We Got Our RA!!!!

We got got our Referral Approval from China today!! This is unheard of to have all this happen so fast! It usually takes at least 1-4 months! What this means is that the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) has finalized & approved the match between Ying and our family and has accepted our letter of intent. Now, we will be able to get in contact with Ying and send her photos, letters, and care packages. This is so exciting! We are just bouncing off the walls over here! We could get our Travel Approval (TA) in the next few weeks....depending on whether the CCAA shuts down for the Olympics or not. We should know more about that within the next week. We could possibly travel as soon as September! AHHHH! We have been waiting so long for this moment... I can't articulate in words how surreal this feels!

There is so much to do and so many things to think about - it can be overwhelming at times. Thanks for your continued prayers that all these pieces will fall in place as we get even closer to bringing Ying home!

About Kaitlyn Ying

Wow! This is finally happening! It's offical now and she's really ours! The emotion is overwhelming as we are letting down our guard and allowing our hearts to celebrate the referral of Ying! Tears of joy are streaming down my face as I write this!

Ying (Kaitlyn) is a healthy, 4'1", 55 lb. 10 year old little girl. She was abandoned on December 8, 1997 and was found late that night when a store owner was closing his shop in the market. She didn't have any papers indicating her birth nor had any objects with her. A search was conducted to find her parents with no success. Her DOB was estimated as December 1, 1997. She is labeled "Special Needs" because of a very small scare on her head and another on her arm. Ying is said to be extroverted in character, smiles a lot, gets along well with others, concentrative, polite, loves praise, sometimes helps her caretakers sweep the floor but likes watching TV the best (Kailey and Ying will be two peas in a pod!! LOL!) She has her own thoughts and opinions about how to solve problems and likes to talk a lot. One of her favorite things to do is try on new clothes and pose in the mirror! We'll have no problem at the mall!

It is unlikely she will know any English, so we will have some challenges with communication! Once we have our Referral Approval, we can send her care packages. We are planning on putting together a small photo album of her new family in America, along with disposable cameras so she can take pictures of her friends, caretakers, the orphanage - the only life she's known for 10 years. That way we can put together a scrapbook for her when we get home. Tanya met a Chinese woman in a class she took last week who speaks, reads and writes fluent Mandarin and said she would be happy to help us with translating. What a blessing!! We plan to label our house (i.e., door, window, bathroom, clock, table, chair, etc.) to help with English. Tanya is also going to get out her old Kindergarten and First grade materials to help her learn letters, sounds, etc. She will go to the same school Tanya teaches at and will get some ELL (English Language Learner)assistance part of the day, as well as in her main 4th grade class. Please pray for her transition into our family. I'm sure it will be very overwhelming for her! We eagerly await with anticipation, excitement, and a bit of the butterflies, for the day we get to hold her in our arms as our forever daughter!!

China Map

Click on map to enlarge
She is in Lanzhou City, Gansu

Got The Call!!

Many of you know our family has been in the very L O N G process of adopting a little girl from China. We were almost ready to pull out of the China program and pursue a local state adoption through another agency, even though deep down inside our heart was in China. We have spent countless hours praying for God's direction - 'cuz we're not getting any younger!! :) Tanya was particularly struggling with adopting an infant or toddler at her age and the ages of Austin and Kailey. We decided in May to change our application to a school-age child. It just seemed to make more sense with our stage in life. On Monday, June 16, 2008 we met with an adoption specialist from Christian Family Care Agency to start the ball rolling in the state direction. We left the door open for China, and just prayed for God's will. However, we feared the unknown of a child coming from the State Foster Care system and the trauma and abuse most these kids suffer. The next day we got the call about Qi Li. All looked good and we proceeded with the adoption. Then, on June 25th we got the most heart-breaking phone call. It turned out the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) made a horrible mistake. Qi Li was already being adopted by another family and someone in their office forgot to pull her off the available child website. It was one of the most difficult things we've had to go through. The CCAA was extremely apologetic and our agency began avocating on our behalf for the CCAA to somehow remedy the situation. After almost three weeks pass, we got another call! We were presented with Ying's referral! We were excited, yet in "cautious" mode. She was a "shared referral", which meant her picture and bio went out to multiple agencies. I finally got a hold of Tim at work and shared her info in a nutshell. It is required by our agency to seek medical advise from a doctor before we can "lock in" her referral. So, Tanya drove the medical report to our pediatrician. Then it was another agonizing five hours to wait for the doctor's call. Ying was healthy as a horse! Tanya immediately called our agency to lock in the referral. Tuesday, July 15th, we sent all the signed documents to Virginia and our agency sent our Electronic Acceptance (AE) along with our Letter of Intent (LOI) to China. Now, we wait a couple months to get our Referral Approval (RA) from China followed by our Travel Approval (TA). Once we have that, our agency makes all our appointments in China and our travel arrangements. We anticipate traveling sometime between October and December 2008!!