Henry knows!

The amazing Pat Marcus, a PT who travels to China to help find families for orphans, as well as helps caregivers take care of those with various disabilities (see previous posts), got to see Henry. He was actually brought all the way to the SCH (orphanage) and she was able to give him the letter, picture book and pictures the kids drew for him. She got to tell him about his new family who will be coming for him soon. He became understandably upset as it started to sink in that he is going to be adopted, and I am sure he is very scared at leaving all he has known. I am so blessed that Pat was there to comfort him as he begins to deal with the conflicting emotions he is having. I plan on sending a disposable camera and letter to him next week. I want him to take pictures of his foster family and village and friends. One letter a month until we get there.... Just so he knows this is all real. I have copied and pasted Pat's email below. It sounds like when she gets back, I will have lots more pictures of him! He looks choked up in this one as he looks at the picture Leah made for him.

This is what Pat wrote to me:


I saw Henry today!  he came to SCH to meet me.  It had been determined that we did not have enough time to go to the fostercare center and actually see all the children we needed to.   He was quiet but did not appear shy with me.  I gave him the book and Gongzhan and i turned the pictures and narrated it for him.  We asked him if he wanted to read the letter but he asked us to read it to him.  When we came to the house, room and all the playtime pictures,  i could see him tear up.  I think it is a good sad though.  He could not believe you, and all the family.  almost a little shake of his head.  , like "wow this is going to be my family".  I tried to make him feel comfortable.  letting him know that its OK to be sad and  this PaPa and MaMa will help you through it.  I showed him the picture on the great wall when you are with Leah.  I talked about having brothers and sisters. there was a look of Awe on his face.  His family was in his country at one time. Henry is beautiful and i cannot tell you how impressed i was to see him. 

 

Sitting here at my computer it is making me cry.  So good this little one will have his forever family. 

 

Additionally he is more handsome than ever.  He seems a little taller and to have put on a little weight. 

 

I have many more pictures but cannot get them all out yet

 

Pat

Out of translation!

This is fabulous and unexpected news. My agency emailed me today to let me know that the dossier was out of translation.  I actually had no idea what that meant until several AP's told me that we are very close to LOA..Letter of Approval. The OFFICIAL document that says we can come to China and adopt Henry. If all goes well, we will travel in October...maybe September if we are REALLY lucky. I honestly was not expecting this to go so fast. We had only been logged in 29 days before we got out of translation. This is not a step toward Henry...this is a LEAP!!!!

A Little Bit of Henry does a mama's heart good!!!

We have two new pictures! I am also going to post a video a long distance friend made for us. She is pretty amazing. We also got news that Pat Marcus from  Superkids Charity is going back to Shanghai to visit the children and may possibly see Henry. Even if that does not happen, her visits are so important because she teaches the nannies how to take good care of these kids as well as evaluates the needs of the children and helps the nannies take the best care of them until these kids find forever families.. She makes a difference in the lives of all of these children.

We are not far into the LOA wait and we are going strong. We are getting our household in order and saving every dime. Our daughter, Leah, will not be going to China with us. She got really upset one day and started crying and her behavior was off. We finally got her to tell us that she was scared to go back. She does not want to remember her life there. Tom and I felt awful! Here we were romanticising the whole trip, and she was suffering and scared on the inside. We told her that she NEVER has to go back. It is up to her when/if she that ever happens. She was so relived she just collapsed in my arms.

We are trying to prepare as much as we can to help Henry with his grieving. I used to be  caught up in the drama of it all..the what-if's, but it was stressing me out. The truth (for me anyway) is that he will come into this family the way he was meant to, and from there, we will take him and love him and get through the rough times with him. My worrying now makes no difference to him. I will save THAT energy for when I have three kids under the age of 9!  Without further ado...here are the pictures and the little video dear Jocelyn made!
 Please click on the link right below!

A little bit of Henry!!

LID and video

WE HAVE LID!!! It is 5/14....Now we start the long LOA wait. I am thinking around 90 days...hoping for 60... To celebrate, I am posting a silent video of our darling boy, Henry. My awesome friend Jocelyn Motter managed to convert it for me so I could post it here. The sound bite did not make it...but when you see the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye...imagine the cutest voice ever.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ytc6shdgxlz8h1m/Zhao%20Chen%20Pin.mov

We got an update on our dear Henry today. Here are the questions we asked and his responses. We are praying for LID soon.

1. What name do you like to be called?

He has no special idea for his English name. Whatever his parents choose for him, he will be happy to accept.

2. What is your favorite food?

He likes egg and shrimp. He also likes a lot of snacks.

3. What is your favorite sport?

Riding bike and play with other kids.

4. Who is your favorite character/toy?

Toy cars.

5. Do you like dogs?

Yes, he likes a lot of animals including dogs.

6. What is your favorite color?

Yellow.

7. How tall are you?

120 cm

9. What is your favorite outdoor activity?

Riding bike and play with other kids.

8. Do you have any questions for us?

He would like to know more about Mom and Dad, for example the age, career, and the interesting. He also wants to know something about the family, for example the siblings, relatives and the house.

DTC!

Hooray! This is a HUGE step for us! It took 19 days from 800A approval to be DTC..mostly because my agency and dossier service is in NY and I am on the west Coast....no complaints here! I am still way ahead of where I thought we would be!  The next stop on the crazy train will be LID (Log in Date). This is when all papers have been translated and we begin our official wait in line. Next stop:  LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China. This important document makes everything "official".  This can take anywhere from 30-90 days with the average I believe being 60 days. But some people have waited over 100 days. Let's just not go there....unless we have to. Hopefully things will move along and we will travel in October...which of course is the most expensive due to the trade fair...however, we have a little boy we are trying to get to...so we will swing it.
Tom and I are headed to California Friday, for our cousin Brady's funeral. So sad...he would have been 37 just a couple of days ago.  I wish he could have met Henry!! Take care all!

Waiting....

I need to get used to waiting. I know this. I do not like it. We should be DTC next week...which is great. We are a couple of months ahead of where I thought we would be. That should put us in China in October...that would be great. We have been busy getting the room ready and taking care of small things around the house. Noah and Leah are excited to send Henry a picture book and letter, but we will wait until we are LID to do that. Most people travel 5 months after LID, so we may even wait a little longer to make contact. It really depends whose desk (in China) your file ends up on that determines how long of a wait you might have. There seems to be a bit of a backlog that is clearning up now. Let's hope so!! When we decided to adopt in 2005 and got our paperwork in the beginning of 2006, our wait went from 6 months to 5 years....so who knows how long this will take. Typically, it takes 60-90 days LID to LOA then another 60-90 to TA (travel approval)...let's hope this can be pushed through somehow...