I cannot believe how blessed we have been to receive so many glimpses of our little Ava since starting this journey!  This is another video that has been broadcast by International China Concern, it was created and performed by a group named "The Steels" to bring attention to the orphans in Heng Yang and Changsa China.  If you've watched some of the other videos I've posted by ICC, you may recognize this song from before.

Miss Ava appears for a few seconds starting at 2:45!  She looks sad......... :-( which breaks our hearts!

Our USCIS Application is still in the works.  The application has been there since Oct. 8th.  Our fingerprint appointments were set for Nov. 16th, but going on the advice of two wonderful people "in the know", we attempted a walk-in appointment on Oct 26th (Which just so happens to be Brian's birthday!).  To our pleasant surprise, it worked and although one of the officers there gave us a bit of an attitude, we were in, fingerprinted and on our way home within 45 minutes!  Unfortunately, a week or so later, I made my 1st call to USCIS to find out my finger prints failed.  I went back again as a walk in and unfortunately, those prints failed too.  I called USCIS again, this time, I was able to speak to our caseworker. She told me that when the fingerprint attempts fail twice, they now have a new procedure.  All I needed to do was obtain police background reports for the past 5 years.  That was pretty easy.  We overnighted the reports to her last week and so we know our officer began processing our application last week too.  I just wish this part of the process would go a BIT quicker!