Moving forward with a new blog

As we enter the next chapter in our family I will be updating a different blog. You are welcome to check in with us to see how our family is doing.

The blog address is: http://talesofthekingboys.blogspot.com/.

Thank you to all of you who followed along during our journey and sent messages of support.

Home Safe and Sound

We made it home all in one piece and with 1 of 3 suitcases. I really don't care at this point, just glad to be home and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed which is not made of stone. The trip home was much better than expected especially since we came very close to missing our last flight.

I'll post more tomorrow.

No plans to run away.

While showering off the layer of stickiness from sweat and ice cream (I'll explain that one shortly) I realized we didn't take any pictures today. Hmmm... I guess I left that up to Keith. We leisurely woke up which included Carter joining us in bed for some morning cuddle time, good thing we have a king sized bed at home since that is Hunter's routine as well. Had breakfast at the buffet and didn't have any food spit out which was another bonus moment in our day.

Ohhh... it has also occur ed to me I may not have shared with all of you one of Carter's finer skills. Apparently the cute chubby checks are not just for good looks, they are also very functional. He can hold food and drink in them for large amounts of time. For example, yesterday we tried pizza for lunch (BTW - Carter only seems to like pizza after it has sat in a hotel room for hours). Carter took a couple of bites then laid down for a nap. He woke up about an hour and a half later fussy. He wasn't screaming so we began to wonder what the deal was. Then he started to spit out all the pizza that had been put into his mouth.

Back to our day. Ummm... breakfast no chewed up food on display, next we waited in our room while the ASIA staff went to the consulate office and completed Carter's visa paperwork. We received the thumbs up call and headed for lunch with the Thompsons (Susan, Keith, and Annabelle which are related to Mary and Allen Neal). Carter and I managed to start a domino effect with drinks involved which ended up with Susan having a plate of chocolate ovaltine fish and chips. Yummy! At least we all got some laughs out of it. We went for a shopping excursion this afternoon which resulted in a couple of purchases. We had a great dinner once again with only a sub-par fit. Our stop for ice cream after dinner started great, but ended with me carrying a screaming toddler back to the hotel. Before we left ice cream was flung around and besides hitting me Susan got to be a secondary target (and we wondered why she didn't want to sit by the two of us at dinner). Once we got in the hotel he was fine and we rode the elevator, jogged down the hall twice and went to bed.

Either the tantrums are somewhat calming down or I'm becoming more used to them. I think it is probably a combination of both. Carter is so wonderfully on target for his age which unfortunately means he needs to test his boundaries.

Just another day... no catchy title.

The medical exam was today and we made it through fairly smoothly. When they were measuring Carter's height he kept standing on his tip-toes. We had Papa John's pizza for lunch and Carter does not seem to be a fan of pizza. He does like ketchup and french fries. This afternoon some of our group headed out to a garden. It was very beautiful and the kids seemed to enjoy getting out and running around. Carter has made a friend in our group and they like to call each other garbage cans. They think it is pretty funny to go back and forth calling each other this. For dinner we all went to a Thai restaurant and once again ate a large amount of food. Carter ate well. Tomorrow is pretty much a free day, our guides are applying for the children's visas. Only two more days in China before we start heading home!

Adventures in Guangzhou

We started our day with a visit to a Folk Art Museum. Carter liked looking at the different animal carvings and the goldfish, but his favorite part involved receiving candy. Afterwards the group headed for a Dim Sum lunch and then back to the hotel for a nap. A few of us ventured out on our own for dinner and did a pretty good job of ordering our food. Todd and Carter then went for ice cream before heading back to the room. I went with some of the group to do a little shopping. Carter can now sing "Twinkle Twinkle" on his own and you can understand most of the words.

Looking at fish.
Folk Art Museum
Eating candy.
Dinner time.
Night shopping.

