Visa and Birthday Pics from China

Well we received good news with my visa, its only good for 30 days, but those days don't start until I get there.  So we should be all set there.  It took a little extra waiting and some expertise from the courier in Washington D.C. to get it done, but hey its stamped and in my hands.  My job in media and being affiliated with a big network caused some rejections at first, but its all settled! 

We also received our preapproval from  U.S. immigration to bring Lainey home!  That paperwork has now been transfered to the U.S. consulate in China and is being processed.  We are just waiting for the travel approval from China officials and we can ask for our appointment date at the U.S. consulate.

And even better news was the arrival of some new pictures from China of Lainey's first birthday party!

So lets get right to them!  You can see her cake and all the fruit. We are guessing this is in the orphanage director's office.   Christina has seen similar pictures from other families, so we think this is normal.

We are thinking this is the director in the black and maybe the women are a worker and her foster mom?

We're guessing its cold too, by the amount of clothing everyone is wearing!  Look for Lainey's hands!

So that is the latest. It looks like she is growing and has more hair. The spot on her forehead is bigger too, not sure what that is.  It was in the last pictures and we thought it was a bug bite, but maybe a birthmark instead.  Who knows! We'll find out soon and get her all fixed up and find her hands too!

At this point we think the earliest we would travel would be around Christmas, but its looking more and more like we'll travel in January.  So there you have the latest!