Baby Shower!

Its been a busy week, so we are slacking in updating!  I had most of the week off for vacation but spent a lot of that time  in bed fighting off the flu and reacitons from getting the final shots for the trip!  I had some blood drawn and then 3 shots in about 10 minutes and hadn't eaten for the blood test so my body said enough I guess and I passed out in the doctor's office!  Christina had fun telling everyone at work I passed out!  So that's the latest on me.  And it looks like I may have passed whatever I was fighting on to Christina since she's curled up on the couch feeling miserable now!  I was trying to be quiet and not wake her so I figured I better download the pictures they took at her work shower last week.

They had a great turn out, around 30 people showed up!  Thanks to Amy, Melanie, Allison and Jen for setting it all up. 

Lainey's room is now filled with all kinds of gifts.  I need to put together a stroller and make room in the garage for a wagon.  Boy someone so small needs a lot of stuff! 

Thank you to everyone who came and gave us so many great gifts!

Had to sneak in the I love dad picture! The power of the editing pen is king!

As for the latest on travel, we received word this week our paperwork was finished at the U.S. consulate in China and has been taken to the Chinese offices to receive the travel approval. We're told it usually takes 2-4 weeks for the travel approval to be issued. So, some time after Christmas we will get the approval and can start getting some actual travel dates set and we can get real excited!  We are both trying to narrow down what we want to take with us. Each suit case can only weigh 44 pounds for international travel, or the airlines charge some hefty extra fees.  I bought a luggage scale for a buck on ebay! Love that!  Much better than the $20 at bed, bath and beyond!  That way we can weigh stuff for the trip back too. And we can bring an extra suitcase home too, since we get a ticket for Lainey as well.  So I would think the earliest we will travel right now is the second week of January.  Let us apologize now for not sending out Christmas cards, but we decided to wait to send a picture from China! So look for a card hopefully before the end of January!!

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!

Lainey's 1st Birthday

Lainey's Birthday is November 15th so last sunday Christina and I had a party here for her so we can show her pictures in the future that we were thinking of her.  Nothing too extravagant, just some cupcakes, it was fun for us.

We were also able to send her a package for her birthday!  Through a group in China we could order a gift that included a small cake, a cake for her foster family, some toys and a disposbale camera.  The hope is the foster family will take some pictures and then save the camera for us and return it to us when we meet Lainey.  We can get the pictures developed then and we will have a great keepsake for Lainey to show where she came from when she gets older and begins to ask those questions. 

Some may be wondering about the foster family I mentioned above.  What we have learned is that Laine is being cared for by a foster family, and the foster families there are not quite what we would expect here.   The foster family lives in an apartment on the grounds of the orphanage.  So she has more personal contact with a family, but we don't know how many kids that family is caring for, if Laine is the only one or not.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we'll answer them as best as we can.  And leave comments and sign up so we know how many are following us!

An update from Dad to be

Christina and I both will update the blog as we can to keep everyone in the loop!  The latest is we are waiting on travel approval from China.  Once we have that then we can get that information to U.S. immigration and can ask for an appointment date to be at the U.S. consulate in China.  Once we get that appointment date we essentially work backwards.  Or I should say our adoption agency will then figure out the timeline and travel dates.  Say we get an appointment date of January 4th, then we would need to be in China roughly 7 days earlier to get Laine and then go through the Chinese part of the adoption then head to the U.S. consualte. 

We are also waiting right now my travel visa.  We had to send our passports to the Chinese consulate to have the visa physically put in the passport.  We had no problem with Christina's and already have it back, but mine is another story.  Since I work in the media there are limitations on my length of stay in China.  Originally we were told I could only get a visa for 30 days.  When our courier asked at the consualte in Chicago, they said they couldn't process my application.  It needed to be sent to New York or Washington D.C.  So we sent it to D.C. and the courier there said he recently got a 90 day visa for another photographer.  The key here is the time.  Since we don't know when we'll go the time is important because the time on the visa begins as soon as its printed.  So if I got a visa now we'd have to go and be back within the 30 days.  So the 90 day would work better!  Christina's is not a problem she has a full year visa.  There are certain professions the Chinese limit entry to, and media is one.  I had to sign a form saying I wouldn't work or report while I was there.  I need to make sure with our adoption agency that the blog isn't considered reporting because we hope to update it a lot from the journey!  Many other families have done it so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Otherwise we are pretty much ready.  The room is ready, it already has many clothes and some toys.  I'll put some pictures in here.  Just figuring this blog thing out, my first attempt!  We went with yellow obviously to go with a bedding set Christina found.  It says all you need is love and the mobile plays that for a lullabye.  We took the valance from the window and went to fast signs and they made a sticker with that font to put around the room as a border.

So that's the latest, hope you keep up with us frequently!

This is our little Lainey Helen AnXin Doelling. Follow us on this blog as we journal about our travel to China to get Lainey.