Arrival to Guangzhou

We made it without a lot of drama! Carter loves any mode of transportation especially anything big. Airplanes qualify for big so he was very excited. When we got to the airport he said goodbye to our guide without any trouble and headed straight to the windows to see all the planes. This worked for a while until this brilliantly smart child figured out what doors get you to the plane. When he couldn't go through the door to the plane the screams began. Luckily we were able to calm him down with some chips and coconut juice. Once we made it on the plane he began to get upset, but fortunately the pilot cooperated and got us moving. He loved it when the plane started going fast and giggled every time you could feel a rise in elevation. We managed to keep a seat belt on him for take off, but landing was somewhat of another story. We were fortunate to have flight attendants who did not say anything to us. The seat belt did get fastened for a short time just minutes before landing. No screaming fits on the plane, yay! He fell asleep on the way to the hotel and stayed asleep for a little while when we got to the room. We went for an early dinner at Lucy's where we could have cheeseburgers and fries. Carter has discovered ketchup and loves it, in fact he would stick his fork in the ketchup and only eat ketchup. The hotel has a fish pond and Carter had a blast checking that out. He saw I had my camera out and insisted I take a picture of the fish. He has taken his daily bath (he would take 4 a day if we let him) and trying to get me to stop typing on the computer. I have to admit he is pretty hard to resist so that is all for today.
At the airport.

Checked into our hotel.


And I'm excited because I can once again post pictures the normal way!

Our Last Day in Hangzhou

This is a little late, but I just realized I haven't posted since Friday. Saturday we went to an old market street and lunch. Carter did well until he got hungry. We headed to lunch and then the temper tantrum began. Shirley our guide was able to calm him down enough to eat. I have no idea what she said or did, but I wish I did. Carter loves fish and ate plenty of it. We then were able to shop a little more before heading back to the hotel. We had an uneventful evening, which was fantastic. Carter got excited when I started packing and was my little helper. We all went to bed on time (more singing was involved).

A trying day for all.

I wouldn't say we've had a bad day, but it wasn't necessarily a great day either. It started off well. We went to an old temple here in Hangzhou that is very famous here in China. Besides it having the largest Buddha it also has a lot of history. It was very interesting. Carter did well and took it all in. He feel asleep in the van on the way to lunch. Therefore he woke up during lunch in an awful mood. After screaming and being mad for at least 30 minutes (this time he did not scream for Mama, he was just mad) he finally started settling down. This afternoon we all seemed to be a little bored and handled it differently. Carter and I were going to go for a walk to get out of the hotel room, but a storm started coming in with lots of lightning so we stayed inside. When dinner time came around it did not go smoothly to say the least. The waitress was able to calm him down speaking Chinese, but then every time we spoke he would cry again. He was very hungry, but would not eat. After boxing up dinner and heading back to our room he proceeded to stuff his face. Today he really didn't have patience for his new parents who talk different than him and seem to hardly ever understand him. In our hotel room our language barrier is acceptable, but once we leave the room I guess we are supposed to speak Chinese. I wish I did.

We had an okay evening after dinner and Carter put himself to bed, but then demanded I sit next to him and sing. I should have brushed up on my lullabies because I'm sick to death of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" not to mention how Todd must feel about hearing my singing. The good news is Carter is learning the words to "Twinkle Twinkle" but he now requests the song by "Up abova". I dug into my Christmas songs tonight just to give the standard some rest. Somehow Carter feel asleep to my singing which is a pretty sweet way to end a trying day.

I have added pictures to both slide shows since this continues to be the only way I can post pictures. I have been adding Carter pictures to his show and all other China touring pictures to the show I started in Beijing. I am ready to head to Guangzhou to get this show on the road, we head there on Sunday. Hangzhou is beautiful, but very hot. I am nervous about the plane ride; if Carter falls asleep and doesn't wake up gradually we could be faced with a screaming toddler on a plane. The stares are bearable when you are an American family with a Chinese toddler when that toddler is happy, when the toddler is unhappy the stares feel much worse.

Tales from West Lake

We ended up having a very good day yesterday and so far today has been great too. Carter has already started to adjust to being with his new family. We went on a boat ride on West Lake today to two of the three islands. Carter did well until he got hot and hungry. Then he began to act like any 3 year old who is hot and hungry (not exactly pleasant). Fortunately by the time this happened it was time for lunch. He ate 3-4 bowls of peas and some various other things. So far we have discovered some of his favorite foods are watermelon, baked beans, and peas. After lunch he was back to being a funny and sweet boy. We have come back to the hotel for a nap which Carter was not excited about, but is asleep. Carter loves playing in the bathtub with toys and bubbles, we have had no issues with bath time. It seems now when he cries it is just because he is not getting his way, pretty normal. We are still in Hangzhou where everything is familiar so that could change some when we leave.

