We're Going to China!

Our TA arrived today! That's right, folks, we are cleared for travel to China!

Right now it looks like we'll arrive on March 11th and meet WanYing on the 14th - that's only 2 1/2 weeks away!!! Hopefully tomorrow WACAP will have confirmation on our consulate appointment and then we'll start flight shopping!

There's so much to do between now and then, but the truth is that as long as we have 5 plane tickets there, 6 home, and 5 visas (as shown here by the lovely Sasha), the rest is just details :)

Adoption Update - Article 5 Enroute to the CCAA

We got confirmation today that our Article 5 was picked up from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou and is enroute to the CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs)! That means that the only thing standing between us and WanYing (besides like 20 hours of travel) is our Travel Authorization!

WACAP advises that the TA usually takes 2-5 weeks to arrive, so that means it could arrive between 2/23 and 3/16, and from there all we have to do is book flights and get ourselves to China! We're definitely a-hoping and a-praying that we're on the 2 week side of the 2-5 weeks - we even heard of one family who got their TA in 2 days right before Chinese New Year, which is amazing. 2 days would be awesome, 2 weeks would still be great - I just want to see my baby in March :)

Timeline updated.

More exciting official-looking envelopes

Oh my gosh, we're really getting close now!  Woo hoo!

Yesterday we got a letter from the Bureau of Consular Affairs (don't these all sound so official?!?) verifying that on the 14th they sent WanYing's I-800 approval to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou.

Here are the (blessedly few!) remaining paperwork steps:

• Thursday morning, WACAP (our agency) will apply with the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou for our Article 5
• The Article 5 usually takes exactly 2 weeks, but it will be delayed a little for Chinese New Year, so they'll pick up the Article 5 when the Consulate opens again on February 7th
• Our Article 5 will be delivered to the CCAA (Chinese Children's Adoption Authority) on the 9th when they open again after Chinese New Year
• And then we wait somewhere between 2 and 5 weeks for our Travel Authorization!

Once we get our Travel Authorization (TA), we can travel at any time, so we'll travel just as quickly as we can make our flights and reservations, probably around 3 weeks after receiving our TA.

What does all of this mean?  Well, in the best case we'll leave around March 15th.  If the TA takes longer to come, we may leave in early April.  Either way, we're getting close!

For all of the paperwork details and dates, see our full China Adoption Timeline

I-800 Provisional Approval!

I'm sure this is the only period of my life when I will say this, but I love it when I see letters from Homeland Security in our mailbox!

Today we received notice of the Provisional Approval of WanYing's I-800. Basically, this is USCIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) saying that we can adopt WanYing and bring her into the U.S.  Or, if you'd like to read it in their words, "USCIS concludes that Wan Ying Ling will
qualify as a Convention adoptee under secion 101(b)(1)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), as amended, if you complete the proposed adoption or obtain custody of Wan Ying Ling for the purpose of emigration and adoption."

Woo hoo!

Now the U.S. Consulate in China issues an Article 5 document to the Chinese government confirming that WanYing can enter the U.S. and then China invites us to come and get our daughter! Can't believe that we should be traveling in 2 months(ish)!

And if you want all of the gory details, our full timeline has been updated.

Signing our Letter Seeking Confirmation

Last Friday we signed and sent off the hard copy of WanYing's official Letter Seeking Confirmation, our official acceptance of China's official "matching" us and WanYing.

So, from the Chinese government's perspective, our baby is ours!  Hooray!

What's next?  Well, the U.S. government is now the only thing standing between us and our little girl.  Grrr.  Actually, this process and timeline is totally normal, it just irks me when I have to wait on people who are supposed to be on "my" side.

Anyway, now the USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) approves our I-800 - we already have an I-800A, which is the pre-approval for our daughter's visa, now they just have to issue the visa specifically for WanYing now that we know who our daughter is.  Then USCIS tells China that she has a visa, China issues a Travel Authorization for us, and we make our travel plans!  There are a few other stops along the papertrail, but that's the gist of what's to come.  Full details are available on our China Timeline.

Our guess is that we'll receive our Travel Authorization in February and travel in March.  Can't wait!

