The I-171H has arrived!!!!! Thursday, Aug 30 2007 

Adoption andystanton 12:58 pm

Today’s mail brought two awesome pieces of mail.

1. A letter from our nephew Jake, who is going through U.S. Army basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. This is the first letter we have received from him and we haven’t seen him since the end of July.

2. An envelope from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Kansas City. Our I-171-H form was in it! This form is the approval of the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) that says we can adopt Gabe and when he gets back into the United States, he will become an American citizen!!!

This was the last piece of paperwork we needed to complete our dossier for the adoption. Our adoption agency will take this form and after it is certified and authenticated, will go to Beijing. We were fingerprinted at USCIS in Kansas City on July 25, 2007 and received I-171H on August 30, 2007 - just five weeks! (It took 12 weeks to get our form when we adopted Gracie).

 

Update from China Monday, Aug 27 2007 

Adoption andystanton 10:37 am

As we checked e-mail this morning, we received a very unexpected e-mail from a Christian organization that works in Gabe’s orphanage. They said they had received both of the care packages we had sent Gabe (and we had included our e-mail address in the last package).

After receiving special permission from the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs to contact us, they told us that Gabe has been in the hospital for the past 3 or 4 months, but is back at the orphanage now. When we received the initial paperwork on Gabe, it said that he had a kidney condition that makes him more susceptible to kidney stones and calcification in the bladder and urethrea. It seems he has had some problems with that in the past few months and they performed three “surgeries” on him in Beijing. We don’t know yet of those surgeries were invasive (cutting with a scalpel) or done via a endoscope up through his bladder.

We do know that he is doing much better and the woman who e-mailed us this morning says he is outside walking and playing with toys and seems to be very happy. She did say the nurse at the orphanage is writing an extensive medical report and they will translate it and get back to us soon.

Keep the little guy in your thoughts and prayers. We are expecting to receive our approval from US Immigration services this week to complete our paperwork and then our dossier will be sent to Beijing. We are hoping that we can go get him SOON.

Andy

 

New photos! Monday, Aug 20 2007 

Adoption andystanton 5:26 pm

We received updated photos and an updated medical report today. The medical report is not translated, but we’ve got our Chinese students working on the translation tonight.Gabe Update 1

Gabe Update 2

 

USCIS - good and not so good news Saturday, Aug 18 2007 

Adoption andystanton 12:15 pm

As the mailman delivered the mail today, Dana and I were joking that I needed to go to the mailbox and get our I-171H and then fax it to the adoption agency. We both laughed.

When I opened the mailbox, I saw an envelope from Dept. of Homeland Security in Kansas City and started laughing - We had the I-171H - I thought.

Upon opening the letter, we found out that they needed more information. I made a mistake on the I-600A form (which is easily explained to them) and they needed more specific language in the home study.

The not so good news is we didn’t receive the I-171H today. The good news is that they are processing our file and as soon as we get the info to them (at the latest Monday or Tuesday) we will hopefully be getting the I-171H soon!!!!!

Andy (who starts the fall semester on Monday)
Dana (who starts taking her French class at FHSU on Monday)
Jackson (who starts First Grade on Tuesday)
Gracie (who starts TigerTots preschool at FHSU on Monday)
Gabriel (who is wondering when is Daddy going to get him in China)
gabemakes5.wordpress.com

 

PA has arrived! Monday, Aug 6 2007 

Adoption andystanton 11:56 am

We received notice from Aisha at Hope For Children that the CCAA has given us pre-approval to adopt Gabe. Here’s the text of her e-mail.

“Hello Andy and Dana,

Today I received your Pre-Approval (PA) to adopt Dang Hui for the CCAA. I have attached a copy of the document for you to see. You will receive your original PA in your travel packet shortly before you travel. Pre-Approval means that the CCAA agrees with your intent to adopt him; and will allow you to do so provided that everything is order in your dossier when they receive it.

Congratulations on getting this far so quickly! Before you know it you will be traveling to bring him home. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.”

This is AWESOME news. It is so great to see an official document from the CCAA with our names along with Dang Hui’s. We’ll keep on truckin’.

 

Paperchase is (almost) complete! Saturday, Aug 4 2007 

Adoption andystanton 7:44 am

With the FedEx shipment of one last document (our guardianship letter) to Aisha at Hope For Children in Atlanta, Georgia, our paperchase is just about done. The only thing left is our elusive I-171-H letter from the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) stating that we can bring an orphan into the United States and he can be granted citizenship. This form will hopefully be in our mailbox within the next few weeks (but nobody can predict how fast or slow the crazies in our federal government will be).

We started this process in early June (on my birthday, June 10, we were thinking seriously about him, but had not done anything “official” yet). Now here it is, early August and we are very close to sending all of our paperwork to China. We’re hoping and praying that we can travel to bring Gabriel home before Christmas!

Keep him and us in your thoughts and prayers!

Andy