China Map

CA!

Our appointment with the American Consulate has been confirmed!
November 17th. Now for the travel arrangements part. So NeRvOuS!!  :)

TA!

We have received our Travel Approval!!! Our wonderful travel advisor, Jenny, will be working on getting our American Consulate Appointment verified. We will be traveling early November! Watch our blog for updates.  :)

Also ... our passports/visas arrived today!!! Thank you Kathy for signing for them for us! Love you!

I LOVE it when things fall into place!

Ouchie Mama!

Seriously ... my arm is sore. I had my recommended shots today. Flu/H1N1, Tetnus/diptheria, first dose of Hep A/B .... and Typhoid! That's the one that stung! Boo. I'm glad I didn't need the Anthrax shot. I guess that one will bring you to your knees. Hmmm ... I wonder if there is ice cream in the house?

Still waiting for Travel Approval ....

Travel approvals may take 3-6 weeks to receive. Tomorrow, April 16, will be the two week mark. So ... we have a few weeks to wait yet.

Once we receive our TA, our agency will request our American Consulate appointment in Guangzhou.

Once that appointment is confirmed, we will have our travel dates confirmed!  :)

We are going to be PARENTS!

Elijah James Peters

Chinese Name: Sen Lin Luo (pronounced: Sun Leen Law)

He is living in Xining City, Qinghai Province

Birthday: August 23, 2008

Our LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) has been signed by us, sent back to GWCA, and they sent it back to the CCAA. They will get it Monday! Now we are waiting on our Travel Approval. I am guessing and hoping we will be traveling by the end of November. We are thrilled! Lots to do!

Growth Report Excerpts

These are some of the things we know about our son. Elijah has a cleft palate and a repaired cleft lip that will probably need revision. He sounds like an active two-year-old ... which is great! His foster family obviously cares for him greatly and had alot to say in his growth report.

He is not choosy to food. He likes to eat flour food, steamed stuffed bun, dumplings, etc made by foster mother. Likes to eat fruit such as grapes and bananas. But he doesn't eat apples. They added that he swallows well.
When he sleeps he has to bite on his own sleeve.
He can walk alone, pick up small things, draw lines with a pen, go upstairs while holding onto the stairs, jump off the floor with both feet and the strength in his upper limbs is good.
"One day we saw the little child jumping off the ground with both feet as he held the refrigerator handle."
"Compared to his peers he is a little shorter. We believe that this kind of child is very clever. His eyes are very beautiful, very bright and his eyelash is very long. When you first meet him you will never think that he is naughty. But after a period of time you will find that this child is very clever, full of wisdom in his eyes, has a strong imitating ability, is active and restless, and has a ready smile and his smile is infectious."
"He likes to play water and telephone, if you do not supervise him he will wet his whole body." Sounds like a future kayaker!
He likes to go out to play, to play with his family and he can also play alone.
"At home Senlin is spoiled, often comes into conflict with another fostered older sister. He is not afraid of strangers, after a longer time he will be very familiar with you, and likes to play with you. If you ask him for something he will be very generous."
"He likes to eat jelly, every time when he goes to supermarket he will put a bag of jelly in the basket, and his family said that no one had taught him how to eat jelly, but he can squeeze the jelly to make the package broken, and then tears off the package with his small hands, takes it out little by little with his hands and eats. He is such a clever and cute baby!"

Hello Package

We sent a package to SenLin. It will go to Ann of Red Thread first. She has all of the addresses to the SWIs. We included a letter to his caretakers and a list of questions. Ann will translate them into Chinese for us and then send the goodies on to him! We included a camera in hopes that they will take more photos of him. And a photo album with photos of us ... so he can get an idea of what we look like before he meets us in person. Hopefully he will get it by the end of the month.  :)

I just wanted to add a note about the referral we received in June. We are sad that things worked out the way they did with him. The little boy who was to be Benjamin will always be in our hearts. We pray for the best for him and hope that God will ease his pain.