New WanYing Photo and Corrected Letter Seeking Confirmation

Today we got two very special WanYing emails!  The first was from the ever-fantastic Elizabeth from WACAP with a scan of our corrected Letter Seeking Confirmation for WanYing.  You'll be happy to know that our daughter is, in fact, a daughter in this version of the letter.  Checking the box that says, "We accept the adoptee mentioned above" sure felt great!

The second was an updated photo from the sainted Laura in Spain.  Seeing our little gal with the omnipresent toddler scratches and bruises (at least they're omnipresent on our kids, maybe other peoples' children are less accident-prone... but I doubt it) makes me want to scoop her up and kiss her owies and be Mommy to her forever all the more.  We sure can't get to China fast enough.

Come on, paperwork fairies, fly swiftly with our 800's and 684's and 230's and Article 5's!

Letter Seeking Confirmation!

Wahoo!  Our fabulous WACAP coordinator Elizabeth called today with great news - they received our Letter Seeking Confirmation today!

This is one big step closer to our WanYing - the Letter Seeking Confirmation means that China has reviewed our dossier and WanYing's file and has agreed that we can adopt our little girl.  And it means that we can send her care package now and announce to our daughter in one small way that her family is a-coming.

There was one little snag with our LSC... in the letter, WanYing is marked as a boy instead of a girl.  It may take a couple of days for WACAP to get an updated LSC with her correct gender, but that's ok, the fact that we got our letter in less than two months more than makes up for a slight delay of gender confusion.

What's next?  Once we get the corrected Letter Seeking Confirmation, we return it with our confirmation that we want WanYing to be our little girl.  Then WACAP will apply for WanYing's U.S. visa.  We're pre-approved for a visa, but now USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) needs to match WanYing with the pre-approved visa.  This takes about 2 months and then we'll get our Travel Authorization from China and we're cleared to go get our little one!

So, we're still on track for a March gotcha :)

And, as always, our full adoption timeline is up-to-date.

Pre-Approval!

The sweetest words (besides, "get on the next plane to China") that a mommy can read:What? You need a little help with that? Here's the translation that came with the letter:

The application of Stephen Morningstar and Jamie Morningstar for the adoption of LING WAN YING from Shangrao the Center of the Children's Welfare, Jiangxi Welfare Institute Jiangxi province that you submitted was received. It is hereby advised that with a review of the Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan for the Child made by the family, the China Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to move this application file into the procedure for adoption of special-need children.

China Centre of Adoption Affairs

Ok, I guess that the actual verbage doesn't sound super warm and snuggly, but from where we're sitting, that feels like a big ol' hug from the Chinese government!

Now we wait 1-4 months (how's that for a spread?) for our Letter Seeking Confirmation. That's the official, final Chinese OK that they're cool with us adopting WanYing. Once we get the Letter Seeking Confirmation and return our confirmation (she will be well confirmed) then we can send her a care package! Fun! Oh, and we also get to start the USCIS end of the paperwork (another 2 months) - remember, we're pre-approved for a visa, but we still have to match that pre-approval to WanYing. And then we go, go, go!

Exhaustive details are, as always available on our China timeline.

For now, we're just enjoying that the "the China Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to move this application file into the procedure for adoption of special-need children" - sounds almost as good as Sasha squealing, "That my widdle sister! My Mei Mei, WanYing!"

Introducing Wan Ying Ling

We are thrilled to introduce you to our daughter, Wan Ying LingHere's what we know right now about our new little one:
Birthday: February 6, 2009, so she's currently 20 months old
Current Height: 30 inches (76 cm)
Current Weight: 19.8 lbs (9 kg)
Favorite activity: playing games
Favorite toy: dolls
Wan Ying currently lives with a foster family in the Jiangxi Province under the jurisdiction of the Children’s Welfare Center of Shangrao City.

Wan means a great number and Ying means reflect or shine, so I'm thinking we should nickname her Glitter... but Steve's leaning towards Dragon Slayer, so we'll keep you posted on the nickname wars.

We have submitted our Letter of Intent to adopt Wan Ying to WACAP (our agency) and they will add it to her file today. From there, we have many more bureaucratic steps to work through (see our full China timeline for the gory details) but we're hopeful that we will travel to China shortly after her 2nd birthday in March or April of 2011 to bring our daughter home! Happy, happy day!

