Updated Info on Kassidy

We got an email with a little bit of updated info but no new updated photos. We're bummed, but glad to get what we got. As we mentioned before, the way that they weigh and measure the babies vary greatly. Her weight when she was examined on April 30, 2008 was 15 lbs and she was 24.8 inches long. The updated info that we received today that was dated July 15, 2008 had her weight as 15.2 lbs and 26.8 inches. That is about the same weight and not very much more in length either. We probably will not know her true weight until we get her back to the states and have her weighed. We am guessing she will be about the size of a 6-month old baby or a tad bit smaller when we get her. She will be 9 months old on September 21, 2008. Also, another fact we found of significance, is that she is still in foster care. On referral day when we got her pic and information, they said she had been transferred to an orphanage. This does happen but we was kind of taking this info with a grain of salt because the adoption agency had no date as to when she was transferred and we also found out another couple was told the same thing and later found out their baby was still in foster care. We do not know if she will be transferred to an orphanage before we receive her or if she will stay in foster care until we arrive to pick her up. There are some cases in which the adoptive parents are actually handed their baby by the foster care provider. We have mixed feelings about this. We really would just absolutely love to meet the foster care provider so we could ask her questions face to face about Kassidy and also to show her my gratitude for taking care of her all of her life. On the other hand, we know how much it would rip our hearts out for Kassidy to cry after the foster care provider when taking her away from all she knows. We are prepared as much as we can be for the separation anxiety that she will have and am not looking forward to seeing her grieve like that but, hopefully, she will be able to bond with us in a short amount of time. The updated info also says that she is sitting and standing but not yet walking or talking. I am currently working on getting a flight itinerary approved and my next post will probably be just that, letting you know our exact dates of travel. Today has been stressful. It has been one of those days where everything gets thrown at your and you have to do your best to accomplish as many tasks as the time allows. Will let you know as soon as possible on travel dates.

Consulate Appointments Confirmed!

Another wonderful progressive-filled day. We received an email from our adoption agency that the Chinese Government has confirmed and made an appointment for us to finalize our adoption on August 27, 2008. This appointment, however, is at the end of our trip and only two days before we will be flying home. We must arrive in China on August 15, 2008. Being in China that early will give us the time needed to get to the province where our baby is at, receive her on "Gotcha Day," do the paperwork needed there at her province, and travel to Guangzhou which is where everyone adopting from China goes and spends the last week of their trip to finalize all the necessary documents and make the adoption final and have the very important consulate appointment to do so. So as of now....looks like we will be flying out on either August 13 or 14 and arriving back to NC on August 30. Will keep you posted when we have a more finalized itinerary.

Visas Arrived

We did have a Fedex delivery this afternoon which included our Visas. We are relieved to have them in our hands and not have to worry about this step and the chances of the passports/visas getting lost in the mail or even worrying about getting approval for the Visas. We are still awaiting news of our consulate appointments that we have to obtain once we get in China to finalize the adoption. Once we have these appointments made, then we can go ahead and go forth with our travel arrangements as far as purchasing airline tickets, making hotel reservations, etc. The appointments were requested on Thursday (July 24) and it is supposed to take between 1-6 business days to get the confirmation of the appointment dates. We are hoping to get the appointments confirmed within the next few days since we are on day #3 and things have seemed to pick up speed dramatically since our referral and have leaned more towards sooner rather than later in other areas so far. So hoping for appointments to come through tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

Mom

I Learned From You

I learned about love from you,watching your caring ways. I learned about joy from you in fun-filled yesterdays.
From you I learned forgiving of faults both big and small. I learned what I know about living from you, as you gave life your all.
The example you set is still with me I'd never want any other. I'm thankful for all that you taught me, and I'm blessed to call you "Mother."

Mom,

At times like this, I want to share so desperately my life with you. I miss you so very much it is still so hard to imagine life without you. Even after the years that have passed since your death, I still long for you so much. I wish I could share Kassidy with you and give you the gift of being her grandmother. The most important way I feel I can share her with you is to try and be the kind of mother to her that you were to me and instill in her life's most important things. I hope to be the kind of example you were to me and be strong for her and teach her above all things to be a Godly woman and have a heart for others. Until we are able to be together again, just know I love you and will tell her about you and the great woman you were to everyone who met you. I love you!

Love you, Nikki

Visas Issued

We got word today that the courier service we were using to get our visas had picked them up successfully today and they were approved for us to travel to China. They have already been picked up by Fedex in D.C. and are on their way to us. According to the tracking number, we should have them in our hands by Tuesday. While some may see getting visas issued and approved as not a big deal, The Embassy of China has become a little more strict with the issuing out of visas as of late. My guess is maybe the Olympics have something to do with this but who knows. All I know is that we are approved and that puts us one step closer. We are marking off the steps at a quick pace and onto the next.

