Update on Cameron

Jen emailed our agency last week asking if it would be possible to get some information on Cameron.  Today we recieved the below pictures as well as updated information!!!   He still seems to refuse to smile, I guess making him smile will be Grace's first job as a big sister.  We think he is quite a cute little guy.

Next Steps

The big question everyone keeps asking us is "When will you travel to bring Cameron Home?"  We know the remaining steps in the process and the approximate time that each of these steps take so the best we can do is guess...

Right now we are waiting for our  Letter of Acceptance from the Chinese government..  Most websites out there say it takes 1 - 3 months to get your LOA.  Our agency told us we should get it in 1 - 2 months.  We hope they are right.  We have been waiting almost a month and this is the longest of our remaining steps in the process, so we should be almost half-way there.

After we get LOA we send our I800 form to the USCIS.  The I800 is the petition to classify an adoptee as an immediate relative.  They well send us a I800 approval in about 3 weeks.  Once we get our I800 approval the USCIS will send our approval to the National Visa Center who will then forward it along to the US Consulate in Guangzhou China.  The consulate will then send us an approval of our Visa petition.  This process should take around 3 weeks.

Once we get our NVC letter, we sign it and return it to our agency, their employees in China will drop the letter off as the US Embassy in Guangzhou.  Who will then issue our Article 5 is a pre-approval for immigrant Visa.  Our agency will then have the article 5 sent to the China Center for Adoption Affairs.  This step should tale 2- 3 weeks.

The final step in the process is Travel Approval which we should get 2 - 4 weeks after the CCAA gets our Article 5.  Once we get travel approval our agency will book our flights and hotels which should happen 4 - 6 weeks after we get Travel Approval.

Seems like a lot of steps but it should seem pretty speedy compared to our two and a half year wait to adopt Grace.  Based on the above, if everything goes as planned, we should be able to travel in early to mid fall.  We were really hoping to travel this summer so we don't have to take Grace out of school for 2+ weeks but that probably isn't going to happen. 

Keep your finger crossed for us that we don't hit any major slowdowns this time around.

Shangrao, Jiangxi China

We were pretty excited when we learned that Cameron is from Jiangxi Province.  While it would have been fun to explore another of China's provinces it will be nice to stay somewhere somewhat familiar.  We assume that when we travel we will be staying in the provincial capital of Nanchang, possibly in the same hotel where we stayed when we adopted Grace.

If you look at the below map Nanchang is in the north, just west of center.  Shangrao is about 160 miles to the east (circled in blue) and Yifeng, where Grace is from, is about 80 miles to the west (circled in pink).  Even though it is a long trip we have read stories of other adoptive parents that have traveled to the Social Welfare Institute where their children lived while in China.   If we are able to we will definitely try to visit although it is probably unlikely.  We were not able to visit Grace's SWI while we in China so since it is a shorter trip we may try to see if we can fit in a trip there.

A little bit about Shangrao according to wikipedia....Shangrao is a medium sized prefecture level city with a population of 6.5 million according to the 2010 census. 



Shangrao is also known for Mount Sanqing which is a renowned Taoist mountain known for its beautiful scenery.  Some pics below.

Introducing Cameron to Grace

We had to catch Grace's reaction to seeing her little brother's picture on camera.  Her reaction was a bit understated but still pretty cute.

Surprise!!!!!

Yes, there is a very good reason that we have not posted on the blog for a while.  We have been getting ready for our son.  His Chinese name is Rao Xi Ping.  We will call him Cameron Arthur Xi Ping.  He is 11 months old and is currently living  in Shangrao City, Jiangxi.  The same province that Grace is from!  We hope to be traveling to get him late summer or early fall.  Grace is very excited to be a big sister and to return to China.

I will post more info and details in coming days and weeks.