New picture!

I was so blessed last week to get a surprise email from Dillon containing a new picture of Kaylee!  Her orphanage had it taken for her passport photo!  Oh wow, that's so exciting to say!  Her passport photo!  That means we are truly SO close!  Little girl's gettin' some hair!  Oh boy can I picture little pigtails all over that head...with bows, yep, LOTS of bows!  

I'll be calling on Thursday to find out the status of my I-800 approval from USCIS.  Once it's approved, it is sent by 2 Day Air to the National Visa Center in Houston.  They in turn will take 1-3 business days to give final approval for Kaylee's journey here and email the American consulate in Guangzhou, China.  After that, the materials Dillon sends will be couriered over to Guangzhou as well.  2 weeks later the Article 5 will be picked up by the courier and returned to the CCAA (China Center For Adoption Affairs) in Beijing.  Then we only await TA (TRAVEL APPROVAL)!  The wait for Travel Approval has drastically decreased as of late.  No one knows why but quite a few families got theirs last week after only a 10 day wait.  I pray this trend continues.  If so, we would be looking at leaving around May 1.  Mother's Day is May 13th....JUST SAYIN'!  :)  Please pray I will have her in my arms by that date.  The only real variable in this part of the wait is the I-800 and the TA.  If those go according to current trends, I should have no problem having her by then.  

A trend we can pray will NOT continue is the rise of gas prices.  UGH!  We all feel it at the pump, but we will definitely be feeling it as we look at purchasing international flights.  The good news is that it shouldn't affect our in country flights within China.  But of course that's not the bulk of the cost.  

We will be sending Kaylee a care package from "Mama, Mimi, and Pop Pop" this week!  A disposable camera will be included in hopes that we'll end up getting it back and can have the pictures developed.  We will also send a birthday cake for her on her birthday.  There are wonderful companies who do this on a regular basis.  

It's so difficult to know I'll barely be missing her birthday by about 1 month.  But then again, she'll be 2 and probably not have a great understanding about birthdays anyway.  I'm more sad for myself than anything.  But God's timing is perfect and all the longing for her and missing the "firsts" will soon be in the past.  

The other GREAT news I received last week came from an adoptive mom who picked up her little girl in Hohhot last year at the same orphanage.  She said the orphanage was very nice!  She said it was very clean and the nannies were caring with the children.  She also said her little one was not only on target developmentally and intellectually but actually ahead of the average child her age.  The mom is a teacher, so she knew what she was talking about.  This was the best news ever...that Kaylee's in a clean nice place with people who care!  I'm so grateful!  

I'm trying to learn several Chinese phrases during this wait time.  Chinese of course has a lot riding on inflection....the tonal pattern (rise and fall) of how you say words.  You can literally be saying 3 completely different words by using the same letters but changing the tone!  So, I want to be careful.  I want to make sure for instance that I'm saying, "Mommy loves you" and not something like "Mommy's stinky!"  That would be embarrassing!  :D  

Thank you again for your prayers and support!  I'll post again when I hear I have I-800 approval for Kaylee's citizenship from USCIS.  That's the specific prayer request right now, that it would be expedient!