Finding our China Girl: April 2012

Chelsea's Help International

Introducing: Chelsea’s Help International – Helping Orphans in China We had fun playing with the kids at the Zhongshan Childrens Welfare Institute (ZCWI). The ZCWI is one of 56 orphanages in the province of Guangdong . The ZCWI is home to over 300 children. We wanted to do something for the place that gave Chelsea a home for the first 2 years of her life. We plan to send shipments over a couple of times a year. We want to start by sending soccer balls to our friends at the ZCWI. If you would like to help, send your contributions to: CHI PO BOX 2633 Ruston, LA 71272. We would like to send by April 1, 2013. Thanks for sharing.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

We received our I 797 Notice of Approval from the CIS today. This is the last document we need to complete our dossier! It took 30 days from the time I mailed off our I800, which is half the time the agency projected. So glad to make up for some lost time with the medicals. I had to prepare lifestyle photos of our family to send with our dossier. I had fun getting the scrapbook stuff out, I haven't done that in a while.

We are all very ready for her to get here. The boys talk about her all the time and imagine what things will be like when she is here. A friend gave us a stuffed panda and a ladybug basket and Graham insisted they go in his room so he can think about his sister all the time. So sweet!

The next step is for me to send these things off with two more passport photos of Neal and me and copies of our passport and our second payment to the agency. They will take all our documents, with our Notice of Approval, and put them together to make our dossier which will then be sent to China. This shouldn't take long to prepare since all the documents have already been approved. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Happy Easter! We have had a great Spring Break. Neal's sister and family came in from NYC and we have spent a lot of time with them. We went to the lake for a couple of days and had a crawfish boil at Neal's parents' house Saturday. Easter we went to church and then had lunch at Squire Creek with Neal's family. My Mom and Dad are off in Texas looking at the bluebonnets.

We received our notice of our fingerprint appointment from the Homeland Security. We have to go to Jackson on April 20th for those. Exciting! One step closer. Neal and my anniversary is the 17th so we figure we will stay over for the night. Lucky it was a Friday appointment:-)

Good Friday we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt at my grandmother's house in Ruston. Below is a pic of all the great-grandchildren. It's exciting to think that next year there will be one more little girl in this pic. All of these cousins live in Ruston. She is going to be such a blessed little girl to have so many "friends" when she gets here!