Well, we have certainly been busy. The school year has begun and we are slowly getting back into the routine. Colby is now in Second grade! Amazing! I am still at the same school this year and it is as crazy as ever. We have begun a new assessment system so I was back early for training on our new iPads. Then I had to give the professional development. Change certainly is tricky but I think this new system will be much more helpful than the old DRA reading assessment we gave previously.
Anyway, as for our little peanut. She still waits for us in Beijing. I did order her a care package through Ann at Red Thread. It was easier to order a few things through her than send them through customs. I was able to order a stuffed panda bear, some cookies, a thumb drive so the orphanage can give us a few photos of her, and a little photo album. Hopefully she will get them soon and she can see who her mama, baba (daddy) and big brother are.
As for paperwork, all of our paperwork is at the US Embassy in China. It is waiting for an Article 5 which really gives us permission to take custody of her. The I800 that we got at the end of August gave her permission to enter the US as a legal immigrant now the Art5 lets us take custody of her. It is the last piece of paper we need to get our travel approval. All the paperwork was dropped off on Tues 9/2. It takes 10 business days to get an Art5, not counting holidays. There was a Chinese holiday on the 8th so we won't have our Art5 until this Thurs 9/18. We are praying for a quick travel approval before the Chinese government shuts down for the first week in October for another holiday. We should have it before then but it will be close. Hopefully we will get it and we can then ask for the first available Consulate Appointment (CA). Just a few more steps and we will be in Beijing holding our little peanut. We are so close but yet still waiting. It is getting harder and harder, especially knowing we can't hurry anything along and that a holiday is what is keeping us from her.
So, please continue to pray that we get our Travel Approval quickly and we get a CA in October. I don't think I can wait much longer to hold sweet Madeline Mae!
