Below is a copy of our official Letter of Approval (LOA).
This photo shows the official seal of the China center of Adoption Affairs. As you can see, the CCAA approved us to be Kacee's family on 3/18/10
We received the LOA by Fed-Ex yesterday afternoon. Once it was signed by mom and dad, we used Fed-Ex to return it to our agency (early morning delivery). Our agency will mail it with our other paper work to the USCIS to start the U.S. side of things. Please pray for our paper work to move through the system quickly.
Now that we received our LOA, which is essentially China saying "Yes, we have approved your family to adopt Fu Min Wei," some of you may be asking what happens next. With Kenzie and Karli, we traveled about 40 days after receiving our official approval from China; however, both of their adoptions were not completed under the Hague Treaty. Once the U.S. ratified the Hague Treaty, all adoptions whose paperwork was filed with the U.S. government after May 2008, now have to follow the Hague guidelines. All this really amounts to before the approval is more work for our social worker. However, after the approval is where all of the big changes occur.
When we receive of LOA, we have to send the I-800 application to the USCIS for formal approval to adopt. Currently we have provisional approval, but as long as our home study approves us to adopt a child this age with special needs, we will get approved. This is taking about 2-3 weeks.
Then USCIS sends our file (via snail mail) to another branch of the Department of Homeland Security, called the National Visa Center (NVC). NVC scans the file into its system. Once they do this, the American Consulate in Guangzhou can now access our immigration approval and file. This takes about 10 days. The NVC will send a letter to us stating that our paper work was cabled to Gaungzhou. We will receive this about 5 days after everything was cabled.
Once we receive the letter from the NVC, we send it to our adoption agency who then sends it along with some more paper work to the Consulate in Guangzhou. Once the Consulate receives the papers from the agency, they will issue an Article 5. This takes about 2 weeks.
Once Article 5 is issued, a representative from our agency will pick it up and get it to the CCAA so our official wait for TA can begin. Most agencies have a courier pick it up and then overnight it to Beijing.
Then the CCAA will work on processing your TA. This is taking about 4 weeks.
So, we will probably wait 10-12 weeks to receive our Travel Approval. I am predicting a July 1, departure date, with Gotcha Day being July 5.
Take a look at this video, this is the trailer for a documentary called The Cove that received an award this year at the Academy Awards, as well as many other awards for the creators' amazing work. It's a film about the horrific dolphin slaughter that is occurring at great numbers in Taiji, Japan. Now, click this link and click on the "launch slideshow" link below the meat photo. Yes, that's dolphin meat. It's a sad fact but dolphins in Japan are being sold to swim-with-dolphin programs and aquariums (and places like Seaworld) for amounts up to $154,00.00 per dolphin. They are also being killed and sold to school's, unknown by most school systems and people of Japan, for meat. There is also mercury poisoning in the meat, and many people have gotten mercury poisoning due to these people's cruel and careless actions. The directors and people who made the film "The Cove" went undercover and exposed these dolphin murders to government and people of Japan, as well as many other countries around the globe. The government of Japan is still very unwilling to make any rules or repremandation against these people, despite the fact that it is already illegal. They operate their cruel acts under a permit from their government, because they have claimed that the dolphins are a pest that they must control.
However, they are breaking many other laws in Japan, and it is just heartbreaking to see what is happening to these little creatures. Currently, there is a temporary ban on bottlenose dolphins and the capture of them, but that isn't stopping most of the men, and other types of dolphins and whales are still being hunted. The people of Taiji, Japan are responsible for the deaths of 23,000 dolphins and whales every year. They also kill a couple of thousand whales every year in Alaska, claiming it's for "science" or "lab work" and then selling the meat, stating that they "didn't want to waste it". There is a yearly dolphin hunt that takes place ever year, and that itself kills about 2,500 dolphins. There is much more information I could post, but I could type for hours and still have more to say. Right now, activists are working in petitions WAZA (World Association for Zoos and Aquariums) to permanently expell Japan from the association, and we are also creating petitions and sending letters to the White House and other places. The Save the Japan dolphins campaign is dedicated to Ben White and the legacy he left behind. (Go to http://savejapandolphins.org/benwhite.php to read more about him and all of the things he did to free captivated and enslaved dolphins.) I think it is truly a great cause what they are fighting for, and I myself have gotten on board with them. If you could please take a few moments out of your day to submit a quick online petition (it takes about a minute if you do not writing anything but merely just submit your name) or just read about the dolphins in Taiji or The Cove movie and the cause.
