Safari Park

Today we went to the Safari Park. It was really neat, but Carsen didn't really care for it. We rode a train through an area that had white tigers, elephants, lions, bears, camels, giraffes and many other animals. The were really close up. Carsen sort of enjoyed looking at the animals, when he wasn't covering his nose from the animal smell. He did the same thing at the fair, but I thought it was just a fluke then, but nope he has a sensitive nose! He got scared in some of the dark tunnels and stuff so we didn't get to see the pandas, but what we did see was really neat.

Carsen covering his nose from the smell.

Official Adoption Day

On Tuesday, January 7th we returned to the Civil Affairs office to make Avery's adoption official. We had to promise to them that we would take care of her, provide for her needs and never abandon her. We signed a bunch of papers and that was it, she is officially Avery Gracyn Jones.

The past several days we have mostly just been hanging out and getting to know our new daughter and letting her get to know us. We went to the Guangdong medical clinic to have her medical examination done for her visa to the US. She had to have a blood draw for a TB test and this brought on the tears.

She is opening up to us more and we are seeing more of her true personality. She seems to be quite stubborn, used to getting her way and has not been told not much. She likes to latch on a an object and carry it around with her, but when its time to leave or someone else needs that object she does not want to give it up.

Avery Day!

Our guide picked us up from our hotel around 2pm to head to the Guangdong Civil Affairs office. When we got there our guide went to check in and Jamie looked over to another room and said I think I saw her. She had already arrived and as soon as our guide took care of a couple of things they brought her out to us. She didn't cry our act scared. She went to us and started playing with some of the toys we brought. We sat down by my mom and Carsen and she saw the ipad Carsen had. She immediately tried to "help" him with the ipad. We signed some papers, talked to the lady from her orphanage, and took some pictures and we were on our way. Next stop was the Carrefour for needed supplies of diapers, formula, water and snacks for the kids. Then back to the hotel.

She is very curious...looked out the window while riding through the city, walks around the hotel room checking everything out and when food comes out she comes right over and will try anything. She is eating and drinking good for us. She has not had a lot of variety of food, but so far she has liked pretty much everything and is willing to try anything. We have gotten a few smiles and giggles, but you can tell she is still on guard. She went to sleep around 8:30 by herself and is still sleeping now. Today we are going back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the paperwork.

Beijing

We made it to Beijing Thursday evening late after an almost 4 hour delay leaving Chicago. On Friday we went to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. Today we went to the Great Wall. We have enjoyed our time in Beijing, but we are ready to move on with the next part of the trip. Tomorrow we leave Beijing and head to Guangzhou where we will be for the rest of the trip. We will meet Avery Monday afternoon.

Carsen is doing pretty well except his body is not accepting the time change very quickly. He was up at 2am on Friday and at 1am on Saturday and we finally got him back to sleep around 3 and then he slept to a normal time of 7.

The view of the plane getting ready to leave Chicago, it snowed all day.

Carsen watching the plane in Paducah

Carsen loved the Great Wall he would have climbed to the top if someone would have helped him. He loved to lean over the edge and look around.

The whole gang at the Great Wall.

Travel Approval

We are going to China!!!  Our agency received our Travel Approval on Monday and we received our Consulate Appointment on Tuesday.  We are leaving for Beijing on New Year's Day and we will fly to Guangzhou on Monday.  We will meet Avery on January 6th.  Our Consulate Appointment is January 13th and we will return home as a family of 4 on January 15th.  

Happy Halloween and Adoption Update

On the adoption front our I800 was approved last Friday.  Now we are awaiting the National Visa Center to send our things to the US Consulate in Guangzhou so we can have our Article 5 drop off, which is part of the visa process.  This will take about 3 more weeks to complete, then we will be waiting for our Travel Approval.  Carsen was a cowboy for Halloween this year.  He had a good time for the little bit of trick or treating he got to do before the rain started.

LOA!!

Big news this week on the Avery front.  We have been notified by our agency that our LOA, Letter of Acceptance, is on its way from China.  This means we have been officially approved to adoption Avery.  Our next step will be to file our I800 with Citizen's and Immigration Services.  This process takes 2-3 weeks, then we wait for it to sent from the National Visa Center to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China, which takes approximately one week.   Then our Article 5 will be dropped off and be picked up 10 business days later.  Once that is finished we will be officially waiting for China to issue our Travel Approval.  This should occur around the first of December and we are hoping to travel later in December.