More Info on Kassidy

Today I walked out to the mailbox and was pleasantly suprised to have an envelope from the director of the orphanage where Kassidy was taken after only a week of being born. She was abandoned at the entrance of Qichun County apartments for the elderly on November 28, 2007. When she arrived, she was wearing a multicolored knit wool hat and a yellow cotton-padded outfit. She was wrapped in a blanket with big red flowers on it. She was placed in a foster care home and once a month a staff member from the orphanage would visit her to check on her development and health. She weighed approximately 7 lbs at birth. The last sentence of the director's letter reads as follows: "She is an extremely adorable child." Of course she is Director Wang, but thanks for reiterating the fact. :)

Each few days now we are finding ourselves receiving some sort of information either about Kassidy or about the process involving document approval, travel approval, etc. Hope to hear something else very soon regarding travel and will update as soon as possible so keep checking in.

Travel Approvals

Yippeeee! One step closer. We got our travel approvals today. Travel approvals are necessary in order to have an "official invite" to China to adopt your specific child that you have been matched to. Without this aporoval, the Consultate would not schedule our appointments with them to finalize our adoption. The next step now is getting our Consulate appointments which our adoption agency is now requesting for the timeframe of August 15th. So far so good. Once we get our consulate appointments all we will have to do is make our travel arrangements and head for China. Sooooo close finally! Hoping things keep going fast and that we are on that plane in no time flat.

Flooding in Hubei Province

Well...one more prayer to add to your list. Below is a link of a video of the Hubei province where our daughter, Kassidy, is located. We are to travel there to get her within a few weeks time. However, as you can see from this video clip, there has been some major flooding causing building collapses and drownings killing at least 6 people and affecting over half a million people. We are still waiting to get our visas which should be approved by Friday and ready for pick up. Here's hoping we will be able to travel in this area by the time we get there. Since it is a few weeks away I am thinking it will be dealt with enough that we can get through. Also please pray that our daughter's orphanage was not affected in any tremendous way by the flood. Even with all the events happening in China as of late (i.e. Olympics, earthquake, flood and of course our long wait time for this adoption), we are still on our way to getting our little Kassidy and bring her home as soon as possible. All these things in our way will only make it that much more special when we finally get her placed in our arms.

http://video.ap.org/vws/search/aspx/ap.aspx?t=s59&p=ENAPworld_ENAPworld&g=0723dvs_china_rain&f=yourIDhere

Paperwork

The process has really started all over again as far as the paperwork goes. We never thought we would go through so much paperwork while doing our first part of this real journey, the Dossier. Well....it feels like we are in the same boots again. Nikki spent the entire day from 8 AM to 10 PM doing paperwork. We are feeling caught up now but geezzzz....lots to do! There is not much else to report as to this point. Just getting together our paperwork to get our visas and paperwork for travel arrangements to be made. Hopefully soon we will be getting a more concrete itinerary and know what our travel plans will look like. We have definitely been busy but that is a good thing. If we were not busy then we would surely be pulling our hair out from frustration of not being able to hold our little one in our arms yet. Nikki went to WV over the weekend and was able to visit family and friends and show off her pictures of Kassidy in person. We will keep you updated as to any new information that we get. Tomorrow is a conference call with our adoption agency and all other families that we are traveling with. We are hoping to learn something new that we don't already know about. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers and for even caring enough to read our blog. It is a special time in our lives and we love sharing it with those we care about and who care about us.

More Pics of our Beauty

Well the Fedex man came today and delivered two more pics. They both look like they were done about the same age and time. One pic she is wearing the exact same clothes as the last pic and the other one has a different outfit. They both have different backgrounds. I think you can see a little bit more of her hair in these, which I totally love! We did not really get any additional information in the packet today than what we got yesterday. But the pictures will do. We sent our acceptance letter back today to our adoption agency and now they will start trying to get our appointments set up with the Chinese government and then start scheduling our travel around those appointments. In about two weeks we will receive a conference call with our adoption agency along with the other families that are going to be traveling with us. Our agency will then answer any questions we have about travel and fill us in on a what to expect with the travel part of this journey. Hope you enjoy the pics and will keep you informed.

Thank You Is In Order

We have received so many emails and phone calls that we cannot possibly respond back to them all at this time, not only because of the volume but also because our brains are just on overdrive at the moment and cannot seem to quit staring at Kassidy's picture long enough to do anything else. However, we just want everyone to know we appreciate all your responses and hopefully in the next week or so when things start to settle down we will have more time to respond back to you individually. We are now playing the waiting game once again for the Fedex delivery person to arrive today with the additional pictures and information about her. Enough of this waiting stuff! :) Anyways....just wanted to apologize for not getting back with everyone and hopefully will have more information and pics to post soon.

