Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Article 5

So, I have been working on a blog post for the past month, but my perfectionism just keeps getting in the way.  My chiropractor told me just to get something down, and Brian says, "It just needs to be a paragraph", so here I go...
Today our Article 5 was picked up from the US Consulate in China.  What is the Article 5 you ask?  Well, I just had to google it to find out exactly what it was.  Apparently, all of our paperwork that has been gathered over the past year + had to go to the American Consulate to be reviewed and approved for us to go to China to adopt our little girl.  Our agency has a representative in China that drops off and picks up our paperwork.  She had an appointment to get our Article 5 letter today.  Now we just need to wait for China to give us travel approval (TA).  According to our agency's timeline this should take no more than four weeks, but as we've learned in our prior experiences, it can be longer!  After our TA is granted, then our agency will make an appointment for us at the US Consulate.  They give us the next available appointment and then our plane tickets will be purchased.  Lord willing, we will be able to travel around Easter. 
Yesterday, I got out all the clothes that we have been given and washed and sorted them.  All the size threes are in Shen Yao's drawers or suitcase.  We aren't totally sure what size she wears, so I sorted out all the pants with adjustable elastic.  Hopefully we can make them small enough for her.  She will be three in July, so we are thinking that size will work.  I guess we'll see when we get there.  I don't know if it's better to have to roll up the pant legs or have her in capri pants that weren't meant to be. : ) 
Well, that's not very long, but hopefully if I can get some short posts in, I'll be able to keep you up to date.  It's better than waiting a month between posts, right?