A Visit to the Hangzhou CWI

We visited the Hangzhou CWI where Carter has been living since he left his foster home about a week or so ago. They just moved recently to a new facility and there still is not a lot of activity yet. The play area's they have for the children are wonderful. Carter was reluctant to go in his old room even to see his friends and caregivers, but he did. He was excited to go outside and play. There was a large sandbox and a trampoline along with other standard play equipment. We received some photos of him at different stages of his life they are so great to have.

Ultraman and other stories

Carter is a great boy. We have had two meltdown moments which both of them involved being woke up from a nap while out. Today we were able to calm him down quicker since we were in a store near the toy section.



Yesterday Carter put Todd's sunglasses on and looked in the mirror. He laughed then said "Ultraman". Then on our way to dinner he saw some toy robots in a store window and again "Ultraman". We have since learned about Ultraman and Carter is now a very proud owner of Ultraman toys. In fact he is currently napping with Ultraman. Yes, we were able to get a real nap in this afternoon, yay!



Carter is a typically active boy and knows how to keep himself busy so as to not fall asleep. He seems to be very talented at this. Maybe more talented than Hunter when it comes to avoiding sleep. We have to turn everything off, make the room dark and lay down ourselves to get Carter to settle down. Todd is now napping too and I probably shouldn't mention anything about snoring. Carter also is very slow to wake up.



Carter is proud of the clothes we brought him and is especially found of green. Yesterday the first shirt he picked out to wear was a green monkey shirt. This morning he wasn't fully awake so I put a yellow shirt on him for breakfast. After breakfast we came back to our room and he put the monkey shirt back on until he found another green shirt. He changed more times than me today.



He seems just as comfortable with Todd as he is with me. He loves to be carried and has found that we are here to spoil him by doing so. Today we bought a stroller so that may give our arms a break. Carter gets to be pretty heavy after carrying him for several minutes. He eats well, but may prove to be a little pickier of an eater than reports first suggested. Vegetables are not really his thing, hmmm good thing I've learned to be sneaky with Todd and Hunter. He will do as he is told and try things though. Our guide asked him to try the broccoli and he did until he spit it back out after a couple of chews. Watermelon is his favorite thing and he eats chicken well.



Speaking of food we tried a corn cake yesterday. This was corn lightly fried in a batter that covered a plate in a single layer. Then powdered sugar and sprinkles were on top. This may not sound good, but it tasted very close to a funnel cake. It was good. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture or time to enjoy because about the time we tried the corn cake is when Carter woke up screaming. If we didn't have a lot of stares before the screaming started all eyes were on us when it did. We survived and there will still be more of that in our future until he finishes grieving his foster parents.

What a wonderful boy!

Carter is so precious. When we first meet him he was busy eating chips, then candy, then lots of milk. They told us his nickname is xiao pang zi which means little fat checks. And boy does he have the cutest little fat checks! When we got to the hotel we brought out the toys and he has started to open up as we play. I brought a puzzle with animals on it and so far he keeps coming back to it, it seems to be his favorite. We have been playing together for just a couple of hours and he is already repeating some English words (not that he understands them). We have now seen many smiles and a couple of giggles. We have also learned that the pee pee dance does not need to be translated.

A taste of home.

Well, we could hold out no longer, we ate at Pizza Hut tonight. We both have really been enjoying all the food, but Chinese foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was starting to all taste the same. We had a pizza and garlic bread and it really hit the spot.

There is another couple that arrived today that are also adopting and meeting their new child tomorrow. This is their third adoption and fifth child. Hmmm, sounds somewhat familiar to someone we know, but the Neals are in Guangzhou now. There is also a family that will be arriving later this week that are returning to Hangzhou with their daughter who was born here. She wants to see the city and her beginning.

In a matter of hours we will have Carter with us. I have a large range of emotions all happening at once. Nervousness and excitement are the biggest things. I am going to try to relax and sleep tonight. I will definitely be posting tomorrow and with pictures of Carter!

One step closer.

We arrived in Hangzhou this afternoon around 2. When we walked into our hotel room they already have a portable crib (pack n play) set up. Not sure if he will fit, but that certainly made reality set in. Our room is nice and it is a good thing because we will be spending alot of time here in the next week. Tomorrow morning at 9 we will meet our guide to take us to the government building where we will meet Carter and begin one more step of paperwork. After that we will go to lunch and then hang out at the hotel until the next day when we finalize the adoption. Our guide has been talking to the CWI director who says Carter has a wonderful personality. It may take some time to see it, but it is always great to hear someone brag on your child.