LID!

We just got great news from WACAP - we have a log in date for China! WACAP sent our dossier to China. We were officially logged in by CCAA on September 30, 2010, just one week after Wahoo!

So, we have our Dossier, we have our LID, all we need now is our baby girl :) Hopefully we'll know who she is this month!

For the full process, see our China timeline.

Dossier Sent to China

Quick paperchase update - our dossier was sent to China today!

Keep fingers crossed and prayers said (one perhaps more than the other) for the speedy assignment of a Logged in Date (LID) in time for the October shared list release!

Paper-ready!

Wahoo! That's right - that's one completed dossier strewn madly around us! Admittedly, our China dossier looks a little less... um... intense than our Kaz dossier, but that's only because you're not looking closely enough. Let's zoom in a little...

Each document is verified not twice like with Kaz (notarization and appostiling). No, no, no - each document in pursuit of Mei Mei is verified four times - notarization, verification by the state of issuance (for us, mostly Utah, except for our birth and marriage certificates from Maryland), verification by the U.S. Department of State, and verification by the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. Wowsers - we have never been so official!

So, what's next?

1. Once our agency, WACAP, receives our precious FedEx package (currently scheduled for Thursday, you know I'll be watching that tracking number like a hawk), they send it to CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs
2. CCAA gives us the all-important Logged In Date (LID)
3. As long as our LID is before the date of the next shared list publication, roughly one month from now, we should have the opportunity to look over a file in October
4. If we feel like the little one's file we receive is our daughter, we officially start pursuing Mei Mei
5. Travel four to six months after, probably sometime between February and April

The Adoption Timeline has been updated - hooray for being one giant step closer to our little one!

Adoption Update - I-800A arrived!

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled Wednesday afternoon activities to let you know that our I-800A arrived in the mail today! I will never insult USCIS again (until the next time they make me wait for something I'm impatient for) - we may have waited 45 days for our fingerprinting appointment, but to receive the notification of approval just 5 days after our prints were taken is faboo.

The words "Approval Notice" and "Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country" sure do look sweet together.

Tomorrow we send it all off to the Utah Lt. Governor's office for verification - it feels great to have this last piece of paper in-hand!

Adoption Update

Yesterday's fingerprinting appointment at USCIS was wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am easy. Hooray! Now we just wait for our I-800A (the pre-approval for Mei Mei's visa) and our China dossier is complete.

Here's the current state-of-the-checklists:

Done:

• Financial Statement
• City of Orem Adult Criminal History Records Request
• Employment letters
• Notarized forms from our doctors stating that we're not medically interesting
• Birth and Marriage certificates from Maryland, Verified by the Lt. Governor
• Adoption application letter
• Family photos
• Education hours
• Homestudy
• I-800A application sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
• I-800A fingerprinting appointment at USCIS

Still to do:

• I-800A approval
• Verify all of the documents with the Utah Lt. Governor's Office (it's like the apostilling we had to do for Kaz only different, and don't ask me what the difference is)
• Send all documents after they've been verified by the Md. and Utah Lt. Governors to the U.S. State Department for double-super verification
• Send all documents verified by the U.S. State Department to the Chinese Consulate in DC for triple-super verification

And then we'll be paper-ready and WACAP can send our dossier to CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs). Whew!

We're still on-track to be matched this fall and travel in the spring. We're sure looking forward to be dossier-complete!

For all of the gory paperwork details, please see our China Adoption Timeline.

Waiting a month for fingerprints

One small step closer to Mei Mei - we finally got our USCIS fingerprinting appointment! This is the last prerequisite for the pre-approval for Mei Mei's visa (the hallowed I-800A), which is the last piece of paper we need in order for our dossier to be complete.

Unfortunately, the appointment isn't until August 20th, and then it will probably take 2 or 3 weeks beyond that for the I-800A to be issued, but at least we finally have an appointment!

After receiving our I-800A, all of our paperwork needs to be verified by the Utah Lt. Governor's office, the Dept. of State in DC, and the Chinese Consulate in DC, but those steps should be pretty short.

Timeline updated - and we're still within striking distance of a match in late September or October, traveling 4 to 6 months after that.

