Next week in China!!!

I can not believe that it is almost time for Susanne and I to fly to China to get our girls.  It was 5 years ago on Thanksgiving weekend when we filled out the application form and started our paperchase for our child.  Little did we know that we would be waiting 5 years, but we also did not know that we were going to be gifted with two beautiful little girls who we will be meeting in 13 days. 

Their room has been almost done for four years lacking just a crib or a bed.  Now it has two adorable toddler beds in it just waiting for little ones to sleep in them. 

Soon Susanne's and my life will change forever, I wish it was today!

Larry
Baba
爸爸

I have had a few people ask me where Rose and Roni are, so please see the maps below.

The girls are currently in Jiangxi Provence.  In the above map locate Hong Kong in the lower right and then go up to Guangdong provence and then Jiangxi.

In the map above just above the A in Jiangxi is a city called Xinyu.  This is where Rose and Roni have spent there entire lives.  We will  flying into the capital of the Provence Nanchang (up and to the right of Xinyu) on December 12th and getting the girls the same day.

New PHOTOS Hot off the press

Roni

Roni

Rose

Rose

Consulate Appointment

Well late yesterday we received word that we had an appointment at the US consulate in Guangzhou. It is for December 21st. We still need to work with the US goverment to make sure the correct paperwork is at the consulate when we get there, but that seems to be smoothing out right now.  So based on the consulate appointment here is the timeline.

We will leave either December 8th or 9th.  We need to be in Hong Kong on the 10th.
We will fly to Nanchang on Sunday, December 12^th and we will receive our children on the 12^th. 

We will take the oath on the afternoon of December 21st.
We will receive our children’s visas on the afternoon of December 23rd.
We will fly home either the 24th or 25th of December.

Larry

We have received our TA

We have received our TA (Travel Agreement) from China.  As far as they are concerned we can come and get the girls.  Today we also recieved our Visa's back from the Chinese consulate.  All we need now is an appointment from the US consulate in China.  Of course at this point we still do not know if the embassy ever received the completed I171 from the US government.  Hopefully we will know soon.

Larry
Soon to be Baba (爸爸)

USCIS Fun

So now everything is done and we are waiting for our TA and an appointment from the US Embassy, Right? Wrong.  The NVC (National Visa Center) has not received our I-171 from the NBC (National Benifits Center).  What does this mean?  The NVC can not send the information to the Embassy until they get the updated information from the NBC.  The Embassy in Guangzhou will not schedule an appointment for us without the document and we can not go get our girls until we have an appointment.  It is maddening to think that after 5 years of waiting we have to go through something like this.

I have a call in to our officer at the NBC, she took care of us when we needed the I-171 finished, so I hope that she will come through for us now.

Larry

Unexpected Miracles

Whenever Larry goes away for business he comes back with a gift for me.  Since we have gotten closer to the referral the gifts have been smaller in dollar value, but often times very sentimental.  The last trip he took he gave me two beaded bracelets called lucky karma beads.  The first was rose quartz and the card said love.  The second was agate beads and the card said unexpected miracles.  I have worn both bracelets since he gave them to me.

Flash forward to our referral – we were expecting one child, but we have had a name for a second daughter almost from the start just in case.  That big old red thread was working and the miracle that is Rose was realized and along with her came the unexpected miracle - Roni.  I feel so blessed that Larry and I are being given the honor of raising these two girls. 

Susanne

Rose New Pictures

Roni New Pictures

Surprise!

Much to our surprise today we found that not only did we receive our match for our adoption from China, we received TWINS.
Susanne and I are absolutely overjoyed.
So without further ado let me introduce our two girls.
Veronica JoAnn Fei Katz and Susanna Rose Fei Katz

Veronica who we will call Roni

Roni is 25 months old her Chinese name is Yu Da Fei she is currently at the Xinyu SWI in Jiangxi Province.

Susanna who we will call Rose

Rose is 25 months old her Chinese name is Yu Xiao Fei she is currently at the Xinyu SWI in Jiangxi Province.