Additional Info.

I am going to add a little information onto the last post, as I was a little excited and could not think straight. Tomorrow when we get the additional pictures and information I will post more. But for now, this is the rest of the story.

The coolest thing I forgot to post is that her birthday is November 21, 2007 (one day after Nikki's). She is from Hubei Province. We got the call at 11:40 AM today. She has been in foster care since November 28, 2007. They say she was very close to her caregiver. They have moved her to an orphanage as of late, but not sure exactly when. If the children have been in foster care, they are usually placed in an orphanage for some time before the adoptive parents go to get them. One reason for this is so that the transition will be a little easier when the adoptive parents come to get them. This is supposed to allow some time for the grieving process of being separated from their caregiver which at times they have been with their whole life. It breaks my heart thinking about her being scared like that but hopefully it will not take her long to bond and feel safe with us. They say she was very close with her caregiver. She loves to play outside and her favorite toy is a rattle. Get this.....she takes two naps during the day, usually 9-10 and 1-3 (my kind of girl already...hehe). She usually gets up at 7 AM and goes to bed around 7:30 PM. Her name means Xiao (dawn; daybreak) Dong (winter) Qi (surname which is part of the orphanage name).

That is all I have for now. More to come tomorrow.......

Referral Picture

Introducing Xioa Dong Qi. She is 15 pounds and height 24.80 inches. I am posting her picture here and will get back later with a post with more information. We will get two more pictures tomorrow and the packet of information. I will post immediately when we get them. The adoption agency said that the other two pictures look as if they were taken at the same time and aren't that different. The pictures were taken on April 30, 2008 so they are over two months old at this time and by the time we get her she will be around 9 months old so she will probably have changed even more so. Enjoy. We are soooo excited and happy to be able to finally share our little Kassidy's picture with everyone!

Old Website Comments from Friends and Family

This also is a part of the old website that I did not want to discard as it is well wishes from various friends and family and I want to keep it so I am transferring it over to this blog.

Name:
Michele Gill
Email:
N/A
Comments
Good luck. Keep us posted on the progress. We our all excited and happy for you. Love you

Name:
Emily Metten
Email:
martymetten@charter.net
Comments
Kassidy’s, I am your cousin Emily. I can't wait until you get here. I will share all my things with you. I will share MiMi with you. Love Emily

Name:
Angel, Bryan and Talon (future husband)
Email:
lee1alexander@yahoo.com
Comments
Kassidy's we are long awaiting your arrival to us. You will soon see how your mom and dad have prepared your life with them and us! You will love your room and be loved more then you can imagine I can not wait until you are old enough for me to tell you all the plans your mom and I have for you and Talon! We love you and can't wait for you to be home... Our love Angel, Bryan and Talon.

Name:
KIM QUINTRELL
Email:
MOMMIQ@AOL.COM
Comments
KASSIDY I AM YOUR GREAT AUNT KIM AND I REALLY MEAN GREAT!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO PUSH YOU AROUND IN A STROLLER LIKE I DID YOUR MOM AND AUNT JODI. LOVE YOU GREAT! AUNT KIM

Name:
Jane Ann Curry
Email:
ToddACurry@aol.com
Comments
I am so HAPPY for you - I know you've been waiting a very LONG time for this moment! I will keep you my prayers for a safe trip!

Name:
Holly Little
Email:
littjoel@aol.com
Comments
Almost time...I am so excited for you. I have been thinking about your referral coming soon, and have been meaning to write but I lost your email address. Just think, this will be the last 4th of July you will spend without Kassidy in your arms. I wish you all well, and can't wait to see the photos. Take Care, Holly L. (in Clayton-future Mommy to a Kassidy as well)

Adoption Timeline

This, as you probably know by now, has been a long process and we have kept track of it as best we can. This is just to help outline the time between the steps during the process.

