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!!

LOA & I800

We received our hard copy of LOA on Tuesday, we signed, dated and sent it back to our agency and yesterday they sent our I800 paperwork to USCIS, this approval takes about 3 weeks maybe less but if it is less it won't matter because our agency will be closed from Christmas- January 4th.  I got really excited when I read one sentence in an email from our case worker, here is part of it  "As we enter the last two steps of the process, I want to make sure………….."  I can hardly believe we finally made it this far!

Time frame for travel:
1800 approval- 3 weeks
Article 5 approval- 2-3 weeks
Travel Approval- 3 days- 2 weeks (recently on the shorter end)
Another 2-3 weeks til we get on a plane

Somewhere between 8- 11 weeks we will be meeting our son! Not sure yet how Chinese New Year will effect our travel but we may be delayed a week for that.

The picture above is the very first picture I saw of Gong Xin, before his adoption paperwork was prepared and before I knew he was our son. This was when he first arrived at Bethel from his orphanage, he was 18 months old.

Below is a link to the second video we received. Make sure your volume is turned on so you can hear the adorable giggles.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cj617eteurnko7f/Gordon%204-9-15.flv?dl=0

                     

Introducing…..

As you all know, we received our LOA this week. This is our approval from China to adopt our little guy.  I cried when I saw that email. Thankfully our adoption process has gone smoothly so far without any major delays. Let's hope it stays that way.

 Introducing…Our little guy…Gabriel Gong Xin Sloan! This is one of the first pictures we saw when we were reviewing his file. He's grown so much since then! At the bottom of this post is the first video we received.

I'm going to try to contain my excitement and not show you guys all the pictures and videos we have at once and space them out over the time we have left until travel ;)

Click on the link below to see the first video we saw of Gong Xin.  Gordon (the name on the video) was his advocacy name. This was from early in 2015.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dovoryft5s8he9c/Gordon%20video.mp4?dl=0

Thanks for reading and please continue to pray for us as we finish the last steps of the process.

Waiting…..

We're celebrating Abby's birthday today and she really was hoping we would get our LOA on her birthday but we didn't.  Trusting in God's perfect timing and trying to be patient, but waiting for your child is hard! Abby is so excited about this adoption, the boys don't say too much about it but Abby reads the blog every week and actually knows what step we are on and what we're waiting for or working on. She loves going through Gabe's clothes and putting together outfits. She's adorable! Anyway, she's the reason i'm writing this blog post right now because she keeps checking the blog and asking why I haven't done it yet. It's been 11 days!! I really do try to do a weekly blog post but sometimes, like right now, there just isn't an adoption update. We're just waiting….

We are getting ready to send Gabriel a Christmas package. It's bittersweet because we wish he was here to celebrate with us this year, but we're excited to send him a gift. We're filling a stocking with goodies and this time we will be adding some extra goodies for the nannies that take such good care of our little guy. Hopefully we will get some pictures of him with his gifts.

Check out the details below for our Christmas fundraiser coming up soon. We would love to see you there. It will be lots of fun! Ugly Christmas sweater contest and all! Kids are welcome.

You Caring link

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

Gathering things for a toddler

It's been a while since we've had a toddler in the house and I've been slowly gathering things for him while we wait. Gabriel will be just turning 3 when we travel so I'm hoping all the 3T size clothes I've been buying will fit him. The 2T clothes we sent him during the summer fit him just fine so I think we should be good. Im really hoping to get updated measurements soon, especially foot size because I have no clue what size shoes to buy. Little guy also has a few toys, books, sippy cups, snack cups, a backpack, and bedding.  I thought I'd never find toddler bedding I liked and then I finally found this set….now he just needs a bed.  Mike is planning on making one himself, he's quite handy!

We will be sharing our room with Gabriel for a while, his bed will be right next to ours and he may even sleep in our bed if he needs to.  We'll do whatever it takes to make him feel safe and secure.

Nothing new to report in the adoption process, still waiting for LOA. We are on day 16 and are hoping it will come in couple more weeks.

*Our next fundraiser will be a Dinner and silent auction on  Saturday, December 19th @ 6:30 pm. It will be at The Anchor Fellowship- 629 3rd Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37210
Free Admission! Free Dinner! There will be music, comedy, baked goods, an ugly Christmas sweater contest and more! Everyone is welcome.

*We still need items for the silent auction. Let us know if you'd like to donate something.

As always, thank you for following our journey. Prayers are appreciated!

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

LID!!!

Logged In Dossier! Last Thursday we got the email, our dossier is officially logged in. This step usually takes 5-7 business days after DTC but ours took 16 days! All the waiting is a bummer. Now we are waiting for LOA-letter of acceptance. This can take two months or more but currently they are being issued a lot quicker. I've seen some that were less than a month! We are hoping and praying ours comes quickly too. We need to go get our baby!  Also, we will be able to share his photos and videos when we get that official approval.

We're still working on the paperwork needed now that Jake is 18. Luckily this step won't cause any delays, it's just something that has to be done.

*We are in need of donations for our silent auction*

Thank you for all the love and support.

You Caring fundraising page

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