It is 97 degrees here in Hangzhou, feels like late August with high humidity. The sun is shinning today and there is a little less haze than Beijing. It appears I will not be having the same Internet issues I was having in Beijing, so I should now be able to post pictures!

Update from Beijing

Well I have had many issues with the server each time I try to post pictures on the blog. I was able to set up a slide show and will continue to try to post the link if I can't get pictures on the post. Hopefully the issues I'm having will only be in Beijing. Enough whining.

 

We are having a great time. Yesterday we went to the Great Wall and it was nothing short of amazing. I did get a little too ambitious and climbed too many inclines and steps. I am feeling all the walking and climbing in my legs, I guess I need to do this more often. We did some shopping yesterday afternoon and got to see the Olympic buildings. You can really tell the city is getting excited about hosting the games next month. They call the stadium for track & field events the bird nest and the building for swimming the water cube. Pretty matter of fact in how the buildings look. The office building is shaped like a torch which is pretty impressive in itself. For dinner last night Max took us to a restaurant where I could have spicy food. I mentioned I liked spicy food the day before and he made sure to work that in. We are being very well taken care of. Our driver Mr. Sui (not sure of spelling) likes to sing and has done so occasionally. Apparently he likes American music even though he does not speak any English. The first night we arrived Max told us we had a very good driver and he was right. There is no way I could drive here. The drivers squeeze into spots I wouldn't think we could possibly fit into. There are many alley ways that cars can go either direction even though only one can fit through at a time. Cars come first, then motor bikes, then bikes, then people. That seems to be the case when we are walking, but not necessarily when we are in the car.

 

We have this morning to rest and then this afternoon we are headed to the Summer Palace. Max is taking us to lunch someplace where we will have very spicy food (that's what I get for opening my big mouth). Tomorrow we are headed to Hangzhou.

Our Marathon Beijing Tour

Our guide Max picked us up yesterday morning at 9a for what ended up being a 12 hour tour. We saw alot, we walked alot, and we sweat alot. The heat is not unbearable but we were outside all day walking in the sun which is what got uncomfortable. Max is 28 and has a great personality. Dad - you would like Max, he pulled the sun dial joke on us (looking at his cell phone). Apparently Todd is the cool one, he has been told his Chinese pronunciation is perfect and he is a pig (the year of the pig that is). Pigs are very lucky, it is very good to be a pig. Last year many babies were born because it was the year of the golden pig. When Max found out Todd was a policeman the American movie references started. He also made sure to point out the police station when we drove by it. Today we are headed to the Great Wall and more walking outside in the sun. Amy I talked about you yesterday, I forgot to put on sunscreen at the beginning of the day and started to burn. Luckily Todd remembered to bring some in our camera bag so I was fortunate. I told Todd you would be lecturing me later for it. We enjoyed all the food we tried yesterday. Todd was surprised that the chicken dish we had for dinner last night tasted almost identical to the Sweet and Sour Chicken we can get at home. The thing that has really hit the spot for me is watermelon. There is something so wonderful about watermelon when you've been in the heat and sun all day. Todd had a Chinese beer yesterday, I tried it too, we both liked it. Kim - this is where I thought of you, LOL. The beer had a much lighter taste then even our American light beers, or at least I thought so. We also had Chrysanthemum tea. Max had to look up the name for Chrysanthemum and then was unsure how to say. I told him to call it Mum and he really liked that.

We Made It

After a long drawn out trip we made it to Beijing. We had good flights with surprisingly good food. The flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo has to be one of the longest 12 hours ever. We are going to get some well deserved rest then explore the city in the morning.

Ready to Go

Packed and ready to go. We are leaving in the morning arriving to Beijing Wednesday evening. I've gone over our list again and again, I think we have remembered everything. I've been a bear to live with while I try to get us packed and the house prepared to be empty for 2 weeks. We spent the day with Hunter today doing some fun stuff. We have checked into our flights already. Here we go.....

Stay tuned for more of our adventure.

Travel Dates Confirmed

We have dates, actual and factual dates. We will be leaving Springfield July 1st headed to Beijing where we will spend a few days sightseeing. We go to Hangzhou on July 6th and get Carter on the 7th. We will finish up in Guangzhou and come home on July 18th. We have two weeks before we leave and plenty to do. Bags to pack that I just unpacked, a fridge to clean out, mail to hold, and the list goes on. We get to meet Carter in less than three weeks.