04-30-05 - Sent out application to CCAI
05-02-05 - CCAI received application
05-07-05 - CCAI approved application
06-03-05 - Sent First Fee agreement to CCAI.
06-07-05 - CCAI received First Fee agreement.
06-25-05 - Sent packet to home study agency..
07-05-05 - Applied For passports.
08-04-05 - Received Nikki's passport.
08-05-05 - Received Billy's passport.
08-09-05 - First home Study performed.
08-11-05 - Second home Study performed.
08-08-05 - Sent I-600A form to USCIS
08-19-05 - Received receipt for I-600A form.
08-26-05 - Received Appt. notification for fingerprinting.
09-07-05 - Went to Charlotte at USCIS for fingerprinting.
11-09-05 - Received approved I-171 form.
11-17-05 - Secretary of State Authenticated documents.
11-18-05 - FedEx mailed to Asst. Stork all documents
11-21-05 - Assistant Stork received documents.
11-30-05 - Received documents from Assistant Stork.
12-05-05 - Sent document + Fees to CCAI
01-03-06 - Dossier sent to China
01-23-06 - Received Log-in-date (LID)
03-08-06 - Received Brown Envelope
04-10-06 - Received travel Packet I
01-06-07- Home Study Update
01-08-07- Travel Packet from CCAI
02-09-07- Resent I-600 A form for renewal of I-171 approval to USCIS
02-24-07-Received receipt of I-600A from USCIS
02-27-07- Received appointment for fingerprinting at USCIS in Charlotte
03-10-07- Went to Charlotte for fingerprinting
03-13-07- Received I-171 approval
02-11-08- Letter requesting fingerprint renewal
02-26-08- Received appointment for fingerprinting at USCIS in Charlotte
03-14-08 - Went to Charlotte at USCIS for fingerprinting.
03-20-08 - Received approval for fingerprinting.
06-05-08 - Received home study update.
06-13-08 - Letter & Home study requesting I-171 renewal.
06-18-08 - Received approval for renewed I-171.
07-07-08 - Referrals arrived at CCAI!!!!!!

Referrals arrived!!!!!!

Well...we finally got an email today from our adoption agency telling us that they recieved the referral for our baby. They have to have time to translate and sort everything out before they call or send any information to us. They should be calling around early afternoon with the information and then will send one picture of her to us via email. On Wednesday, we should receive a FedEx package that will have any additional information or any additional pictures if there are any along with a consent form for us to sign to say we accept the baby and then we will need to overnight it back to our agency. From this point on, it will be approximately 1 to 2 months before we travel to pick up our new family member. We are not only a couple now....we are a family! We are so excited to see her tomorrow. The only problem we have now is, how are we going to sleep tonight? We will post her picture that we receive here on this blog tommorrow as soon as possible. It's really happening!

Nursery

Here are some pictures of the nursery. It has been in progress for several years and has even moved from one house to another, but we are pretty much finished.

Not losing comments

This is a compilation of the comments made prior to us getting this new blog. I did not want to lose them so will post them this way just in case we get rid of our other website in the future and want to keep this one.

Date: 28 Jun 2008
Comments

The time is getting very close regarding when we will actually see the face of our baby. There is a rumor that the information of our baby along with a picture of her have been sent from China already and may be arriving within 4 to 5 days, which is just the most exciting thing I can imagine. We should get "the call" and that is when they will email information and one pic and then overnight any additional info and pics they may have received. Other than the day they place her in our arms, this will be the best day of our lives. We should be notified the day before we will be getting "the call" and we will make a post letting you know and then will post he picture as soon as possible when we get it. YIPPEE!!! It is finally becoming a reality. Okay....I'm getting a little nervous now, but more excited than anything. Be sure to check back often to the website because we are preparing to be making many entries in the VERY near future.

Date: 27 Mar 2008
Comments

Hi Everyone, We are still waiting! But it is getting closer and closer. Talked to the adoption agency today and they are predicting a May/June match. After we get matched then it will take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to travel there. We are trying our best to get the website in order so it will be ready, but as of now there just isn't much to post. We do hope that soon we will be flooded with info and will have some exciting news. Keep your fingers crossed for us, as right now is not the best time to be going to China with the Olympics going on in a few months and also with the Tibet troubles rising up now. But whenever they say go...we will go. We have waited long enough. If any of you would like to make a post then just go to the link that says Kassidy's Friends Book and you can write in there. It would be nice to hear from you.


Date: 14 May 2008
Comments

It was a few days ago now that the earthquake hit China. It seems that everytime I ask what else can happen that I get that question answered with an answer that I was not wanting. Although we have not been matched with a particular child and do not know a particular area that our child will be coming from, it is still hard not to wonder if our child is in this area or not. Even if our child is not in this area, I am well aware that someone's child, mother, father, sister, brother, etc. are there and many have been killed and many more injured and homeless. This is a tragedy for sure and I cannot wait to have our baby here with us and be safe in our arms. Please say an extra prayer for this area and those who are affected.

Welcome

Bringing Home Kassidy

Welcome to our new website. We originally had and still have the website that we have been using prior to this (http://www.idreamofkassidy.com/). However, we have changed to a blog, as we believe this will work better in China than the other. So when we post in China we will more than likely just use this blog to keep you informed and post pictures. Keep your fingers crossed that it will work because we would like to share our journey with you.