If this post has not captured your heart for at least a minor moment to do something for these helpless creatures, please watch the trailer. It's only two minutes long, and you will be so glad that you did.
Like I said, please take a few minutes out of your day to check out some of these and read about the dolphin slaughter that's going on. Even if we can't donate millions of dollars or go to Japan to help the people with The Cove campaign petition the government, we can help just by educating ourselves and others about the slaughter. Thank you.
p.s. this http://youmeandthedolphins.blogspot.com/ is the link to the blog that I will be keeping from now on about dolphin slaughter and saving the dolphins, as well as my opinions and thoughts on it.
*Groan* So, sadly, Spring Break is coming to an end this week, and school will have to start back up again on Monday. This week has been so effortless and fun for the most part that it's tiring and annoying to see it go and wind into regular school days again. Tomorrow we will be meeting my Grandparents halfway between each other to pick up Karli and Kylie. Let me just say that this week has been so relaxing and quiet without them, but I really do miss them a little, minus the noise and fighting, so it will be nice to have them come home. It feels so strange going to restaurants and only having a table needed to fit five people, or getting in the minivan and not having anyone need to sit in the back row. They seem to be having a blast at my Grandparents too, and when they talk to us every day on the phone they sound like they're having fun. They went and saw Percy Jackson at the movies, and went shopping a bit, and rode on the steam-engine train between Palestine and Rusk (Karli's first train ride). While they've been gone we (mom) has redone Kylie's room and she and I redid Kylie's dresser. We also spent all day today shopping and we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. This weekend I might actually be going up to my Grandparents' for the day with my aunt and uncle, so that will be fun too. I'm also happy because this Saturday, the stores are putting New Moon on the shelves at 12:01 a.m. and my dad might take me to get a copy so we can then come home and watch it :) It was such a good movie, and I can't wait to get it on DVD. And, my dad and I are going to a Barlow Girl concert next week (the Love and War Tour) and Stellar Kart and VOTA will be there too, and I love all of those bands, and we have meet-and-greet passes so that will be great too! (Although I'm quite sad that I don't have Justin Bieber tickets for the Livestock Show and Rodeo this Sunday, where he will be performing in concert.) Today I just started reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and it is a great book, and a great movie too, so that will probably take up the rest of my spring break, at least until Saturday. Anyway, happy late St. Patty's Day, and join me in the misery as Spring Break comes to an end. I can only pray that summer will get here quicker, along with the weather we Texas people find ourselves easily enjoying and adapting to, unlike the cold weather we had a few weeks ago. (However, we have been having more "Springy" weather this week, and I have been able to wear shorts a few times and we were even able to go to the park without hoodies and sneakers.) Here's to Spring!
It's been a while since I posted an update but nothing much has been going on. Keaton a had a great birthday. We just had family over, but he got almost everything he wanted. We will invite his friends over in a couple of weeks, and they are going to play Lazer Tag.
I finished basketball season.
Both Keaton and Kylie have started their sports for the spring. Keaton is playing flag-football, and Kylie is playing soccer.
We took a road trip right before the sports started and went to the George Bush Library. As we were going to College Station, we passed through Anderson and stopped to ride a stagecoach at the Fanthorpe Inn historical site.
We went ice skating with Kylie's Girl Scout troop.
We went on a family bike ride, and stopped at the park where Kenzie learned how to pump her legs on the swing.
Karli and Kylie are spending part of Spring Break with my grandparents, so Kenzie and Keaton went to the soccer field to fly their new kites. Of course, Kenzie picked the Batman kite over the Princess one. There was not much wind, but Kenzie somehow managed to get her kite up and fly it for a while.
Here are some pictures of Kenzie in her new dress.
My friend and I took a few pictures at the park.
And no post would be complete without a few more pictures of the little girls.
