Tia Time: smelling the flowers

I decided to work on my photography skills with these flowers. Silly Miss Tia who never likes to be in photos for me, didn't want me to take any photos without her in them either! She climbed up on the counter in her Princess outfit-of-the-day to smell the flowers (or get in the way of me taking a photo!).

processed in lightroom with Rebecca Lily's Faded Olive preset (just learning Lightroom that I recently purchased for the $99 student price, anyone with a child in school qualifies! anyhow I don't quite have it figured out.).

Our Timeline

January/February 2007 I start feeling a strong desire to adopt a little girl from Asia. Could this be something God has planned for our lives?

March 2007 - I mention to Matt that I really want to adopt a little girl - he says OK - let's do it! (If Matt agrees It MUST be God's will!)

March/April/May - Research countries, agencies, Visa's into Australia, homestudy agencies etc. Leaning towards Taiwan. I fill out an application for Taiwan with the intentions to send it the next day. The agency never returns my email about how to apply! The next day I find an email on the CHIWaitingKids site by an American who is at the Embassy in Canberra. Their family is already matched with a waiting little girl in China with CHI. She tells me more about their agency and their overseas co-ordinator. This feels so right! It seems this is where our daughter is! We contact CHI and have a pre-application sent to review their next list of Waiting Kids - List #18.

May 2007 Our daughter is not on list #18 but we sign with CHI and start gathering all the documents to be totally paperready for List #19 Just in Case!

June 16-18 Our social worker flies into Sydney to do our homestudy.

July 12 Email final documents to our social worker Megan, she sends me a draft 2 hours later.

July 14 Our social worker Megan emails me to let me know she has made the revisions requested by CHI and myself and has emailed her final draft to CHI.

July 23, We mail the rest of our dossier documents to CHI.

August 1, Heidi at CHI lets us know our documents have arrived, they look good and are being sent for authenticating.

August 7, We receive our homestudy from CHI
We also find out List #19 has arrived at CHI and the files are being translated! We are told we will most likely receive a referral in the next 2 weeks.

August 8, We send our homestudy to Bangkok Thailand where it will join our other documents required to satisfy US immigration requirements.

August 14, We receive the referral for a 12 month old little girl our agency has given the name of "Crystal Spring".

August 16, We accept the referral for Crystal Spring

August 17, We receive an updated photo where Crystal Spring is in a creeping position.

August 21, We receive our I171 approval from Immigration!

August 23, We receive the paperwork to submit our LOI (Letter of Intent to adopt) at 1 pm via FedEx, at 4:30 we give the signed and completed LOI to the Fed Ex man - to go back to the US!

August 27, 10 :30 am CHI receives the LOI from us.

September 5, CHI sends LOI to China - expected arrival September 7

September 6, Completed dossier sent away for authenticating, state seals and China seals.

September 7, LOI arrives in China

September 28, CHI emails us that our final agency payment has arrived in their office and our completed dossier is just waiting for PA so it can be sent to China!

I get smacked on the face by a ladybug while at the park with the kids . . .

October 5, We receive Pre Approval from China.

October 11, Our Dossier is sent to China. (DTC)

October 15, Our dossier arrives at the CCAA

December 1, We find out we have a LID of 10/18

January 2, We are shocked and THRILLED to find out we have an LOA!

January 7, Our LOA arrives in Australia - Matt and I sign it and run it to the central office so it can get on the night flight to the USA.

January 8, LOA finally leaves for the US

January 9, Attempted delivery - it is 4 hours past expected delivery and noone is home to accept it - will be re-delivered tomorrow :(

January 10, LOA is delivered - but for some reason doesn't get sent to China - we've now lost 2 days! This is frustrating!

January 11, LOA sent to China
January 14, LOA arrives at CCAA
January 29, TA granted
Huge snowstorm in China, Trains are not leaving and the trainstations are congested with hundreds of thousands of people. We worry that our CA will be affected, and we worry about leaving in 3 weeks If it isn't.

We find out our CA is 3/10 - a week later than we hoped, so we are relieved that the effects of the snowstorm should be cleared up by then.

February 27, Fly to Beijing
March 2, Fly to Hangzhou
March 3, Meet Tia!
March 7, Fly to Guangzhou
March 10, CA
March 12, Go to HK Disney
March 14, Flight to Sydney
March 15, Arrive home in Sydney, Australia

This was our prayer for Tia while waiting for her to come home. God heard our prayers!

Posting at SHINE

Thursday, June 18, 2009

smelling the flowers

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Kristiana Hope "Tia"

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This was our prayer for Tia while waiting for her to come home. God heard our prayers!