Week 28

 

It has been 28 weeks since we received pre-approval from the China Center for Children’s Welfare Activities to proceed with Kyle’s adoption. 

This week has been…

Calming – at least things were calm around here until Friday night when we got our big news.  This week I have really tried to focus on the things that were important to me and not dwell on the things that won’t matter in the long run or things I can’t change.  Adoption is very stressful…maybe I make it more so than it needs to be, but instead of whining about having no support network, I’ve tried to take the approach of taking care of myself and focus on the people in my life that are important to me.  I have some very important people who are counting on me to hold my poop together.  I know that many people who we interact with day-to-day just don’t “get it” when it comes to our adoptions.  While that makes me sad…it’s time to put on my big girl panties and press on.  Like my friend Suzie would say – suck it up, buttercup.    

Big Adoption News:  We have Travel Approval!  This means that China has invited us to come over and complete Kyle’s adoption.  We were actually a little surprised about this and not expecting this till next week.

This is what TA looks like- what all the big fuss is about!  The picture is one we'd not seen before and is probably the earliest picture of Kyle there is...most likely from his "finding ad".  He was pretty sick when he was found and while I can tell that is Kyle...it is so nice to see a happy/healthy 3 year old boy in the pics we're so lucky to have. 

Next big expense…

We received an invoice from our agency this week for $3,000.00.  There are still some FedEx fees to be paid as well – we have probably spent about $500 per adoption in FedEx fees, which are paid out a little at a time…I really try not to think about it but that is a “hidden cost” that adds up.  Travel will be a MAJOR expense for us.  We will be hammering out the details of all of that this coming week.  I’d hoped we’d have a better outcome with the grants but we are really hoping that we get some good news from the remaining three that we have out there. 

Next Up…

Finalization of our Consulate Appointment (CA) from the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China.  This is the “exit interview” that all American families must go through before leaving China with their newly adopted children.  All other appointments/travel are triggered off of this one appointment, so until the consulate confirms our appointment, we can’t tell you when we are leaving or when we will meet Kyle.  We’ve requested the 19^th of August, which would put us as leaving England around 7-8 August and coming back on the 20-21^st of August, but until we get confirmation of our CA, we are in limbo. 

Fun Things We Did This Week:

I took a much needed day off of work last week and took the train in to London.  I had lunch at Five Guys (the American food fix did wonders) and did some shopping & visiting with a lady who is in my DTC Facebook group (this is about 200 moms who are roughly at the same point in the China process as we are).  This new friend is an American living in London with her family and it was very good for my soul to be able to talk to someone who “gets it”.  The adoption process has been really stressful for me and (what I perceive as) the lack of support we get from others has been wearing on me.  I guess international adoption isn’t something easily understood unless it’s personally touched you, and it was just really good for me to have some of my feelings validated and to be able to talk to someone who understands. 

As far as other fun, just a quiet weekend of hanging out and a little bit of housework, and throwing around different travel scenarios.  Our family calendar got completely screwed up this weekend and I managed to mess up all of our plans by my scheduling snafus, but I think the unplanned down time was good for all of us. 

Cheers.