Timeline

• Late March 2006 - Application mailed to our agency
• April 2006 - I am at a McDonald's drive thru at the beach with the boys and my two cousins. Ryan calls to say our application to adopt has been approved.
• May 2006 - Ryan attends an adoption seminar held by our agency in Atlanta by himself. It was kind of expensive for both of us to go. I had always wanted to adopt and had very few questions about adoption in general. Ryan wanted more info so he spent the day learning about adoption. He came home late that night and talked and talked and TALKED to me about all of the exciting things he had learned. I remember him specifically stating how much he enjoyed meeting the families that had already adopted from China. It was on that day that Ryan decided adoption was for our family, not for me, but for all of us.
• May 2006-October 2006 - PAPERCHASE.....with any adoption comes paperwork, multiple social worker visits, multiple fingerprinting excursions, notaries, an ongoing relationship with the local FedEx facility workers, letters of recommendation, tax return info, medical exams, background checks, passport requests and pix, etc....it is BUSY work, it was not hard for us, just a lot of documentation, a lot of organization. I liked this phase.
• October 2006 - Our dossier (compilation of necessary paperwork) was mailed to China for recognition.
• November 13, 2006 - Log In Date (LID) China recognized us a family from the US who would like to adopt a non special needs child from China. The wait, we were told, was averaging 14-16 months.
• Late October 2007 - Our minds and hearts were opened up to China's Waiting Child program. We completed our Medical Conditions checklist with our agency. We prayed for what was meant to be.
• December 7, 2007 - Our referral call for Jiang XueMei, Mason-Kate. She was 10 months old.
• December 10, 2007 - Our Letter of Intent (LOI) was submitted. This letter stated to the Chinese officials that we wished to adopt XueMei.
• December 25, 2007 - Pre Approval (PA) was given to us from China.
• January 22, 2008 - Letter Of Approval (LOA) - This letter states that China approves us to adopt and we are officially going to be XueMei's family.
• Late February 2008 - Travel Approval (TA) - Honestly, for us, this was the hardest part. This was the equivalent to labor during childbirth. We had Mason-Kate's picture, we had clothes, we had a room, we had everything packed and ready to go....at this time, TAs were averaging 2-3 weeks for families to receive. Ours took over a month, but, alas, it did arrive and we were soon to be on our way.
• March 11, 2008 - Boarded our planes to CHINA.
• March 17, 2008 - Gotcha Day, Forever Family Day, Metcha Day - the day we met our little Mason-Kate.
• March 28, 2008 - Mason-Kate became an American citizen upon landing in Detroit, Michigan.

Just a Catch Up Post

This week so far at a glance.....

• Basketball season has begun and both boys are enjoying some time on the court
• Unless there is food involved in the shopping trip, MK does not care to go - sigh
• Colin decided that we should take a few gifts that are wrapped under the tree and return them so that Santa will have more room to place gifts on Christmas morning
• Pryce is so much better, breathing good and coughing less - his stomach continues to hurt when he is offered vegetables or fruit, again, SIGH
• Mason-Kate's favorite part about the holiday season thus far are the snow globes that are placed around our home
• Ryan has one week left to work in 2008
• Less than a month until MK turns 2
• We followed along during the adoption journeys of four families last year....three of the four are in the process of adopting again, one is in China now (http://www.myshelbybaby.blogspot.com/), one is leaving sometime hopefully in January (http://www.cupcakesandhairbows.blogspot.com/) and the other is in the paperchase phase of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia (http://www.sarahbethmiller.blogspot.com/) - I am loving following along with them again!
• Unless you are a Georgia fan, you cannot find any college team related sportswear in our city
• Pryce lost his second tooth this past weekend
• And I have to add this.....as gross as it is, it is typical boy fashion. Colin learned to "armpit fart"....gross. Well we told him that he was not allowed to do that at home or in the car or basically anywhere. Obviously that went in one ear and out the other, typical somtimes. So, today he came from school on the bus, ran inside and announced that he could armpit fart much louder, huge smile all over his face. My normal response came out of my mouth "where/how did you learn that?" Anyway, he asked us if we would get mad if he showed us how to do it, we agreed out of curiosity and he then licked his hand, stuck it under his shirt and wouldn't you know the gross sound of an armpit fart came out louder than ever, amazing what a little lick of the hand will do!

We are truly just taking in this Christmas season, enjoying time with our family and friends and our little Elf, Matthew, who continues to remind us to mind our "p"s and "q"s.