I800 approval!!

We finished another step in bringing Benjamin home today. US customs and immigration (USCIS) issued our I800 approval, which is their permission for us to adopt him! Now we hurry up and wait for the next few steps. The closer we get to the end of the process, the more consulted the steps become. They do, however, go faster than the wait for the acceptance from China. It looks like if everything stays on track, we should be traveling in May.

Google directions in case you're interested

It does have tolls and includes a ferry. Step 60 Kayak across the Pacific Ocean 3879 miles. Step 119 Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean 486 miles. Are we there yet?
You have to love Google directions!

Introducing Benjamin!

Now that we have our official acceptance from China, we can finally share some of our pictures and information about Benjamin!! 

His birthday will be next week, and he'll be turning 2.  It seems weird to think of him getting older, and us not being able to be there with him, or to have him home with us.  On the other hand, this will be his last birthday without his new family.  Hopefully we'll be travelling soon, and won't have to miss many more of the milestones in his life.

The only pictures we have of him right now are a bit old now - from July of 2011.  We haven't been able to get any new information or pictures since then, but we did find a family online who had travelled to his orphange and actually had pictures of him!   It was so good to talk to her - she had lots of information about how well the children are taken care of in his city, and that the foster families really love their kids.  As much as it's hard to be here waiting to bring him home, it's such a relief to know that his foster parents are taking good care of him.

Every time I see the pictures in the pink snowsuit, I just crack up.  I cannot wait to get him some cute little boy clothes. I'm pretty sure Brian is thanking his lucky stars that I have no idea what size he wears so I can't go shopping.......



Welcome to the blog!

We've been talking for a long time about starting a blog about the whole process and journey to bring Benjamin home, and here it is (finally.....) We're really hoping this will be a great way to keep all our friends and family along with us throughout the whole process, as well as be a good story for Benjamin later on. We've gotten into reading other families' adoption blogs, and have learned a lot from them - hopefully we can return the favor for families behind us in the process.

For those of you who don't know us, we're Brian and Jen. We met through work about 14 years ago now, eventually started dating, and got married almost 8 years ago now. We have a 4 year old son, Christopher, as well as all the critters: JackJack the dog, 2 cats, 2 horses, and a herd of chickens.

We started considering adoption a few years ago, knowing that we wanted another child. It kept getting pushed onto the back burner for all the other stuff that comes up in life. Finally last winter, we decided once and for all that this was what we needed to do to make our family complete. We spent a lot of time researching the whole process, looking into agencies around us, and considering different programs. We both came to the decision that adopting a child from China was the perfect match for our family, and started off on the path to bringing home our child.

It's been about a year since we started towards this, and we're getting closer every day to Benjamin being home with us.