More steps!

Today our home study was sent from Dillon to BAAS for approval so that our I800A Supplement 3 could be approved.  We also received a letter from the USCIS (immigration department) that was a "Notice of Intent to Deny" because they have not received the homestudy yet.  We sent in the application expecting a temporary denial but hoping to get the homestudy in quickly afterward.  It looks like we will be fine on this and so should get to avoid the 40-60 day wait for 1800A!  Whoot!!  Our agency usually takes 2 weeks to approve it but the lady at BAAS has said she will try to get it done tomorrow.  I really hope she doesn't forget.  Our current I800 expires 1/8 and Ian's birthday is 1/9.  I wish we could be there for his birthday or barring that send a cake.  :(  They generally don't allow you to send packages until you have your LOA, which is a few steps away for us.  With LOA we should be about 8 weeks out from travel.  I guess that they worry that parents will back out and how awful would that be for a child to be told they had a family and then not have one?  I know, too, that even 8 weeks is a long time for a 10 year old to wait once he knows his life is about to make a radical change.  Telling Ian now that he has a family would probably make the next 6 months difficult for him.  Sigh.  I can wait. 

From here, we wait on the official I800A, supplement 3 approval and then take that and about a dozen other documents to OKC to be authenticated.  Then we send all of that to the Houston Chinese consulate for them to approve and then we can be DTC (dossier to China).  That puts us in line for China to review our information and send us our letter confirming that we still want to adopt Ian.  Lots of steps still but we are excited to be this close to finishing this step.  We are still holding on to hope for early summer travel to China.

On to Katie and Jaden...
We had Christmas in Florida and celebrated Laura's 25th also.  The kids had a great time.

Before we left we had an early Christmas at NaiNai's house.  It was so sweet.  Jaden saw all of the presents and was bouncing around chanting "presents, presents" and his daddy pulled him aside to remind him to be gracious with his presents and his response was, "I'M getting presents, too?!"  He was so excited even thinking that none of them were for him.  He has such a sweet heart.

He is coming along in school.  Academically, he has made huge strides.  He is so much more comfortable with his letters and his numbers and is working on a few sight words.  With his sensory issues, he is also making strides.  He is starting to learn how to ask for what he needs and has put himself in a quiet area a couple of times when he needed down time at school.  Sensory processing issues will be something he has forever and the key to him being successful will be his ability to self-regulate his sensory diet.  (Meaning sensory experiences, not food.)  I am so blessed that his teacher really loves him and is forgiving when he doesn't do as well as we would wish.

Katie has continued to blossom!  She has had so much fun having all the family together for the holidays.  She is going to be sad when Laura and Mitch have to be gone for school again.  She is speaking so well; she is just amazing.  She isn't growing as much as I would like although she seems to eat constantly.  She is a busy, busy girl.  She is such a cuddler.  :) 

Thanks for continuing to pray us through this journey.