Waiting for Travel Approval!!

Today our article 5 process will be completed and now we are officially waiting for travel approval! Recently there was a glitch in the system causing delays for travel approvals but it's fixed now so it shouldn't affect us. Next week is the CNY closure,  and I'm thinking we'll get our travel approval the week after which would allow us to leave on March 3rd. That's only 28 days!!! I can't believe it! After all the waiting we are finally so close!

We just sent our voice recordings for Gabriel yesterday and I sent pictures last week so they can describe us and our home to him. I guess they will be telling him about us soon if they haven't already. Very exciting!

*Edit* Just after I posted this I got an email from our caseworker, (it was a group email to all the families waiting for travel approval), he said that a Gotcha day of March 7th is not possible for any of us, meaning we won't be leaving on march 3rd as we hoped. Gotcha days are always on Mondays. It looks like we'll be adding a week to that, but it still all depends how quickly we receive our TA.

This is a new picture we received last week and it's one of my favorites. How sweet is that face??

Puzzle pieces are still available. If you want to sponsor a piece for $10 you can donate to our 

You Caring fundraising page.

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

Thank you all for following our adoption journey, praying for us, supporting us...we feel the love!

Just Waiting

We're halfway through the article 5 process. Next Thursday it will be completed and then we just wait for travel approval.  I'm hoping we can leave on March 3rd, that would get us home just in time for Jake's school musical. He has 5 parts in it this year...5!!! So, we don't want to miss it!

As I'm sitting here writing this blog,  I just got the most exciting email!  They are going to tell Gabriel he has family! We will be sending pictures and information about us and our house so that they can describe us to him. We will also be sending a voice recording. Included in the email were 11 pictures and a video. Happy day!

Gabriel has not received his Christmas package yet but I'm hopeful it will eventually make its way to him before we get there.

I'll leave you with this super adorable video we received in October.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZO7vdCoW-A&feature=youtu.be

Article 5 Process

Abby informed me yesterday that it's time for another blog post. She is on top of things! Our Article 5 process started today, this is the last step and it takes exactly two weeks. After that we will be waiting for TA  (travel approval).  We will be waiting through the Chinese New Year closure and because of that we will be traveling in early March.

This week has been crazy! I've been sick, Mike's job for the week cancelled, and our upstairs heating unit stopped working. Poor Jake, the bonus room is his bedroom and we didn't realize it, but he told us it hasn't been working for a while. Praise the Lord it was an easy, inexpensive fix! Then, our week was brightened when we received new pictures of Gabriel! I'm sure everyone saw the one I posted yesterday but i'll post the other two here. They're a little blurry but I just love them because he's so happy playing with his Bethel mama. I'm so very thankful for the love and care he is receiving at Bethel.

We have lots of puzzle pieces left to be sponsored for $10 each. You can donate at our You Caring page. Thank you!

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

I800 approval

We're moving along again. Our I800 was approved on Friday and now we just have one more step before travel approval! We are hoping to get travel approval before Chinese New Year so we can start booking plane tickets and hotels.  We also received a care plan that Gong Xin's therapists put together for us on the best way to care, encourage, and interact with him. That will be super helpful! Still no word on the Christmas package we sent. I hope he got it.

Caleb, my baby, will become a middle kid very soon. I can't wait to see him as a big brother!  He is excited about Gabe joining our family, but when I asked him recently what he thought about being a big brother, he said  "I like being the youngest." I assured him he'll always be my baby. He's been the youngest for 10 (almost 11) years and this will be a big change for him but I have no doubt that he will be an awesome big brother!

Here is a short video of little guy learning how to feed himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOJKmvQI1gU

Thanks for reading!

I800- Back on track!

Well, I think we're back on track with our I800. Our receipt notice finally came in the mail 17 days after our I800 was sent.  The approval may take a bit longer than expected, but i'm just happy we don't need to start over.  I'm anxious to get these last couple steps done so we have a better idea of when we will be traveling. Of course we want to travel asap and we will but there is a ton of stuff to do still and it's quite overwhelming to think about!

I started our  adoption with a puzzle fundraiser and I am going to end with it as well. We still have about 140 pieces left unsponsored.  Mike will be out of work for more than two weeks unpaid when we travel so we need to come up with funds to pay the bills while we're away.  If all the remaining puzzle pieces are sponsored at $10 each, that will be $1400 which will cover at least one of those weeks.  When you sponsor a puzzle piece we will write your name on the back, when the puzzle is complete we will frame it and hang it in Gabriel's room. If you are interested in sponsoring a piece you can make a $10 donation to our You Caring fundraising page. The link is below the picture of our puzzle.

https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/waiting-4-gabe/341337

Please continue to pray for for our family. Thank you!

I800 Delay

what a rollercoaster of a week it's been! Earlier this week we had the sweetest gift dropped off on our front porch for Gabe, Braille alphabet tiles. That was such a thoughtful and unexpected surprise! Thank you, Sara!!  Then, a couple days ago Bethel posted a couple of really sweet photos of our little guy, so that was exciting! Yesterday was the most frustrating day. I called USCIS to check on the status of our I800 because it's been two weeks and we should of gotten a receipt notice in the mail. Well, there is no record of it in their system, it's apparently lost. One top of that our agency is closed  until the 4th and we'll have to wait until then to do anything about it. Our I800 approval will now take over a month when it should have been approved any day now.  Today, I am mostly over the frustration and accepting that God has a plan and He is always on time. In the grand scheme of things we will have Gabriel in our arms very soon and none of these silly delays will matter. We also got our new I800A approval in the mail today. This is just something we will need to bring with us when we travel, it's just an update showing that Jake is now 18.  We have a lot to do in the next couple months before we travel so I'm going to focus on that and try to remember everything if that's possible.

I'm hoping Gabe received the Christmas gift we sent but I haven't heard anything yet.
Here are the pictures from this week. It's good to know he is so well loved.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Today we're celebrating our last Christmas without Gabriel!  Yesterday was Christmas in China and Bethel celebrated with all the sweet kiddos in their care. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of their party!

Our Waiting 4 Gabe fundraiser last weekend was a huge success! We are incredibly grateful to everyone the helped make it happen. Words cannot express how blessed we feel from all the love and support we've received on this journey. We're coming to the end of our adoption process but it will really be the beginning of our journey with Gabriel and we are so excited to see God's plan for our family unfold.

Here is a picture of our smiley guy. This picture is from the Christmas card Bethel sent us, such a wonderful and thoughtful gift for waiting families.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a family photo early enough this year to use for Christmas cards but if we did send cards they would look something like this.

Merry Christmas from the Sloan Family!!