We're coming, little one, we just have a few jillion more bureaucratic hurdles to transcend!

China Adoption Timeline

A moment-by-moment, signature-by-signature timeline of our adoption journey. Click here to see our Kazakhstan adoption timeline.

Phase 1: Decisions

• Spring 2010 - Consider bringing another child into our family. Research countries, seek out waiting child programs
• Late April 2010 - Telling family and close friends about our decision to adopt
  
• Late April 2010 - Intense agency research and interviews with agencies and parents who have adopted using each agency on our short list
• May 3, 2010 - Decided on WACAP and sent in application - paperwork collection begins
• May 9, 2010 - Announce our paper pregnancy!
  

Phase 2: Paperwork

• May - Mid-June 2010 - Attempt to get an abuse clearance from Kazakhstan since Jamie "lived" there for 2 months in 2009. After roughly a million attempts, decide that it's the impossible dream.
  
• May 22, 2010 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses sent to Maryland for verification
  
• May 31, 2010 - Verified copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses received from Maryland
• July 2, 2010 - Final homestudy interview with Families for Children - homestudy done!
• June 7, 2010 - Education hours completed
  
• July 7, 2010 - I-800A application sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
• August 20, 2010 - I-800A fingerprinting appointment at USCIS (45 days after application)
  
• August 25, 2010 - I-800A pre-approval
  (50 days after application, 5 days after fingerprinting)
• August 26, 2010 - Send all documents to Utah Lt. Governor office for verification
• September 4, 2010 - All verified documents received back from Utah Lt. Governor office
  
• September 4, 2010 - Send all documents to U.S. Department of State and then Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. for authentication (sent via courier who does both authentications)
  
• September 20, 2010 - paper-ready! All documents back from Department of State and the Chinese Embassy! Sent documents to WACAP for them to send to CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs)
• September 23, 2010 - WACAP sends our dossier to China
  
• September 30, 2010 - Logged In Date (LID) from CCAA indicating that they have received and done initial processing on our paperwork (LID received 10/14)
  

Phase 3: Pursuit

• October 19, 2010 - receive info about Wan Ling and pray, think, research, ask for updates, and seek medical guidance
• October 22, 2010 - Submit our Letter of Intent to adopt Wan Ling!
  
• October 27, 2010 - Receive Pre-Approval from China (5 days after Letter of Intent was submitted)
  
• December 9, 2010 - CCAA (China) issues Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) (just shy of 7 weeks after Letter of Intent was submitted)
• December 17, 2010 - I-800 application received by USCIS (remember, we already got pre-approval) and DS-230 sent to U.S. Consulate in China
• December 17, 2010 - we return signed LSC
• January 4, 2011 - USCIS issues provisional approval of I-800 (18 days after application was received)
• January 14, 2011 - USCIS sends approval to U.S. Consulate in China (received notification on January 19th)
• February 7, 2011 - U.S. Consulate issues Article 5 letter for delivery to CCAA (delayed because of Chinese New Year)
• February 9, 2011 - we apply for Chinese visas
• February 22 - CCAA issues travel approval (13 days after Article 5 was delivered))
• February 23 - U.S. Consulate appointment confirmed for 23 March!

Phase 4: Travel!

• March 8-10 - Flights to Beijing (please don't remind me that our flights spanned 3 calendar days!)
• March 10-13 - Sightseeing in Beijing
• Evening of March 13 - Fly to Nanchang
• March 14 - Meet WanYing and begin custody
• March 15-17 - Sightseeing in Nanchang and getting to know ourselves as a family of 6!
• March 18 - Fly to Guanzhou
• March 19 - WanYing's medical exam for her U.S. visa
• March 20-22 - Sightseeing in Guanzhou
• March 23 - WanYing's U.S visa interview
• March 24 - Pick up WanYing's U.S. visa
• March 25 - Travel to Hong Kong
• March 26-28 - Sightseeing in Hong Kong
• March 28 - Depart for Salt Lake 
• Early in the morning March 29 - Home!  The real adventure begins :)

Phase 5: Home Again!

