Thinking about travel...

We are waiting on our article 5. Which is just another paperwork step in being given travel approval (TA). So while we wait, I'm thinking about what we can take with us to make Jennifer know we love her, and things she can play with to help with the bonding experience. In the update we received from her SWI, she supposedly said her favorite animal is elephants. So we got an elephant to take along, will have to figure out how to pack her with her big trunk :)

We also have picked up jump ropes and hair ribbons, and picture cards, coloring books etc. Emilee and I named the elephant Summer in honor of the Chinese exchange student we hosted this past winter.

Taylor is planning on taking along a favorite animal along with some baby bottles, clothes, etc. so they can play 'mama and babies'...I'm not sure where we'll have room for actual clothes for us lol

UPDATE!!

We got an update from Jennifer's SWI, with pictures!!!!

Here are some of the things someone from Jennifer's SWI wrote to us about her.....

She is called "Xuan Xuan" (pronounced Schwinn Schwinn)

Her favorite food is: apple (good, she actually didn't say candy YAY)

Her favorite colors are: red, green, orange, white (obviously a girl who needs many different dresses based on her mood that day). Red was listed first, Taylor will say that is her true favorite color because thats what she wants it to be since its her favorite color.

She likes school, she sleeps in her own little bed but in a room with others. This is good, as she will be sharing a room with Taylor so hopefully that will be comforting to her. She has two best friends, Fu Ling and Xin Ming. I will have to post on some boards and see if I can find their parents (hopefully they are being adopted!) so that Jennifer can keep up with her "sisters".

Our paperwork seems to be moving along at a decent pace, hopefully we'll be leaving in a couple months to meet this little cutie!

Another small step

The paperwork progresses. Tonight I called the NVC (National Visa Center) and found out that our I800 was cabled to Guangzhou, to the American Consulate. I don't understand all these steps, it is very confusing and I'm not sure what some of it really has to do with adopting a child, other than it has to be accomplished so I'm glad its being done.

On a lighter note, our agency will request one update for an adoptive family while we wait and I asked for our official update on Friday. This means our agency will contact the SWI where Jennifer lives and they will ask questions such as her height and weight, what her favorite color is, her favorite foods, does she have any special friends (I'm hoping we can get some names and then I can try to find their families so Jennifer can keep in contact with children she I'm sure she considers as family when she comes home). And if we're really lucky, maybe we'll get some new pictures!

I800...again!

This afternoon we received our corrected I800! Now this important pc. of paper, along with our DS-230, our visa applications, our original LOA, our passports and several other auspicious forms will all be sent to our agency tomorrow. Another hurdle completed, we're one more step closer to our Jenni.

I800!!

Taylor just checked the mail for me, as I watched her pull the mail from the box, I saw that there was a large brown envelope, and yes! it was from the USCIS!! It's our I800 - another huge step in our Hague paperwork to be allowed to travel to meet Jennifer! A good mother's day present! I've just about run out of pictures we have of Jennifer...before long I'll be posting ones we've taken ourselves :)

OK, my happy dance is short-lived. I just read the I800 thoroughly and realize they have Jennifer's birthday listed incorrectly, I'll have to contact the Hague office on Monday and ask them to correct it and re-issue our approval...oh well, another dip in the roller-coaster....

News from Bao'an SWI!!

A couple weeks ago we sent Jennifer a package with a letter from us, a couple pictures, and a big bag of jolly ranchers candy to share with her friends and the workers at her SWI. This morning I got an email from someone there, telling us that Jennifer had received her letter! What a good place she is from, how caring. There are lots of orphanages in China that do not allow any information about the children in them to be communicated in any way. Bao'an seems to have such a heart for the kids they are taking care of and we feel very blessed that Jennifer is being taken care of by such a good group of people.

Here is the message we received:

Dear Deborah and Tom Twark, everything is Longxuan very well. She kept the letter you wrote to her. She recognize some words in the letter. She was very happy to read the letter. We hope that we can meet very soon. Best wishes to all.

We are wondering about the phrase that says she recognizes some words in the letter. We had it tranlated into Mandarin before we sent it so we are assuming that Jennifer/Longxuan is learning to read a little bit? We are just soo happy to know she is getting our letters and knows we are thinking of her every day. We are praying that this communication will help her accept us when she meets us and that the transition into our family will be as smooth as possible.

We received our applications for visas in the mail this week end, its time for us to apply for them, and to tell our agency where we want to stay, how we want to fly, etc. - Its getting real, we're getting close, not too much longer now!!