1 Year + 4 months......

Today Madi turns 1 year + 4 months & we are really starting to loose our patience not knowing anything else about her. For months now, we only have her original developmental report & 3 photos. 

 3 PHOTOS ONLY of our precious daughter!

We have tried our best to be patient as we are on the last process with the governments waiting on 2 more documents before they can assign us a travel date & consulate appointment in China. 

In the meantime, our agency has been trying to get us an updated report with new photos, but has been unsuccessful. With the new rules under the Hague Treaty, agencies should really not be having any contact with the orphanages while families are waiting for final travel approvals from the US. 

We understand these new rules are to ultimately protect the children, 

however.......we are real people, with real feelings and we are heartbroken, and desperate for any new information. It seems almost cruel to only give a few details to new parents who have waited years to see their baby's face for the first time, a few outdated photos, and then have them wait even more, not knowing whether their baby is walking, talking, happy, sad.....

So.....in comes Ann from RedThreadChina to the rescue!

Ann is pretty well known throughout the China Adoption community, and we are kicking ourselves for not contacting her much earlier. Ann lives in Guanzhou, China, near where the Consulate is & where we will go to on our last leg of our trip to complete Madi's adoption. 

Ann's business specializes in sending care packages to your child's orphanage, handling donations, translations, etc. & with a minimum purchase of $60 she will ( try her very best ) to get updated photos of our daughter and any other information she can ). We have already exchanged a few emails & although nothing is certain yet, we already love her & feel confident she will help us, as she has helped many other families with much success. 

Please pray that she will be successful so this mama and baba can have a little bit of peace knowing that our little one is still growing healthy & is being prepared as much as possible to know that we are coming for her. 

Adoption Process Update:

We are waiting to hear word from USCIS on whether our I800 application was approved, then cabled to China.

Once this is done, we will wait on what they call an Article 5, which is a document that allows us to gain custody of Madeline.

Then after our Article 5 is received, we should receive our travel approval.

We are looking at a minimum of 5 more weeks....however there is a big national holiday in China happening in October in addition to a trade fair, so we are not exactly sure what this will do to our travel plans.

For now, we will not even think about it, and will be easily content with having just a few more photos & updated details on our daughter to keep us happy while we continue to wait.

Thank you to all who have been following & sending us your support!