• April 14 - One Month a Morningstar
• April 22 - Certificate of Citizenship Received (24 days after returning home)
• May 9 - WanYing's hand surgery to separate the fingers of her right hand
• May 14th - Two Months a (Chatty) Morningstar

Adoption Update

Hooray, hooray - our I-800A application was sent to Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) today! This is the pre-approval for Mei Mei's visa and it's the hardest part of the whole process because it requires the homestudy, background checks, applications, and large checks. Who knew that obtaining a visa for a yet-to-be-named child was so expensive?

Here's the current state-of-the-checklists:
Done:

• Financial Statement
• City of Orem Adult Criminal History Records Request
• Employment letters
• Notarized forms from our doctors stating that we're not medically interesting
• Birth and Marriage certificates from Maryland, Verified by the Lt. Governor
• Adoption application letter
• Family photos
• Education hours
• Homestudy
• I-800A application sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Still to do:

• Fingerprinting appointment at USCIS
• I-800A approval
• Verify all of the documents with the Utah Lt. Governor's Office (it's like the apostilling we had to do for Kaz only different, and don't ask me what the difference is)
• Send all documents after they've been verified by the Md. and Utah Lt. Governors to the U.S. State Department for double-super verificiation

And then we'll be paper-ready and WACAP can send our dossier to the Chinese Consulate! Whew!

We're still on-track to be matched this fall and travel in the spring. Hooray for being one step closer to Mei Mei!

Adoption Update

How fun to be writing adoption updates again! I know that absolutely nobody is half as interested in our paperchase as we are (as it should be), but here's a summary the current state-of-the-paperwork.

Done:

• Financial Statement
• City of Orem Adult Criminal History Records Request (shew, glad that China will have notarized documentation that we have no outstanding warrants in the metropolis of Orem)
• Jamie's employment letter
• Dr. Appointments for the "General Physical Examination for Adoption Applicant" form. Found a doctor in Provo with a notary in the office and had our appointments today - hooray! So much easier than carting around our own notary. Need to wait 10 days for all of our bloodwork to come back and verify that we're not medically interesting
• Requested birth and marriage certificates from Maryland - do you think that the State of Maryland will ever stop and wonder why we need copies of our marriage license every few years?

Still to do:

• I-800A from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This requires:
  • Abuse clearance from Kazakhstan. Sigh. This is my new least favorite part of the process. I have emailed every ambassador and consulate on the internet (and, no, I don't know what the difference between "Ambassador" and "Consular" is) and am still pursuing any kind of background check I can procure from Kaz. If anybody can point me to where to request a police report on the Kazakhstan General Prosecution Office Website you will be my new best friend. All of this is required because I "lived" in Kazakhstan for over 5 weeks...we'll see how it all develops
  • Homestudy, which has already been started but is waiting for said criminal background check from Kaz
  • Fingerprinting at CIS
  • I-800 approval
• Steve's letter of employment
• Adoption application letter, stating in no uncertain terms that we will raise this child with all the love showered on the rest of our kiddos, will educate them, will give them all due legal rights, etc.
• Verify all of the documents once we have them all (it's like the apostilling we had to do for Kaz only different, and don't ask me what the difference is)
• Family photos

So, all of that was a really long way to say that for being only a few weeks into the process we are definitely chugging along. What can I say, if it involves stamps and forms in triplicate and official-looking stamps, I'm all over it! I do excel at the mundane... especially when there's a daughter waiting at the end of the paperchase :)

Halfway through the MFA (?)

Today, September 27th, marks our one-month anniversary in the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Kazakhstan. A "normal schedule" (if there is such a thing) would have our dossier spending 2 months in the MFA before we're eligible for assignment to a specific region, so we're halfway there!

Knowing that we have at least another month until our next update is tough, but as always we're keeping busy. Steve caught up on his vaccinations last week, so we are basically impervious to all diseases right now, and our current project is choosing an International Adoption doctor to look over our little girl's medical info before she becomes ours, to help us understand her history and unique needs. Yes, we have a long time before we'll have any info for a doctor to look over, but it will be nice to have a doctor chosen before things get really hectic. Besides, it gives me the comforting illusion that I'm doing something :)

Oh, and we just got our new passports in the mail! Our old ones didn't expire until June, but Steve figured that we should go ahead and renew them now since sometimes they don't like to issue visas if your passport is going to expire within six months of travel. The new passports are really cool looking! And I was feeling sad that I hadn't shipped anything off to be apostilled in months, so it's nice to get to give the Lt. Governor's office some more money for attaching a pretty gold seal to our notarized copies of this round of passports.