Happy Birthday Carter

I had planned on posting last night, but got busy finishing up packing for Alaska and was too tired to get on the computer. Hunter and I sang the birthday song to Carter yesterday, he is officially 3. We received an update on his size; 30 pounds and 35 inches tall (that means just now starting to fit into size 3T). Tomorrow we are headed to Seattle then the cruise on Saturday. It is looking vary likely we will be home for about a week after this trip and then we'll get to head to China. I have already started packing for China. That week between will be busy and crazy, but most of all exciting. We should have confirmed travel dates tomorrow. Here's to that thought!

We got the golden ticket!

Well it may not actually be a golden ticket, but we think it is pretty great. We received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) today. What's next you may ask; more waiting, LOL. The fabulous news is the CCAA recognizes that we are Carter Si En's adoptive family. Now we wait for travel approval (TA), then we get to travel. Our agency is estimating that we will be traveling to China the last week of June! That is great news because I was starting to brace myself for mid to late July.

I've never been good at waiting.

Here it is way past my bedtime, but I can't get Carter off my mind. It is crazy to already care about this child as much as I do and we haven't even meet him yet. Tuesday we received a big packet of information and more paperwork. Yes, more paperwork. I think that is what has got me stirred up, there are more forms for us to fill out and I haven't done them all yet. Most of them, but not all of them. I know I'm too tired to navagate forms so I'm posting to the blog. Todd will read this later and shake his head (honey - you already know I'm crazy). So the average wait from LID to Letter of Acceptance (LOA) is 88 days, I believe I was told. I saw one family who got their LOA this week in 77. So I've officially started to count the days. This will insure that they go even slower. Once we get the infamous LOA things really start moving. That is when travel talk gets serious. If I understand things correctly we could be in China 6-8 weeks after the LOA. Enough blogging, I'm going to start packing. Well not really, but keep hoping for quick responses. We won't get to travel during the Olympics and I don't want to wait for them to be over.

We have our Log In Date aka "LID"

Our log in date was 03/07/08. This doesn't mean a whole lot. Basically it is the day that our paperwork was put into the system. The next step means more, that will be our Letter of Acceptance "LOA". It helps us know that things are progressing which helps us survive the wait.

Still no news...

We most likely have a Log-In Date, but haven't been notified when it was. Hopefully we will get it in the next week or two. We did manage to enjoy Easter and Soccer season started last week. This is the first time Hunter has played soccer and so far he is enjoying himself. His first game was last week and about half way through the game he started to catch on. His team name is the Mighty Monkeys.

Dossier to China!

We received an email today stating that our dossier has been sent to China! In approximately 2 weeks we will get acknowledgment from the CCAA they have received our dossier and this is called a "Log In Date" (LID). Our agency is stating that it is currently taking more or less than 4 months from LID to "Letter of Acceptance" (LOA). I love getting such a firm and difinitive time line, about as much as a root canal.

Dossier has been authenticated.

Let's see what have we done....

• File pre-approval paperwork - check


• Receive pre-approval from China - check


• Collect documentation we were born and later married - check


• Collect documentation we are not or never have been criminals - check


• Collect documentation we work - check


• Record all our finances for the world to see - check


• Complete Homestudy without going crazy - check and check.... well, okay - check


• File pre-aproval with the USCIS - check


• Receive pre-approval from the USCIS and call it the I-171H to sound cool - check


• Take all this and more to the Secretary of State Office to verify notaries - check


• Send all this and more to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to put their stamp on it - check


• Send all this and more plus more to our Agency for translation and then send to China - check


• Do a happy dance and pull all my hair out - check

It makes me feel like we have accomplished something by listing all those steps instead of what is still ahead of us. The good news is we have done everything we can for now, it is out of our hands for now. Our paperwork is currently on an airplane headed for Portland, OR where our agency is located. They will have their hands on our 15 authenticated documents, passport copies, and photos tomorrow around 10:30. They will then get everything translated and wrapped in a neat little package to send to China. Then we wait, again. The waiting continues to get harder versus easier the closer we get. Our best guess (and again remember we can only guess at this point based on families that have recently traveled to China and how their wait went) is that we will be traveling the end of June and/or the beginning of July.

