Aaaaannnnd.... We're back.

We are back online.  Seems the Beijing Novotel Peace Hotel has really bad internet connectivity and the Chinese government doesn't care much for social networking.  We are now at the Guangzhou White Swan Hotel and connectivity to the internets is excellent.  We have installed a VPN client which lets us use some DNS servers in the states so we can get to Face Book and Blogger once again. 

It's now the night before the big day and well after 10 PM so hopefully tomorrow we have some time before we get the girl to get some pictures posted and some text about the first few days of the trip.  If so, we will get as much posted as possible, if not, who knows what the next couple of days will be like. 

Hand off is between 2 and 4 PM tomorrow.  Keep the thoughts and prayer coming.  We love you all.

Our story so far...

It was a dark and stormy night...

In 2005 we decided to adopt a child from China.  We had always talked about adopting from China for a second child and apparently we were suppose to be looking at adoption first.  After checking out a few agencies we decided on Holt and filled out our application in September of 2005.  Over the next 6 months we filled out paperwork, were fingerprinted, had background checks performed, had an evaluation performed of us and our house and, ultimately were deemed "okay".  In April of 2006 our dossier and information was sent to China and was logged in with the China Center for Adoption Affairs on May 16.

At the time we started the adoption process, children from China were being matched with parents about 9 - 12 months after the paperwork was logged in.  By the time we completed the paperwork process, the wait had increased to about 18 months.  At the time, no one thought the wait would increase to the length that it did and so we stuck with the program.  Unfortunately for us, the wait continued to increase.  As we moved forward in time so did the date that we should be matched, so we were always about 18 months from being matched.  How many times did we say 'if it would stay at this speed we should have a match in 18 months'...

Now it's 5 years, 4 sets of fingerprints and multiple background checks later, and we have been matched with a beautiful little girl from the Maoming City Maogang District Social Welfare Institute, Maoming City, Guangdong Province, China.

It seems that the paper process doesn't really get any easier or make any more sense than 4 sets of fingerprints.  Once we were matched a new set of paperwork started which was processed without issue.  The problem that we ran into was our old fingerprints were going to expire before we could get a US Consulate appointment in China and the consulate wouldn't schedule the appointment until we had updated fingerprints.  Simple, right?  Fingerprints can change, right?

So here we go, get the home study updated (was already in progress), get background checked (again), get an okay to get fingerprinted, get cleared, get all of the documentation.  We got through it all and, because the Portland USCIS office has the nicest people, we got our fingerprints updated in record time.  There was still some stress, okay freaking out, over the National Visa Center letter to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, but everything has come together.  We can officially adopt.

It's now just days before we leave on the big adventure, plane tickets have been purchased and documents completed.  Gifts for officials have been procured, diapers and formula and clothes piled up, and everything seems to be falling in to place.

We head to Beijing for 5 days of sightseeing, orientation and time adjustment, then travel to Guangzhou, meet our daughter and proceed through about 11 days of doctors, officials and notaries.  We will then go from Guangzhou to Hong Kong via train for our long flight back to the states. 

Well, that's 5 years and a lot of hurry-up-and-wait activity boiled down to a few paragraphs.  We will be keeping up the blog to let everyone know what's going on as long as we have internet.  Thank you to everyone who has prayed, meditated, sent good thoughts and were just so supportive through this long crazy process.  We are excited and humbled by the village that this girl will be raised in.