That's it for the latest non-news on the Morningstar adoption. Next month we combine the boys' rooms and start decorating Sestra's, so that'll be exciting!

Kazakhstan Adoption Timeline

I've had a few requests for our Kaz adoption timeline, so I thought I'd piece one together from checkbook entries, memories, notes, old blog posts, FedEx receipts, and emails! Note that I'm only including the details that other adoptive families tend to wonder about (how long were your fingerprints in West Virginia, how long did your I-600A take, etc) and have left out things like our doctor's appointments, notarizing mortgage letters, etc.

Click here for our China Adoption Timeline.

Phase 1: Decisions

• Mid-October - mid-November 2007 - Lots of research. Deciding if we were ready for another kiddo, if adoption was the right path for our family, if international adoption was the right choice, deciding yes on all of those and choosing Kazakhstan because of the privilege of spending 2 weeks in the orphanage with our daughter-to-be
• Mid-November - early December - Telling family and close friends about our decision
• Early - mid-December - Intense agency research and interviews with agencies and parents who have adopted using each agency on our short list
• December 22 - Decided on World Partners and sent in application and passed out our reference forms
• December 27 - Accepted by World Partners - paperwork collection begins!

Phase 2: Paperwork

• December 26 - Decided on Families for Children in Salt Lake for our homestudy and initiated work with them
• December 31 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses requested from Maryland
• January 4 - Fingerprints sent to West Virginia for FBI clearance
• January 11 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses received from Maryland
• January 20 - Fingerprints received back from West Virginia with FBI clearance
• January 24 - We go public with our adoption plans
• January 28 - Copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses sent to Maryland for apostille
• January 28 - FBI clearance sent to West Virginia for apostille
• January 31 - Final homestudy interview at our home (which was a great experience, BTW)
• February 7 - Apostilled FBI clearance received from West Virginia
• February 8 - Apostilled copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses received from Maryland
• February 14 - Completed homestudy received
• February 14 - CIS 171-H sent to Immigration Services
• February 28 - Invitation to CIS for fingerprinting for 171-H received
• March 11 - Fingerprinting at CIS for 171-H
• April 1 - Approved 171-H received from CIS
• April 2 - All remaining documents for Utah apostille sent to Lt. Governor's office
• April 10 - Dossier complete! All apostilled documents received from Lt. Governor's office
• April 13 - Dossier arrives at World Partners headquarters in Georgia

Phase 3: Waiting

• April 16 - Dossier sent to Kazakhstan by World Partners for translation
• June 27 - Dossier completes translation and is sent to the consulate in New York
• August 29 - Dossier approved by the NY Consulate and sent to the Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• November 25 - Dossier out of the MFA and waiting for a Letter of Invitation
• Late December 2008, early January 2009 - Redo most of our paperwork, get homestudy update because everything's now a year old

Phase 4: We're Off!

• January 8, 2009 - LOI (Letter of Invitation) received and plane tickets purchased!
• January 12 - Visas arrive
• January 18 - Depart for Kazakhstan!
• January 20 - Meet our Daughter!
• January 27 - Social worker approval
• February 3 - Bonding Period Complete, petition for pre-court date
• February 9 - Pre-court done, court date assigned
• February 17 - Court - she's ours!!!
• March 4 - Finalization period complete
• March 14 - Fly back to Almaty
• March 16 - Clinic checkup for her visa
• March 18 - US Embassy visit to pick up Sasha's visa and immigration packet
• March 19 - Home and citizenship!

Phase 5: Home Again

• April 13 - Certificate of Citizenship received
• May 13 - Sasha's cleft palate is repaired!
• May 17 - Three months a Morningstar
• June 30 - First postplacement report submitted to World Partners (our international agency) after postplacement interview with Families for Children (our local agency)
• August 17 - Six months a Morningstar
• February 17, 2010 - First Gotcha Day Anniversary
  
• February 17, 2011 - Second Gotcha Day Anniversary