An update on Jack!

Wednesday are my designated days to go to the water park.  That way it has already been decided and the kids don't have to wonder and ask everyday when we are going.  Yesterday was a busy morning.  I ran over a large bolt and it was clicking with every turn of the tire.  I dropped off the car at Sears. Got picked up by a friend for bible study.  Bible study was 2 hours, then back to Sears, Costco again (went on Monday) cause we needed cat food...ugh.  I came home and we left for the water park finally. I know, a lot of background info, but I can't tell a story without a ton of detail. lol.  Anyhoo, I was sitting and chatting w/ friends. I checked my phone and Doug texted that when I get home there is an update in our email on Jack from our agency.  REALLY!  I am not going to wait to see this update.  I grabbed my friends leg and said "you have access to the Internet, right?"  I have been waiting to see how he has grown since the last report from October or December (sometimes dates conflict).  Jack is 20lbs and 28in. long.  It does sound a little disproportionate, but he doesn't look it in the pictures.  Oh yeah, his feet are 4.3 inches too.  I guess that is good to know for shoe size. :)  Below is what the orphanage says about Jack:

Dang Zan Biao

7/15/2011 Update


Medical/Development:
His current health is good.
He can walk, can play with toy bricks, but can not run, jump or go up/down stairs
He can say nainai and mama.
He is not potty trained.

Personality:
They call him Biao Biao.
He is outgoing.

General:
His sleeping and diet schedule:
Sleeping time: 9:00pm-6:30am
Nap time: 11:30am-1:30pm
Eating time: 10:00am and 6:00pm
He also drinks formula at 6:00am, 2:30pm and 9:00pm
He eats noodle, congee.
He is in the orphanage.
He received a package from the family.

I have to admit, the pictures aren't the best.  Jack appears much healthier looking in the pictures I received back in April.  Maybe it is because he is getting around a bit more and he is exposed to more.  I don't know.  I guess I had the idea that because he is in a good orphanage he wouldn't have bug bites(it appears that way) and marks all over him.  Doug reminded me that is orphanage life.  There is only so much they can do for these precious little ones.  He also seems to look much older from a few months ago.  That makes me sad, cause he is growing up so fast.  I hope and pray we get our LOA quickly.  I can't wait to hold my little one in my arms!

A quick update

Just wanted to let everyone know some exciting news.  As I posted in my last post, we were waiting for our LID (log in date) and then we will wait for LOA (letter of acceptance). The same day that our agency's representatives hand delivered our dossier to the CCCWA, we were logged in!  I was stunned when I received the email.  Usually it takes a few weeks to be logged in.  Now we are offically waiting for our LOA.  The LOA wait can vary in length.  Once we do receive our LOA we will have a reasonable guess as to when we will be traveling.  I am so excited to be at this step, all with in less than a weeks time!! Praise the Lord!!

Finally our dossier is in China!!

I am so excited to move on to the next step in our adoption journey!! We did finally receive our immigration approval in the mail on July 1st.  It was a long 71 days.  I was able to get the approval notarized and certified at the state capitol on that same day.  Then I got it authenticated on Tuesday, July 5th in San Franciso.  I couldn't go on Monday because of the 4th of July holiday.  I overnighted the document to our agency in Colorado.  They were able to get our dossier translated and put together to send to the Chinese government.  My hope was that they would send it on Friday the 8th.  We were told they would email us when they sent it.  Friday came and went and no email came through.  I feel this constant reminder that I need to trust in the Lord.  His timing is always perfect.  I felt pretty good over the weekend, not too disappointed that it wasn't sent.  I thought about it, of course, but not consumed.  I see it as a victory!  Hopefully dreams don't count as being consumed....lol.  I am a dreamer, every night pretty much. Yesterday I wasn't home and texted Doug to check our email to see if the dossier had been sent.  At one point I had him check for another email and was waiting for him to respond.  This was his text: "Just received an email 8 minutes ago that our dossier was sent to China late Friday afternoon!!!!!!!!"  I was secretly hoping that they had sent it Friday and just didn't have the chance to notify us.  It was such great news!!  I also share Doug's quote because he is so cute when he is excited.  I have found that he is just as excited about every step as I am.  Once we decided to adopt our hearts have been in sync.  Not that they usually aren't, but I thought he would be more a go with the flow kind of guy in this process.  He is just as passionate for our little Jack than anyone else.  He even lets me pay the extra fees to overnight these packages so that they get there at 8 rather than 10 the next morning.  It is exciting to share this with my wonderful husband!! 

The next couple steps are:
1) Wait for China to log us in to their system, which is called log in date (LID) after LID we
2) Wait for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) which is China accepting us to officially adopt Jack. 
These two steps can take up to 10-12 weeks. Yikes that seems like such a long time.  I hope and do pray it is sooner.