On another note we ordered the boys' new ladder bed and it will be delivered on 3/7. We've also begun a little shopping for Carter sized clothes. Of course I have saved some hand-me-downs, but he'll get some things that are all his too. Hunter talks of Carter often and has used this waiting time to plan out how to best use having a little brother to his advantage. I hope Carter likes to be bossed around because Hunter is good at that. That being said he seems excited on many levels. When we were shopping for clothes Hunter wanted to pick out clothes for Carter and not shop for himself. Hunter is very aware of the time difference between China and us, at bedtime he often makes the comment that his brother is now starting his day then in the mornings we tell Carter good-night. Hunter also can spot Chinese letters and likes to find things that are written in Chinese. We received a New Year card from our agency and Hunter took it and copied the letters on his drawing pad. Todd and I have been trying to learn Chinese from the new Nick Jr. show Ki-lan (an Chinese version of Dora) so far all I have learned is how to say hello and Yi-Yi is grandfather. Oh and there is a weird pink flying rhino I don't understand, hope we don't see any of those while in China.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

We received our approval from the USCIS today. That is the best Valentine I have received in the mailbox ever! I will be at the Secratary of State's office early tomorrow and then send everything to Chicago for more authenication. Hopefully we will get things back from Chicago by the end of next week. We may be only two weeks away from Dossier to China!

Homestudy Completed, now what?

I danced a happy jig yesterday when I got the call from our caseworker that our homestudy was complete. We had a minor set-back with it last week so this made the news even better. After all that waiting you would think it was a novel, but instead just a few pages all about us. It is weird to read about yourself in the third person.

So now what? We are headed to Kansas City to the United States Citizenship & Immigration office to turn in more paperwork and fingerprints. Then we are back to waiting. Hopefully we will only have to wait approximately 4 weeks to receive pre-approval from our government to bring Carter home, but it could take longer. When the approval is received we then can complete the authenication process, then finally we can send our dossier to our agency to send to China. Which will bring another round of waiting (can you pick up a pattern?).

There are two steps to authenicating our documents. First our Secretary of State office must verify that all the notaries that signed our document are in fact notaries. Then we must send everything to the Chinese Embassy to authenicate the documents so that they can be sent on to China. I have already made one trip to the Secretary of State office and have most of our documents authenicated. We'll wait to get our approval from the USCIS then make another trip before sending everything to Chicago.

New Pictures!

It is a small world....

Through an Internet group for those who have adopted or are adopting a child from the Hangzhou Children's Welfare Institute I have meet a family very similar to ours. Adriana and Craig Hutchings have a five year old biological son and are adopting a 2 year old son from Hangzhou. They are much farther in the process than we are, in fact they are currently in China. While in Hangzhou they were able to go to the Welfare Institute where Carter currently attends pre-school and meet him. She will be sending some pictures that she took once they make it back to the states. This is exciting news to hear, yet another update that sounds very promising that Carter is doing well and being cared for. Here is what Adriana had to say about her meeting with Carter:

I was at the orphanage the other day and saw Si En. I got a couple of pics, but won't be able to send them until I get home. He was at pre-school at the orphanage in a room with about 10-12 other kids and two nannys. I got 2-3 pics of him and he is soooo cute! You will just die when you meet him in person! So round faced and rosy-cheeked. He was very shy and obviously very attached to one of the nannys (I got a pic of them together). She kept setting him down and telling him to get his pic taken, and he would try to obey, but was so shy (not scared though). He would turn to her and she would pick him up and cuddle him. He looked happy and well-fed, and well cared for. He was dressed in ski-type clothes even though it was about 60 degrees. He looked like the little brother in the movie "A Christmas Story". Anyway, I told the adults (orphanage administrator and nannys that he was going to be named Carter. They asked when you were coming for him and I said a couple of months. They told him this, but I don't know what he understands as he is so young. He looks very smart and curious and developmentally on target as far as I could tell.

Thank you so much Adriana, and congratulations to the Hutchings family! Hopefully some day soon we will be able to return the favor to another family waiting anxiously.

As far as how the process is going for us, frustratingly slow. The rough draft of our home study has been completed. Now we have to wait on the final draft to be approved by our adoption agency and the home study agency officials to sign off on it. Once we get our home study we can apply with our government to bring an orphan to the country. That process will take approximately 4-8 weeks. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we can meet Carter for ourselves soon.