This has been a much slower process than for the first three. (The wait for USCIS to approve our I800a was 80 days versus about one month on the other three, for example.) I am not being particularly patient with the process because I know how much quicker it can be. On October 27 we were able to FedEx our dossier of paperwork to BAAS to be sent on to China and we found out today that we are officially logged in to the system in China! From here it could be 4-5 months, give or take.
We have elected not to tell the little kids yet because that is a long time to be asked “When are we leaving?!” I expect there will be some adjustments for the littles, particularly for Katie. She is certainly used to being the family princess and may not enjoy sharing that title. We are not sure yet who will travel on this trip. Our inclination on this decision is leaning toward bringing only Katie in hope that it will help the two little girls bond. Knowing that it is because of Hope that Katie gets a trip to China may be the tipping factor in encouraging Katie to accept a new family member.
We haven’t set that in stone and can’t until we know the dates. The question of who will be with Jay and Ian hasn’t been fully answered. Mitch is willing and had already scheduled out for March because before we decided to bring Hope home, we had a big,tropical, adults-only, 30th Anniversary trip planned. We are praying for March travel (although Mitch may not be😂). Traveling with 3 going and 4 coming home would be incredibly cheaper and simpler than traveling with 7 bringing home 8. Even with that in mind, we may not be able to leave all of our travel-loving kids behind. We are so blessed that all 5 are great travelers and love any trip that involves a hotel. Maybe we should be hoping for a lottery win instead of March travel...but then I’d have to buy a lottery ticket.
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